Decanter

Decanter

George Franklin Lapham

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Richly colored glass in the Bohemian taste, ornamented with cutting and engraving, attracted the American public beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. This whiskey decanter, in a shape typical of the 1860s and 1870s, is distinguished by its brilliant faceting and detailed depiction of fruit, revealing the skill of the engraver. As a testament to its quality, Lapham signed and dated the work. The decanter was owned by William Kern, a glassworker who was presented with over fifty pieces of blown and engraved glass upon his retirement from the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company in 1867, after twenty-two years of employment.


The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.