Dwarf ale glasses are small drinking glasses with a short stem. In use for over 150 years, they were made for drinking strong ale, which became fashionable from the mid-17th century and into the 18th century. [1]
Dwarf ale glasses are small drinking glasses with a short stem. In use for over 150 years, they were made for drinking strong ale, which became fashionable from the mid-17th century and into the 18th century. [1]
Drinking glasses reserved for one particular alcoholic drink is a relatively modern concept; dwarf ale glasses would have undoubtedly been used for other beverages in addition to ale. By modern standards, they may seem small when compared to tankards and contemporary pint glasses. [2] In a historical context, however, the capacity of drinking vessels was in proportion to the strength of their intended beverage, with small glasses reserved for strong alcoholic beverages. [3] In recent years, there have been significant changes in this regard. This is best exemplified by the sevenfold increase in wine glass capacity over the last 300 years. [4]
Dwarf ale glasses are characterized by the presence of a funnel (or rounded funnel) bowl with a short, rudimentary or vestigial stem. They are typically 125 mm in height and hold around 100 mL of liquid. There are many exceptions to this rule, though. [3]
Owing to the large time period in which they were produced, dwarf ale glasses are varied in their appearance. A common form is the wrythen (twisted) dwarf ale glass, which is encountered with tight or wide wrythening on the bowl. In addition, the wrythen-moulding can extend from the bowl to the stem of the glass or be limited to half of the bowl. A rare type is the flammiform (flame-like gadrooning) dwarf ale glass, which was popular at the turn of the 18th century. Other forms are frequently found engraved with hop cone and barley ear motifs. [3] [5] Early glasses are often adorned with a conical folded foot, but this is not necessarily a prerequisite of age. [3] Moreover, some 19th century glasses possess a folded foot. [6]
The glasses were made and used from the late 17th century into the 19th century. [3] [7]
Determining the age dwarf ale glasses is challenging due to them being manufactured throughout the 18th century and into the 19th in high numbers. [8] [9] [10] Some dwarf ale glasses can be reliably dated as early examples: [11] In particular, those possessing winged or propeller knops are attributed to the late 17th and early 18th century. [12] [13] Dwarf ale glasses with gadrooned wrythening, including those with a flammiform fringe, are often dated as early to mid-18th century. Indeed, some authors go further and attribute heavy gadrooning as being indicative of earlier examples (late 17th century). [14] [15] However, others note that flammifrom glasses were made throughout the 18th century. [8] [16]
Strong ales and beer were socially important during most of the Georgian period. From the mid-17th century, strong ales became particularly fashionable. Strong ales of this period were fermented up to 11% ABV and would have been similar to modern day barley wines. [17] They were known by names such as Huff-Cap, Nippitate and Hum-Cup, so called because it caused "a humming sensation in the head". [18] Due to the high sediment content, ale was typically decanted into small glasses. [19] Indeed, one can gauge the popularity of dwarf ale glasses by the high number and variety that have been preserved to the present day. [20]
Unfortunately, no contemporaneous drawings, paintings or engravings unambiguously demonstrate their use in society (see the works of William Hogarth which show scenes of alcohol consumption during the 18th century). However, written accounts from the late 17th century exist which elude to the small capacity of 'the Glasses as we drinke Somerset ale out of'. Somerset was particularly famous for strong ales in this period. [21]
With the invention of photography in the 19th century, it was possible to gain an accurate insight into the drinking practices within taverns. Indeed, the photograph by Hill & Adamson shows three gentlemen sharing a bottle of strong ale. As can clearly be seen on the table, ale flutes are being used. The ale flutes in question are similar in form and capacity, albeit with a slightly elongated bowl and stem, to dwarf ale glasses. This photograph gives a brief window through time into the past tradition of consuming strong ale in small glasses.
Small beer is a lager or ale that contains a lower amount of alcohol by volume than most others, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Europe and colonial North America compared with more expensive beer containing higher levels of alcohol. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and by servants.
A cocktail glass is a stemmed glass with an inverted cone bowl, mainly used to serve straight-up cocktails. The term cocktail glass is often used interchangeably with martini glass, despite their differing slightly. Today, the glass is used to serve a variety of cocktails, such as the martini and its variations, Manhattan, Brandy Alexander, pisco sour, Negroni, cosmopolitan, gimlet, and the grasshopper.
A yard of ale or yard glass is a very tall beer glass used for drinking around 2+1⁄2 imperial pints (1.4 L) of beer, depending upon the diameter.
Beer in Belgium includes pale ales, lambics, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2018, there were 304 breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries, such as Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 68 litres of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Beer has been brewed in England for thousands of years. As a beer brewing country, it is known for top fermented cask beer which finishes maturing in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery and is served with only natural carbonation.
