quote from Christine..............."Celery vases tend to be of a good width and have long straight vertical sides (and a foot for ease of passing round)"...........quite true, of course, and certainly C19 examples do seem to have a stem and circular foot more often than not. And, if they are engraved with grape and vine.........then apparently they are for washing your grapes in. Presumably not made specifically for grapes - just that someone had taken a celery and, with a little imagination, changed its use.
Oddly, some of the ale/beer glasses from the latter part of C19 - those decorated with cut printies, a round foot and straight paralell sides, are almost like under-sized celerys.
Can't help thinking though that if you had a tall celery on the tea table (and some stood at over a foot), then a quick movement with the hand to grab the jam pot or butter dish, might well have sent the celerly over. Personally, I'd have kept the celery in the fridge and dispensed with the vase and water.
For a more historic definition of the expression 'Pony Glass' - the following is from Wikipedia..................... "pony is a glass of only 140 ml capacity sometimes known as a small beer. The name comes from the old horse race carnivals, where patrons would go to the bar for a quick drink between races. Because only a short amount of time was available between races many patrons would prefer to drink beer from the small 140 ml glass so they would be done in time to get back to the next race. While a pony is a small horse, not commonly used in racing, the name stuck nonetheless".
If swizzle sticks are for mixing the cocktail - then I've foregotten the name of the short 'glass' stick used for crushing the sugar in a hot toddy - and it is.............??
Topic: what makes something a beaker or a tumbler or just a glass? (Read 2641 times)
