Drinking glass, wine glass

This small wine glass is an early commemorative. The bowl is inscribed around the rim: 'To Ye Pious Memory Of Queen Anne'. Queen Anne died on the 1 August 1714 and it seems likely that the inscription was made at around this time. The wine glass has a pointed round funnel bowl with an inverted baluster stem with tear and a folded uneven foot.

Wine glasses were made in huge quantities in London. Glassblowers were highly skilled and could make glasses in whatever shape or size the customer requested. Sometimes stems had trapped air bubbles or coloured enamel twisted in elaborate patterns. Once made, the glasses were engraved, cut and gilded by other workers but this cost extra. Such work was commissioned by the glass sellers rather than the glasshouse. Customers also could request from the glass sellers a special pattern or inscription. This wine glass could have been made at one of London's glasshouses.