ENGLISH DRINKING-GLASSES
There are few general collectors who have not, at some time, come under
the enchantment of old glass. It is remarkable that objects so fragile
in fabric should have survived the vicissitudes of centuries, as have
specimens not only of European glass but of the ancient glass of Syrian,
Phœnician, Greek, and Roman manufacture as well.
Glass-making in England had an early origin, derived, it would seem
probable, from the Roman invaders. We know it to have flourished to some
extent at Cheddingfold in the thirteenth century, continuing there for
several hundred years, as we glean from a reference in Thomas Charnock’s
“Breviary of Philosophy,” published in 1557, wherein is written: “You
may send to Cheddingfold to the glassmaker and desire him to blow thee a
glass after thy devise.” An entry in Evelyn’s Diary for February 10,
1685, refers to “his Majesty’s health being drunk in a flint glass of a
yard long, by the Sheriff, Commander, Officers and Chiefe gentlemen.”
This reminds us that flint glass was discovered and came into vogue
prior to 1680; or in that year its fame had caused it to be so highly
regarded elsewhere in Europe that manufactories to compete with English
ones were established at Liège in that year. The early flint glass of
England differed somewhat from the later product. Probably the flint
glass as we know it now was not introduced before 1730, or perfected
until over a century later.
Of all the English glass none is more beautiful or attractive than the
drinking-glasses of this period. Particularly is this true of the
engraved and inscribed drinking-glasses which collectors now eagerly
seek. Rare, indeed, these glasses have become, and fortunate is the
collector who comes across a “find” of the sort. English glass of the
eighteenth century, though less ornamental than Venetian, was
nevertheless more utilitarian. In respect to the spirit glasses and
rummers, which succeeded ale-tankards of metal and of pottery, this is
particularly true. No “glasse of Venice” could have withstood the table
impact which the English eighteenth-century spirit glasses were designed
to survive, a virtue which gave them the name of “firing-glasses,” as
the setting down of them by a company surrounding the jovial board
produced a noise like a miniature cannonade. Some of these
“firing-glasses” in the Leckie Collection, now forming part of the
permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Museum, are engraved with
grape-vine designs, and arms, and are inscribed. Of course such engraved
and inscribed glasses are of greater interest and rarity than those
which are without decoration or inscription.
The method of classification of English drinking-glasses takes into
consideration the types of the feet, the types of the bowls, and the
types of the stems. There is the plain-footed glass, the glass with the
folded foot (so called because the outer circle of the foot is folded
back beneath it to strengthen it), the domed foot (shaped as its name
suggests), and the domed-and-folded foot glass (a combination of dome
and fold). The folded foot is a type which indicates early origin, just
as those glasses which have the foot broader than the bowl indicate
their origin to have been prior to the first quarter of the nineteenth
century.
As to types of bowls, there are the drawn bowl (bowl and stem drawn from
a single piece of glass, as in the glasses of the seventeenth century);
the bell-shaped bowl, the waist-formed bell bowl, the waisted bowl, the
ovoid bowl, the straight-sided bowl, the straight-sided rectangular
bowl, the ogee bowl, the lipped ogee bowl and the double ogee form. The
waist-formed bell-shaped (waisted-bell) bowl is rarely met with--the
early eighteenth century marks its decline--and the waisted bowl is
uncommon also. The bell-shaped bowls seem longest to have maintained
favor. The Bristol Glass Works originated the ogee bowl shapes, which
date from the middle of the eighteenth century.
As to the types of stems, the earliest in design is the baluster stem,
in use as early as 1680, and popular till 1730; the plain stem, most
frequently met with in glasses from 1700 to 1750; the air-twist stem, in
vogue from 1725 to 1775, and perhaps later; the opaque white twist stem,
dating from 1745 till the end of the century; the air and opaque white
twist stem, the color twist stem, and the cut stem, dating from about
the middle of the eighteenth century. Air-bubbles imprisoned in the
stems of glasses have given to this type of glass the name of
“tear-glass.” Almost without exception the “tears” have their points
downward, although glasses showing the reverse of this have in rare
instances been met with.
The air-twist stems are an evolution of the tears. The glass containing
air-bubbles came to be heated and drawn out and ingeniously manipulated
in such a way as to produce the effect of twisted filaments which formed
such patterns within the glass as one now and then chances to find.
Before manipulation the bubbles were produced artificially by pricking
into the glass, softened by heat and covered over, in turn, with a film
of molten glass.
The opaque white twist stem, and also the color twist stem, were
obtained after the Venetian fashion of making Millefiori glass,
described in Chapter XXVII (page 221), as derived from the Roman glass
of antiquity. Rare specimens of stems are found with delicate tints of
blue and red among the filaments.
