I must make special mention of the ring of Irish glass, as this is an important point. All British glass has a clear, definite, bright ring, but to anyone with a musical ear it will be interesting to listen to the peculiar throb in Irish glass, not so much a ring as a rich throb, sometimes (particularly in large pieces) like a vibrato between two notes. I do not say that you get this in all Irish glass, only in the greater part of it.
No one, for instance, would expect a candlestick to ring or a salt-cellar, or a thick shallow piece heavily cut. Jugs, as a rule, also have a special dislike to displaying their voices, so, naturally, people must use their discernment.
[DIFFERENCE IN THE RING OF OTHER GLASS.]
This peculiar ring of Irish glass is not to be found in glass of alien origin. The foreign copies are quite different. Sometimes they will not ring at all, especially the wine glasses; the better ones give a sound of sorts, but it is very dead, and, if carefully listened to, the note is never true, just a little flat, quite unlike the "singing Waterford."
[Fakes]
These are innumerable, and belong to all periods, old and modern, since Irish glass first became popular.
No glass in the world has been so much copied, and none has, in the long run, stood out so successfully in defying the faker. This constitutes one of the great attractions of Irish glass to the collector, for though many imitations of it have been made of sufficient excellence to deceive the inexperienced and unwary, it cannot be copied sufficiently well to deceive the connoisseur.
The finest reproductions from France, Belgium, Holland, and even Germany, all fail in colour and texture, though some of the cutting is exceedingly clever.
At the present moment there is an enormous amount of spurious glass on the market, and some time ago a lot of remarkable copies were in circulation. They were the best that have yet appeared, especially the urns and candlesticks, and numbers fell into the hands of the unwary. One special weakness, however, was very noticeable—the colour fell in the tall pieces, leaving the tops whiter than the bases.