Most similar vases are aquamarine or brown and made from bottle or window glass. This rare blue example probably came from a bottle factory. The style of applied decoration, which is called “lily pad” by collectors, was employed only in glasshouses in New Jersey, New York, and New England, although it had some predecessors in continental Europe. Because these objects were made after-hours by the glassblowers, never as production pieces, each of them is unique and therefore highly collectible. It is seldom possible to attribute them to particular glassblowers or even to specific glasshouses. The thiness of the trailed decoration, the regularity of the tooling of the second gather of glass, and style of crimping suggest that this may be a twentieth-century reproduction.

This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.

Lily-pad decoration was introduced to America by German glassworkers. It became popular in New England, New York, and New Jersey in the second quarter of the 19th century. The weight and Victorian form suggest that this piece dates later in the nineteenth century.