All these twist and tear stems are nowadays reproduced and are
occasionally fraudulently offered the unwary as genuine. But such glass
neither rings true nor is right in color, though the copyists are coming
to display their skill in the matter of tint likewise, even though
balked by specific gravity. A number of the cut-stem glasses were
coaching-glasses--that is, glasses without feet, which stood inverted on
the tray when brought to the coach traveler at a relay inn. After his
hasty drink the traveler would replace the glass inverted, hence there
was no need for a foot; and there was less likelihood of a tray of such
glasses, hurriedly carried, coming to grief through carelessness. With
the advent of railroads and the decline of coaching such glasses were
retired from service. Many of these old-time coaching-glasses were
engraved and inscribed, but few of them have survived and a specimen
would, indeed, be a _pièce de résistance_ in any collection of glass.
We see from these notes that there is less guesswork connected with the
study and collecting of old glass than one uninitiated in the rudiments
of its lore might suppose. Nothing is without a reason; the thing is to
find the raison d’être--that is a true collector’s pleasure.
Of all the engraved or the inscribed English glass none is more
interesting in its historical connection than the Jacobite
drinking-glasses. Their story, briefly, is this: After the flight of
James II left William of Orange firmly in possession of the government,
an act of Parliament, in 1701, formally excluded the house of Stuart
from the throne and settled the succession (after William and his
sister-in-law Anne should have died) upon the house of Hanover. Prince
Charles James Edward, Chevalier of St. George (the son of James II), was
recognized by Louis XIV of France as rightful King of England. This led
William to prepare to make war on France, when death overtook him, and
Anne became Queen of England. Queen Anne, thanks to Marlborough,
successfully carried out William’s policies, and every attempt of the
Stuarts to regain the throne was frustrated. Anne died in 1714, but as
early as 1710 the Cycle, a famous and factious Jacobite club, was
formed. Other Jacobite clubs followed throughout England and Scotland.
The Jacobites were, of course, those who sought to restore the house of
Stuart to the throne, a dangerous treason from the Crown’s point of
view, and those Jacobites who had any desire to keep their heads on
their shoulders had to proceed with care and secrecy. Nevertheless, even
after the rebellion of 1715 and the famous “disappointment” of 1745 the
Jacobites, when toasting the king, would hold their drinking-glasses
above a bowl of water to signify that they drank to “the king over the
water,” the Old Pretender or, after his death, to the Young Pretender.
The bolder Jacobites had their drinking-glasses engraved with Stuart
emblems: a heraldic rose and two buds were, for instance, emblematic of
James II, his son, and his grandson, while the star, oak-leaves, and
acorns, etc., were obvious in allusion. The very boldest Jacobites had
glasses inscribed with mottoes--_Fiat_ being the most general one, as
this “Let it be done,” was the motto of the Cycle Club, ancestor of
Jacobite activity. The more timid Jacobites contented themselves with
symbols or inscriptions engraved upon the under side of the foot of the
glass. One comes across specimens of the _Fiat_ Jacobite drinking-glass
with the two oak-leaves engraved on the foot. Others are engraved with
the heraldic rose upon the bowl and a star upon the foot. A large
glass--its owner must have been the very boldest Jacobite of all!--is
inscribed _Audentior Ibo_ and also bears the portrait of the Young
Pretender, whose death in 1788 did not, strangely enough, put an end to
Jacobite activities. Indeed, the “Stuart fascination” is one of
history’s great mysteries. On the foot of Jacobite glasses one sometimes
finds engraved the feathers of the crest of the Prince of Wales; the
rose and two buds of the Stuarts on the bowl. Still other glasses are
not heraldic, but have the heraldic Stuart rose engraved upon the foot.
It is truly remarkable that any of these Jacobite glasses should have
survived, for many of them must, in their perilous time, have had to
meet with destruction to escape serving as telltales when sudden and
unexpected raids upon Jacobite strongholds were made by the officers of
the Crown. Some of these engraved and inscribed Jacobite glasses were
probably decorated upon the Continent, but most of them are of English
workmanship in engraving as well as in manufacture. Probably many of the
Jacobite glasses were made at the glass-works of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
proximity to the border of Scotland making such a location convenient on
occasion. I think but few should be attributed to the Bristol
glass-workers. Probably the largest number of Jacobite glasses were made
shortly before the “Forty-five.”
As the Jacobites had specially engraved and inscribed glasses, so, too,
did the partisans of King William. Williamite glasses were to be found
in Ireland as well, where a number of them--some are extant--were
engraved with anti-Jacobite toasts. But when it was not likely that the
Irish could forget James II. Authorities are not agreed as to which were
first put forth, Williamite or Jacobite glasses, but I am inclined to
think precedence in chronological order should be given to the engraved
and inscribed Williamite ones. There were, of course, fewer Williamite
glasses than Jacobite glasses, just as later there were fewer Hanoverian
glasses, as the Williamites and the Hanoverians were in the ascendant,
and public loyalty considered itself beyond the necessity of
symbolizing its fealty in other than the simple toast.
One may also include mention here of the Hanoverian engraved and
inscribed glasses, one of which, for instance, was made to commemorate
the coronation of George IV. Finally we come to rummers engraved with
Nelson subjects, commemorating England’s naval hero. These, of course,
are early nineteenth century, as Nelson lived till 1805.