Hobnail celery vase 1887 - 1896

Editor: So this is the Hobnail celery vase, made by Hobbs, Brockunier and Company sometime between 1887 and 1896. It’s… well, it’s made of glass, obviously. All those little bumps give it a tactile, almost organic quality. What's your read on this? Curator: My focus immediately goes to the glass-making process. This piece represents the industrialization of craft. While glassblowing had long been a specialized skill, the Hobnail pattern, made by machine pressing molten glass into a mold, democratized access to decorative objects, shifting from individualized artistry to mass production for the consumer. Editor: Mass production even back then? So, it's less about the hand of the artist and more about the machine’s output? Curator: Precisely! This challenges the traditional hierarchy of art, blurring the lines between 'high' art and manufactured commodity. It reflects a shift in society, with growing industrial power, increased material wealth, and the burgeoning middle class hungry for affordable luxuries. Were such vases accessible to those outside of elite society? Editor: That makes a lot of sense. So the value lies not just in its aesthetic qualities, but in what it tells us about the economic and social landscape of the late 19th century? Curator: Exactly. How readily available and widely distributed was this particular kind of glass? This wasn't just about artistry, it was about labor, consumption, and the changing definition of art in a rapidly industrializing world. Editor: I hadn’t thought of it that way at all! It's fascinating to consider this object as a product of its time, shaped by both industrial processes and social desires. Thanks! Curator: A valuable lesson - every object carries embedded information on its methods of production and distribution, making any object rife with avenues for interpretation.