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All About Antique Glass Introduction History of Glass Lalique Glass BBC Antiques Roadshow Price Guide

Introduction to Antique Glass

If you like glass, for its functional use, as a collector, as gifts, as an investment or just simply for the aesthetic pleasure that glass gives, then you will appreciate the quality and range of antique glass, vaseline glass, uranium glass and other types of collectable glass information available today. Whatever the time period of glass-making history that appeals to you, whether it be: Georgian, Victorian, Art Nouveau, Edwardian, Art Deco Glass, Contemporary or any other type of Antique Glass, you can always find some snippet of information that could be useful here.

Glass is a fascinating and accessible collecting area. Despite its fragility, glass from the 18th century and later is relatively easy to find, and plain objects can still be inexpensive.

Although the precise origins of glass are unknown, we know it was made in ancient Egypt, Syria and Rome. The basic material was made from heating and fusing silica (usually sand) with a flux (potash or soda) and a stabiliser (usually lime).

Drinking glasses, made in large numbers throughout the 18th century, have long been popular with collectors. Value depends on rarity of the decoration, as well as the shape of the bowl, stem and foot. Many of the more valuable types of 18th-century glass have been faked, so always buy from a reputable source, or take expert advice when in doubt.

Colourful glass of the 19th century is also increasingly popular with collectors. Many new glass-making techniques were introduced during the 19th century and colours became increasingly varied. Cameo glass and overlay glass are two of the most attractive types to look out for, although the best marked examples can be expensive. Unmarked glass of the 19th century is still reasonably priced, and 19th-century table glass can be less expensive than modern equivalents.

Glass types
There are three main types of glass:

Soda glass. Made in Venice from the 13th century. The soda was derived from burned seaweed, and gave the molten glass a malleable quality which allowed glassmakers to create very elaborate shapes.

Potash glass. Made in northern Europe. The potash was derived from burned wood and bracken. Potash glass was particularly suited to cutting and engraving.

Lead glass. Made from potash with the addition of lead oxide (instead of lime), this glass, developed by George Ravenscroft, was used in England and Ireland from the late 17th century, and in Europe from the late 18th century. Lead glass is characterised by its weight and is well suited to cutting.

Decoration
Decoration on glass can add substantially to its value. There are four main decorative techniques used:

Cutting. Cut facets in glass emphasise its refractive (light transmitting) qualities. Cut decoration can help with dating. The earliest patterns were shallow surface cuts. Patterns became increasingly elaborate in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Enamelling. Painting in coloured enamels was popular on Venetian glass from the late 15th century and became fashionable in England in the mid-18th century. The best-known English enamellers were the Beilby family. There are two types of enamelling:

Engraving. There are four types of engraving:

Colour. The distinctive tint caused by impurities may not be present in reproductions.

Manufacturing methods. Hand-blown glass usually has a pontil mark - a rough bump under the stem - where it was cut from the pontil rod. It may have striations or ripples in the glass and the rim may be of uneven thickness. Later, machine-made glass doesn't have these imperfections.

Proportions. Glass has varied in style and proportion throughout the centuries. On old glasses, the foot is usually as wide as the bowl. The wrong proportions may indicate a fake.

Coloured glass
Coloured drinking glasses and decanters were produced in relatively small quantities in England during the 18th century. But 18th-century styles were much copied in the late 19th and early 20th century and some later versions are so convincing that even experienced collectors can be confused. Most of the coloured glass you'll come across dates from after 1800, when many lavishly decorated glass objects were made both in Britain and on the Continent.

Opaline glass
At first glance the goblet above looks as if it's made from porcelain, but it's actually an example of English opaline glass, made in about 1850. Much opaline glass was also made in France. Quality can vary - the best pieces are made from lead crystal and are very heavy. A piece like this would cost at least £300.

What to look for
pieces marked by the workshops of Thomas Webb, WHB & J Richardson and Stephens & Williams larger pieces multiple layers of glass high-quality design, especially neoclassical figures

Cameo glass
Cameo glass is one of the more expensive types of 19th-century coloured glass.

This large bottle has a silver lid, so it's worth £1,500 to £2,000. But even miniature bottles would be worth £200.

Cameo glass is multi-layered glass on which a picture has been carved through the layers so that it stands out in relief from the surface and the coloured layers form the contrasts of the picture. The simplest form of cameo glass has only two layers like the blue and clear glass vase on the left.

The word cameo actually applies to any carving in which the picture is raised above the surrounding surface; but in the glass world, it is only used for carving where there is more than one coloured layer to the glass.

The surrounding glass may be cut away using hand tools, the oldest and most skilful method; or by using a cutting wheel, or with hydrofluoric acid (which eats away glass).

The best quality cameo glass comes from three sources:

1: Roman cameo glass made two thousand years ago by artisans using hand tools. The famous Portland Vase is an example.

2: English cameo glass made from the mid 19th century by such artists as John Northwood and George Woodall (their copy of the Portland Vase is a superb example).

3: French cameo glass made in the late 19th century until the second world war by such great artists as Emile Galle, the Daums, and Muller Freres.

There was a small amount of cameo glass made by others, including Steuben and Tiffany in the USA. Note that Peking cameo glass from China predates the European production and was made from the 18th century.

