The process for press molding designs into glass was first developed in ca. 1825 and continued as a popular method of glass manufacture/decoration into the second decade of the 20th century. The method is still used on a variety of wares. The pressed glass shards seen here derive from an unidentified hollowware form in the "Baltimore Pear" pattern. This pattern, originally called "Fig" or "Gipsy", may have been first introduced by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based glass firm of Adams and Company in ca. 1874 (e.g., McCain 1994: 290), although some authorities place the introduction of the pattern well into the 1880s (e.g., Lee 1946: 472; Husfloen 1992: 91-92).
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