This brass volumetric standard was made by Henry-Prudence Gambey of Paris prior to 1850. It may have been obtained by Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, first Superintendent of Weights and Measures in the United States, for service in his 1832 comparison of standards used at American custom-houses. Capacity measures were determined by weighing the distilled water that they contained. A glass cover was necessary to determine the exact filling of the measure.