Ruby glass
Ruby glass was produced both in Bohemia and England. It was sometimes made from tinted glass or from clear glass with a ruby stain on the surface.

These two pieces were made in England in the mid 19th century. The value of the piece on the left is high at £2,500 to £3,000 because of the elaborate silver gilt handles, while the less ornate jug on the right is worth between £400 and £600.

Gold ruby glass is made by including in the glass mixture gold chloride, a colloidal gold solution produced by dissolving gold metal in Aqua Regia (nitric acid and hydrochloric acid). Tin (stannic chloride) is sometimes added in tiny amounts, and the process is both difficult and expensive. Today's studio glassmakers can buy their gold ruby glass in rods from specialist manufacturers. This makes it easier for them, but even more expensive. Most gold ruby glass items made today have a thin layer of gold ruby glass coated with clear crystal.

The Romans made gold ruby glass, and the famous Lycurgus Cup contained both gold and silver.

Cranberry glass
is another type of red glass made from gold, but the colour is paler (usually a delicate pink) because there is less gold chloride in cranberry glass than in gold ruby glass.

The secret of making red glass was lost for many centuries, and rediscovered during the seventeenth century in Bohemia. At the time this was a blow to the pride and prominence of Venetian glass-makers, who had tried unsuccessfully for years to make red glass. If you can find a copy of it, there was a movie called "Heart of Gold" made about a village where the secret of making red glass had been lost.

Cut and pressed glass
Nothing makes glass sparkle more brightly than cut decoration. Press-moulded glass, which looks like cut glass but costs less, became popular with the demand for inexpensive glass wares.

Cut glass
Early glass was simply cut by hand in fairly shallow patterns, but gradually patterns became deeper and designs more elaborate, and by about 1830 mechanised wheel cutting became the norm. Although 18th-century cut glass is becoming more popular with collectors, it can still be good value.

If you want to collect cut glass to use on the dining table look out for jelly, custard and sweetmeat dishes, fruit bowls and candlesticks. Many of these are still relatively inexpensive, especially if you buy them singly.

The handkerchief test
Plain early glass has sometimes been decorated with later engraving to make it seem more valuable. To check the decoration is authentic, drop a white handkerchief in the glass - old engraving will look dark and grey against the cloth, while new engraving will seem white and powdery. A handkerchief or white cloth is also useful to show up the colour of the glass itself.

Later cut glass
Extensive sets of less elaborate cut glass from the early 20th century can still be very affordable. The glasses, bowls and plates shown at the start of the page are part of a set of 89 items made in about 1900. The whole set would cost about £250 to £350.

Irish glass

If you see a piece of glass which looks rather lopsided the chances are it's Irish! Glasses made in Ireland, such as this bowl, can also often be identified by its greyish tinge and the typical shallow diamond cutting. A piece like this would be worth about £600.

Rock crystal

Rock crystal glass is engraved lead glass that's been cut and polished to simulate the natural facets of rock crystal. It became popular during the late 19th century. A rock crystal item like this would cost about £250 to £350.

Pressed glass
During the Victorian period clear and coloured pressed glass plates were often made to commemorate important events. This one, worth £30 to £40, celebrates Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

Cut or pressed?
Cut glass is usually far more desirable and valuable than pressed glass, and there are several ways of identifying it:

Cut glass patterns
These are some of the most common cut glass patterns used during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, because they have been repeated in the 20th century, the pattern alone is not a reliable guarantee of authenticity. You should also look for the colour of the glass and for irregularities that show it's handmade.

Drinking glasses and decanters
Compared with ceramics of the same date, much antique glass remains inexpensive. In face, an antique decanter will often cost less than a modern one.

The variety of glasses available means that there are many ways to specialise in collecting. You may decide to focus your collection on, say, air twists, Jacobite glass, cordials, or gilded glass, or you may prefer to collect single examples of each type. Simpler 18th-century glasses may cost £50 to £100, but those with elaborate or unusual decoration can be much more valuable.

Glass shapes
Collectors categorise and value glasses according to the shape and decoration of the bowl, stem and foot. The 1720 glass shown at the top of the page is of medium quality - it has a plain bowl and a relatively simple stem. But because it's relatively large, at 23cm (9in) high, it's worth about £500.

Glass stems
The glass at the top of the page is a multi-knopped stem, so called because of the series of projections that decorate it. Some stems have only one knop, which may contain a teardrop of air, while other stems are decorated with air twists.

Typical stem decorations include:

Glass bowls
The bowl of the glass above is a round funnel shape. Other bowl shapes are:

1. bucket
2. waisted bucket
3. conical
4. bell
5. ogee
6. trumpet

Glass feet
The glass above has a domed foot, characteristic of many early glasses. Others have conical feet. Check the edge of the rim for unevenness, as this may mean a chip has been ground down.

1. conical foot
2. domed foot

Colour twists
Stems with threads of coloured glass are keenly sought after. The value depends on the number of colours. This one has blue and opaque white twists, and would be worth about £1,500.

Gilded glass
Glasses with original, soft 18th-century gilding, such as this one, are very desirable, but are rarely seen in perfect condition. This glass would be worth at least £500.

You can spot less desirable later gilding by its harder, brighter appearance.

