The bell-shaped drinking-glasses of the sixteenth century are specially worthy of observation; and there are three very good specimens in the Bernal Collection at the South-Kensington Museum, one of which is said to be German, and the others Venetian. The mounting of the German glass consists of a hollow sphere in silver, which encloses a dice and is surmounted by a small statuette of Fortune. To the mounting of another of these glasses is attached a little bell. These glasses will stand in the reversed position only, and were of course intended to be emptied at one draught, the dice being shaken or the bell tinkled as a finale to the proceeding. There is also a curious cup in the possession of the Vintners' Company, representing a milk-maid carrying a pail on her head. This pail is set on a swivel, and is so contrived that the uninitiated, when attempting to drink, invariably receive its contents on their neck or chest.
In the last century it was very fashionable to convert the egg of the ostrich or the polished shell of the cocoa-nut, set in silver, into a drinking-vessel.
Many varieties of tankards were formerly in use, among which we may mention the Peg-tankard and the Whistle-tankard, the latter of which was constructed with a whistle attached to the brim, which could be sounded when the cup required replenishing (from which, in all probability, originated the saying, "If you want more, you must whistle for it"); or, in more rare instances, the whistle was so ingeniously contrived at the bottom of the vessel that it would sound its own note when the tankard was empty. The Peg-tankard was an ordinary-shaped mug, having in the inside a row of eight pins, one above another, from top to bottom: this tankard held two quarts, so that there was a gill of ale, i.e. half a pint, Winchester measure, between each pin. The first person who drank was to empty the tankard to the first peg or pin, the second was to empty to the next pin, and so on; the pins were therefore so many measures to the compotators, making them all drink alike; and as the space between each pin was such as to contain a large draught of liquor, the company would be very liable by this method to get drunk, especially when, if they drank short of the pin, or beyond it, they were obliged to drink again. For this reason, in Archbishop Anselm's Canons, made in the Council in London in 1102, priests are enjoined not to go to drinking-bouts, nor to drink to pegs. This shows the antiquity of the invention, which, at least, is as old as the Conquest. There is a cup now in the possession of Henry Howard, Esq., of Corby Castle, which is said to have belonged to Thomas à Becket. It is made of ivory, set in gold, with an inscription round the edge of it, "Drink thy wine with joy;" and on the lid are engraved the words "Sobrii estote," with the initials T. B. interlaced with a mitre, from which circumstance it is attributed to Thomas à Becket, but in reality is a work of the 16th century.
Whitaker, in his 'History of Craven', describing a drinking-horn belonging to the Lister family, says, "Wine in England was first drank out of the mazer-bowl, afterwards out of the bugle-horn. The mazer-bowls were made from maple-wood, so named from the German Maser, a spotted wood. Mr. Shirley possesses a very perfect mazer-bowl of the time of Richard II. (1377-99). The bowl is of light mottled wood highly polished, with a broad rim of silver gilt, round the exterior of which are the following lines:—
"In the name of the Trinite
Fill the kup and drinke to me."
Mr. Milner, in 'Archeologia,' vol. xi. p. 411, describes a maple-wood tankard, belonging to Lord Arundel, as of Saxon workmanship coeval with Edgar, A.D. 800, who also passed a law, on the suggestion of St. Dunstan, to prevent excessive drinking, by ordering cups to be marked into spaces by pegs, that the quantity taken might be limited.
A considerable number of these ancient maple-wood tankards also exist in the Museum at the Castle of Rosenburg. They were formerly made by the Norwegian peasants during the long winter nights; and their style of ornament cannot be older than the 16th century.
Contemporaneous with mazer-bowls were others called Piggins, Naggins, Whiskins, Kannes, Pottles, Jakkes, Pronnet-cups and Beakers.
Silver bowls were next introduced; and about the latter end of Elizabeth's reign these were superseded, as wine grew dearer and men were temperate, by glasses. The earliest glasses used at banquets were Venetian and no mention is made of glasses at state banquets before the time of Elizabeth.