Lead Crystal Cruet

Late last year the Sandwich Historical Society received the following inquiry: "I have had this small bottle for many years and when I did a search it came back to a very similar pictures in your museums photos except the stopper is donut shaped. It is purple and about 6 inches high. I appreciate any help you can give me."

Our Curator of Collections, Olivia Padula, responded the next day with the following:

“The bottle would be considered a cruet and likely would have held a condiment like oil or vinegar. The piece is mold-blown, which is when there is a three or four part hinged mold that when closed, a hot bubble of glass is blown to expand and take the shape of the mold. I am attaching an image of a mold that would have been used to create this bottle in case you are curious. The stopper would have been pressed in a little hand-held press mechanism, a photo of which is also attached.

In our collection we have several of these same type of bottles and they were some of the earliest products made at the factory. As far as I know we only have either cobalt blue bottles or clear bottles in this ribbed pattern. Here is a link to one of them via our online archives: https://sandwichhistoricalsociety.catalogaccess.com/...

If you wanted to look at more or browse our collection further, the search term I used was ‘cruet’.

As for whether or not your piece is original or a reproduction I cannot say for sure. I will say, I know that these types of bottles are still being made today as reproductions, and we even have some for sale in our shop ( https://sandwichglassmuseum.org/products/ribbed-cruet-1 )

I hope you find this information helpful and I will let you know if the Accessions Committee has anything else to add!”

We posted this story on social media, and David McDermott, a Cape Cod icon of the glassblowing community, commented with “It's a reproduction, from Pairpoint glass, most likely from the early 80's. The stopper was actually used in another reproduction of an original Sandwich Glass design, it was a diamond sunburst decanter. I bet it's pretty heavy for a smaller piece as it was made out of 34% lead crystal.”

Somewhat surprising to contemplate that as recently as 50 years ago manufacturers were still producing lead crystal glassware intended to hold vinegar…