A preference for glass tableware extended well below the upper crust in late 18th-and early 19th-century America. The estate inventory of Robert Palethorp, Jr., a 27-year-old Philadelphia pewterer who died in 1822, reveals much about the contents of his middle class household. The goods in the parlor of Palethorp’s five-room house included 4 glass salts, 11 wine glasses, 5 glass tumblers, 1 glass decanter and 2 quart pitchers (that were also probably made of glass). THF113594

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