Old New England Glassware in the Home - Part Twenty-Seven - "They of the Most"

Old New England Glassware in the Home

Part Twenty-Seven

"They of the Most"

            After the creation of EAPG and the... infiltration of that glassware into the New England home... and after the creation and infiltration of decadent design EAPG into that same New England home too... there came a pause; a rest period... a ‘nap’.  The “glassware”... was... in the home.  There was ‘a lot’ (ever more) ‘of it’.  The decadent design of glassware amplified at a direct ratio (one to one) with the decadent decline of the manufacturing qualities of ‘glassware’.  This ratio rode upon a marketing... development... that included access to ‘glassware’ ‘for the home’ through... ‘mail order’, ‘department stores’, ‘premium giveaway’ and the always ‘work-in-progress’ of... ‘fashion’.  This last carried ‘implied (good) taste’ too.  For example, a cereal boxed premium giveaway ‘spooner’ (a kitchen table pressed glass vessel for holding the (stamped brass and ‘silver’ [in name only] plated spoons to eat the cereal) was presented to the... developing and expanding... middle class domestic vision... of...  material opulence****... inclusive of this presentation offering NO design education or ‘history’ AND postulating that ‘this crud’ (the premium giveaway glassware) “IS GOOD TASTE SEE”....:  Lifeboats in the water; the Titanic of EAPG had hit an iceberg and

            Down it went

            ?

            Not quite... I explained...:  In its habitat (cupboard) it (EAPG) was ‘just’ moved back and to the sides (Part Twenty-Six [C]).  It stayed there... “undisturbed”.

---

**** :  I up-ante that ‘material opulence’, particularly... when viewed from an antiquarian eye resting upon ‘good taste’... was here (late Victorian ‘gay nineties’) introduced and... continues to this day... to be THE guiding light of ‘good taste’ for... ‘the they’ of... ‘the most’.  That means, for example, that the pair of sneakers that a ‘you like’... is used as a derivative directive of what ‘is’ ‘good taste’... particularly since there are ... ‘so many (pairs of sneakers) to choose from’.  It is that bad and comes from that ‘long ago’ too.  Again, for example... take the design heritage of ‘towels’:  “No one knows that” yet... ‘foist’ of ‘their taste’ in and of towels... is rampant.  As the woman said:  “Bathrooms!  Don’t talk to me about bathrooms!” (Part Twenty-Six [C])

            By the era of perfected killing of humans with mechanized war (Civil War-1863-ish to the end of World War One)... old New England glassware... in the home... stayed out of sight.  One could not fly over enemy trenches and drop an... EAPG compote as ‘a bomb’.  This compote... developed its peculiar domestic state:  It ‘floated’ in the (old New England) home while... ‘all Hell broke loose’ right around it.

            At the Louisa May Alcott homestead museum in Concord, MA., one may see an example of this.  There is a ‘diamond point’ pattern EAPG compote ‘in there’; inside the museum... that is still... part of the ‘original Alcott home estate contents’.  I’ve... seen it... and watched it... ‘float’ ‘in there’ for years.  This is easy for it is the most prominent object of ‘old New England glassware’ (EAPG) in THAT home.  Sometimes it’s ‘there’, sometimes it’s ‘over there’ or... sometimes ‘right there’ or... sometimes NO WHERE IN SIGHT.  But when I go back again... “Oh... there it is”.  Nothing, no one, anything, ever... is ever... about it.  It just floats.  One, now, after study of EAPG through this essay... WILL be able to ‘do this too’:  Locate and track an ‘EAPG... FLOAT’ ‘in the home’... and like I... ‘watch it for years’.

            I do that.

            So can you.

            Meanwhile back at the cupboard bottom the rest of the EAPG stayed... literally... ‘out of sight’ AND ‘out of mind’.  Until after the (WWI) war.  Then... there... within the grail of ‘colonial revival’... FASHIION... having this fashion... rosed, rised, risen and “OF THAT” beginning in the ...1850’s... and before... to peak, plateau, ‘fall back’ and become thereafter a ‘known’ ‘fashion’... caused... for reasons having nothing to do with me.  Or you.  To... TOO.... “FIND” “OLD” “GLASS”

            And then find that finding ‘interesting’.

            And then a ‘study’ of ‘that’ (old glass).  Sort of.

            And then a ‘gather’ of (some of) that.  Sort of.

            And then... came to be heard... “I collect”

            “Old Glass” (capitalized title of subject).

            This ‘I collect’ is NOT what I’ve have been expostulating about as ‘old New England glassware in the home.

            No.

            The “I collect” imperative is the first direct assault of the habitats of old New England glassware... in the home:  THEY (collectors of ...EAPG...) opened the cupboard doors and ‘carried off’... the innocent earliest of the glassware that ‘I live here.  Leave me alone’ (Part Twenty-Six [B]).

            You know what those; this select collector group from the ‘they of the most’, did with their carry off?  They washed it.  And put it on a cupboard shelf too, to, as they titled it, “display”.  And discoursed amongst themselves regarding pattern, form, glass metal qualities, “I have”, “I’ve seen”, “did you know” and, of course... “I’m keeping that”.  THESE CRUDE collector ‘they of the most’... removed old New England glassware from it’s original habitat and then displayed it in captured ‘collector’s prisoner’ state on their own cupboard and... would not let go of it (their captured... ‘collected’ ‘old’ ‘glassware’.

            That practice lasted until ‘they of the most’... got sick of ‘doing that’ and ‘doing that’ ‘fell out of fashion’ (peaked, plateaued, fell back and is.. still around... nearly one hundred years later).  Sort of.  What does ‘sort of’ mean?  It means... check your smart phone... after taking the cupboards out of the dining room and leaning them up in the barn to put in a window “I don’t know yet” (if these cupboards will, too... be sold into collector slavery).

            Isn’t this nice?  NOT quite as nice as PLASTIC... is it.  THAT is nice when your lips

Touch that;

When your sips

Are plastic.

            I believe we all know now of the extent of the petroleum foot print and it’s influences on design... on glassware... in the home.  Even juice glasses are plastic “now”.