Signs of age

Jacobite glasses
Glasses engraved with roses, doves and oak leaves were made in the 18th century to show furtive allegiance to the Old Pretender (James Edward Stuart) and the Young Pretender (Charles Edward Stuart).

The use of engraved drinking glasses to express political, religious, or dynastic allegiances became increasingly popular in eighteenth-century Britain. As material culture, such glasses offer an insight into a society transforming itself in terms of its beliefs and outlook, and in terms of conviviality, taste, and behavior. But there can be problems with such evidence, and the glistening allure of beauty can easily lead the unwary astray.

Developments in glass technology in the late seventeenth century, particularly the use of lead glass, offered, for the first time, a medium of unsurpassed clarity. Glass engraving--either with a diamond point or a spinning copper wheel--became an established industry around the main glass manufacturing centers in Britain, and notable groups of glasses exist that are engraved with armorial and trade devices, hunt inscriptions, and Masonic emblems, as well as purely decorative motifs. The increasing tendency of polite society in this period to form and join clubs also resulted in the demand for suitably engraved glasses for use at club gatherings. These were used to offer toasts to patrons and supporters of the club and, frequently, insults to those the club members opposed or disliked.

One particular cause has become intimately associated with the engraved glasses of this period. Jacobites espoused the right of the Stuart kings to be restored to the throne of Great Britain. The so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 had forced the last Stuart king, James VI of Scotland and II of England (r. 1685-1688), into exile. Taking their name from the latinized version of James, Jacobus, the Jacobites worked tirelessly to engineer a Stuart restoration, first for James; then for his son, also James (1688-1766), whom they called King James VIII of Scotland and III of England; and finally for his son, Prince Charles Edward Stuart (P1. II), better known today as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Jacobite glasses are particularly collectable but can be expensive - an especially rare one was sold in 1992 for £66,000.

Decanters
Decanters were often decorated with engraved or gilded labels describing their contents. This one is made from Bristol blue glass. Bristol is an area associated with coloured decanters, although not all were made there.

Paperweights
The most sought-after paperweights were made by famous French factories such as Baccarat, Clichy and St Louis during the mid-19th century. Patterns were built up from tiny slices of differently coloured rods, set in a mould and covered in clear glass.

Millefiori
Millefiori (from the Italian for a thousand flowers) paperweights are so called because their canes resemble a carpet of flowers.

You can often identify the maker of a paperweight by the type of rods it contains and the way they are arranged. The one pictured above includes silhouettes of a dog, a horse and a deer, which are typical of the Baccarat factory. It's worth about £6,500 to £7,000.

Millefiori-decorated objects have been created intermittently from the time of ancient Mesopotamia to the present day. Bowls of fused millefiori canes are known to have been made in ancient Rome and Alexandria, and there are a few references to examples of millefiori work during the Renaissance. By the eighteenth century, however, the technical knowledge for the manufacture of millefiori was lost. It was not until the nineteenth century that a revival of the technique appeared. By the end of the 1830s, millefiori were manufactured successfully in Silesia-Bohemia. Within two or three years of its rediscovery, factories in Venice, England, and France were also producing quantities of millefiori canes.

More about Millefiori Weights

Beware
Reproductions of antique paperweights abound. The easiest way to tell them apart from the real thing is to feel the weight - reproductions are significantly lighter.

Identifying marks
Baccarat paperweights often include signed and dated canes - this one is marked B 1848. St Louis and Clichy paperweights are sometimes marked with initials.

St Louis
Large single flower heads were much used by the St Louis factory. Sometimes flowers were laid on a criss-cross lattice, known as latticinio. This weight would cost £500 to £600.

Clichy
Clichy weights can often be identified by the characteristic rose they contain. This one would be worth over £2,000 but more common types fetch from £400.

Overlay weights
Some rare weights, such as this one by Baccarat, contain a layer of opaque glass through which windows are cut to reveal the design beneath. This one would be worth £3,000 or more.

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History of Glass

The mysterious physical, optical and aesthetic properties of glass have always intrigued man. Even the most sophisticated 20th century man is amazed and bemused by this solid, which he has been told is really a rigid uncrystallized liquid. The product and the process used to manufacture it seem to smack of alchemy, for glass is nothing but coarse sand and soda ash transformed into smooth transparent forms.

According to the Roman historian Pliny, who wrote in Naturalis Historica in 77 A.D., man first produced glass by accident about the year 5000 B.C. Phoenician sailors feasting on a beach near Belus in Asia Minor, could find no stones on which to place their cooking pots; therefore, they set them on blocks of soda carried by their ship as cargo. As the fire's heat increased, the sand and soda turned to molten glass.

Pliny's anecdote now is considered apocryphal, but it contains an accurate recipe for producing glass: heat plus silica and soda ash.

Ornamental glass beads dating from 2500 B.C. have been found in Egypt, and glass rods from even earlier have been uncovered in Babylon. The first useful glass objects date to Egypt's 18th dynasty, about 1500 B.C. Egyptians attached metal rods to silica paste cores, which they dipped repeatedly into molten glass to produce small bottles. The cores later were removed. The goblet of Thutmose III, made about 1490 B.C. and now at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, was produced in this manner.

