In the days when our forefathers considered it quite correct to pour tea from the cup into the saucer and drink it from the latter the problem still remained of an unsightly ring upon the linen. Thus the cup plate was evolved in the first place from a purely utilitarian standpoint. It took the place of the modern coaster but later became a subject for “table talk” in the form of political and social reform. The thought and sentiment of the times were worked into the dainty molds and the resulting cup-plates became works of art.

The first plates were crude and heavy but as time went on less glass was blown against the molds with greater force resulting in plates of brilliant stippling and delicacy. New designs were carved until in 1840, when the ship Constitution was about to be junked, to arouse public opinion one of the most exquisite octagon plates appeared—representing the highest art in Sandwich glass.

The invention of the stamp machine increased the production and the little plates came away from the molds with clearer and sharper edges and brilliancy of detail. The first cup plates made were conventional or geometrical patterns. The author owns one one-half inch thick with pontil, a rare example of the first process.

Previous to the period 1825-30 the dinner sets made in England for the American market included cup plates of china. During this time the conventional cup plates were first put out by the Sandwich Glass Works and soon gained such great popularity, due both to their beauty and their fitness with any china, that cup plates were generally omitted from dinner sets thereafter. People who could not afford entire dinner sets had previously gone without cup plates and the glass cup plate was an innovation.

Distribution of their products was a great problem at the Sandwich works. Much glass found its way over the country by way of the tin peddlers cart. The finding of a number of specimens in the same locality to-day can often be traced back to a peddler who went out of business in that particular town—his wares to be rediscovered by a later generation.

The author has in her cup plate collection a slipware “proof” of the ship Cadmus. This was the first run of a new mold and served as a pattern from which to take orders. The iron molds were too much in use to show to prospective buyers and the little glass plates themselves too fragile and hence the proof of red glazed clay served the double purpose of showing necessary corrections in a new mold and giving the company a “sample” cup plate. These proofs are very rare as they seldom got out of the hands of the factory and were destroyed as new patterns were created to take the place of the old.