Auction Name: 2026 April 24 - 25 Americana & Political Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 43045

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6327*43045

Abraham Lincoln: White House Lidded Sugar Bowl. Large two-piece sugar bowl, approximately 9" tall with a 5" diameter bowl. A fine and well-preserved example of early American pressed glass tableware dating to the Civil War era, manufactured for use in the administration of Abraham Lincoln by the Greenpoint Flint Glassworks, circa July 23, 1861. Founded by master glassmaker Christian Dorflinger, the Greenpoint Flint Glassworks was located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. This sugar bowl is illustrated and discussed on page 78 of Jane Shadel Spillman's authoritative reference "White House Glassware: Two Centuries of Presidential Entertaining." It is worth noting that Spillman includes a photo of only the upper portion of the sugar bowl, with the lower section represented by an accurate line drawing. The photographs in this reference were taken from the White House Collection, strongly suggesting that the example in that collection lacks the lower portion of the bowl.

The bowl displays a diamond-point stippled ground, finely embellished with intaglio wheel engraving depicting a spread-wing American eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch within a shield cartouche. It is raised on a faceted pedestal stem terminating in a star-cut circular foot and retains its original domed cover, engraved en suite with an eagle-and-shield motif and topped with a faceted finial. The form and decoration compare favorably with other documented examples of Lincoln White House table glass from this service. Notably, this style of glassware remained in use at the White House through subsequent administrations, until President Grover Cleveland selected a newer Russian pattern during his first term.

Condition: Chipping to the scalloped edge of the lower section of the sugar bowl, and a very small chip on the lid edge. A prohibitively rare piece of Lincoln glassware seemingly existing in only incomplete form in the White House Collection.

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