Pint flask 1825 - 1840

Curator: Here we have a pint flask from the Keene Marlboro Street Glassworks, dating roughly from 1825 to 1840. Editor: It has a wonderfully simple shape. The olive green glass creates a sense of age and understated elegance. I also notice the slightly uneven surface textures and some bubbles trapped inside that play with light and shadow across its profile. Curator: Indeed. It’s a portrait flask featuring George Washington in profile. The inscription "WASHINGTON" follows the curve of the oval framing his image. I'd note that the popular imagery surrounding Washington at this time was deployed to help unite a growing and at times fractious nation. Washington represented ideas of stability, republican virtue, and the aspirations of a new, emerging, democratic society. Editor: Yes, and it is interesting to consider the implications of this imagery on a functional, everyday object. Is the solemnity of Washington offset, maybe even slightly undermined, by the more prosaic use for a container designed for the distribution of alcohol? It looks quite petite too. Curator: Quite possibly. Consider the audiences consuming both the liquor from this flask and its message: was this for the common citizen, seeking to connect with an ideal through an intimate object? Or perhaps for the upper class to invoke Washington’s prestige? In that way, this seemingly simple flask prompts questions about class, accessibility, and the commodification of patriotic sentiment. Editor: A complex web of signifiers contained within something so small and utilitarian. Seeing it here isolates it as a formal artwork; imagining it within a coat pocket transforms its symbolic value again, doesn’t it? The translucence suggests a sense of fragile permanence. It's a curious contrast. Curator: It truly encapsulates the era, acting as both artifact and artwork. Editor: Agreed. I'll remember this little distillation of nationhood!