Mold
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Caption
Unknown Maker. Mold, 19th century. Glass, 3 3/8 x 6 1/8 x 4 1/4 in. (8.6 x 15.6 x 10.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of May S. Kelley, 79.169.236. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.79.169.236.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Maker
Title
Mold
Date
19th century
Geography
Possible place made: United States, Possible place made: Europe
Medium
Glass
Classification
Dimensions
3 3/8 x 6 1/8 x 4 1/4 in. (8.6 x 15.6 x 10.8 cm)
Signatures
no signature
Inscriptions
no inscriptions
Markings
no matks
Credit Line
Bequest of May S. Kelley
Accession Number
79.169.236
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Did they have Jell-O back then?!
They did! Before the middle of the 19th century, gelatin was a status food. In order to make gelatin you needed to have all these trimmings — calves’ hooves and all these things that were cheap, but that you normally only had in a big household. You were ordering half a lamb or half a calf every week from the butcher and eating very well. Then you had all these odds and ends leftover that you made gelatin out of. Poor people didn’t have gelatin. It was only when it began to be made as a commercial product that suddenly Jell-O was everywhere. Jell-O was one of the cheapest and most ubiquitous foods there was. But it was still made in these molds. It’s not good enough to make Jell-O in a big old lump. It was made in a bright color, in a fancy mold, with fruits in it. It became this great presentation that remembered the time when gelatins were expensive. If food is expensive you want to make a big deal out of it.Oh got it, thank you!
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