Drinking glasses from the 18th and 19th centuries are enormously varied and survive in surprisingly large numbers, making them affordable and attractive items for collectors.

At the end of the 2nd century BC the Romans were making cups and beakers in pale green or blue-tinted glass in large numbers. Glass was a material of everyday use in a way that was not to be seen after the fall of Rome until the l9th century.

It was only at the start of the 15th century, when the Venetians introduced their revolutionary clear soda-lime glass or cristallo thatthe drinking glass came into existence once again. However, drinking glasses were an expensive luxury and remained so even after the mid- 16thC century, when Venetian and other northern Italian glass-makers took their skills to central and northern Europe.

Venetian technical expertise brought a new sophistication to local European glass- making traditions. German shapes such as the Humpen (beaker) now had decoration that used Venetian techniques such as enamelling and diamond- point engraving, while the Belgian serpent-stemmed goblets made in Antwerp and Liege are very hard to distinguish from the original Venetian models.

During the late 17th century, glass-makers in Bohemia and in some of the German states developed a new, thick, hard type of lustrous glass that lent itself well to the techniques of engraving and cutting. During the 18th century a steady stream of richly decorated ceremonial goblets and wine glasses poured out from the central European glass factories, with Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia and southern Germany becoming important centres. Many of these survive today — simple examples fetch £,1000 upwards for a single glass while the rarer, more elaborate examples command in excess of £1 00, 000 each.

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British Makers

The development of lead glass by George Ravenscroft and his followers in the 1670s and 80s laid the ground for a British glass industry. British 18th-century wine glasses are usually classified by the style of their stems, which changed as the century progressed. The first distinctive types had a baluster stem. Balusters were succeeded in the middle of the century by the air twist and the opaque twist. In some cases coloured canes were used instead of opaque white to give a colour-twist stem, and air and opaque twists were combined to make mixed-twist stems. In the last quarter of the 18th century cut-glass stems became fashionable. Continental copies of British wine glasses exist, and telling them apart from the originals can be difficult.

Eighteenth-century drinking glasses are sought after by collectors, and more unusual examples are not cheap. Beilby enamelled glasses can fetch anything from id 000 to £50,000 depending on the decoration. Jacobite glasses engraved with motifs celebrating the Jacobite cause also command high prices, with £63,000 having been paid recently for a rare ‘Amen’ glass. Standard opaque-twist and air-twist wine glasses can still be purchased for around £150-£200. Watch out for the addition of later engraving to some plain wine glasses — a trick that was carried out to enhance the value of the glass.

Variety of Form

In Britain the same small wine glass holding some 2-3 fl oz seems to have been used for all the different wines that were available. However, special glasses were made for other drinks. Cordial, for example — a brandy-based drink infused with herbs, spices and fruit — was served in exceptionally small long-stemmed glasses. Thick, squat glasses known as drams were made for gin and rum, which were consumed in large quantities. Ale, a very strong drink in the 18th century, was drunk from a small glass with a tall narrow bowl. The same general flute shape was also used for champagne. Current prices of glasses for cordials, ale and champagne are similar to those of wine glasses; small glasses such as drams go for under £100.

Mugs and tumblers were made throughout 18th-century Europe for beer and punch. In Britain towards the end of the century the rummer — with its large cup or bucket-shaped bowl set on a short stem and foot — was used for serving such drinks as the watered-down rum called grog. Plain Georgian rummers fetch prices in the region of £40-£80 each, but engraved examples are much more expensive.

By the late 19th century the wine service had reached the peak of its development. In Britain it would usually consist of a dozen each of six kinds of stemmed glass — for sherry, hock, claret, port, champagne and liqueur. A complete set, with decanters, jugs, tumblers, plates and finger bowls could number over 100 pieces. Grand wine services existed throughout Europe; most have long since been split but pieces are worth collecting as the standard was high. It is still possible to buy etched or engraved Victorian wine glasses for £10-£20, though prices are beginning to rise.

Twenty Century Glass

Sherry sets consisting of a decanter and six glasses began to appear in the 1920s, and at the same time a fashion emerged from the Continent for tall coloured hock glasses. However, unless they are associated with a famous designer, their prices are low.

The cocktail fashion, which spread to Europe from the United States in the 1920s, led to the manufacture of shakers and brightly painted cocktail glasses, mainly of continental origin. The majority of examples on the market are Czechoslovakian and the quality is not always very high. Only a small number of cocktail sets were made in Britain, where the leading manufacturer was undoubtedly Stuart & Sons of Stourbridge. The company produced some attractive enamelled designs, often in a humorous vein, including devils, spiders and cobwebs, and lucky symbols.

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