This two-layer (ruby over colorless) plate is cut in the “Parisian” pattern, which was patented for Dorflinger by John S. O’Connor on May 4, 1886. The pattern, which was very popular, was produced for at least 20 years. It was, however, both complex and expensive to make, so pieces cut in this pattern are relatively rare. The colored overlay of this example is also very unusual. The “Parisian” pattern was one of the first elaborately cut designs produced by Dorflinger, a firm that had been in business in Brooklyn since the mid-19th century. In 1864, Christian Dorflinger, the owner of the company, built a glasshouse in White Mills, at least partly to escape the growing power of the unions. He ran both glasshouses for a time, but he then closed the Brooklyn factory and concentrated his business in White Mills, where the company operated until 1921. The Dorflinger glasshouse specialized in fine cut glass and was one of the largest and most successful such firms in the country. Many American cutting firms bought undecorated blanks from glass factories that specialized in producing them. Corning Glass Works, for instance, made large quantities of blown blanks and sold them to local and distant cutting firms. Dorflinger, however, made blanks in its own glass factory, where it also did the cutting and engraving. In addition, Dorflinger sold blanks to various cutting shops in the area. In 2010, the Museum was able to acquire a second outstanding piece by Dorflinger. It is an overlay vase in green and colorless glass, which is engraved with a polished floral design in what is called “rock crystal” engraving. The artist was Walter Graham, an Englishman and Dorflinger’s chief engraver. Although Dorflinger did not mark its products, this vase is identical, except for the color, to one that Dorflinger presented to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1903. [311 words] For more on the Dorflinger company, see Walter Burke Barbe and Kurt A. Reed, The Glass Industry in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, 1807–Present, White Mills, Pennsylvania: Dorflinger-Suydam Press, 2003, pp. 53–172; and Albert Christian Revi, American Cut and Engraved Glass, Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer, 2000, pp. 222–237 (the patent for the “Parisian” pattern is illustrated on page 274).