Wine Glass

The glass factories founded by Alsatian émigré Christian Dorflinger were arguably among the most significant glass factories in operation from the mid to late nineteenth century. His first factory was in Brooklyn, New York, from which he relocated his operations to White Mills, Pennsylvania, where this object was made. His products were renowned both for the fine quality of the glass and for their accomplished cutting. This wine glass is exceedingly rare with the bowl made of cranberry-colored glass cased over colorless glass and cut in the Parisian pattern, the design identified by the row of fans alternating with cross-hatched diamonds framed by double line miter cuts, and an elaborately cut stem and foot. One of the most complex cut patterns produced by the firm, it was patented by John S. O’Connor, head of Dorflinger’s glass cutting department, on May 4, 1886, and assigned to C. Dorflinger & Sons. The Museum has in its collection a very similar wine glass which descended in the family of Christian Dorflinger (1972.232.2); this one is made entirely of colorless glass, but the stem is identical.