Glassblowing, a Babylonian discovery, probably came about when glassmakers using the core-dipped method switched to hollow metal rods to hold silica paste cores and then discovered that molten glass could be blown into shapes. After this discovery, which dates to about 250 B.C., glass vessels suddenly became easy and inexpensive to produce. Romans imported Syrian and Babylonian glassmakers, and small bowls and bottles were selling for only a Roman penny in 200 B.C. Pliny the Elder noted in 79 B.C. that fine glass cups were replacing cups of precious metals as a status symbol among the Roman rich.

Glass, however, did not replace shutters at the windows of Roman homes. The Romans tried but failed to cast transparent flat glass to enclose or ornament their homes. Slabs 1/2" thick have been excavated - including a 32 by 44-inch piece at Pompeii - but Romans did not discover the art of grinding and polishing cast glass to make it transparent. Instead of glass, the rich used thin, translucent sheets of alabaster to enclose wall openings.

With the breakdown of the Roman Empire, glassmaking technology stagnated in Europe; in fact, it almost disappeared. True, Gothic cathedrals of the late 12th century and later featured brilliant bits of colored glasses, complex designs and rate and were prohibitively expensive. Even the rich still shuttered their windows, and the Middle English word for windows - "wind eyes" - underlined the fact that wall openings enclosed in glass were, for all practical purposes, nonexistent.

During the 13th and 14th centuries, glassmaking was revived in Venice as a result of that Italian state's trade contacts with Byzantium. Soda-Lime was developed by glassmakers of the island or Murano in about 1450, and Venetians termed this clear, thin glass cristallo. Despite attempts to keep their technology secret, it soon spread north over the Alps to Germany, France, Belgium and England.

In the Middle Ages, the Italian city of Venice assumed its role as the glassmaking centre of the western world. The Venetian merchant fleet ruled the Mediterranean waves and helped supply Venice's glass craftsmen with the technical know-how of their counterparts in Syria, and with the artistic influence of Islam. The importance of the glass industry in Venice can be seen not only in the number of craftsmen at work there (more than 8,000 at one point). A 1271 ordinance, a type of glass sector statute, laid down certain protectionist measures such as a ban on imports of foreign glass and a ban on foreign glassmakers who wished to work in Venice: non-Venetian craftsmen were themselves clearly sufficiently skilled to pose a threat.

Until the end of the 13th century, most glassmaking in Venice took place in the city itself. However, the frequent fires caused by the furnaces led the city authorities, in 1291, to order the transfer of glassmaking to the island of Murano. The measure also made it easier for the city to keep an eye on what was one of its main assets, ensuring that no glassmaking skills or secrets were exported.

In the 14th century, another important Italian glassmaking industry developed at Altare, near Genoa. Its importance lies largely in the fact that it was not subject to the strict statutes of Venice as regards the exporting of glass working skills. Thus, during the 16th century, craftsmen from Altare helped extend the new styles and techniques of Italian glass to other parts of Europe, particularly France.

In the second half of the 15th century, the craftsmen of Murano started using quartz sand and potash made from sea plants to produce particularly pure crystal. By the end of the 16th century, 3,000 of the island's 7,000 inhabitants were involved in some way in the glassmaking industry.

Lead crystal - The development of lead crystal has been attributed to the English glassmaker George Ravenscroft (1618-1681), who patented his new glass in 1674. He had been commissioned to find a substitute for the Venetian crystal produced in Murano and based on pure quartz sand and potash. By using higher proportions of lead oxide instead of potash, he succeeded in producing a brilliant glass with a high refractive index which was very well suited for deep cutting and engraving.

Advances from France - In 1688, in France, a new process was developed for the production of plate glass, principally for use in mirrors, whose optical qualities had, until then, left much to be desired. The molten glass was poured onto a special table and rolled out flat. After cooling, the plate glass was ground on large round tables by means of rotating cast iron discs and increasingly fine abrasive sands, and then polished using felt disks. The result of this "plate pouring" process was flat glass with good optical transmission qualities. When coated on one side with a reflective, low melting metal, high-quality mirrors could be produced.

France also took steps to promote its own glass industry and attract glass experts from Venice; not an easy move for Venetians keen on exporting their abilities and know-how, given the history of discouragement of such behaviour (at one point, Venetian glass craftsmen faced death threats if they disclosed glassmaking secrets or took their skills abroad). The French court, for its part, placed heavy duties on glass imports and offered Venetian glassmakers a number of incentives: French nationality after eight years and total exemption from taxes, to name just two.

From craft to industry - It was not until the latter stages of the Industrial Revolution, however, that mechanical technology for mass production and in-depth scientific research into the relationship between the composition of glass and its physical qualities began to appear in the industry.

Industrial Revolution - A key figure and one of the forefathers of modern glass research was the German scientist Otto Schott (1851-1935), who used scientific methods to study the effects of numerous chemical elements on the optical and thermal properties of glass. In the field of optical glass, Schott teamed up with Ernst Abbe (1840-1905), a professor at the University of Jena and joint owner of the Carl Zeiss firm, to make significant technological advances

Another major contributor in the evolution towards mass production was Friedrich Siemens, who invented the tank furnace. This rapidly replaced the old pot furnace and allowed the continuous production of far greater quantities of molten glass.

In England, where deforestation was a problem as early as the 15th century, glassmakers were required after 1615 to use coal instead of wood in the glassmaking process. About 1675, the English learned to add lead oxide to the basic glass formula, and the resulting solid, heavy and durable vessels progressively replaced the fragile glasses of Venice.

