Topic: Dating a Port or Wine glass

[bat20]

Could be m,just to remove a chip or something.?

[Paul S.]

dear m, we'd never tell you to bow out             I understand that cut/polished rims do often indicate non-British origin - and there are a lot of non-British places in the world.

[flying free]

  thanks

dog with bone and all that ... but would one expect to see a cut rim on that kind of glass with that kind of foot and of an age? Just curious.

[The Glass Staircase]

In reply to the first poster asking what kind of glass it is, age etc it looks like a dram glass (dram glasses are usually around 4 inches) with bucket bowl, a bladed knop stem on a folded conical foot - that would date it to pre 1745 as folded feet died out after the tax on glass increased in 1745 ...hope that helps!

[Paul S.]

couldn't agree less

If you look in Bickerton at drams from the period you mention (mid C18), there appears little similarity with the shape of the op's glass here.
With drams from c. 1745 the stems are un-adorned, the bowls mostly ovoid or ogee and smaller in capacity - heights can of course vary.
I could be wrong, but the knop on this glass looks more like an annular or flattened example rather than bladed.

Folded feet certainly decreased after 1750 - 60, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, they also re-appear not uncommonly in the first quarter of the C19, so not a reliable guide on their own.

The Excise Act of 1745 (implemented the following year I believe) didn't increase the tax on glass, it was rather the beginning of something that was doubled in 1777, and I think levied even higher in subsequent decades, and it was for this reason that around 1745 or a little later that some English manufacturers re-located to Ireland, which at that date was unaffected by what was an English revenue only.          However, if you know of an earlier Excise Act do please say - according to the books 1745 was the first of such revenues acts on glass in the U.K.

sorry, just realized my lack of courtesy  -  welcome to the GMB by the way.

[The Glass Staircase]

At a glance the stem looked bladed but on closer inspection yes it's a flattened I still say it's a dram glass as I've never came across any gin glasses with bowls that size but I'm no seasoned collector , in fact I'm very much a novice lol

[Paul S.]

no matter - we all start somewhere

Can only refer again to Bickerton - where his gin glasses have bowls with a capacity smaller than the piece here.          I had an idea that gin was included in those strong liquors that  would have been drunk from dram glasses..........    if you have the book do have a look at those pieces described as being for gin - my opinion is that thinking of gin won't really help with the glass here.
Again, in the same book, it's surprising the variation in bowl shape and size of those glasses described as wine glasses - bowls both smaller and larger than this one were used for wine.

[bat20]

Here's a selection of Georgian gin glasses ,to compare sizes..http://scottishantiques.bmobilized.com/?task=get&ihash=5c4f6e2cb1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscottishantiques.com%2FGeorgian-drinking-glasses%2Fantique-gin-glass

[Laird]

I expect that there were numerous glass makers active at any one time, so there must have been considerable variability in the actual shapes / designs / dimensions etc of the glasses they were producing. They didn't all work according to one specific rigid design template surely? So why shouldn't there be a large degree in variation within any specific class or type of glass?

Because of the variability, attributing a date to a glass of this type surely must be based on an estimation of probability, based on experience gained from looking at many other examples with known provenance or manufacturing dates.

From what has been said so far, can I understand that this glass could possibly be pre-1745, but might also be early 1800s?

[Laird]

I saw this in a museum yesterday - English cordial glass made about 1710, and I thought the foot looked very similar to the foot of my glass.