Tray (Grover Cleveland & Thomas Hendricks)
Decorative Arts and Design
On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American presidents were often the subject of pressed-glass objects that most typically celebrated them as political candidates and more rarely memorialized them as political heroes and martyrs. Plate 40.159, showing Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), is presumably a souvenir of his presidential campaign of 1884 or 1892. Cleveland and his running mate, Thomas Hendricks (1819-1885), defeated the Republican candidate James G. Blaine (1830-1893) and his running mate, John "Black Jack" Logan (1826-1886), who are illustrated on plate 40.157, also a campaign souvenir. Plate 40.167 was issued as a memorial remembrance on the death of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), the leading Union general during the Civil War who became president in 1868. It depicts Grant with the slogan "Let Us Have Peace" and his birth and death dates. The mug decorated with busts of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and James Garfield (1831-1881) and inscribed "Our Country's Martyrs" refers to the assassinations of these two national leaders in 1865 and 1881 respectively.
MEDIUM
Glass
DATES
ca. 1884
DIMENSIONS
1 1/2 x 11 5/8 x 8 1/2 in. (3.8 x 29.5 x 21.6 cm)
(show scale)
INSCRIPTIONS
In center, molded on proper left breast of Cleveland's jacket: "CLEVELAND"; molded on proper right lapel of Hendricks' jacket: "HENDRICKS"
ACCESSION NUMBER
40.158
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Mrs. William Greig Walker by subscription
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Colorless pressed glass rectangular platter with two side handles; decorations pressed into underside. In center, frosted three-quarters bust portraits of Grover Cleveland (proper right) and Thomas A. Hendricks (proper left). Rim angles upward and is decorated with vine of ivy outlined with dots. The molded bar of the handles comprised of a bundle of smooth, round rods and square, textured rods; this bar is bisected by a cube with flower on two sides.
CONDITION: Good; small chips around edge of rim and footrim; large chip in cube of proper left handle.
CAPTION
Tray (Grover Cleveland & Thomas Hendricks), ca. 1884. Glass, 1 1/2 x 11 5/8 x 8 1/2 in. (3.8 x 29.5 x 21.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. William Greig Walker by subscription, 40.158. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 40.158.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 40.158.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2004
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Creative Commons-BY
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