Flat glass for windows was still rare during much of the 17th and 18th centuries. Small panes were made by blowing a large glob of glass, removing it from the blowing iron and then rotating the glass quickly so it would spread and flatten. Such glass had a dimple in its center, many air bubbles and a pattern of concentric circles, but it was transparent and effective in keeping out the weather. At the end of the 17th century, the French learned how to grind and polish cast glass to produce plate glass, but only the rich could afford it.

During the 1800s, glass technology improved rapidly. A hand-operated split mold developed in 1821 that ended the age of blowing individual bottles, glasses and flasks. A semi-automatic bottle machine perfected 50 years later mass-produced bottles and turned them into the everyday miracle they are today.

Great strides were made in the manufacture of flat glass during the 19th century. Compressed air technology led to flatter, better glass panes. Controlled amounts of air were used to blow a large glass cylinder, which was slit lengthwise, reheated and allowed to flatten under its own weight. Large, relatively inexpensive lites of glass were produced in this manner. As a result of such technological advances, window areas that required 18 to 24 panes to enclose in 1730 could be increased dramatically and glass prices dropped by the 1860s, glass-enclosed "wind eyes" were commonplace in the humblest homes.

Plate glass, that wickedly expensive French product, also became commonplace by the end of the 19th century. Water power, then steam and then electricity made the grinding and polishing of heavy glass plates faster and easier. By the 1860s, smart stores and office buildings in Europe and North America glistened with plate glass. France, Belgium and Germany monopolized the production of the product until 1883, when the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company became the first successful manufacturer of the product in the United States. By 1895, the company could produce 20 million square feet of plate glass a year, and imports from Europe fell sharply.

With the 20th century came an era of revolutionary technology. Machines were developed, improved and perfected to produce endless ribbons of sheet (window) glass, to produce plate glass polished and ground simultaneously on both sides and to produce float glass on a bed of molten tin. Also developed were processes to strengthen glass through thermal and chemical tempering, to add tints to glass for reduced heat transmission and glare and to coat glass with transparent metal and metal oxide films that reflected heat or conducted electricity. And products marrying these processes and developments were created to help make life more convenient, more comfortable, safer and more beautiful.

In retrospect, the romance of glass is not an Egyptian producing a bottle for a Pharoah or window glass being made from a cylinder, a pane at a time, in a one-man glass house. The true romance of glass is the story of the reasonable cost for use in architecture, transportation, industry, science and the home. Billions of people now benefit because technology has made glass a versatile, easy-to-use miracle.

A Short History of 18thC Glass
JULIUS KAPLAN

Art, culture, popular libations, politics, and even treason are all to be found depicted on English glassware.

The well-appointed 18th-century American household was furnished for the most part with products made in America. Our affluent colonial ancestors dined at magnificent mahogany tables from New York, sat on elegant Chippendale chairs from Philadelphia, and carved and ate their turkey with cutlery and silverware from Massachusetts. However, when it came to finding glasses to drink from, Americans in those days still had to look back principally to Mother England. Proper stemware was not produced in this country until late in the century.

Fine glass was produced in substantial amounts in England during the entire 18th century. It was usually made from a lead crystal, then referred to as “flint” glass. George Ravenscroft, a glass maker in London, introduced the process in 1676 by mixing lead oxide and potash into a silica batch. The flint glass that resulted was acclaimed almost immediately for its beauty and clarity. Unfortunately, however, Ravenscroft’s early output had a tendency to “crizzle,” leaving an internal network of lines that eventually caused a breakdown of the surface of the glass. But this defect was soon corrected and, by the 1680s, Ravenscroft and others were consistently producing clear, brilliant, uncrizzled glass.

English flint glass tended to be heavier, more stable, and more refractive than the unleaded “soda” glass then in general use on the Continent. During the Georgian period, flint glass became the predominant material in drinking-glass production throughout England and the end products were greatly appreciated by connoisseurs. Flint glass is easily distinguished from soda glass. Besides being heavier in weight, it is also more resonant. It rings beautifully when tapped lightly with a fork, while soda glass gives off a dull thud. Leaded glass also is distinguishable by a faint grayish tinge. Both flint glass and high-quality German and Venetian soda glass sought to imitate the appearance of rock crystal, which is why we now use the word “crystal” for fine glassware.

Drinking glasses in those days came in many different sizes and shapes. They often had bowls, which had a small capacity by today’s standards, two ounces or less. Others were enormous, and were probably used for beer or as ceremonial glasses. Whatever the size, Georgian glasses tended to be well designed, with harmonious dimensions.

English glassware in the 18th century reflected the rise of a consumer culture in England. The fashion-conscious purchaser sought an assortment of different styles and shapes for each drink served. Among the popular shapes were glasses for ale, cordials, various kinds of wine, and “ratafias,” an almond-based drink similar to a cordial. There were tumblers and even special toastmaster glasses. The latter had thick bowls that held a deceptively small quantity of drink, thus enabling the toastmaster to propose numerous toasts and still make it home under his own power.

