Lily Pad Milk Jug

This amber-colored pitcher is attributed to a glasshouse in Saratoga County, New York, around the mid-nineteenth century. Many bottles or window glassworks produced tableware such as this as part of their regular output. The dark coloring of the glass is a result of impurities in the sand combined with varying temperatures in the furnace and length of heating time. The decoration of the pitcher features horizontal threading on the upper body of the piece and "lily pad" ornamentation, created from a separate gather of glass, applied to the lower body. The lily-pad decoration is one that American glassworkers created and popularized. The handle is applied to the body of the piece, as is the foot.