The toddy lifter, punch lifter, or grog lifter is an interesting glass article; I own seven, though examples are quite rare. There are several shapes. When the lower part is a high-shouldered decanter shape it is said to be a punch lifter, and English; when the lower part is round and shoulderless, like a club, it is Scottish and a toddy lifter. In most cases there is a fillet or collar of glass round the neck, and these are called ring-necked; the absence of the ring is rare. The bowl is of the size required for an ordinary glassful, for the lifters were used to transfer punch, toddy, or grog from the punch-bowl to the glass. The earlier way of doing this was by a silver or wooden ladle, but about the year 1800 the glass lifter (which is really a pipette or siphon) came into use. When the base of the lifter sank into the punch, the punch rose into the bowl of it by a hole in the bottom of it; the thumb then closed the hole at the top of the neck, thus creating a vacuum. Then the lifter could be carried over the table to the glass, and when the thumb was taken away the punch ran down into the glass.
Glass sugar crushers, plain, cut, or ridged with spirals, are found, with a pestle-like end to them. Glass spoons are rare. Glass knives are found, but most of them are doubtful. Pestles of Nailsea glass are seen, perhaps once used by ladies in their still-rooms; maybe glass mortars to match them may turn up.
Knife rests for the table are found, some plain moulded, some cut, some even with spirals inside them.
XIV. CANDLESTICKS, LUSTRES, AND LAMPS
Lustres and girandoles are often collected; glass standard lamps seldom, at present; glass candlesticks are much hunted for.
1. CANDLESTICKS
The most beautiful of glass candlesticks are those made and cut at Waterford, which stand about 12 inches high; £10 is a low price for a pair. Bristol cut-glass candlesticks are nearly as fine; Bristol opal-glass candlesticks, plain or painted in the Battersea enamel style, are exceedingly rare. Candlesticks with air-spiral and cotton-white stems are occasionally met with. Ordinary moulded-glass candlesticks, of the early nineteenth century, are pretty numerous: fine moulded candlesticks are of earlier date.
