During most of the eighteenth century wine came to table in bottles; “decanting” began to be the fashion about 1780, perhaps. The decanters of that date have sloping shoulders as a rule; some in shape resemble a drawn glass with short stem reversed; a little later decanters became more globular and high-shouldered, with shorter necks. Engraved festoons on a decanter, as indeed upon a wine glass, usually indicate the “Empire” period by their decoration—the end of the eighteenth century, if not the beginning of the next. It must be said, however, that some “Jacobite” decanters exist with long necks and globular bodies; so difficult is it to find a rule without an exception in old glass. These Jacobite decanters have pointed stoppers, too; whereas oval rounded stoppers seem generally to have been the early form.
JUGS
Ale jugs, wine jugs, and water jugs in plain, coloured, or cut glass are plentiful. The most desirable are Waterford made, known by the tint, the weight, and the cutting. Cork-made jugs, resembling Waterford-made in cutting, but yellowish in tint, are found. Bristol coloured jugs, Wrockwardine striped and Nailsea splashed glass jugs exist; these, like many other old plain glass jugs, are blown and not cut. Jugs with very large necks and lips, either blown or cut, are fairly early examples. Sometimes a plain glass jug will have a raised festoon of plain or coloured glass about its neck.
Milk and cream jugs in Bristol blue, opal, or ruby glass are well known; cut milk-jugs exist in fair number.
XIII. BOWLS, LIFTERS, SUGAR-CRUSHERS, SPOONS, ETC.
Large cut-glass bowls, and plain bowls, exist, perhaps too small for punch (except the Bristol painted opal-glass ones), but big enough for fruit or salads. Often these stand on feet and stems. Finger bowls of plain blown and of cut glass are found. Coloured glass bowls, of Bristol blue, green, violet, or red, are desirable acquisitions. The earliest form of finger bowl was not a finger glass so much as a wine cooler or glass rinser; these have two projecting lips or ears opposite each other, to support the glass as it lay in the water rinsing or cooling.
COLLARLESS, CUT, AND COLLARED “LIFTERS”: THE MIDDLE COLLAR REPRESENTS A “FILLET”