Wine glass with a silver groat in the
stem
England, late 17th century
AD
The coin is dated 1687
George Ravenscroft (1632-83), an English
glassmaker working in London, is considered responsible for the
introduction into England of glass containing lead, and for the
further development of lead glass. By around 1681 other English
glass-makers were also making heavy, but brilliantly clear lead
glass.
It was not possible
to blow this glass thinly, and thus impossible to make the strong,
simple forms with the delicately pulled ribbons of glass in the
Venetian style. Instead a new, essentially English form of
decoration was created, with a variety of stem forms using knops,
balusters and teardrops. Glass was often decorated with applied and
stamped
prunts,
thick pincered ribbons and bands of chain links. The recognizable
'nip't diamond waies', were applied ribs of
glass pincered together while still molten to form a mesh
pattern.
The inclusion of a
coin - here a groat (fourpence piece) - within the stem was a
popular glassmaking trick.
R.J. Charleston, Journal of Glass Studies-2, 10 (1968), pp. 156-67
H. Tait (ed.), Five thousand years of glass (London, The British Museum Press, 1991)
R. J. Charleston, English glass and the glass us (London, Allen and Unwin, 1984)