Topic: Pair of dram? glasses - opinions as to likely age, please?

[agincourt17]

Well outside my zone of experience so I would value the opinion of GMB members as to the likely age of this pair of hand-blown dram? glasses - apologies if my terminology is somewhat awry.

Faint greyish tinge to the glass, and they have a nice 'ping', so I assume that they have a fairly high lead content. Each has a conical facet-cut bowl (with cut 'feather' decoration around the upper section above the facets) above a conical annular support collar atop a stem with central bladed knop; solid plain foot bearing pontil mark (one rough and one polished smooth) to the underside. Usage wear to the high spots on the underside of the foot commensurate with some age;  no cracks, chips or repairs;  a few miniscule bubbles within the glass, but no inclusions such as slag etc. 10.8cm high, with top rim diameter 5.8cm, and foot rim diameter 6cm; weight 116gm and 125gm.

Am I correct in assuming that the are in the style of late Georgian dram glasses (about 1820), and does the cut 'feather' decoration below the bowl rim indicate that they may be Victorian or even later?

Fred.

[Paul S.]

hello Fred  -  I think these things often confuse us - am sure you've seen our past dialogues attempting to date such pieces.

Drams, I think, mostly had smallish bowls, although conical does occur occasionally with them, but my gut feeling is these might turn out to be small wines - just a feeling.

What appears less than common is to have those 'slanting blazes' (your feather decoration), sometimes known as a herringbone fringe  -   toward the top of the bowl on a glass such as yours.  Blazes were a common Georgian feature around the base area of tumblers and decanters during much of the Georgian period.
If pushed I'd go for 1830 - 1850, but that's really only a guess -  sometimes it's a gut feeling and looking at the overall appearance of the glass.

Your knops, collars, bowl shape, snapped pontil, pontil depression, slice cutting  -  are all found on drinking glasses from 1770 to late in the Victorian period - so life isn't easy  

sorry to be of no real use.

[agincourt17]

Thank you, Paul.

I thought they might perhaps be for sherry or for some other fortified wine.

Slanting blazes / herringbone fringe are certainly new terms for me. I will try and research them further.

Fred.

[Paul S.]

blazes were common on much Georgian glass, both in slanting and perpendicular formation - but those Victorians were good at copying, so it's easy to become confused.
Provenance for authentic Georgian glass, comes in the form of certain bowl shapes - specific engraved features - high almost domed feet (to make sure the scar doesn't scratch the table) - pedestal stems  -  some folded feet (but not all because this was repeated again in the C19) - air/cotton twist stems -  faceted stems  -  certain moulded bowl shapes  -  and so on.
I've just looked through Bickerton, and slice cut bowls like your are virtually non-existent before 1820.

yours might be for the use you suggest  -  you can drink anything from almost any shape of glass

[Kevin B]

I think your dating is spot on. When I see that combination of panel fine cutting, I would usually place it into the 1820s. Here something from my collection with that combination. I am certain the stopper is original with this one too.