Celery glass or vase

1820-1835

Measurements

8-3/8 in x 5-1/8 in (dia)

Materials

Colorless lead glass

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation

Accession Number

1984.31

Provenance

The vase was purchased from the Stradlings of New York City for use in the Wilson-Warner House.

Comments

The celery vase has a blown bowl attached to a separate knop stem that in turn stands on a disk foot.  Of note, the free-hand formation of the flaring bowl resulted in a round opening that varies in diameter from 5 to 5-1/4 inches.  The disk foot also varies in diameter.  The cut decoration on this celery glass displays a variation of the popular strawberry-diamond pattern, this one having a chain motif around the bottom of the cutting and a band of stylized seven-petal leaves around the top.  The cutting compares favorably to another by the Bakewell firm in Pittsburgh.  See Arlene Palmer, Artistry and Innovation in Pittsburgh Glass, 1808-1882 (2005), no. 53.

The strawberry-diamond pattern has long been associated with Pittsburgh glassmakers, but it was of Anglo-Irish make too.  See Arlene Palmer, Glass in Early America:  Selections from the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (1993), p. 79.

David Wilson Jr.’s 1829 bankruptcy auction of his belongings listed celery glasses.