SOLD – Pair of Victorian Tuppenny Gin Glasses c1840

Description

Heading : Pair Two Penny Gin Glass
Date : 1830 – 1850
Period : Victorian
Origin : England
Colour : Clear
Bowl : Deceptive found funnel
Bowl Features : Lens Cut
Foot : Conical
Pontil : Polished
Glass Type : Lead
Size : 4 3/4 inches tall with a 2 3/16 inch bowl and 2 9/16 inch foot   
Condition : Excellent. no chips or cracks
Restoration : None
Weight: 400 grams for the pair

Additional Information :

By the late Regency and early Victorian period gin was back. The population of London increased from 1.4M to 2.8M between the census of 1831 and 1861. Overcrowding. poverty. criminality. vice and despair. in the same slums as earlier periods making you want or need a gin! These glasses are “Two Penny Gins”. larger than the more common ‘Penny Gins’. A glass measure would cost but a penny or two. but it was not a set measure. The “sham dram” was born. this glass is highly deceptive and the purchaser would receive less gin than anticipated.

Drunk for a penny. Dead drunk for two pence. Clean straw for nothing. See Hogarth