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with Standard from Ireland in its collection. Made in about 1785, this
cut-glass beauty stands just over two feet tall and, unfortunately, could
not fit in the display cases within the exhibit. Not to be missed is a
demonstration on the making of this delicate glass piece filmed in 2021
and available to view on YouTube or by using a line at
www.cmog.org/video/fire-and-vine-hot-glass-live-stream-george-kennard
The enjoyment and satisfaction to be
had when drinking wine from a glass
drinking vessel became popular very
quickly. People have drunk wine from
glass for more than 2,500 years, and the
first stemmed goblets were made more
than 1,500 years ago. Beyond the general
endurance of the stemmed shape, wine
goblets appear in all shapes, sizes, colors, Wineglass in "RC105" Pattern, H.P. Sinclaire and Company,
patterns, glass techniques, and more,
J. Hoare & Company, 1912 Courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass
speaking to the wide variety of drinking
customs and the various roles wine played A focal point of Fire & Vine is a dense display of dozens of wine
different societies. The Roman satirist glasses from around the world, representing many styles and tastes,
Petronius noted around 60 CE that he fit for a variety of occasions. The delicate stemware has been part of
preferred glass because it doesn’t smell Wine Jug in “Russian” Pattern, countless life moments. The oldest piece of wine drinkware featured in
and it provides a better tasting experience 1882-1890 the exhibit is more than 2,500 years old.
than gold – although prone to breakage. This display does follow the trend that wine glasses have gotten
Courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass
bigger over time. “A 2017 British Medical Journal report found that the
The Evolution of the Wine Glass capacity of the average wine glass increased seven times between 1700
According to Katherine Larson, goblets and 2017, with the biggest jumps in size occurring in the 1980s and
like the stemmed glasses we recognize as 1990s,” as noted in a pix.wine article.
today’s wine glasses started to appear in the
3rd and 4th centuries. “Sometimes they
have handles; sometimes, they don’t,” she
says. “They start popping up from that era
in the area that is now Israel, Lebanon,
Syria—that area of the Eastern
Mediterranean—and then that style of
glass expands throughout the ancient
Roman world and beyond.”
In the 1700s and 1800s, a standard
service of glassware for a wealthy person in
western Europe or America may have
included different glasses for cordials and
spirits, brandy, punch, sherry, champagne,
Decanter and Wine glass in ale, and cider, but only one glass designated
“Twin City” Pattern, for wine. Occasionally, glasses may have
J. Hoare & Company, been marked for popular wines like claret
1887-1895 or Madeira.
Courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass Red and white wine glasses start to White Wine Glass, Wineglass, 1945-1965 Goblet, Yasuko Ujiie
1950-1951
(1947), 1984
Courtesy of Corning
appear around the turn of the 20th century. Courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass Courtesy of Corning
In the post-World War II economic boom, the Austrian glass company Museum of Glass Museum of Glass
Riedel paired up master glassblowers with wine experts to create a series
of stemware that would optimize the tasting experience for different
varietals of wine. The resulting “Sommeliers” series of glasses is a Winemaking and Science
refined and elegant service that showcases the talents of glassmakers and According to Chris Gerling and Anna Katharine Mansfield of
winemakers alike. Cornell AgriTech in a post they provided to CMoG, they explain the
role of “wine” and “laboratory” this way: “(they) don’t have a lot in
common – one’s an agricultural product steeped in history and
tradition, and the other is the sterile domain of lab-coated scientists. As
it turns out, the art of wine involves a lot of science, and the science of
wine involves a lot of glass! Even the least scientific among us are
familiar with the cartoon images of wildly-shaped glassware full of
brightly-colored bubbling liquids … and, yes, the wine lab has stuff like
that. But we use glass to analyze grapes and wine in all sorts of
unexpected ways, starting in the vineyard.”
In the vineyard, grape growers use a tool called a refractometer,
which contains a glass prism, to measure the amount of sugar present
in the grape and determine the precise moment to harvest. After the
grapes are harvested and pressed, the resulting juice ages in barrels. As
the wine ages, winemakers extract small samples for tasting with a glass
tube called a wine thief. The Volatile Acid Still tests for volatile acids
such as vinegar, which are caused by the presence of bacteria, and a glass
hydrometer measures the sugar and alcohol content in the wine. By
floating a glass hydrometer in the fermenting liquid, winemakers can
Wineglass, Tiffany Studios, 1902-1932 Courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass
determine when aging is complete.
26 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles