Object Type
This swan-shaped holder was one of many types of dish that held fruit or sweets or flowers and were used as decorative items on the table or elsewhere. Cheaply made in pressed glass, sometimes coloured, such decorative items 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
Sowerby & Co. already had a long history when John Sowerby moved the factory to Ellison Street, Gateshead, in around 1850. He died in the mid-1870s and was succeeded by his son John George Sowerby, who introduced a wide range of coloured glass and continued the expansion and development set in motion by his father. Although the setting up of other Sowerby works by cousins of J.G. Sowerby in the late 1880s subsequently complicated the story, the Ellison Street works became enormously successful, and opened offices in Gateshead, Birmingham, London, Paris and Hamburg. In 1882 it was recorded as 'the largest pressed glass manufactory in the world'.