which of the two came any particular bauble--coloured glass-flask,
pestle, bell, witch-ball, tobacco pipe, trumpet, jug, rolling-pin,
bellows-shaped article, walking-stick or rapier, or the (excessively
rare) long glass cylinders containing coloured glass counters for
games. But it is thought that the Bristol wares of this kind were
brighter in colour than the Nailsea product, which, because less
skilful and daring, perhaps, was cooler in tint, less striking in
mixture of colours, and therefore more refined. Probably Bristol
produced the glass which is ornamented by alternate broad stripes of
red and opal-white. Perhaps Nailsea was responsible for glass of a
“greenery-yallery” hue containing whitish spots or splashes: there are
many forgeries of jugs and rolling-pins, in this style, about.
“WROCKWARDINE”
At Wrockwardine, in Salop, the glass works turned out coloured
walking-sticks, ewers, scent-bottles, flasks, twin bottles for oil
and vinegar, and toys; the characteristic being that the glass is
_striped_, in white and one or more colours.
“SUNDERLAND”
The Sunderland glassworks are supposed to have made rolling-pins, and
almost certainly produced the curious polygonal salt cellars (which
some people have thought to be insulators for piano-feet), that reflect
colour and gilding or coloured heads of men or women, from their bases,
talc keeping the ornament there in place.
MISCELLANEA
Witch-balls seem to have been made at Bristol, for I own one of the
Bristol red and opal-white; at Nailsea (in inferior, watery blue); and
at Wrockwardine (greenish-blue striped with pale white). These balls,
it is said, were hung at each door and window, “to keep the witches
out” (see illustration, page 8).
[Illustration: SUNDERLAND SALT CELLARS]
Glass articles splashed with colour _outside_, on the exterior of
the article, exist, but in great rarity; the splashed-on colours are
glass-oxides, but look like oil-paint; the greenish clear glass beneath
the splashing resembles the Nailsea product.
GREEN, PURPLE, AND YELLOW WINE GLASSES
Fine wine glasses, for hock or other white wines, were made in
olive-green, grass-green, purple, and orange; these are collected by
some people for use at table, by some for the collector’s cabinet. The
older ones show the characteristics of dimensions and shape which will
be described later in this book.
VI. OLD DRINKING GLASSES
These are the favourite quarry of the hunter for old glass. I prefer
the more uncommon and out-of-the-way pieces myself, but the old wine
glasses, goblets, cordial glasses, rummers, ale glasses, cider glasses,
and so forth are so interesting, often so beautiful, and sometimes so
quaint, that I do not wonder at the eager collecting of them.
[Illustration: “THISTLE” GLASS, EARLY BALUSTER STEM]
Seeking as I do right through this book to state general rules and
tests which the beginner may apply to all glass he comes across, I now
mention _the general features of old drinking glasses_.
THE LUMPY STEM
In days when men did not rise from the dinner-table quite so easily as
they fell under it, the stem of a drinking glass must be thick, lest it
snap in the convulsive hand, and was more safely held when it was also
lumpy or bulbous--“knopped” and “baluster”-like are other terms for it:
the fingers clung to the knobs.
THE STOUT STEM
Even when the bulbous or lumpy stem ceased to be the rule, a _thick_
stem--three or four times the thickness of modern wine-glass stems--was
the rule, for the reason just given.
[Illustration: EGG-CUP BOWL, KNOPPED STEM (COTTON-WHITE SPIRAL SWELLING
OUT)]
[Illustration: TALL GOBLET, AIR-SPIRAL AND DOME-FOOT]
THE EXTENSIVE FOOT
Similarly, old drinking glasses were always made with very broad “feet”
or bases; usually the foot had a larger circumference than the bowl. A
semi-drunken hand, setting the vessel down on the table, might leave
it rocking for two or three seconds, but the foot was so broad that it
could hardly rock over.
