Jelly glass
Elite households in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries indulged in spectacular dessert courses dramatically set with mirrored plateaux, ceramic figurines, and real and artificial flowers. Sweet jellies - clear or colored confections flavored with spices and fruit - added a rainbow of colors to the well-appointed table, the cut decoration lavished on each glass further enhancing their presentation. The bellflowers and fluting on this example suggest the Washingtons probably acquired it as part of a larger set in the 1790s. It matches two others in Mount Vernon's collection, all with a history of ownership in the family of Martha Washington's youngest granddaughter, Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis Lewis.
Published ReferencesThomas Birch's Sons, Sales Catalogue No. 657, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 10 -12 December 1890, Lot 99.