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Antique Drinking
Glasses
I seem to be at that stage in my life
where every other weekend from April
through to October is taken up by a
wedding. I've got no problem with that.
What I'm not so keen on are wedding lists.
While I understand that pillowcases and
kettles are a household necessity, you
won't catch me spending £29.99 on a
sandwich toaster from John Lewis.
Rather than, for example, investing in
a set of machine-made modern glasses -
found near the top of most bride-and-groom
wedding lists - why not treat them to an
antique glass or glasses, each displaying
the unique workmanship of a Georgian or
Victorian blower? They won't need vast
amounts of space to house or display a
collection of ale, liqueur or wine
glasses, and standard examples from the
18th and 19th century won't break the
bank.
Most serious collectors of glass tend
to focus on a particular part of the
market. The demand for Irish glass, for
example, is so strong that buyers are
paying prices disproportionate to superior
English examples. Meanwhile, prices for
most 19th-century glassware and almost all
decanters are lagging.
Owing to the shocking state of sewerage
and drainage in 18th-century Britain, it
was a lot safer to drink ale or wine than
it was water. So a great deal of utility
glassware was produced at that time.
Eighteenth-century liqueur glasses will
have a small bowl and a long stem; wine
glasses were made in a variety of designs
but generally with a larger bowl and
slightly shorter stem; and the ale glasses
are similar to modern wine glasses but
with a larger bowl and slightly shorter
stem.
As is so often the case with decorative
arts, condition is paramount. The smallest
of chips will slash the value of a glass.
Examples with engraved decoration to the
bowls are highly desirable. The long stems
also lend themselves to decoration -
opaque air twists running through the stem
give added value, and a blue spiral will
increase the value by at least half again
compared with a standard white air
twist.
Design and style are the obvious
indicators when attempting to date glass.
Beyond that, differentiating between
hand-blown and machine-made glass will
also help in assessing age and value.
Hand-blown glass will display
irregularities, such as ripples and
bubbles. The underside of a hand-blown
drinking glass will have a pontil mark - a
sharp and uneven area of glass where it
has been snapped off the rod. The
underside of machine-made glass will be
smooth, and sets of glasses perfectly
matched. Much of the glass produced in
Britain during the 18th and 19th century
has a darker colour to it than that from
the 20th century. The high lead content of
this early glass gives it a steely-grey
colour compared with the almost white
colour seen today.
A highly personal collection of
19th-century drinking glasses is currently
displayed and regularly used in a house in
East Africa. The owners, before their
posting to Africa, had requested antique
glasses as wedding presents. With the most
expensive example in their collection
costing no more that £200, each
friend is now fondly remembered when their
glass is used. Wouldn't you prefer to be
thought of while the happy couple are
toasting an occasion, rather than toasting
a sandwich?
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