THE RAISED FOOT
Because of the pontil-mark being often a knob, or protuberance, the
foot of the glass must not wholly rest upon the table, but touch it
near the circumference of the foot only, lest the knob at the end of
the stem should prevent the glass standing level, or should scratch the
mahogany.
THE DOMED FOOT
Some of the oldest glasses, in which the pontil-mark is quite a large
protuberance, stand upon feet which, flat upon the table at and near
the edge, rise domelike in the centre. These dome feet are seldom
symmetrical; made by hand, the flat part is usually wider on one side
of the dome than on the other.
[Illustration: DOME-FOOT]
[Illustration: HIGH INSTEP FOOT (TWO VARIETIES)]
THE HIGH INSTEP FOOT
As the pontil-mark became smaller and not so rough, the dome foot gave
place to one which is mainly flat at the base but slightly conical,
rising like a low round hillock, to join the stem: seen in profile,
these somewhat resemble a leg and a foot with a high instep. No
seventeenth-or eighteenth-century stemmed drinking glass except a
“firing” glass has a foot with an uniformly flat section.
THE HEMMED OR FOLDED FOOT
Many old wine glasses are chipped at the edge of the foot; this was due
to carelessness in the scullery sometimes, but often to careless use
by convivial guests. Therefore glass-makers learned the advantage of
folding the edge of the foot under, like a hem in needlework; a rounded
edge, less likely to be chipped, was thus obtained. This “hem” is
nearly always irregular, being turned in more at one part of the base
than another. As a rule, the presence of a folded foot indicates that
the glass was made before 1760.
THE “NORWICH” FOOT
Nobody knows what kind of glasses were made at Norwich or Lynn, but
there is a supposition that horizontal lines, in the bowl or in the
foot, mean “Norwich-made”: the foot is slightly terraced, so to speak.
[Illustration: “NORWICH” FOOT]
THE FIRING GLASS FOOT
There is, I believe, in certain Lodges, a semi-ritual practice of
hammering on the table with the feet of glasses, rhythmically, after a
toast, somewhat in the style of applause called “Kentish fire.” This
seems never to have been done with wine glasses, but old cordial or
spirit glasses exist in considerable numbers which were expressly made
for the purpose, and furnished with flat feet an eighth of an inch
thick or more, so that they should not crack by concussion; in these
old “firing-glasses,” too, the foot is bigger in circumference than the
bowl.
GENERAL RULES
These considerations apply to stemmed glasses for ale, beer, cider,
and cordials also; and to rummers and grog glasses upon stems that are
short but stout. Therefore a _genuine English or Irish drinking glass
of seventeenth-, eighteenth-, or early nineteenth-century make has,
in addition to the tint, ring, quality, pontil-mark, workmanship, and
signs of use, a stout stem and an extensive, raised foot_.
[Illustration: MASONIC FIRING GLASS: NOTE THE THICK FOOT]
About 1830, the six-bottle men being all dead, and even the
three-bottle men becoming rare, the thickness of the stem and the
extensiveness of the foot could safely be reduced; the pontil-mark,
too, was smaller, and the foot of a glass could be made with a lower
instep, so to speak. Therefore a _thin stem and a foot not bigger, or
smaller, than the top of the bowl, with no pontil-mark, or hardly any,
signify that the glass was made during Victoria’s reign or just before
it began_.
“THUMB” GLASSES
“Thumb” glasses are those in which the external surface of the bowl is
pitted with depressions the size of a finger-end, so that the shaking
hand of the bibulous might be the less likely to let the glass drop.
They are usually tall of bowl and short of stem, but rather big of foot.
THE SQUARE FOOT
Old glasses with thick square bases appear to belong to the end of
the eighteenth century, when the “Empire” style was influencing
manufacture: often the base is of inferior workmanship to the bowl.
THE FEET OF TUMBLERS
Even the bases of tumblers were made thick, though they were smaller in
circumference than the top of the tumbler.
VII. THE VARIOUS TYPES OF STEM
Wine glasses and other drinking vessels of glass may best be classified
according to the shape or decoration of the stem.
