Wash hand glass
Finger bowls were essential parts of any genteel dining service in the second half of the eighteenth century. Placed at each setting, they were filled with plain or rose water and functioned as individual tableside wash basins in which to wash ones' soiled fingers after each course. George Washington's choice of an opaque "Bristol Blue" glass was as utilitarian as it was elegant, for its masked the bowls' often dirty contents.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 188.
Theodore T. Belote, "Descriptive Catalogue of the Washington Relics in the United States National Museum," from the Proceedings of the United States National Museum, vol. 49, 1-24, plates 1-27 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1915), 13.