Glass home: Eighteenth Century Table Glass: Drinking Glasses.

Drinking Glasses

(1700 - 1800)

Drinking glass bowl shapes were determined by the type of drink they were used for. Wine was stronger than it is now, so bowls were much smaller than they are today, although they would have been frequently re-filled. Gin, and strong fruit liqueurs were drunk from glasses now known as 'cordial glasses', with tiny bowls on disproportionately tall stems. Glasses with tall narrow bowls, often engraved with a spray of hops or barley, were made for drinking ale, a much more alcoholic drink in the eighteenth century. Champagne and cider was drunk from slender 'flutes'.

Beer would have been drunk from large cylindrical glasses with handles, and tumblers were also very common. Goblets, (stemmed glasses with large bowls) and rummers (large stem-less glasses on a foot) may have been used for wine diluted with water. The tumbler shape was also commonly used, and often decorated with engraving.

Masculine social life revolving around drinking required glasses with particular attributes. Large 'mammoth' goblets were made for communal use at club meetings and ceremonies. There were also hardwearing dram glasses and 'firing' glasses with thick feet for slamming on the tabletop after repeated toasts. Toastmasters had special glasses with deceptively shallow bowls so that they could consume less alcohol than their fellow drinkers.

The study of English drinking glasses is based on a system of classification of stem and bowl types, which was formulated by collectors in the first decades of the twentieth century, and developed by Barrington Haynes in the 1950s. Specialists today often use the classifications published in Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses by L M Bickerton in 1971(Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club 1987).

Featured types

1680 -1740: Baluster stems (1680 - 1740)

1740 - 1760: Air twist stems (1740 - 1760)

1750 - 1780: Opaque twist (1750 - 1780)

1770 - 1800: Facet cutting and classical decoration (1750 - 1780)

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