1. THE BALUSTER STEM
The oldest English drinking glasses are those which have lumpy, knobby,
bulbous stems, of wavy outlines imitating the stems of Tudor and Stuart
silver goblets, and rather resembling the shape of balusters in stair
or terrace balustrades, or the uprights in some old gate-leg tables;
perhaps among the baluster stems we should class those which rather
resemble an inverted obelisk, the broad part just under the bowl and
the point within the foot (see illustration, page 84); this long
remained the favourite shape (and is almost the characteristic shape)
for what are called sweetmeat glasses on stems, and for comports or
glass stands for sweetmeat glasses; it gives a kind of shoulder to the
stem. Sometimes the lower part of such a stem as this is square in
section.
THE COLLAR IN THE BALUSTER STEM
Often the stem does not directly join the bottom of the bowl, but has a
“neck,” with an outstanding ring of glass or “collar” around the neck;
sometimes the collar is double or triple; the neck and collar were
often used later, in other than baluster stems. Sometimes the collar
is near the foot; sometimes there are two collars. Around some stems a
fillet is found; these are very rare.
[Illustration: “WILLIAMITE” GLASS: NOTE THE “COLLAR” ON THE BALUSTER
STEM]
THE OLDER BALUSTERS
_The stouter and lumpier the older the baluster stem_, as a rule; after
the accession of William and Mary, the baluster stems grew more and
more refined and less heavy as the years went on. But baluster-stem
glasses are prized by most collectors according to their bigness and
lumpiness of outline; the older the better, from this point of view.
The massive stems are very handsome; where they touch the bowl the
bowl is very thick, and because the stem and pontil-mark were big, the
foot is often domed; so that the curves of the bowl, the undulations
of the stem, and the domelike or high-instep-like curve of the foot
make a matched and pleasant outline for the whole. _Almost invariably
baluster-stem glasses have folded feet._
COINS IN THE BALUSTER STEMS
Two things may be looked for inside these stems--coins and “tears.”
Sometimes one of the swelling-out parts of the baluster stem was large
enough to enclose a small silver coin; a coin glass is exceedingly
rare and correspondingly valuable, but the date of the coin does not
necessarily indicate the date of the glass.
“TEARS” IN THE STEM
[Illustration: PLAIN DRAWN LARGE ALE GLASS, SHOWING “TEAR” IN STEM]
Many baluster stems enclose a separate blob or bubble of glass, called
a “tear.” It has been thought that this was an accidental feature,
due to imperfect mixing of the metal and the presence of air in the
molten glass. Obviously, that is an unlikely cause, and in the Diary
of Mr. Pepys I have discovered a passage which seems to show how these
“tears” in the stem would begin. Writing little more than twenty years
before 1689, Pepys refers to the “chymical glasses which break all to
dust by breaking off a little end; which is a great mystery to me.”
These were called _lacrymæ Batavicæ_, or “Dutch tears,” and were made
by letting drops of molten glass fall into water; hissing, the glass
became tearlike in shape, a blob with a long slender tail, and hollow.
Probably such as these were the “tears” which appear as ornaments
within the old drinking-glass stems, distinctly visible and separate
from the rest of the glass in the stem, though of the same tinge and
quality of material. The name “tear” is to this extent a misnomer,
that nearly always the “tear” is bigger at the top than the bottom;
whereas a tear proper swells out more the lower it slips on the cheek.
But I own a baluster-stem glass in which the lower part of the “tear”
is the bigger, and in some such glasses the “tear” swells out or in to
match the shape of the stem. Sometimes three or five or more very small
“tears” appear in one of the bulbs.
2. THE DRAWN-OUT OR PLAIN ROUND STEM
“Drawn glasses” were made at twice--the bowl and the stem in one,
the foot added later. To understand better this meaning of the word
“drawn,” imagine a soap-bubble with the extra suds adhering to one
part of it, and suppose that the extra suds could be drawn out to
make a stem; that was the method used in glass. The plain, round stem
resembles a solid cylinder, but it is part of the bowl, in fact it is
a continuation of the bowl. The end of the cylinder, around which the
foot was welded, made a pontil-lump, and therefore the plain stem glass
has either a high instep or a dome foot.
