ENGLISH DRINKING GLASSES. 18th CENTURY.
1. A CORDIAL GLASS WITH AIR-TWISTED STEM.
2. A BARLEY WATER GLASS WITH OPAL-TWISTED STEM.
3. AN OLD “TEAR” GLASS.
4. A STRONG WATER CORDIAL GLASS WITH “TEAR” IN STEM.
FIG. 12.
specimens have been discovered which are engraved with festoons or bunches of hops and ears of barley. The earlier specimens, however, were plain. It may be useful to point out that the form of the stem affords some indication of the relative age of the piece, the chronological order being roughly as follows:—(1) Waisted bowls, with plain stems and folded feet; (2) air-twisted stems, shouldered, collared, and knopped; (3) plain drawn stems; (4) opaque-twisted stems. The glasses diminish in height as the century progresses.
Other Kinds of Glasses.—It is customary to include in the classification of eighteenth-century glasses those used for cider and perry, mumm, mead, and syllabub. It is difficult to prove that any particular kind of glass was set apart for the consumption of these liquors. Cider, however, was produced in large quantities, and glasses were possibly made specially for it. Certain specimens exist, and are recognised by their being engraved with apple blossom, apple trees, etc., whilst one—mentioned in the chapter on Memorial Glasses—is inscribed with the motto “No Excise.” Speaking generally, it may be asserted that ordinary cider was probably drunk from earthenware mugs, after the fashion of the beer mugs of to-day, whilst the strong cider was consumed from wine glasses. No glass has so far been distinctively associated with perry.
Mumm was a somewhat awesome decoction, in which the principal ingredient was malted wheat, to which were added a little oats or bean-meal, the brew being flavoured with various pungent and aromatic herbs and the inner bark and tips of the fir tree. It is presumed to have been drunk from glasses of the ale-champagne type, but among the common folk it is probable mugs were preferred.
“The clamorous crowd is hush’d with mugs of mum
Till all, tun’d equal, send a general hum.”—Pope.
Mead (or meath) was a drink the basis of which was honey. This, being dissolved in boiling water, was flavoured with spices and ground malt added, and the whole left to ferment. It was drunk from bowl-shaped glasses, or else from glasses of the low tumbler type. If carefully made it would keep for a long time, and from the number of references to it which appear in literature, it was evidently a favourite drink, particularly among the lower classes. Ben Jonson in his “The Devil is an Ass,” written in 1616, remarks:
“ ...Carmen
Are got into their yellow starch, and chimney-sweepers
To their tobacco and strong waters—Hum,
Meath and Obarni.”
Syllabub was a mixture of wine, ale, or cider, with cream or milk, and flavoured with lemon or rose-water. The whipped syllabubs were beaten into a froth before drinking. They were often made with milk drawn fresh from the cow, the drinkers repairing to the dairy for the purpose.