Full Description
How did workers experience cut glass during its cultural heyday? Rather than privilege the stories of factory owners or wealthy consumers, Undercut: Cut Glass in Working-Class Life During the Long Gilded Age refracts the medium's history through the labors required to make and maintain these dazzling artifacts as well as popular representations of this work, from demonstrations at world's fairs to images of domestic workers with finished pieces in their charge. Cut glass and the many manifestations of public interest in its labors offered working people, too, occasions for self-reflection and, perhaps, self-realization. Foregrounding their lives, Undercut offers a multifaceted social art history of a once-popular genre of decorative art that cuts across class, gender, and race.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Worker in the Window
Chapter 2: The McKinley Bowl's Services and Disservices
Chapter 3: Domestic Reflections
Chapter 4: The Boy and His Bowl
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