By the middle of the 18th century, many items throughout the home were being made of glass. Household glassware included candlesticks, taper sticks, salvers, sweetmeat glasses, and dessert glasses for jellies, syllabubs, and possets. Decanters, in this hard-drinking era, ranged in size from a quarter-bottle capacity to a “Methuselah” capable of holding eight full bottles. Decanters were collected for their form, size, and style of decoration. Rarities included enameled decanters from the workshop of the Beilby family in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and gilded examples from James Giles’ decorating establishment in London during the 1760s. Later, manufacturers and dealers successfully promoted the use of a distinctive decanter for each type of beverage. It became fashionable to label decanters to indicate their contents, e.g., port, sherry, madeira, claret, “cyder,” and even beer and ale, which, in this period, were powerful beverages more accurately described as “barley wine.”

CHANGING TASTES

The design of Georgian glass reflected not only the tastes of the times—the lightness of rococo superseding the heavier baroque style and motifs—but also the impact of excise tax laws. For example, in 1745 England began to tax glass on the basis of weight, a tax imposed on the manufacturer. This impelled glass manufacturers to find ways to lighten their product. One method was the elimination of the “folded foot.” Prior to 1745, Georgian glasses generally had been made with the base, or foot, reinforced with an extra fold or layer of metal to protect the foot from chipping. Without this reinforced base, post-1745 glasses were less expensive to make, but more vulnerable to being damaged.

One example of an early drinking glass was the baluster. The earliest of these dated back to the reign of William III and Mary, circa 1690, but the best were produced mostly during the reign of Queen Anne (1701-1716). The baluster took its name from the architectural form for the short pillar, although, in the case of the glass, the shape was usually inverted. A wide variety of stem patterns, or “knops,” evolved in the broad field of baluster glasses. If produced by a good maker, knops shaped as acorns, mushrooms, or cylinders are eagerly sought by collectors today. Perhaps rarest of all, the plain ovoid or egg-shaped knop is highly desirable among collectors. An air bubble was often incorporated in the knop of balusters.

With the advent of the Hanoverian monarchy in 1714, English makers began producing glasses similar to the styles being made in Germany. These glasses emerged during the reign of George I and may well reflect the influence of his court. Typically, these glasses possessed a molded pedestal stem sometimes referred to as a “Silesian” stem. A very small number incorporate the motto “God Save King George” on the stem. The pedestals usually had six or eight sides, although some early four-sided ones were also made. Others were molded with diamonds or stars on the points of the shoulders. The feet are usually folded, as were the feet of baluster glasses. The Silesian stem also was found on candlesticks and sweetmeat glasses.

During the second quarter of the century, glass makers in England began to realize that the air bubble or “tear” in baluster glasses could be manipulated to be a central decorative feature in the stem. These manipulations took elaborate and intricate forms, and often resulted in glasses of great beauty and brilliance. Many varieties of air twists were created. They were incorporated in straight-stemmed glasses, as well as in glasses with knops. By mid-century, multi-spiral, air twist stems were extremely popular.

Figure 1. This Beilby wineglass (circa 1765-70) features a double-series opaque-twist stem.

Before long, the air twist was overtaken in popularity by glasses with an opaque twist stem (see Figure 1). Instead of manipulating the air bubble, manufacturers placed rods of white enamel around the inside of a cylindrical mold. The mold was then filled with molten glass, which, after cooling and reheating, could be twisted to create “cotton twists” of elaborate and intricate design. Opaque twist stems were used in most styles of drinking glasses, both small and large, as well as in candlesticks and sweetmeat glasses.

Around 1760, an especially attractive variation of the twist-stemmed glass emerged with the addition of color. In lieu of rods of white enamel, the glass maker now substituted, most commonly, red, green, and blue rods. These were frequently intertwined with opaque white twists, resulting in complex and very beautiful designs. Today, color twist glasses from this era are far rarer than air or opaque twist glasses. Those with brown and turquoise twists are especially rare. Yellows, though also rare, are not as difficult to find. The color twist was sometimes mixed with an air twist. Another attractive combination, though rare, is a color twist combined with both an air twist and an opaque twist. The rarest of the color twists, however, has a stem with a single color and neither an opaque nor an air twist.

In 1777, taxes once again played an important role in the development of English glassware. Parliament’s approval of the Excise Act of 1777 doubled the tax rate on glass produced in England, but from 1780 onward exempted glass produced in Ireland. As a result, the Irish cut-glass industry was born. One of the early producers there was the now internationally famous Waterford manufactory. Most Irish cut glass was made for export to England and America.

The bowls of Georgian glasses were frequently decorated with engraved images. This was accomplished by using either a “diamond point” or, more commonly, an engraving wheel. Engraving on glass with a sharp instrument had been practiced by the Romans. Indeed, Egyptian antecedents go back as far as the 14th century, B.C., and there are references to engraved Venetian glass dating from the 16th century. By 1570, the technique had spread to England, where it was employed by both English and Dutch engravers.

The subjects of the engravings varied. Wine glasses often were decorated with representations of vines and grapes, ale glasses with barley and hops, and cider glasses with apple trees and perhaps the word CYDER. Other common 18th-century subjects included flowers and plants, busts of famous and not-so-famous persons, armorial seals of aristocratic families, hunting scenes, political slogans, animals, flags, and ships.