The Barley Mow is a cumulative song celebrated in the traditions of folk music of England, Ireland, and Scotland. William Chappell transcribed the lyrics in his two-volume work The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time (1855).
A wine glass is a type of glass that is used for drinking or tasting wine. Most wine glasses are stemware (goblets), i.e., they are composed of three parts: the bowl, stem, and foot.
Beer is one of the oldest human-produced drinks. The first chemically confirmed barley-beer – from the area of Mesopotamia, part of modern-day Iraq – dates back to the 5th millennium BCE. The written history of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia records the use of beer, and the drink has spread throughout the world; a 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer-recipe, describing the production of beer from barley bread, and in China, residue on pottery dating from around 5,000 years ago shows that beer was brewed using barley and other grains.
Beer glassware comprise vessels made of glass, designed or commonly used for serving and drinking beer. Styles of glassware vary in accord with national or regional traditions; legal or customary requirements regarding serving measures and fill lines; such practicalities as breakage avoidance in washing, stacking or storage; commercial promotion by breweries; artistic or cultural expression in folk art or as novelty items or usage in drinking games; or to complement, to enhance, or to otherwise affect a particular type of beer's temperature, appearance and aroma, as in the case of its head. Drinking vessels intended for beer are made from a variety of materials other than glass, including pottery, pewter, and wood.
Gadrooning is a decorative motif consisting of convex curving shapes in relief in a series. In furniture and other decorative arts, it is an ornamental carved band of tapered, curving and sometimes alternating concave and convex sections, usually diverging obliquely either side of a central point, often with rounded ends vaguely reminiscent of flower petals. Gadrooning, derived from Roman sarcophagi and other antiquities, was widely used during the Italian Renaissance, and in the classicising phases of 18th- and 19th-century design.
Absinthiana is the paraphernalia surrounding the consumption of absinthe. Due to the bitter taste and high alcohol content of this drink, a need for dilution with water had led drinkers to a drinking ritual. Originally, absinthe was served in standard stemmed wine or water glasses and water was added from a simple carafe. But as its popularity grew so did the variety of implements used, such as specialty glasses and complex brouilleurs. Many 19th century companies used the elaborate barware to advertise their brands. Today, many contemporary distilleries are also producing decorative branded barware for the same purpose.
Korn, also known as Kornbrand or Kornbranntwein, is a German colorless distilled beverage produced from fermented cereal grain seed. The production of Korn uses only five grains: most of the production is based on rye or wheat; barley is mainly used to obtain the required malt for the brewing process; oats and buckwheat are rarely used. The addition of food colorings, flavorings, or sweeteners is not permitted. Korn is distilled to lower alcoholic proofs and less rigorously filtered than vodka, which leaves more of the cereal grain flavor in the finished spirit.
A champagne glass is stemware designed for champagne and other sparkling wines. The two most common forms are the flute and coupe, both stemmed; holding the glass by the stem prevents warming the drink. Champagne can also be drunk from a normal wine glass, which allows better appreciation of the flavor, at the expense of accentuating the bubbles less.
A Berkemeyer is a drinking glass with a wide, flared bowl, dating from 15th-century Germany and the Netherlands, and still made today. They have a characteristic green or yellow colour caused by iron impurities in the sand used for glass production. The thick, hollow stem is covered with prunts providing a secure grip for hands greasy from feasting, similar to the römer.
A black and tan is a beer cocktail made by layering a pale beer and a dark beer. In Ireland, the drink is called a half and half because in Ireland the term "black and tan" is considered to be offensive.
Heavy baluster glasses or goblets were popular in the period 1680–1740. The baluster stem is formed in one piece with the bowl of the glass, and is then drawn out to form a tapering stem. With the manufacture of longer stems the design was embellished with knops or knobs, which were decorative shapes formed in the stem. After about 1720 the heavy baluster glasses were replaced with thinner glass and stems, featuring smaller knops, and known as light balusters or balustroids.
Ale is a type of beer originating in medieval England, brewed using a warm fermentation method. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
Burton ale is a type of strong ale which is dark and sweet. It is named after the brewing town of Burton-on-Trent.
Cut glass or cut-glass is a technique and a style of decorating glass. For some time the style has often been produced by other techniques such as the use of moulding, but the original technique of cutting glass on an abrasive wheel is still used in luxury products. On glassware vessels, the style typically consists of furrowed faces at angles to each other in complicated patterns, while for lighting fixtures, the style consists of flat or curved facets on small hanging pieces, often all over. Historically, cut glass was shaped using "coldwork" techniques of grinding or drilling, applied as a secondary stage to a piece of glass made by conventional processes such as glassblowing.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)