Teapot
Wood and Hughes
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Presented to Christian Dorflinger upon his retirement from the Long Island Flint Glass Works in 1863, this service (2006.90.1-4) is ornamented with meticulously chased scenes of the glassworks itself. The teapot depicts a back courtyard of the factory, with a loading dock and packing barrels, while the cream pot (2006.90.2) features a vignette of a gaffer at his bench finishing a blown glass pitcher. The finials, cast in the form of glassblowers, also reference Dorflinger’s trade. Dorflinger was one of the most successful nineteenth-century American glassmakers, operating several factories in Brooklyn before his retirement. He later established a thriving glasshouse in White Mills, Pennsylvania. The Museum has two important glass items from Dorflinger's Brooklyn period: an 1859 presentation vase (1988.391.1) and an 1861 compote (1972.232.1) made for President and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.
The American Wing
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.