Bristol, famed for its glass as well as its shipbuilding, was a major center for glasses engraved with warships. The production of “privateer” glasses began in the late 1750s. The bowls were decorated with wheel-engraved images of the specific ships then being commissioned in Bristol for use by the English in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Most of these “privateers” had bucket-shaped bowls.

GLASSES AND POLITICS

Perhaps the most famous, and controversial, of English engraved glassware is Jacobite glass: glassware that overtly or covertly supported the Stuart cause in England’s “Glorious Revolution” of 1688-1689. This period of strife has its origins in 1669, when James, the son of Charles I of England, converted to Catholicism. In 1685, he ascended the throne as King James II and immediately started to convert his Roman Catholic faith into royal policy. This policy greatly alarmed the Protestants of England who, three years later, forced the King to flee for his life to France, replacing him with the Protestant monarchy of William III of Orange and his wife, Mary, James II’s daughter.

James II spent the rest of his days attempting to recapture the throne, as did his son, James Edward Stuart, and grandson, Charles Edward Stuart. They failed, despite substantial, if often furtive, support from the “Jacobites” who championed their cause. Jacobite societies had to be secret since they were officially banned. Nevertheless, they met frequently and, over a bowl of water, toasted “the King,” often using glasses engraved with Jacobite symbols. The toast was well understood by the members as a tribute to the “King over the sea,” or James III, as James Edward Stuart styled himself.

The most common symbol of Jacobite support on glassware is the rose. The flower is depicted fully open and normally has two closed buds on the stem. The open flower is believed to represent the throne of England, and the two buds are interpreted to be the two Stuart sons of James III—Prince Charles Edward and Prince Henry the Cardinal Duke of York.

In addition to the symbolic flowers, Jacobite glasses frequently have words engraved on them: Fiat (meaning “let it be” or “let it come to pass”) or Redeat, Redi, or Revirescit (suggesting hope that the Prince will return). The bowls of some Jacobite glasses bear a likeness of the grandson of James II, Charles Edward Stuart, known as the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie. But the most famous, as well as the earliest, Jacobite glasses are the “Amen” glasses. There are fewer than 40 known examples. Two to four verses of the Jacobite hymn and the word Amen are engraved in diamond point on their bowls.

Jacobite glasses have long been a favorite with collectors. The popularity of Jacobite glasses, in fact, drove prices so high that forgers were encouraged to produce copies. The forgeries were principally done in the 19th and 20th centuries on genuine Georgian glass. As a consequence, serious doubt has been cast on the authenticity of many putative Jacobite glasses.

Predictably, perhaps, the Protestant supporters of King William III and Queen Mary responded to the popularity of Jacobite glasses with engraved glassware of their own. The Protestant glasses usually depict an equestrian figure of William and also were frequently copied by forgers. When George I became king in 1714, thereby establishing the House of Hanover on the British throne, engraved glasses were produced that depicted a Hanoverian white horse together with a white heraldic rose.

DUTCH INFLUENCES

William of Orange was not the only Dutch connection to English glass. Dutch engravers worked on many English and English-style glasses. They tended to be more skilled than their English counterparts, which is why many English glasses were sent to Holland for engraving. Some 18th-century English glass makers may even have set up factories in the Netherlands and Norway to produce English-style flint glass. Many 18th-century glasses formerly thought to be of English origin are now thought by many experts to be of Dutch or Belgian origin.

One type of glass engraving perfected in Holland during the 18th century was diamond stippling, the use of pointillist techniques to create images on glass. The originator of stippling was Anna Roemers, who lived in Leiden in the second quarter of the 17th century. Stipple-engravers created images by making innumerable tiny dots on the bowl of the glass. Darker areas were made with dots spaced farther apart, and lighter areas with the dots closer together. The result was an image of incredible delicacy. Interestingly, the image can hardly be seen unless light is cast from above on the edge of the glass. When lighted in that way, the image is said to have been “breathed upon.”

Figure 2. Stipple engraving (circa 1780) by David Wolff featuring a prancing horse.

Roemers’ stippling technique was taken up early in the 18th century by Frans Greenwood of Amsterdam (1680-1763), a gifted amateur who created beautiful images on glass. There are about 50 recorded glasses by Greenwood. Most of the stipple-engravers were, like Greenwood, amateurs. There were, however, at least two who were probably professionals and who were great masters, in any case: David Wolff (1732-1798); and an anonymous pointillist nicknamed “Alias” by F.G.A.M. Smit, the author of an important 20th century catalogue raisonné of Dutch stippled glass. The craftsmanship of both “Alias” and Wolff was immaculate (see Figure 2). Both frequently depicted children, often together with inscriptions dealing with love, friendship, and liberty. Wolff also stipple-engraved portraits of aristocratic personages and armorials, frequently of the House of Orange. One of the most intricate and beautiful of Wolff’s glasses is the “Personification of Amsterdam,” depicting Asia and Africa paying obeisance to Amsterdam. Another important glass by Wolff pictures a house in a landscape on which is inscribed in a banderole, “VRYHEIDS LUST” (“yearning for freedom”).

No discussion of Dutch engravings on English or English-style glasses can be complete without mention of two masters of wheel-engraved glass, the Brothers Sang—Jacob Sang and Simon Jacob Sang. The Sangs originated in Brunswick, Germany, and worked in Amsterdam. An advertisement for the wares of Jacob Sang appeared in an Amsterdam newspaper in 1753. It noted that he engraved on English-style glass and that the subjects of his engraving included portraits, armorials, classical subjects, figures of all sorts, names, and inscriptions, and decorative designs of the newest fashions. Several Sang glasses, signed and dated, exist today.

