Topic: Small cut drinking glass

[MatW]

Hello again,
I found this small glass and I would like to know how old it is. Could it be early 19th century? It is 9,5 cm high and the whole foot is polished and quite massive. It has considerable signs of wear. I think it is lead glass.  Is it possible to say where it was made?
Thanky you in advance for any info!
MatW

[Antwerp1954]

Judging from the shape of the stem and bowl along with the cutting on the latter I'd say 1830-40. irish? What is the bottom of the base like?

[MatW]

Hi Antwerp1954, the bottom is absolutely even, it must have been ground completely. there is a lot of wear and scratching on it.

[Antwerp1954]

Others will ask, so I might as well, could you provide a photo of the bottom of the foot.

[Paul S.]

with a completely ground/polished flat underside to the foot, plus what appears to be a beveled rim, I'd suggest Continental rather than Irish  -  French possibly.??  -  the disc shaped foot doesn't look very British.    Give it a flick  -  there should be a good ring if it's made of lead glass.
That slice cutting on the lower part of the bowl, plus the vertical blazes, were certainly common in the first half of the C19.

[Paul S.]

sorry, meant to add.........might this be a dram glass??

[MatW]

Thank you both, I think it is likely continental, as it was bought on the continent (I found it here in Greece), or were there many English glasses exported to other countries? Here a photo of the bottom...

[Paul S.]

haven't a clue as to the extent of glass export, if any, that the U.K. might have had with Greece in the C19.
Individual countries within the Continent of Europe were heavily involved in home grown glass production, and it's just possible that the U.K. imported more from those sources that we exported.
If Greece didn't have the resources of wood or coal, then they may well have imported glass wares, but from countries nearer than G.B.
As mentioned, my opinion is that the manufacturing style of this piece indicates a source other than the British Isles.

The really big export route, I believe, was with the States  -  Ireland exported unimaginable quantities to that destination  -  we've had chats on that previously on the Board - volumes you'd find hard to believe. 

[Paul S.]

hi Mat  -  do you have any information on the domestic glass industry in Greece in the C19

[MatW]

Hi Paul,
interesting question. Some time ago, I had tried to find out something about it.  I have found only a few articles about the history of glass industry in Greece, and I will try to resume what is written there. In the time of the first king of Greece, Otto (1832-1862), there have been some attempts to develop a glass industry, but none of these early glass factories survived for more than a few years. It seems that, despite of the existence of natural resources for glass production, nearly all glassware in Greece was imported, and there were some contemporary newspaper articles complaining about this. Greece spent 1 million Drachmas (per year?) for glass imports at that time, which was quite a lot of money back then. Greek glass industry seems to have started in the 1870s on the island of Syros and in Piraeus. The most important glass factory was that of  Dimitris Christos Argyropoulos, that was founded in the early 1870s in Hermoupolis on Syros and was transferred to Piraeus in 1895.  At the beginning of C20 it was the only existing glass factory in the country. After Easter I will post some pieces of  C19 glasses I found here, I think most of them were imported from central Europe. Here I show just one piece that I think dates to C19 and could be of Greek origin. It is a typical piece in that sweets were served. Of course it could also have been imported from elsewhere and just have been made for local taste. What do you think about it? It has snapped pontil mark and  is not lead glass.
For those who read greek ( ) these are two articles about the greek glass industry: http://dimitriskrasonikolakis.blogspot.gr/2013/12/blog-post_15.html ; http://www.imerisia.gr/article.asp?catid=27721&subid=2&pubid=288774