[Illustration: DRAWN BOWL AND PLAIN ROUND STEM]
The plain round stems were made stout because of insobriety, though
that had begun to lessen when this second type of stem came into vogue.
“Tears” are often seen in the plain round stems.
3. THE CORRUGATED ROUND STEM
Stems which are ornamented by outside spirals, or series of small
ridges and grooves alternating, are usually old Dutch; but some of them
are English, though of inferior quality and ring. The quality is so
poor and the make so unsatisfactory that probably they were a “cheap
and nasty” contemporary imitation and substitute for glasses adorned
with the air spiral, the type which succeed the plain round stem. It is
hardly likely that the corrugated stem preceded the air-spiral stem;
or, if at all, for more than a few years. With these corrugated stems
one expects to find, almost without exception, that the bowl of the
glass is shaped like an inverted, incurving, waisted bell.
[Illustration: (1) CORRUGATED STEM AND (2) HOP AND BARLEY GLASSES, THE
LATTER SHOWING THE “SILVER SPIRAL”]
4. THE AIR-SPIRAL STEM
At any rate, out of the “tears” in the baluster and plain round stems
was developed the idea of ornamenting stems by internal spirals or
twists, and whether these should be number four or number three in the
chronological order is not very important. By twisting while drawing
out the stem from the surplus metal of the bowl (which contained
several small “tears”) the graceful and beautiful effect of the air
spiral _inside the stem_ was produced. Sometimes the spiral starts
within the bowl; sometimes it winds round the base of the bowl; but
always the ornamentation becomes a trellis-work or network when it
fills up the whole stem; when it does not fill up the whole stem, it
meanders down it medially, in one substantial spiral, like a corkscrew
or a rope, or in two that interlace: and in the finest examples the
finger can feel no ridging of the surface at all, though a slight
ridging is palpable in many glasses. Now all this meant splendid
workmanship--English aptitude at handicraft, the best of its kind in
the world.
[Illustration: DRAWN BOWL AND AIR-SPIRAL STEM, BEGINNING BELOW THE BOWL]
Sometimes the spiral is so very brilliant that it seems as if it
were made of quicksilver, and collectors call it “silver spiral” or
“brilliant air-twist”; but this is probably an effect of light. In
all cases the air spiral is glass colour, the tint of the rest of
the glass; red, cotton-white, and blue spirals belong to the type
of stem to be mentioned next. Sometimes, it is true, a white thread
is seen running down the centre of the stem, within the network
of air spirals; but oftener when this central thread occurs, it is
“air-colour” itself.
Air spirals are often seen in stems of knobby or baluster form;
sometimes air-spiral stems have “necks.” This probably means that long
rods of glass containing air spirals were made, with the baluster
shape recurring at regular intervals of suitable length, so that the
rod could be cut up into lengths and each length welded on to the
bowl and the foot of a glass. These are the air-spiral glasses most
sought after. Sometimes the stem of a drawn glass was welded to a foot
of which a bulb was the upper part, this bulb sometimes containing
beadlike “tears,” but these are very rare: sometimes the upper part of
the stem is plain, and the lower part, beginning with a knob, is air
spiral, or _vice versa_. Sometimes old air-spiral glasses with small
feet are found; this was due to a practice of grinding away the edge,
when the feet had become chipped by much use, and re-polishing the feet
of these much-valued glasses; the folded foot for these glasses was not
the rule.
Tall, slender-bowled air-spiral glasses for champagne are sometimes
found, in shape resembling the glasses called _flûtes_; I own one of
this sort not less than 9½ inches high. Rarer still are spiral-stemmed
glasses for ale; I own one 11 inches high (see illustration, page
60). The former I gave 7s. 6d. for, the latter 10s., a tithe of their
West-End prices. But these are very exceptional glasses.
