This is the sort of glass that Mr Pickwick would have drunk rum, sugar and hot water from on a cold, Victorian Winter day. You would snip a bit off from a sugar loaf and crush it with a glass snub-end rod in the bottom of the glass, add the rum and water, then - if there was no singing kettle to hand - plunge a red-hot poker into the mix until it boiled. I have a matching pair which I occasionally use for beer.
One thing I like about glasses from the 17th century onward is that they were all purpose-made for the specific drink. There were wine glasses of course, but also ones for cordial, ratafia, small beer, ale, gin, India Pale Ale, whiskey, champagne, port - everything you could think of and all varying in size, shape and design.
I stopped myself from obsessively collecting them a few years ago. The choice was simple. Either give up drinking and put the money saved into antique drinking glasses, or carry on and fill one or two choice ones with the money spent.
I have a friend who did not manage to curb his obsession with antique glass. He paid £30,000 for one single 18th century glass. When his wife pointed out that they could not afford such a ridiculous extravagance and that the money would be lost forever in an instant if he should let it slip from his sweaty fingers, he sold it the next day.
I could not put myself through this torture.
This is the glass (detail) that my friend had to sell. A glass within a glass, engraved by the most famous artist of his kind in the 18th century. You can see why anyone would be reluctant to actually use it!
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ReplyDeleteI made a mistake in the first comment which changed the meaning and then never copied it before I deleted it. Dah.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, what I said was that not bothering with the right glass for the right drink is a recent thing I think because we used to have a sideboard full of different glasses for different drinks and my parents were strict about using the correct one. They were not even drinkers.
Your friend would have made a good client for me in stockbroking. He could have gambled and his wife wouldn't have had to worry about his sweaty hands, just mine.
That is very true about dedicated glasses. The main reason for this is that good glasses have always been extremely expensive, so only wealthy households could afford whole sets. Then cast glass took over from blown and poorer people could afford a few different types.
DeleteUp until the last generation, most people who had drinks cabinets had quite a lot of half-decent sherry etc. glasses to bring out at Christmas, but used plain soda glass on an everyday basis.
Do you remember those French mustard pots which turned into drinking glasses when the mustard had gone? We had loads of them. A very French idea for everyday wine at lunchtime.
My mate was/is a hopeless collector. If he made cash on stocks he would spend it on glass.
No, we never had those mustard pots. I used to mix up the Colmans English mustard and put it in an eggcup. My job on a Sunday, We only had French mustard when my oldest brother went to work on a French farm in the 1960s for a month and brought some back as a present. I loved that mustard and can still remember it and the pot it was in. But it didn't turn into a glass.
DeleteI love the cherubs. I would have been reluctant to part with it.
DeleteThe Dartington Glass factory at Torrington in Devon is worth a visit.
ReplyDeleteOh, I will look out for it.
DeleteSimple, elegant, beautiful-
ReplyDeleteyou can see why people collect glasses
After a while you read these shapes like old friends.
DeleteI hope that the glass above is still unbroken and well protected, wherever it may be.
ReplyDeleteAnd so good to have a post on antique glassware - it's just like the good old times!
I'm hankering after the good old times.
DeleteWhy do you think times have changed so much? Beyond wine in a wine glass and coffee in a cup, and maybe juice in a small glass and water in a large one, I doubt most people have an assortment of glasses or care what goes in them. Is it due to imported cheap housewares? Dying off of traditions? Lack of disposable income? -Jenn
ReplyDeleteThe last two I think.
DeleteI thought most French people drank wine from those small tumbler glasses,I obviously have been to the wrong houses in France.
ReplyDeleteThey do, and I do. If you drop them they bounce!
DeleteWhat Cro says.
DeleteThe glass you show is exquisite - I wonder what it would be worth today, and whether it would have lost money or made even more.
ReplyDeleteNow I know why those glasses are called a Rummer.
Glass has gone down in price of late. That rummer is now about £50.
DeleteAnd the other is still worth £30,000.
DeleteI love that glass !
ReplyDeleteAre you watching the Antiques Roadshow ? Lots of lovely glasses !!!!! XXXX
Yes. That was a repeat. She didn't know what she had.
DeleteThis is not to diminish your rum snifter (?), but just to chime in a bit, as usual. That shape over here was used in my teen age years at soda fountains for ice cream sundaes. Then we could bring them home as favors from the local dinner theater. So, not antiques, but quite useful.
ReplyDeleteYes, the U.S. hung on to a lot of old shapes. French and Italian in particular.
DeleteRe Jenn's comment, I bought some antique Lalique water glasses online once and was most surprised to discover they were tiny!! I did neglect to check the dimensions. Maybe the large water glass is a recent fashion?
ReplyDeleteThe engraved glasses of olde are doing the rounds of Instagram, by coincidence, so there could be another surge in their price coming! Although 30K is eye-watering enough. It's a miracle they've survived to this day.
Maybe they were miss-described. A Venetian glass I once saw in a book was described as a 'testimony to sobriety of the original owner'. It was like lace.
DeleteIt's quite similar to a Rummer I have, but mine is less sexy.
ReplyDeleteIs it French? The French made a lot of unsexy drinking glasses. I have a couple.
DeleteMine is English.
Delete