Featured 18th century champagne flutes?

Discussion in 'Pottery, Glass, and Porcelain' started by bluemoon, Aug 16, 2017.

  1. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    The glasses are each 7 inches tall with a slight height difference. At least one of them is crooked.
    One has a polished base, the other seems to have a thinner base with no or less obvious polishing mark. The one with the polished base has a darker color to it and two large air bubbles (pictured below).
    Both of them have horizontal lines.

    There are some small scratches here and there when felt with a fingernail. The parts of the bases that touch the table surface also have small scratches or slight grittiness. I honestly don't know what the level of wear generally is when it comes to pre-victorian glasses. I suppose there would've been a tablecloth, so any wear would come about during storage and transportation.

    2017-08-16 14.22.19.jpg
    2017-08-16 14.07.13.jpg 2017-08-16 14.07.43.jpg

    This site has a glass that looks the same. Just scroll down till you notice the picture with the three different glasses:
    http://www.warrenandwignall.co.uk/tag/retro/

    Elsewhere I've seen similar glasses labelled as early 19th century as well 18th. What do you think is the age of my two glasses?
     
  2. afantiques

    afantiques Well-Known Member

    If period they would be for ale, not champers.
     
  3. Cherryhill

    Cherryhill Well-Known Member

    This style was made for Williamsburg to sell as souvenirs, not to say these were, but it's a possibility. Blenko was one of the manufacturers.
     
  4. Houseful

    Houseful Well-Known Member

    Old glass is greyish I think, I can't tell from the pictures here. I'm no expert, but that's what I look for on the shelves in the Charity Shops.
     
    Ghopper1924 and Any Jewelry like this.
  5. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    I've read the shades of clear (antique) glass range from white to pink to grey to green -ish. These two glasses seem to be more pigmented that most newer glass.
     
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  6. Bev aka thelmasstuff

    Bev aka thelmasstuff Colored pencil artist extraordinaire ;)

    I'm just not seeing age on these glasses, at least not 300 years worth.
     
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  7. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    I didn't think 300 years either. My thought was early or mid 19th century until I noticed some similar ones online said to be 18th century.
     
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  8. Mansons2005

    Mansons2005 Nasty by Nature, Curmudgeon by Choice

    I would call these "sham bottom pilsner" glasses, but the term is often misused in the States. Libby has a line of "Sham Bottom" glasses that are nothing like these - they have the protective bulge such as an English pub pint does.
     
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  9. George Nesmith

    George Nesmith Well-Known Member

    Frankly they remind me of recent bar ware last 50 years.
     
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  10. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

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  11. gregsglass

    gregsglass Well-Known Member

    Hi Bluemoon,
    If you look closely at the bottom of the stem were it meets the bottom you can see where they were blown separately and joined. Yours were molded as one piece. I looked in my 1970 Williamsburg Collection catalogue and the ones shown match yours. Cherryhill I think ID'd them as handmade by Blenko. I think they were made by them until the 1990s when a Dutch firm started to made them by hand for Williamsburg.
    greg
     
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  12. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    The Williamsburg, etc glass is directly based on an 18th century design (or is a later vintage of it so it looks) so that alone probably isn't enough to determine the age. Did someone manufacture this design in the late 19th century?

    I don't know enough about the principles of glass stem and foot construction of the 18th century or after but why would glasses from the 70's, or from the 90's have such ancient look to them with air bubbles and vertical lines, crookedness and all? Isn't commercial glass from the second half of the 20th century notoriously uniformal and "perfect" in quality? There is absolutely nothing about these glasses that would meet any glass company's quality standards in that era, or so it seems. Is there a chance the seam between the stem and the base was blended so well it's not visible?

    If you look at the other glasses in the Bukowskis ad, not only one closeup, the stem and foot area has this pile of glass, exactly the way one of my glasses has. The other not. Maybe one of my glasses is 18th century, hence the color difference?

    I have a few other miscellaneous glasses, very typical 18th century designs. Since you brought up the matter of the base and the stem being made separately, I would be thankful if someone could clarify whether these two were made one way or the other?

    2017-08-17 02.57.04.jpg 2017-08-17 02.57.59.jpg

    I found this informative website that tells about the manufacturing process and other stuff related to old glass http://18cglass.co.uk/index.php?main_page=page&id=11
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2017
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