THE ARTISTRY OF WILLIAM BEILBY

Figure 3. The bowl of this Beilby wineglass (circa 1767-70) depicts the coat of arms of Wilhem V, Prince of Orange, and his bride, Princess Frederika Sophia Wilhelmina.

Rather than being engraved, some Georgian glasses were beautifully decorated with paintings, principally by an artist named William Beilby, sometimes with the assistance of his sister, Mary, and his brother Ralph. They produced their works in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, principally during the 1760s. William Beilby learned enameling and painting during the 1750s while apprenticed to a Birmingham artist named John Haseldine. In 1761, William discovered how to fire his enamel paintings onto glass so that they virtually fused with the glass. We know much of this from the diaries of Thomas Bewick, a highly regarded artist, who for several years was an apprentice in the Beilby atelier.

The most famous Beilby glasses are families’ coats of arms and other armorials, which often were painted in bright colors. These include royal armorials for the Dutch and English crowns, as well as armorials for important English families (see Figure 3). A few were signed with the name of W. Beilby or Beilby Jr. Other Beilby glass was “signed” with a butterfly, as the American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler did many years later in his paintings and drawings.

Figure 4. Crafted by James Giles, this blue decanter (circa 1760- 70) has elaborate gilt birds among foliage.

One of the more interesting Beilby glasses is a very handsome and tall goblet known as the Standard of Hesleyside. It carries with it an interesting story. In 1763, Edward Charlton of Hesleyside visited the Beilby workshop in Newcastle. Impressed with the quality of the workmanship he saw, Charlton commissioned William Beilby to decorate a glass that would hold a full bottle of claret. Beilby designed a goblet with a deep, round funnel bowl connected to an additional globular bowl beneath it. One side of the glass bears the inscription The Standard of Hesleyside. On the reverse side is the Charlton family arms in color with the inscription Edward Charlton Esqv. 1763. According to J. Rush, who wrote about the Beilby artistry in 1987, it became “the custom and a challenge . . . to gulp the contents [of this two-bowl glass] down without taking a breath,” and drinking a full bottle of Bordeaux wine in this fashion became known as “Sinking the Standard.” Unfortunately, this unique glass was damaged when Charlton’s drunken butler mishandled it. History does not record whether the butler himself had tried to “Sink the Standard.”

In addition to armorials, the Beilbys painted hunting and fishing scenes, pastoral scenes, classical ruins, exotic birds, Chinese pavilions, and beehives. Other glasses had somewhat more abstract vine-scroll and hop-and-barley motifs. In still others, the white enamel is highlighted with bluish or pink tones. The rim of the glass is frequently gilded. Among the most treasured of all Beilby glasses are those fashioned by William Beilby to commemorate the birth of the Prince of Wales on August 4, 1762. They are executed in full heraldic color, with mantling painted in white enamel and shadowing in other colors. Among the rarest Beilbys are a sweetmeat glass and a sugar bowl.

Another famous painter who decorated glass was James Giles (and his atelier). Giles gilded a variety of glass objects but was best known for his decanters, glasses, and bottles featuring portrayals of exotic birds amid slender, feathery trees (see Figure 4). Giles also did vine trails and hop-and-barley motifs, and later added bucranium (stag’s head) designs to his repertoire. Although James Giles’ decoration of glass was highly regarded, his atelier was best known for its decoration of colored china, principally from Worcester.

Isaac Jacobs of Bristol was yet another skilled craftsman who gilded on blue (and opaque white) glass. He is perhaps best known for his blue bowls with key-fret borders, which were often signed. The bowls were brought out at the end of a meal and were used “for rinsing hands and mouth,” according to one account of the times.

One final type of 18th-century English glassware of interest is the “rummer,” a corruption of the Dutch word “Roemer.” This type of green-colored glass was used to drink German white wines (“Hock” or “Rhenish” wine, as they were called in Georgian times). The original Roemer was normally green with a prunted stem (the shape of a sliced raspberry) and a cup-shaped bowl. The Georgian version omitted the prunts and gadrooning (an abstract design), and took on the shape and design of the clear glass being produced at the time. A few of these green glasses had air twist stems and, less frequently, opaque twist stems. Very few had a green bowl and foot, with a clear opaque twist stem. Less than a dozen such glasses have survived. In general, green glass is much rarer than clear flint glass, probably reflecting a relative lack of interest by 18th-century imbibers in drinking Hock. Green decanters are even more rare. One of the rarest colored English drinking glasses of the 18th century is a glass with a blue bowl and foot, and a clear opaque twist stem.

PRESERVING THE TREASURES

Many of these works of art are greatly prized today by collectors and museums. They have gone up in value, though perhaps not as aggressively as Impressionist paintings. For a fine Georgian glass, one must count on paying anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000—and beyond for very rare and beautiful examples.

A number of museums in the United States— including the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; the Toledo Museum in Toledo, Ohio; and the Philadelphia Museum—have excellent collections of English 18th-century glass. In addition, there are important private American collections, several of which are in the Washington-Baltimore area.

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