Object Type
This basket was one of many types of dish that held fruit or sweets or flowers and were used as decorative items on the table. It may have been designed to match one of the many extensive glass table services that became increasingly popular towards the end of the 19th century. Cheaply made, in pressed glass, such sets, which were often elaborate, became widely available.

Materials & Making
The technique of press-moulding glass with the aid of a hand-operated machine was first perfected in the United States of America in the early 1820s. It took only two people to shape a measured quantity of hot glass in a heated metal mould. By simply depressing a lever, a metal plunger was lowered into the glass, forcing it into the patterned mould. By the 1830s this method had spread to Europe and Britain, giving rise to stylistic changes and revolutionising the availability of glassware. The technique made the mid-to late 19th century the first period of true mass production. In the 1890s the introduction of steam-powered presses improved quality while cutting costs even further.

People
Henry Greener was born into a glassmaking family in Sunderland. Apprenticed to a manufacturer in Gateshead, he afterwards entered into a partnership in Sunderland in 1858 and became sole owner in 1869 of the Wear Flint Glassworks, which he moved to Millfield and considerably enlarged. After his death in 1882 the works was bought by J.A. Jobling and eventually became the British manufacturers of Pyrex glass. In its heyday as Greener & Co. it was a substantial works, with a link to the main railways system and offices in Birmingham, London and Hamburg.