Pressed-glass bowl
Glass pressed into shape instead of blown – cheap patterned glass for everyone.
In the 1820s American glassworks began pressing glass with hand-operated presses. A pattern that had taken hours of cutting could now be made in a few seconds.
Pressed glass spread quickly to Europe and Sweden, where works such as Reijmyre and Kosta made bowls, decanters and dishes in great numbers. It made patterned glass an everyday thing.
Materials: Pressed glass, often lead glass
Manufacture: A gob of molten glass is put into an iron mould and pressed with a plunger; the pattern is in the mould.
Seams where the parts of the mould met.
Soft, rounded edges in the pattern, unlike the sharp edges of cut glass.
Small irregularities and folds on the surface where the glass cooled against the mould.