Glass (drinking vessel)

“ 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. ”

“ At the end of the last century, glasses were manufactured of a taper form, like a tall champagne-glass, but not less than between two and three feet in height, from which it was considered a great feat to drain the contents, generally consisting of strong ale, without removing the glass from the lips, and without spilling any of the liquor,—a somewhat difficult task towards the conclusion, on account of the distance the liquid had to pass along the glass before reaching its receptacle. ”

“ Take a filled ale-jug, or the well-known 'pewter' of a tavern or public-house, and pour out gently into a glass: scarcely any froth is produced. Pour out the self-same liquor from the self-same vessel in a stream several inches high, and you produce a foaming 'head,' which to the eye seems to be a substance quite different from ale or beer. Open a bottle of lemonade or ginger-beer, of soda-water{448} or seltzer-water, and pour out the contents into a glass; the formation of froth is so rapid and abundant that the glass appears full when it really contains but a small quantity of liquid. ”

“ To put clear ice in the glasses is simply to weaken the quality and flavor of the wine, and, as a matter of fact, to serve wine and water.
The glasses for the various wines are usually grouped at the right of the plate, and as different styles and sizes are used for different wines, it is well for the novice to be accustomed to these in order to avoid the awkwardness of putting forward the wrong glass. High and narrow, also very broad and shallow glasses, are used for Champagne; large, goblet-shaped glasses for Burgundy and a ruby-red glass for Claret ”

“ When no more spirit goeth forth, then take off the lid from the distilling vessel, and with an iron ladle take out that which stayed behind, whilest it is yet red-hot and soft, and it will look like unto a transparent clear white fusible glass, which you must keep from the air, for it will dissolve in it, till I teach you what you are to do with it. ”

“ The bottle was an ordinary bottle, of green glass, of narrow mouth, corked and sealed, and within it, miraculously, rode the little ship, with its tall fine spars, its cabin, capstan, shrouds and tiny pulleys, complete in every detail to the belaying-pins, its top sails bellying to some mysterious imprisoned breeze, while the other sails were furled. "Oh, Daddie," she cried, "look at the little ship! Look at the little ship in the bottle! It has sails, it has masts, it has everything! Oh, Daddie, wherever did you get the little ship in the bottle?" ”

“ Thus an ale glass would be adorned with ears of barley or bunches of hops; a wine glass with vine leaves or bunches of grapes; a cider glass with sprays of apple blossom, and so forth.
Champagne was, in the eighteenth century, a wine of comparatively recent introduction, and was drunk only by the rich and great. Probably at first no special glasses were used for it, the more elegant of those already in existence, presumably bell-shaped and air-stemmed, being pressed into the service, but about 1730 special glasses were made, with wide, shallow bowls, of the double-ogee variety and a baluster. ”

“ DRINKING CUPS FROM ANGLO-SAXON GRAVES
The tall, conical, trumpet-shaped cups are often carefully made and of considerable artistic merit (Plate XVII.) ; the sides are sometimes gadrooned and fluted, and threadings of glass of various colours are applied to them. On a fine specimen found in the cemetery of the South Saxons near Worthing, the stringing has been ‘dragged’ to form graceful festoons or chevrons, calling to mind the patterns on the primitive glass of the Eastern Mediterranean. ”

“ It is a bottle of port." Eliza very rarely takes anything at all, but if she does it is a glass of port. In this respect I admire her taste. Port, as I have sometimes said to her, is the king of wines. We decided that we would have a glass after supper. That is really the best time to take anything of the kind; the wine soothes the nerves and prevents insomnia. ”

“ Glass is useful also for making glasses—the receptacles from which wine is drunk. Without glasses we should be hard put to it to consume our liquor and should have to resort to half-cocoanuts, cups, the hollow of the hand, or even sponges.
Just at the moment bottles—I mean the more genial variety—are under a cloud. It is a penal offence to sell a bottle before noon, between half-past two and half-past six, and after half-past nine at night. But they are expected to come to their own again when Peace is celebrated. ”

“ She did not know where Norah was; and sour against Heaven and Destiny I went out on the long road again.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Ordering and drinking whisky, and having no intention of paying for the drink, is known to navvies as "shooting the crow."
[5] Schooner. A large glass used for lager-beer and ale, which contains fourteen fluid ounces.
[6] A stick. A half-glass of whisky mixed with beer—a navvyism for petite verre.
[7] Pulling the hare's foot. A farmyard phrase. The hare in the cornfield takes refuge in the standing corn when the servants are reaping. ”

“ Although nothing in silver has emulated the modern long, thin-necked, glass claret jugs with silver mounts, yet there has always been a distinction between ale, the popular drink of the people, and wine of foreign origin more pleasing to the palate of the connoisseur. ”

“ Glass is a bad conductor of heat. When boiling water is poured into a glass vessel, the vessel frequently breaks, on account of the unequal expansion of the inner and outer layers. If in the process of glass manufacture a glass vessel is suddenly cooled, the constituent particles are unable to arrange themselves and the vessel remains in a state of extreme tension. The surface of the vessel may be hard, but the vessel is liable to fracture on receiving a trifling shock. ”

“ This type of drinking vessel was in common use in well-to-do households until the 16th century, when a change of fashion and the greater luxury and refinement dictated the adoption of more elegant and complex forms. ”

