When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
An early American pressed flint-glass cream pitcher from the first generation of figured tableware—thick, a little clumsy, and all the better for it. The body is pressed in two registers: tall oval punties (thumbprints) standing between vertical ribs above a band of raised diamond blocks. The spout is tooled forward, the handle is a separate gather applied while the glass was still soft, and the circular foot is rayed on the underside with a rough pontil scar in the center. The whole piece leans slightly forward, the classic result of going into the anealing phase while the glass was still soft. The glass itself is heavy lead flint with the grayish cast collectors associate with the Pittsburgh district rather than the clearer New England metal.
No factory name is marked, and an exact catalog match for this particular punty-over-diamond-block combination has not turned up in the standard pattern indexes. That is typical of the 1835–1855 window, when Bakewell, Curling, McKee, and the other Pittsburgh houses were pressing figured ware faster than anyone was naming it. Related early flint creamers—Diamond Thumbprint, Star and Punty, Kamm Sunk Diamonds—share the same vocabulary: applied handles, pontiled rayed feet, crude mold work, and enough weight to surprise the hand. Later EAPG creamers (Loop and Dart, Esther, Duncan Paneled Diamond Block) have molded handles and no pontil; this one is a generation earlier.
Pittsburgh had the coal, the river, and by the late 1830s more flint houses than any other American city. Pieces like this were the everyday cream jug of a household that could afford flint but not cut glass. Height 6 inches, width about 3 inches.
I am working on liquidating an estate with several high quality collections. This comes from an early glass selection of over 200 pieces. I am resuming liquidation of this New England collection after taking the summer months off. I will be posting several pieces every day.
Please continue to review new listings; my response indicates I am a reputable dealer.
offer with confidence
