The present work is an element from one of Picasso's groundbreaking constructions, which he created using found and recycled objects between 1912-1914. Many of Picasso's constructions were destroyed not long after their creation, and their influence spread largely through photographs. The humble scale of these objects does not do justice to their revolutionary impact on Modern sculpture—as an example, Vladimir Tatlin's visit to his studio in 1914 directly influenced the inception of Russian Constructivism. 

The glass motif was integral to Picasso's Cubist output. He made a small group of these wooden glasses during this period, experimenting with scale, color and shape. The motif features prominently in one of the only remaining constructions from this period, Still Life, 1914 which is now in the collection of the Tate Modern, London. In a technical analysis of this work, Jackie Heuman speaks to the importance of the glass: "Picasso’s characteristic repetition of motifs in different media can be seen with his verres à pied, fluted glasses with stems. They appear so often that most historians agree that they, like the guitar, have anthropomorphic associations with attributes of the female form" (Jackie Heuman, "A Technical Study of Picasso's Construction 'Still Life' 1914" Tate Papers, no.11, Spring 2009, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/11/technical-study-of-picasso-construction-still-life-1914, accessed on November 1, 2019).

Fig. 1 The present work photographed with other construction elements in the Christian Zervos catalogue raisonné