16th & 17th century glass

Large Beer or wine glass

FH 88

Almost colourless glass with a hint of grey
Venice
Sixteenth or seventeenth century
Height: 17.8 cm, bowl: 12.5 cm, foot: 10.5 cm

Wine glass with large slightly trumpet-shaped
bowl. Rudimentary stem of a hollow flattened
knop. Conical foot with downwardly folded rim. 

This type of glass is usually linked to the John
Green documents now held by the British
Museum (Dreier 1989, cat.no. 141, Gasparetto
1958, cat.no. 111, Laméris and Laméris 1991, cat.
no. 5). John Green ordered some glasses from
the Venetian Glasshouse Morelli, sending several designs of the desired items (SLOANE MS. 857
(Departure of Manuscrips)). The shape and the
proportions of some glasses on the designs of
1671 are very similar to this glass. However, the
rudimentary knop of the glass is very different
from the knops on the design: instead of a flattened knop, the knop is conically shaped on top
(Laméris and Laméris 1991, p. 50). It looks more
like a so-called ‘true baluster’. There are some
glasses that are very similar to this design (Brain
and Brain 2015, fig. 4)
Closer to this glass is another scale drawing of
drinking glasses for English glassmakers (Sloane
MS 857, folio 430 bv) (Lanmon 2011, fig. 13, p. 37)
It is tempting to speculate that this glass could
also be of a much earlier type, namely Venetian.
Looking at its colour and substance, the metal
is exactly like the glasses of cat.no. 14 and 15. In
essence this model with a rudimentary stem was
extremely popular in the second quarter and
second half of the sixteenth century. Numerous
examples exist in cristallo and in filigree glass (for
example fig. 5). The difference between those
glasses and this example are the more slender
bowl and the mereses both above and under
the stem. A similar glass without these mereses
features in a wall painting by Ulrich Springenklee
for the Trinkstube in Bruneck (South of Tirol).
Here the members of a Stubengesellschaft or
Drinkstubengesellschaft came together to talk
over a glass about their professions, about politics and religion (Egg 1962, fig. 11, Tafel VI).

Exhibited: Venetiaans en Façon de Venise glas,
1500-1700, Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam
The glass is depicted and described in: Frides
and Kitty Laméris, Venetiaans en Façon de
Venise glas, 1500-1700, Nationale Stichting
Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam, 1991, cat.no. 5

Comparanda:
Collection Du Mesnil (Rosenberg 2013,
cat.no. 64, fig. 65)
Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin (Dreier 1989,
cat.no 141)
Victoria and Albert Museum (Gasparetto 1958,
fig. 111)