Decanter jug

This lead glass decanter jug has retained its original stopper cover. It dates from about 1680 and was probably made in London. In 1673, the merchant George Ravenscroft set up a glasshouse at the Savoy Precinct using skilled Italian glassmakers. Problems with the glass ‘crizzling’ or cracking resulted in lead oxide being added to the mix. The new glass was marked with a raven’s-head seal for a short time. Soon lead or ‘flint’ glass, a much clearer and stronger glass than before, was being made in London glasshouses for the home and overseas markets.

The decanter has a slightly tapering cylindrical body with a narrow neck opening into a pan top with a pinched spout. A heavy handle extends from the rim to the shoulder and has been tooled at either end. A tooled frill has been applied at the junction of the neck and the body. The handle goes over a single thread running around the top of the body. A nipped chain has been applied underneath the handle with twelve ribbed mezzaforma below, stablised by a wide single coil foot. The blown tear shaped stopper has been roughly broken off at the thin end with wide flat band forming the retaining ring, pulled out to cover the spout. The finial knop has been flattened into a merese over a twenty ribbed mezzaforma top.