FIG. 33.
as regards design and ornamentation. It will be interesting for the reader to compare them and discover the characteristic features of each.
The decanters which came into vogue in the eighteenth century display the same general character and are very similar in type to the English decanters of the same date. Three of them are shown in Fig. 34, and it may be of service to compare them with the four shown in Fig. 14. The stopper of the central one is of the button type, those of the other two being of the more common “mushroom” variety.
The beautiful pair shown in Fig. 35 deserve a word of special mention. One feature is the lavish use of step cutting round the neck and shoulders, and another the strawberry empanelment on the body. The fine diamond cutting and fluting of the stoppers are also worthy of notice.
Drinking glasses, as we have said, were produced in large numbers. They are generally of two types, the one barrel or bowl shaped after the fashion of our English rummers, the other straight-sided glasses on stems. The specimens shown in Fig. 12 give some idea of their general style as well as of the variety of ornament employed.
It may be well to point out here, for the benefit of those who desire to acquire specimens of Waterford glass, some of the many differences which may be detected between the genuine article and its modern imitation.
To begin with a simple example—the prettily shaped wine glasses of the period with air-threaded or twisted stems are generally reproduced accurately enough, but the twist or thread in the old glass has a pronounced milky appearance as compared with the dead white of the modern reproduction. The twist also is not so regular and even, and the feet are larger and apparently slightly clumsier in the authentic specimens. Numerous connoisseurs attach importance to the centre of the foot, which is usually rough and uneven in the old glass. Another test frequently relied upon by collectors is the fact of the foot being turned over—a fashion which, it is said, was followed only with the earliest specimens. While, however, this may provide corroborative evidence, I should be sorry to rely upon it as a sole test.
Probably the best criterion of all is the colour. It has, as I have already noted, a dull bluish tinge readily recognisable when the specimen is
