Wednesday 13 September 2017

Looking forward to the Winter


It's about time you were shown another item from the vast collection held in my private museum. I don't think you have seen this before.

At first I thought it was a firing-glass from about 1740, but the foot is a little flimsy to be banged on a wooden table by a drunk person. Then I saw another almost identical one for sale by a glass dealer, described as a 'ship's glass' - from about 1740.

They are very low and very heavy, so stand less chance of sliding around or falling over in a ship on a rough sea.

I tend to use it in the Winter for the occasional whisky, but - thankfully - I don't use it that much. I have a taller, lighter version for every day wine drinking...

36 comments:

  1. Such work for the eighteenth century. Love the little bubble in the stem. I'd like to go shopping with you at an antiques fair.

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  2. Replies
    1. Yes. There are more popular, more fancy glasses, but I like these.

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  3. Beautiful; just right for my winter evening's thimble-full of single malt.

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    1. That glass holds about 15 thimble-fulls.

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    2. That would leave 14 for Lady Magnon; too many.

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  4. Does Christies ever call you to see what your have in stock?

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    1. No, but they email me twice a month to tell me what they have in stock.

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  5. It's a beautiful drinking glass, you're still drinking out of it; so fragile and yet so resistant!
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. 200 years of survival in the hands of drunkards. A miracle.

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  6. I think it would be bit heavy for me to enjoy using.

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  7. "Very low and very heavy" Sounds a bit like myself. I think I'd like that glass very much as I find I cannot write without a bit of Jameson in the evening.

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  8. The sort of shape that makes you want to touch it...and pretty and practical too.

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  9. Oooooo, you have Summer and Winter drinking glasses. That's what I call Panache.

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  10. Nice. I have some Steuben glass. Not as old or as impressive.

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    1. Steuben glass is an American art glass brand, till recently made near me in Corning NY, Steuben County, and a subsidiary of Corning glass. Used to be that presidents would give foreign dignitaries Steuben glass pieces. Named for Baron von Steuben, who I think founded the glass company after the Revolution.
      Oops, wikipedia tells me no, he was a war hero and the county was named after him and the glass company after the county. They made glass 1903-2011.
      p.s. I love your descriptions of your work especially, tho you're always a pleasure to read.

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  11. I just re-read your headline, Looking Forward to the Winter, and I got a good laugh. I appreciate your materialism, which when done correctly means a refined understanding of the properties and qualities (physical and metaphysical) of well-made objects.

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  12. Here I go, absent for a couple of weeks and you have already got yourself a museum!! What is it called;
    The Stephenson Treasury? I will love to subscribe to this iconic program , how many episodes are we to expect??

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  13. Answers are short. Mobile phone in Corfe. Shawn and daughter were in Bath! More to follow.

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