Topic: Can you help ID this for me please!?

[pebble]

Hello,
I'm very new here... just registered in the hope you might be able to help me ID this small shot glass, please? (or what I think is a shot glass). It came in a job lot at auction which I bought several years ago (in the UK) and have never been able to find out anything about it. It's very thick, grey, chunky glass which has been engraved with initials and has a very rough pontil mark on the bottom.
Any help much appreciated!
Thank you
Pebble

[Paul S.]

welcome to the GMB, pebble                You may well be correct with your suggestion of shot glass - the problem with locating additional information on such pieces is that your glass lacks characteristics that might help with your request.            In addition to shot glasses, some medicine glasses from the C19 and early C20 had this thick bottom appearance - though normally they didn't carry someone's initials.
Regret I can add little to what you have already said, but IMHO the engraved font/script might suggest the glass is of continental origin - possibly Germany/Bavaria/Bohemia.   

Appreciate you've said this glass is small, and it won't help to id the piece, but dimensions are always useful and add to the interest - so grateful if you will provide height please.            Would also suggest that a larger picture showing the initials might be of interest.       Is the rim ground and bevelled - or fire polished only and smooth? 

[pebble]

Many thanks, Paul. That is already more information than I have ever managed! The height is just over 6cm. The diameter at rim approx 5cm. The rim is smooth and polished. I've attached another pic of the initials. Thank you again!

[Paul S.]

thanks - though I'm still unsure really as to which letters of the alphabet these are  -  possibly E J  -  but I'm still of the opinion that the font is of continental origin, and suspect you were correct with the suggestion of a shot glass - might this have been for schnapps, possibly?

Looking at the rim, it does appear to be flat - suggesting that after making the shape the rim was ground and polished flat  -  this in itself is a feature of continental rather than British glassware.
Unfortunately, beyond this I doubt that you will be able to find out any more - and as to date, my uneducated opinion is possibly second half C19.

[pebble]

Thank you! That's a great help. I think you are right in initials EJ... strange glass to be monogrammed but perhaps they had their own at the local hostelry 

[Paul S.]

It seems to have been a habit - perhaps more in rural areas - for both glass and pewter tankards, in pubs, to carry engraved initials/names   ...........  we perhaps forget now that in the C19 the pub was a meeting place for gossip and games, and somewhere patrons met in the sense of a club.  Suspect beer was cheaper then, too.
But engraving on shot glasses seems unusual  -  though perhaps if this were a personal item for rum (naval example), then this might make all the difference - unfortunately, we shall never know.