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Sugar Bowl and Cover

Decorative Arts and Design

On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
Union Porcelain Works (UPW), the most famous and longest lived of the Brooklyn ceramic firms, was established by Thomas Carll Smith after he bought out his partners at the earlier William Boch & Brothers pottery. UPW produced a wide range of wares that appealed to a broad spectrum of consumers: art pottery, porcelain tableware sets, hotel and restaurant ceramics, Parian ware figures, and even elaborately decorated water filters.

In 1874 UPW hired Karl L. H. Mueller (American, b. Germany, 1820–1887) to design special wares for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. He created highly original designs that featured unique North American iconography of native animals and scenes of national history that helped UPW distinguish itself from its European competitors.
MEDIUM Porcelain
DATES ca. 1876
DIMENSIONS 4 1/8 x 3 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. (10.5 x 9.5 x 8.9 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS Printed on underside of sugar bowl in green: "U.P.W." above head of an eagle
SIGNATURE no signature
INSCRIPTIONS no inscriptions
ACCESSION NUMBER 68.87.35a-b
CREDIT LINE Gift of Franklin Chace
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Sugar bowl (a) with lid (b), white porcelain with vitreous glaze; hotel china. Cylindrical body that tapers toward top; molded band near top and bottom edge; two opposing handles molded in shape of shell. Fitted lid is slightly domed, knobbed finial. Condition: Good; hairline crack around finial of lid at join.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
CAPTION Union Porcelain Works (1863–ca. 1922). Sugar Bowl and Cover, ca. 1876. Porcelain, 4 1/8 x 3 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. (10.5 x 9.5 x 8.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Franklin Chace, 68.87.35a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 68.87.35a-b_PS6.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 68.87.35a-b_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012
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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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