TALL CHAMPAGNE GLASSES: (1) TAPE COTTON-WHITE, AND (2) AIR-SPIRAL STEMS
During the latter half of the eighteenth century the air-spiral glasses continued to be made, but the opaque or cotton-white spiral stems came into fashion and general use. These were not “drawn” stems; they could not be, because the white glass was not inherent in the metal. The stem was made by lining a long cylindrical mould with wirelike “canes” of cotton-white and other glass alternately. Then melted plain glass was poured into the cylinder. The canes adhered to the warm metal, and when the whole was reheated, it could be twisted into spiral designs. Then the parti-coloured rod thus made was cut into stem-lengths. By this means a great variety of designs in the spirals could be produced, and indeed, the countless differences in English-made cotton-white spirals, hardly any two alike, are one of the features of a collection. Sometimes the design spreads like the air-twist; sometimes it circles around a central, wavy tube; sometimes the cotton-white is tapelike, in a “Greek key” pattern; sometimes an outer spiral runs around the inner corkscrew; but always the effect is pleasing, and rather striking, though perhaps not quite in the reticent good taste of the air-spiral stems.
STRAIGHT-SIDED, COTTON-WHITE GREEK KEY PATTERN
Dome feet or folded feet are hardly ever found under cotton-white or other coloured spiral stems; any example of that should at once be acquired; but the pontil-mark is always found—if the glass be old. The white in English-made glasses is generally a pure, vivid, cotton-white; in Dutch glasses it is usually a dull greyish hue. (This is why I use the term “cotton-white” as descriptive of these English stems.)
6. COLOURED SPIRAL STEMS
The next step, to coloured or “mixed” spirals, was obvious, but not very often taken at English glassworks: most of the red and white spiral stems now seen came from Holland or Liège. However, at Bristol red and white, and blue and white, spiral stems were made; they are known by the ruby red and the peculiar Bristol blue. Yellow and white, purple and white, and green and white spirals are known; rare indeed is a three-colour spiral. Coloured twist stems were only made in England about the end of the eighteenth century. An almost constant feature of tri-coloured stems made in Holland or at Liège is a wavy central tube of white, with coloured spirals around it, swelling or contracting to suit the usually bulbous shape of the stem.
7. CUT PLAIN-GLASS STEMS
These seem to have been in fashion during the period 1775–1825. Usually the stems are hexagonal, and the cutting had, of course, to be continued, in a shallow way, on the lower part of the bowl. “Thistle” glasses are those in which the cutting of the stem and bowl to some extent suggests the thistle in shape and appearance. The stems were often knopped—this is a feature of Waterford glass cut stems—but towards the end of the period mentioned above the stems became cylindrical except for the cutting, and the cutting did not so much produce facets as long grooves.