Air-spiral stems are found in cordial and spirit glasses, firing
glasses, and goblets with short stems.
5. THE COTTON-WHITE SPIRAL STEM
[Illustration: TALL CHAMPAGNE GLASSES: (1) TAPE COTTON-WHITE, AND (2)
AIR-SPIRAL STEMS]
During the latter half of the eighteenth century the air-spiral glasses
continued to be made, but the opaque or cotton-white spiral stems came
into fashion and general use. These were not “drawn” stems; they could
not be, because the white glass was not inherent in the metal. The
stem was made by lining a long cylindrical mould with wirelike “canes”
of cotton-white and other glass alternately. Then melted plain glass
was poured into the cylinder. The canes adhered to the warm metal, and
when the whole was reheated, it could be twisted into spiral designs.
Then the parti-coloured rod thus made was cut into stem-lengths. By
this means a great variety of designs in the spirals could be produced,
and indeed, the countless differences in English-made cotton-white
spirals, hardly any two alike, are one of the features of a collection.
Sometimes the design spreads like the air-twist; sometimes it circles
around a central, wavy tube; sometimes the cotton-white is tapelike, in
a “Greek key” pattern; sometimes an outer spiral runs around the inner
corkscrew; but always the effect is pleasing, and rather striking,
though perhaps not quite in the reticent good taste of the air-spiral
stems.
[Illustration: STRAIGHT-SIDED, COTTON-WHITE GREEK KEY PATTERN]
Dome feet or folded feet are hardly ever found under cotton-white
or other coloured spiral stems; any example of that should at once
be acquired; but the pontil-mark is always found--_if the glass be
old_. The white in English-made glasses is generally a pure, vivid,
cotton-white; in Dutch glasses it is usually a dull greyish hue. (This
is why I use the term “cotton-white” as descriptive of these English
stems.)
6. COLOURED SPIRAL STEMS
The next step, to coloured or “mixed” spirals, was obvious, but not
very often taken at English glassworks: most of the red and white
spiral stems now seen came from Holland or Liège. However, at Bristol
red and white, and blue and white, spiral stems were made; they are
known by the ruby red and the peculiar Bristol blue. Yellow and white,
purple and white, and green and white spirals are known; rare indeed is
a three-colour spiral. Coloured twist stems were only made in England
about the end of the eighteenth century. An almost constant feature of
tri-coloured stems made in Holland or at Liège is a wavy central tube
of white, with coloured spirals around it, swelling or contracting to
suit the usually bulbous shape of the stem.
7. CUT PLAIN-GLASS STEMS
These seem to have been in fashion during the period 1775-1825.
Usually the stems are hexagonal, and the cutting had, of course, to be
continued, in a shallow way, on the lower part of the bowl. “Thistle”
glasses are those in which the cutting of the stem and bowl to some
extent suggests the thistle in shape and appearance. The stems were
often knopped--this is a feature of Waterford glass cut stems--but
towards the end of the period mentioned above the stems became
cylindrical except for the cutting, and the cutting did not so much
produce facets as long grooves.
The dates just given would suggest that the dome foot and the folded
foot are not to be looked for under cut stems, but they are met with,
the dome foot having been kept in use for ornament’s sake, probably.
Nor is the pontil-mark present, if the cutter removed it; except that
sometimes he left just the faintest trace of it, which the finger can
detect.
VIII. THE VARIOUS SHAPES OF BOWL
Stemmed drinking vessels, whether for wine or ale, for rum or cordials,
cider or drams, can be classified according to shape of bowl; this is
important for descriptive purposes, and to some extent for dating. The
following names of shapes do not apply to tumblers, mugs, or tankards,
of course.
[Illustration: (1) DRAWN]
[Illustration: (2) BELL]
_There are ten general shapes of bowl_:
1. _Drawn_, found with the plain round stem and the air-spiral stem.
2. _Bell_, found with the baluster stem, the necked and collared stem,
the air-spiral stem, the cotton-white spiral stem, with coin glasses,
and with rose glasses.
