Georgian drinking glasses, a subdivision of 18th Century glass, are distinguished from wine glasses not only by the contents for which they were intended but also by their form and engraving.
Nowadays we see branded glasses for wheat beer, a unique style glass for each of the myriad of Belgian ales, IPA glasses and all manner of beer glassware claiming to improve the drinking experience and improve head retention for all beer styles. Beer should be served under gravity from wooden barrels thus negating much of this nonsense. I digress
There were three basic types of beer glasses in the 18th century. Elegant tall ale glasses with opaque twist stems, air twist stems, plain and facet cut stems all of which resemble modern day champagne flutes. These are ideal for head retention if requisite. Secondly dwarf ale glasses for strong ale some not more than five inches tall. Finally Georgian glass tankards and beer mugs the latter made from pottery or porcelain. All of these tankards and mugs are most frequently engraved or decorated with hops and barley.
For a whisky glass please try a Georgian dram glass, there is a good deal of variation in the shaped bowl and capacity. If you wish to add a little water or heavens above ice cubes then a georgian glass tumbler, antique flip glass if you prefer, engraved with pictorial snippets of history, be they Jacobite engraved, Masonic glassware or to commemorate an event such as a wedding or the anniversary of a battle may be called upon.
Deceptive glasses and toastmasters glasses intentionally disguise and reduce the capacity of the glass. Firing glasses with thickened feet can be used for shots, so called as when they are slammed onto a table in unison the noise is supposed to resemble that of musket fire.
With the rise of the inelegant hipster, aided and abetted by shrewd marketeers, we have been propelled in to the fourth gin craze; antique 18th century and early 19th century gin glasses from the previous incarnations of this obsessive devotion to genever are still plentiful. The bowls of these older glasses are generally small for the purpose of drinking the spirit neat; if you wish to adulterate your pure ‘daffy’ with mixers then perhaps try a Georgian glass rummer for additional capacity.
The Victorian era marked a rejection of everything that had gone before in drinking glass design; it was a period of unparalleled self-confidence, particularly in Britain when the empire flourished and industrialisation swept all before it. Antique 18th century glassware – at the higher end of production – was all about hand-crafted excellence and limited numbers of painstakingly produced pieces with their hand-made opaque twists and manually applied engraving or enamelling that existed almost in spite of the conditions in which they were created. This was set to change.
The Victorians replicated then antique glass shapes which were cut, ground and sliced by machine-powered cutting wheels, pressed by the dozen in moulds, tinted by increasingly proficient chemical processes. Manufactured to match templates from mass-produced pattern books from which customers could choose their preferred designs. Creativivity and craftmanship was still available for those willing to pay the price.
The value of the glasses as a means to promote sales also came to the fore with lenticular petal moulded ale glasses intended to make the contents look more appealing making an appearance alongside branded glassware – particularly antique champagne glasses and coupes, absinthe glasses and glass rummers engraved to denote respectively the name of a vintner, distiller or a public house or drinking society. With the advent of weights and measures acts dram glasses and tumblers, flip glasses, began to be marked with a legal measure. Beer glasses were marked in imperial pints.
Glassmaking became more of an industry, less of a craft, but with cut glass and other production techniques being constantly honed and refined, there was still the scope for some stunning antique wine glasses to have been produced and – of course – items intended to make an impression had to be more finely executed than ever before in order to do so; 19th century glassmaking excellence is therefore evidenced in abundance, no less remarkable than earlier examples, but exhibiting different skill-sets in order to appeal to a more discerning, perhaps more sophisticated clientele
We discuss Victorian art glass, beautifully decorated glass vases and decorative objects within the Victorian Table Glass section.
