Covered Sugar Bowl 1870 - 1890

This covered sugar bowl was created by Adams and Company, but the exact date of its making is unknown. We can consider the historical context in which such an object would have been produced and used. Sugar, once a rare luxury good, became increasingly available and affordable during the 19th century through the expansion of plantation economies in the Americas. This transformation of sugar from a rare spice to a kitchen-table staple depended on systems of slavery, land exploitation, and the expansion of international trade. Tableware like this bowl became a visible signifier of middle-class identity in the Victorian era, and it speaks to the normalisation of a product whose origins were often obscured. To fully understand this object, one must consider the complex web of economic and social factors that shaped its creation and use, looking at historical documents, trade records, and material culture studies. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.