Four Victorian Turquoise Wine Glasses c1890

Description

Heading : Four 19th century wine glasses
Period : Victoria
Date : c1870 – 1910
Origin : England
Colour :  Turquoise
Bowl : Conical
Stem : Annular shoulder blade with bladed knop 
Foot : Conical
Pontil : Snapped
Glass Type : Lead
Size : Approx. 13.2cm tall with a 7cm bowl and 6.8cm foot
Condition : Excellent. no chips or cracks
Restoration : None
Weight : 625 grams combined

Pontil scars and marks are not a guide as to production date in isolation. We have a beatiful set of Littala wine glasses with polished pontils still in a gift box from Finland. Riedel were still making wine glasses with snapped pontils when we visited the factory in Austria two years ago.

Caution must be exercised when collecting or buying. Dealers and “expert” vendors who spring up on eBay have a near pathological desire to inflate age to maximise return. Try reading page two and beyond of the literature available as most never bother reading beyond “pontils 101”.

These glasses all have seemingly snapped pontils. The feet are also conical. Note the thickness of the glass within the foot. this has not been blown it has been moulded. The base of the foot is very flat and there are irregular non-concentric scars on the underside of the base. These have been finished by either a palette or a footboard.  The final clue is the vertical sides of the cushion knop where it adjoins the stem. The foot of these glasses has been formed on a footboard a piece of equipment used from the mid 19th century onwards and into the 20th century.

The capstan stem with knops on glasses with rough and snapped pontils may be seen on English glasses from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. We have a retail catalogue from 1912 with glasses made by Hingley with capstan stems. conical feet and rough pontils ” Regency wines”.

The glass material itself is clean. in that we cannot observe any sooty particles or undissolved constituents. Cleaner glass was the result of cleaner kilns and advances made in their design after 1870. Thus we have a rough date range from 1870 to 1910