Wine glass

“ If the finger-glass and doyley are placed on your dessert-plate, you should immediately remove the doyley to the left of your plate, and place the finger-glass upon it. By these means you leave the right for the wine-glasses.
Be careful to know the shapes of the various kinds of wine-glasses commonly in use, in order that you may never put forward one for another. High and narrow, and very broad and shallow glasses, are used for champagne; large, goblet-shaped glasses for burgundy and claret; ordinary wine-glasses for sherry and madeira; green glasses for hock ”

“ Champagne Glasses.—There is, of course, no real reason why one kind of wine should be drunk from a glass of special shape and another from a totally different one, but once glass drinking vessels had become the vogue, this habit of specialising in the shape and size of glasses speedily became the fashion and crystallised into a custom which persists even to-day in our port, sherry, champagne, claret, and liqueur glasses. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To a bottle of champagne add a wine-glass of Madeira or sherry, a liqueur-glass of Maraschino, two slices of Seville orange-peel, and one slice of lemon-peel. Before drinking, pour in a bottle of seltzer-water, and serve with a sprig of verbena or a very small piece of thinly cut peeling of cucumber. ”

“ The mouth of the bottle is then pressed by hand on the peg of the stopper, and the mouth and peg are ground together with a medium of very fine emery and water until an air-tight joint is secured.
The revival in recent years of the craft of glass-blowing in England must be attributed to William Morris and T.G. Jackson, R.A. (Pl. II. figs. 11 and 12) . They, at any rate, seem to have been the first to grasp the idea that a wine-glass is not merely a bowl, a stem and a foot, but that, whilst retaining simplicity of form, it may nevertheless possess decorative effect. ”

“ Whether people will offer frappéd cider or some other iced drink in the middle of dinner, and a warmed something else to take the place of claret with the fish, remains to be seen. A water glass standing alone at each place makes such a meager and untrimmed looking table that most people put on at least two wine glasses, sherry and champagne, or claret and sherry, and pour something pinkish or yellowish into them. ”

“ Putting ice in the wine glass will spoil the flavor of any fine wine.
A few drops of wine should first be poured into the host's glass, before serving the guests. If a toast to the health of any one present be proposed, the guest in whose honor the toast is given, must not drink, but should acknowledge the compliment with a smile and bow of thanks. The etiquette in regard to the German custom of clinking glasses is very well defined. One must hold the wine glass by the stem, being careful not to touch the bowl with the fingers. ”

“ With glass there are no such boundaries, at present; anything out of the ordinary in shape, purpose, or date, may be acquired, and should be—the uncommon pieces are the best—though often because a piece is quite unusual, it will be offered you at a very low price. The smaller dealers know that from half a guinea to a couple of guineas is what they may charge for an old wine glass, according to the knobs or the spiral in its stem, but they do not know any fixed price for less common specimens, and they will sell at a hundred per cent. profit on the very small charges they themselves have paid. ”

“ Under the new system the bowl is fashioned by blowing the slightly hollowed mass of glass into a mould. The leg is formed and a small lump of molten glass is attached to its extremity to form the foot. The blowing iron is constantly trundled, and the small lump of glass is squeezed and flattened into the shape of a foot, either between two slabs of wood hinged together, or by pressure against an upright board. The bowl is severed from the blowing iron, and the wine-glass is sent to the annealing oven with a bowl, longer than that of the finished glass, and with a rough fractured edge. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Glass is used in every home. It is seen in its ornamental forms, and is necessary in almost every department. In kitchen and pantry there are dishes and tumblers and wine glasses and decanters ready for use. Among these there are often found old glasses—that is, glass vessels which from their rarity or age have attained a curio value; indeed, many housewives are unaware that their kitchen cupboard contains what would be valued as interesting specimens gladly purchased by collectors of glass. ”

“ The final stage with which we are concerned is that of blowing, since all table glass, worthy of being called table glass, is blown. In other words, every decanter, vase, tumbler, and wine glass of the better sort begins its existence as a bubble of molten glass at the end of an iron tube—the glass-blower’s tube—and owes its form to the delicate touches of simple tools held in a skilful hand and guided by a trained eye. It is this fact which gives glass its individuality. There is no hard-and-fast rigour of line, no mechanical uniformity of shape, such as is associated with machine-made goods ”

“ Equally to be censured is the increasing custom of serving wine in colored glasses—a fashion inaugurated by the gentler sex in order to add a supposititious life to the table. Apart from the great mistake of thus masking the color of the wine itself, and thereby impairing its attractiveness to the eye, there is no color produced by the most cunning artificer in glass which approaches the colors extracted from the skin of the grapes themselves. ”

“ In pawnshops and ordinary glass-shop windows a collector sees spiral-stem wine glasses made for modern use and not intended to deceive; they are a kind of tawdrily ornamental hock glass, embodying some modern designer’s idea of what [99] is beautiful; they correspond with no antique shape of bowl, the stems are very thin and fragile, the feet are as small as or smaller than the rim of the bowl, and the spirals are parti-coloured and “tight.” No collector need be taken in by such as these—they were not made to take him in, they are ordinary articles of modern manufacture and daily commerce. ”