“ That's '34 port, but it's not just what it should be. Shall I send for another bottle?"
"It will do for me, sir. I shall only take a glass."
"I shall drink two or three glasses of claret. But you young fellows have become so desperately temperate." ”

“ She had closed the last of her receptacles, and, dismissing the matter, for want of better employment, her scissors were tinkering upon a tiny hand-glass with a setting thickly crusted in crystals, a trifle that one clear day a sailor diving from her father's ship had found upon the bottom of the sea,—a very mermaid's glass dropped in some shallow place for Eve herself, a glass that had reflected the rushing of the storm, the sliding of the keel above, the face of many a drowning mariner. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Taking up the vessel from which he had recently drank, he dipped it several times in the running water at his feet until all traces of the ale had disappeared, then, filling it full with sparkling wine from one of the flagons before him, he looked steadily at his companion, gravely inclined his head towards him, and then tossed off his liquor with an air of supreme satisfaction, and replaced his tumbler upon the table. ”

“ In Belgium, France and Germany the same types occur, and even as far north as Scandinavia, where they are found in association with Roman coins of the 4th century. On the continent, however, additional types are found that do not occur in Britain—one of these is a drinking glass in the form of a hunting horn with glass threads forming an ornamental design on the outside. ”

“ On the other hand, the tall-necked flasks of thin glass—scent-sprinklers and wine-bottles—give proof of considerable manipulative skill (Plate XLVII.) . To judge by 340 the patterns in low relief on the sides, many of these vases, in spite of the thinness of the glass, must have been blown into a mould. The tall neck ends either in a flat-spreading lip or is bent over into that characteristic Persian form—not unlike the head of a bird with large beak—of which we may see an imitation or at least a kindred shape in certain Venetian double-necked cruets. ”

“ Horns as drinking vessels certainly retained their popularity at all times, surviving especially among the northern nations, and many of the vessels of this form were no doubt actual horns, though horn-shaped vessels were often made of other materials. Until we come to the 13th and 14th centuries there is an absolute dearth of the actual objects used in domestic life. And here we begin with plate used in the service of the church.
The drinking vessel possessing the most unbroken history is doubtless the chalice of the Christian Church. ”

“ Let her prance out to sea like a frolic-footed pup, For the ship is full of liquor, and to hell with the land! Ghosts from the ocean abysses, clambering, clamour- ing, come; Climb to our decks and roar: “Broach us a puncheon of rum! We are scaly with salt and sand; we've had nothing but water to swallow— Stave in a hogshead of rum! Let us roll in the scuppers and wallow!” Heh! Splice the main-brace! Ho! She smells the gale! The shipper walks the bridge with a bottle to his eye ”

“ The little jug (Schmoranz, Pl. xxx.) now in the hands of one of the Rothschild family in Paris, was purchased at the Hamilton sale for £2730; in the catalogue it was described as a specimen of Venetian glass! The enamels are brilliant and well preserved—polo-players, mounted on horses of various colours, surround the body. A curious feature is a collar of wood round the base of the neck, kept in place by a series of claw-shaped projections.
The larger bottles with tall necks form a class by themselves; they are often remarkable for the delicacy of the decoration. ”

“ Along with these letters 315 were found the ‘office copies’ of the patterns which Greene sent out to Venice as a guide to the glass-blowers. Here we have mention of ‘clouded calsedonia glasses’ for beer, claret, and sack, ‘creuits with or without feet, brandj tumblers,’ and ‘glasse floure potts.’ Not the least interesting item is the ‘Rhenish wine glasse,’ which is illustrated by a typical roemer with prunts on the stem, almost our only evidence of the use of these goblets in England. ”

“ Indeed, old English coloured glass was particularly fine, and this being so, it is not easy to understand why the same art should not be applied to vessels.
Coarse glass vessels were certainly made at a very early date. The records of Chiddingfold refer to Laurence Vitrearius in 1230, William le Verir in 1301, and John Glasewryth in 1380. The record, in its transition from Latin to{32} Norman-French, and then to Anglo-Saxon, has its philological interest as well, but it may be mentioned that John the Glasewryth made both “brode glas and vessel.” ”

“ In these the stem is often faceted, the facets sometimes extending some considerable distance up the glass. The modern champagne glass, with a wide saucer-like bowl and a hollow stem, seems to be a sort of combination of the two. The wine being a rarity, the glasses are scarce, and the collector who unearths a genuine specimen of an early eighteenth-century champagne glass may esteem himself fortunate. ”

“ 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 [61] Jacobite emblems. The smaller examples of this class may have been used daily ”

“ The glass vessels have chiefly reference to processes of distillation. The most important is the alembic, a form easily made; the neck of a long pendulous paraison has only to be heated on one side near the base, when it falls over of itself to assume the well-known shape. We see also flasks, standing in water or sand baths, within which various substances are digesting ”

“ The drinking vessels consisted of five cows’ horns and four glass cups. The former were of great size, 2 ft. long, richly mounted at the mouth and at the point with silver bands embossed and gilt. The glasses also were of great size and of a type familiar in Saxon interments. Each was of a trumpet shape, with a small foot, while the sides were ornamented with hollow pointed tubes bent downwards, and open on the inner side, so that the liquid would fill them. Such a plan is most unpractical, and it must have been very difficult to keep the vessels clean. ”