CHAPTER VII

GLASS AND ENAMELS

Waterford, Bristol, and Nailsea--Ornaments of glass--Enamels on metal.

Glass is used in every home. It is seen in its ornamental forms, and is necessary in almost every department. In kitchen and pantry there are dishes and tumblers and wine glasses and decanters ready for use. Among these there are often found old glasses--that is, glass vessels which from their rarity or age have attained a curio value; indeed, many housewives are unaware that their kitchen cupboard contains what would be valued as interesting specimens gladly purchased by collectors of glass. Many of the old tumblers are beautifully engraved, often having floral ornament and dainty rustic scenes. They are now and then commemorative of events which the glass maker has recorded with his graving tool, and sometimes they have been prepared to catch the passing fancy. The styles of table glass have changed, and their shapes and sizes have altered according to the popular custom of imbibing certain liquors.

When punch ceased to be the customary drink, and lesser quantities of ale were consumed, punch bowls and tankards were less in request. Their places were taken by wine glasses of more delicate forms, and charming tallboys and crinkled vessels of glass took the place of the older mugs and pewter cups. The glasses used in proffering and drinking toasts have changed much during the last century, and the "fiat" glasses of the Jacobite period, and those curious glasses with portraits of the Old Pretender and the Young Pretender upon them, are curios only, for they are no longer needed, neither is the toast of "The King" drunk "over the water." Spirit glasses and decanters have altered in form, but among those which have survived and are still sound are some rare examples of cutting, made in the days when the glass cutter worked with primitive tools, and such methods as the sand blast, chemical etching, and some of the newer processes were unknown.

Waterford, Bristol, and Nailsea.

Among table sundries are glass salts and cruets; the latter, however, have been modernized and reduced in size, and the bottles and curiously shaped oil and vinegar cruets of a hundred or more years ago look quaint when compared with those of the present day. Even the flower vases which formerly adorned the table, and the more decorative dishes used for fancy sweetmeats and confections, have changed, leaving in the process many of the older pieces, relegated to the store-cupboard, where disused glass so often remains until in due time it is rescued from oblivion by the collector of household curios. Among the eighteenth-century cut glass jugs and trifle bowls are many beautiful vessels, for the making of which certain districts from time to time became famous. The old Waterford glass is especially noteworthy, and as a speculation, apart from the interest it possesses for collectors, is worth securing. Bristol glass to the uninitiated appears to be a misnomer, in that the beautiful white milk-like surface upon which so many exquisite floral designs have been painted looks more like egg-shell porcelain, but when held up to the light is found to be of glass-like nature, pellucid although semi-opaque.

Nailsea glass has many peculiar characteristics about it, notably the curiously introduced waved and twisted lines in colours. Many objects which were essentially curios, their utilitarian purposes having always been secondary, were made at Nailsea. There are gigantic models of tobacco pipes, formerly hung up against the walls as ornaments. As fitting companions to the pipes were walking-sticks of glass, some very remarkable designs which might at one time have been carried by the gallants of that day. They were often filled with sweetmeats and comfits, ornamented with bows of ribbon, and presented to ladies of their choice by devoted swains. A few of those curious sticks or shepherd's crooks, as they were called, are to be seen in most representative museum collections. The so-called rolling-pins of glass, made at Sunderland as well as at Nailsea and Bristol, were known as sailors' love tokens, and are referred to more fully in