Produced as a showstopper for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair (the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition), this punch bowl set employed all the skill and artistry of the Libbey Glass Company’s best glassmakers. Proclaimed the largest single piece of cut glass in the world at the time, the blown, bowl-shaped blank of glass that would become the punch bowl weighed 143 pounds. (Ultimately, some 30 pounds of glass would be cut away from the blank with iron wheels.) Two of Libbey’s premier glassworkers, J. Rufus Denman and Patrick W. Walker, did the labor-intensive fine cutting that finished the design. 

A drama unfolded during the making of the punch bowl: a flaw caused the bowl to crack during the final stages of cutting and polishing, and the glassmakers—now several weeks behind—had to scramble to produce a new bowl in time for the World’s Fair. The end result dazzled both fairgoers and the judges, who awarded Libbey the grand prize medal for cut glass.

Libbey Glass Company (1892–1919), Punch Bowl and Stand. Blown and cut glass, 1903–4. Height: 21 1/2 in. (54.6 cm); diameter of rim: 24 in. (61 cm). Gift of Libbey Glass Company, division of Owens-Illinois Glass Company, 1946.27a. On view in Gallery 29A.