The practical book of early American arts and crafts . s to thishabit were meant to stand the dripping cups in andkeep them from soiling the table-cloth while the saucerswere perverted to an unnatural use. After the beginning of the nineteenth century thedesign of glass-ware seems to have experienced a periodof pronounced decadence, and, although a dyed-in-the-wool collector, inspired by collecting instincts only,3 34 EARLY AMERICAN ARTS AND CRAFTS may find much to interest him in the later productions, itis chiefly to the glass of Colonial and immediately post-Colonial days that we must turn
The practical book of early American arts and crafts . s to thishabit were meant to stand the dripping cups in andkeep them from soiling the table-cloth while the saucerswere perverted to an unnatural use. After the beginning of the nineteenth century thedesign of glass-ware seems to have experienced a periodof pronounced decadence, and, although a dyed-in-the-wool collector, inspired by collecting instincts only,3 34 EARLY AMERICAN ARTS AND CRAFTS may find much to interest him in the later productions, itis chiefly to the glass of Colonial and immediately post-Colonial days that we must turn for grace of form todelight the eye. Even the old milk bowls, pitchers, jampots, sugar bowls, and tumblers for common use pos-sessed a refinement of shape and a grace that captivateus. The decorative value of the old glass is very needs only to glance at some of the specimens tobe seen in museums and antique shops to be convincedof this. Furthermore, this decorative value is suscep-tible of profitable application to our own domestic Fig. 1. Old American Bottles: A, fiddle-shaped, raised deeien of stars and BoroUa;B, ribbed or corrugated sides; G, spiral ribbed or corrugated sides, from Pitkin GlassWorks, Manchester, Conn., between 1783 and 1830, blown in patterned moulds; D,square-shouldered 8nu£f bottle, made at Coventry, Conn., c. 1825. Courtesy of Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, Philadelphia. One cannot help wondering what may have been thesources of the shapes in which many pieces of earlyglass were blown, for forms quite as much as anythingelse experience a process of evolution or, at least, aretraceable to some germ of suggestion. It is not at allimpossible that some of our early flask forms were pat-terned after Chinese prototypes brought out by EastIndia merchants whose importations caused the Orien- EARLY AMERICAN GLASS 35 tal note in so mucli of the Colonial household gear inNew England and other parts of the country (Fig. 1).Pers
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