Plain Stem Glasses

Part 4. The Plain Stem Glasses, 1700 - 1795.

The plain stem glasses in themselves do not, as a rule, greatly excite glass collectors unless they have a specific association such as engraving. Nevertheless, they constitute an important part of English glass history. For these are the everyday workhorse vessels used by the ordinary household if it could afford glass at all. Consequently, both the date of their first manufacture and that when they went out of use is highly speculative. Barrington Haynes (Glass through the Ages) claims that plain stems represent about a quarter of all 18th century glasses.

The plain stems are of two types, both of which may have secondary features such as knopping:- 2-piece flared drawn trumpet glass with decorative border, c. 1745, Ht, 18.5 cm.A 2-piece plain stem "ratafia" glass with a slim drawn trumpet, c.1750, Ht. 18.5 cm.

Drawn-stem, two-part glasses where a thickening at the tip of the initially blown globe is simply drawn out to form the stem to which the foot is then attached. The bowl is a flared V-shape giving these glasses the general name of drawn trumpets. Those with a folded foot are generally assumed to be early and those with a plain foot - the majority - of later date. But, as we have seen, quite early balusters may have a plain foot so this assumption can only be considered as the best estimate in the present circumstances. These glasses are described as "2-piece" being composed of bowl plus stem, and foot. They cannot normally contain a tear although a small tear may be found at the top of the stem, introduced by prodding through the base of the bowl with a sharp instrument.

Variations on this type of glass include a particularly tall glass with very thin stem for toasting after which the stem is snapped to preserve the toast. The use of a narrow bowl for a ratafia is curious as I have been unable to find out how this glass came to be named. Ratafia covers a variety of strong alcoholic drinks particularly associated with bitter almonds and it may be that it is intended to be swigged back, like schnapps, without inhaling the vapours. Considered a ladies glass, it should certainly have kept them happy! The choice of a drawn trumpet for engraved Jacobite sentiments, particularly the "Fiat" glasses, is also very popular.

A 3-part Ale glass, the tall round funnel bowl typically engraved with hops and barley, domed foot, 1745. Ht. 19cm.Plain stem three-part glasses in which bowl, stem and foot are made from separate gathers of glass. They have been sub-classified by Barrington Haynes Glass Through the Ages according to bowl shape many of which, unlike the drawn trumpet, are relatively rare. Those with a round funnel or ogee bowl are the most common.
The bucket,Large 3-part bucket bowl wine glass engraved with an electioneering slogan "Success to Sir Francis Knollys". c. 1745. Ht. 20.5cm on the other hand, is rare, perhaps because sharp angles are awkward in glass. Its variations, the waisted bucket and lipped bucket, are even rarer. The thistle bowl tends to be treated with caution as this is a continental shape and soda glass versions are well known.

The stem may be formed by adding a gob of glass to the bowl and tooling it to shape. This is convenient when air tears and knops are to be introduced. Alternatively, a short length of pre-heated cut glass rod may be used to greatly accelerate manufacture. Such glasses are known as "stuck shanks". Tooled stems tend to taper from bowl to foot while the sides of a stuck shank remains absolutely parallel and may give a rather unbalanced look to the glass, like the ale on the right.

The stem may be formed by adding a gob of glass to the bowl and tooling it to shape. This is convenient when air tears and knops are to be introduced. Alternatively, a short length of pre-heated cut glass rod may be used to greatly accelerate Jacobite engraved toasting glass with firing foot. c.1750.manufacture. Such glasses are known as "stuck shanks". Tooled stems tend to taper from bowl to foot while the sides of a stuck shank remains absolutely parallel and may give a rather unbalanced look to the glass.

Feet are generally the same variants as found for the balusters except for a particular short-stemmed glass, commonly used for Masonic rituals. These "Firing glasses" have thick, rather flat feet to be used for hammering on the table giving a noise like firing a gun. Two variants of this are a terraced foot where the top of the thick foot is tooled into three or four shallow steps, and the oversewn foot where a series of vertical strand are tooled (or, perhaps, pre-cast) round the rim of the foot giving an appearance rather like oversewing the hem of a garment.

Bowl shapes. Apart from the balusters and light balusters (Newcastles) which have a very limited bowl shape the Some basic bowl shapesdiversity is considerable.The diagram shows outlines of the basic shapes, Theses can vary considerably in terms of curvature and so on.
The round funnel and drawn trumpet remain the most common, perhaps followed by the ogee whose shape is often enhanced by cutting. The ogee, like the double ogee and its variants seems only to have been made in England. This may be because the the bowls are generally small and may reflect English drinking habits. The saucer -top and pan- top tend to hold much smaller amounts of liquid than their appearance might suggest.
The thistle shape is not common and becomes rare on later glasses except perhaps those with Scottish connections. On the other hand it is common on Continental glass, particularly those used for ordinary drinking. It may be for this reason that the bell and thistle shapes are treated with caution by collectors of English glass. The bucket bowl is perhaps the rarest shape and may have been formed by blowing into a mould to get the sharp corners.

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Plain Stem Glasses

Part 4. The Plain Stem Glasses, 1700 - 1795.