“ In France, Germany and the United States it is rare to find a piece of table-ware which has not received its shape in a mould. The old and the new systems of making a wine-glass illustrate almost all the ordinary processes of glass working. Sufficient glass is first “gathered” on the end of a blowing iron to form the bowl of the wine-glass. The mere act of coiling an exact weight of molten glass round the end of a rod 4 ft. in length requires considerable skill. The mass of glass is rolled on a polished slab of iron, the “marvor,” to solidify it, and it is then slightly hollowed by blowing. ”

“ Fill the glass with rich milk and shake up the ingredients until they are thoroughly mixed. Pour the mixture into a goblet excluding the ice, and grate a little nutmeg ontop. This may be made by using a wine-glass of either of the above liquors, instead of both combined. ”

“ Many fantastic pieces of old glass were made as curiosities or ornaments, but most old glass was made for use. Glass is easily scratched; as the wine glasses and decanters were set down upon the hard, polished mahogany of dinner-tables, after the cloth was drawn, and were moved, the feet of the wine glasses and the bases of the decanters become scratched thereby. Lustre-ornaments, glass candlesticks, or glass vases which stood upon marble or hard wood mantelpieces, being moved when maidservants were dusting, became scratched at the base. ”

“ If wine is not desired from principle, merely touching the brim of the glass with the finger-tip is all the refusal a well-trained servant needs. A still better plan is to permit one glass to be filled and allow it to stand untasted at your plate. In responding to a health, it is ungracious not to, at least, lift the glass and lets its contents touch the lips. ”

“ There is no stretch of imagination in pouring wine ready made from carafe, or barochio, or flask, into a glass—the operation is merely mechanical; whereas, among us punch drinkers, the necessity of a nightly manufacture of a most intricate kind, calls forth habits of industry and forethought—induces a taste for chemical experiment—improves us in hygrometry, and many other sciences—to say nothing of the geographical reflections drawn forth by the pressure of the lemon, or the colonial questions, which press upon every meditative mind on the appearance of white sugar. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the wine works (like the vine) your wine will effervesce more than usual; a taste of vintage and of fermentation will be found in it.” The excellent wines of Ay and our good Champagne wines do not froth, or very slightly; they content themselves with sparkling in the glass.’ ”

“ A fine dry wine, indebted as it is for its sparkling properties to the natural sweetness of the grape, does not exhibit the same sudden turbulent effervescence. It continues to sparkle, however, for a long time after being poured into the glass, owing to the carbonic acid having been absorbed by the wine itself instead of being accumulated in the vacant space between the liquid and the cork, as is the case with wines that have been highly liqueured. ”

“ The number and diversity of old glass articles may be indicated by the following incomplete list: wine glasses, beer glasses, cider glasses, rummers, cordial glasses, liqueur glasses, tumblers, firing glasses, coaching glasses, fuddling glasses, beakers, mugs, tankards, champagne glasses, grog glasses, Masonic glasses, goblets, Joey glasses, “boot” glasses, “yards of ale,” toy glasses; flasks, decanters, trays and waiters; punch or salad bowls, trifle bowls; wine bottles, spirit bottles; jugs, punch-lifters, decanter stands; jelly glasses, custard glasses, flip glasses, syllabub glasses ”

“ The workman, by bearing down on the lever, or by pulling the strap at the end, tips the cask forward. When the wine has nearly all run out, it should frequently be examined by holding a small quantity to the light in a small, thin glass, and as soon as the slightest appearance of lees presents itself, the operation should cease, and none of the muddy wine should be poured into the other cask. ”

“ We do not see how the glass of wine at the evening party, where he can take a little, not too much, is followed later in the evening and till the daylight hours, by glass after glass of stronger liquor, taken amid far different surroundings. ”

“ The vapor of the alcohol first passing from the boiler through the rubber tube into the condenser, will there condense, and the liquid running from the worm into the test tube will be almost pure alcohol, but as the process goes on, more and more water comes out with the alcohol, till the spirit has all passed over. If the strength of the wine does not exceed 14 or 15 per cent., the alcohol will all have passed over when one-third of the wine has been distilled, as will be shown when the distillate reaches the 1⁄3 mark on the glass. ”

“ Still wines which ferment in the bottle generally must be emptied into casks, and there treated as indicated in the chapter on Diseases. Temporary relief may be given by putting the bottles in a cooler place, and uncorking them for an hour or two to allow the gas to escape.
Deposits and Turbidity.—Wine, after being some time in glass, forms more or less deposit, according to its age, quality, and degree of limpidity at the time of bottling. The deposits consist almost entirely of coloring matter, and vegetable and mineral salts ”

“ “I say that is wine,” Brett held up her glass. “We ought to toast something. ‘Here’s to royalty.’ ”
“This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don’t want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.”
Brett’s glass was empty. ”

“ These glasses, though shaped as wine-glasses, resemble much more goblets in their size, containing each as much as several ordinary wine-glasses. What you do not drink is thrown upon the ground; and it is calculated that at least a hogshead a day is thus consumed. Many parties who wish for a cheap carouse, procure a tasting order, take biscuits with them, and drink of the best of all sorts of wine in the cellars, and in quantities enough to terrify any disciple of Father Mathew. ”