Images(3)

Tumbler

Dateca. 1790

Possibly by New Bremen Glass Manufactory

OriginAmerica, Maryland, Frederick County

MediumGlass

DimensionsOH: 6 1/16"; OD: 4 5/16".

Credit LineGift of Maria Armistead Freneaux and Elizabeth Armistead Andrews in honor of their father, John Graff Armistead

Object number2023-104

DescriptionTumbler: blown nonlead glass tumbler with slight gray tint; of tapering form with thick base and pontil mark; wheel engraved with a neoclassical border of a zig-zig band; a single concentric line; and slug-shaped ladder forms between modified S-curves, each angled vertically around the rim.Label TextGlass objects with histories of ownership are rare and pieces of American glass with a known provenance are even more scarce. Most likely made at John Frederick Amelung’s New Bremen Glass Manufactory in Frederick, Maryland around 1790, this tumbler and rummer (2023-105) were originally owned by prominent Baltimore newspaper editor Matthew Brown and descended in his family until they were given to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. In 1801 Matthew Brown purchased the estate that had belonged to John Frederick Amelung.ProvenanceProbably 1790-1801, Matthew Brown [1775-1831] and Elizabeth Dorothea Frick Brown [d. 1841] (Frederick County, Maryland); 1841, descended to their daughter Ann Brown Graff [1809-1887] (Frederick County, Maryland); 1887, descended to her son John Paul Cockey Graff [1849-1933] (Frederick County, Maryland); 1933, descended to his daughter Mary White Graff [1885-1970] (Roanoke, Virginia); 1970, descended to Anne Armistead [1920-2019] (Roanoke, Virginia); 2019, descended to the donor and her sister; 2023, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.