3. _Waisted bell_, found with the corrugated stem and the plain stem.
4. _Straight-sided_, found with each class of stem.
[Illustration: (3) WAISTED BELL]
[Illustration: (4) STRAIGHT-SIDED]
5. _Rectangular_, a variety of the straight-sided, found with the plain
round stem and the air-spiral stem.
[Illustration: (5) RECTANGULAR]
[Illustration: (6) EGG-CUP-SHAPED]
6. _Egg-cup-shaped_, or ovoid, found with the cotton-white spiral stem,
the air-spiral stem, and the cut stem.
7. _Ogee_ (named after a term in architecture, signifying a curve,
somewhat like the letter S), found mostly with the cotton-white
spiral stem and the coloured spiral stem. These are believed to be of
Bristol make as a rule, as many of them have the Bristol characteristic
of perpendicular or spiral flutings in the lower half of the bowl,
produced by pressure (a kind of moulding). The ogee bowl is also found
with the cut stem, the plain round stem, and moulded stems.
[Illustration: (7) OGEE (TWO VARIETIES)]
[Illustration: (8) LIPPED OGEE]
[Illustration: (9) DOUBLE OGEE]
[Illustration: (10) WAISTED]
8. _Lipped ogee_, found with the coloured spiral stem, the cotton-white
stem, and moulded stems mainly.
9. _Double ogee_, found with the air-spiral stem, and the cotton-white
stem; some of the oldest have knops and the folded foot.
10. _Waisted_, found with the air-spiral stem and the mixed spiral stem.
SMALL LUMP OR BEAD AT BOTTOM OF BOWL
[Illustration: “ROSE” GLASS, BELL BOWL, AIR-SPIRAL BEGINNING IN THE
BASE OF THE BOWL]
In many of the older wine glasses the finger can feel, inside the bowl,
just above the top of the stem, a small conical projection, like that
of half a bead. But this is not invariable, or an essential proof of
genuineness.
IX. OTHER STEMMED DRINKING GLASSES
Wine glasses do not by any means exhaust the list of collectable
glasses on stems; there are many desirable stemmed glasses once used
for ale, cider, perry, or spirits, to be acquired.
1. ALE AND BEER GLASSES
[Illustration: CANDLESTICK BETWEEN TALL BEER GLASSES]
Many glasses, drawn, bell, or waisted-bell shape in bowl and baluster,
plain round, air spiral, cotton-white spiral, or cut in stem, exist,
which appear to have been used for the very strong ale then brewed;
often these are engraved with representations of hops and barley.
Large vessels, perhaps used for “small beer,” exist, from 9 to 16
inches tall, and proportionately capacious: the biggest of the kind
I ever saw was engraved with Jacobite emblems. The smaller examples
of this class may have been used daily; the larger may have been kept
for occasional use as loving-cups, or were never used at all, perhaps,
being merely _tours de force_ of the glass-maker, and kept as ornaments
to a sideboard. The very large ones are drawn glasses, with plain round
stems, as a rule; the nine-or ten-inch tall glasses of this kind are
baluster or plain round in stem. I bought one of these (see page 48)
for £2 5s. not long ago; its West-End price now might be £10, for it is
“Waterford.”
2. CIDER GLASSES
No doubt some of the glasses mentioned just above were used at times
for strong cider; perhaps large goblets were used for draught perry
or cider at times. But special cider glasses exist, engraved with
representations of apples and apple-tree leaves, or apple-trees, and
these, from 6 to 7 inches tall, have ogee or rectangular bowls as a
rule, and usually cotton-white spiral stems.
3. CHAMPAGNE OR MUM GLASSES
There are two types of old champagne or mum glasses, each rare: one
type has a wide-lipped bell or double-ogee bowl, upon a baluster stem,
and much resembles some of the bigger sweetmeat glasses; the other type
is 7 to 9 inches high, ogee bowl, and cotton-white stem.