Cheers!: Drinking Glasses from the Permanent Collection August 11, 2004 to July 10, 2005, Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums Rococo Festival: Looking at the Eighteenth Century On August 11, 2004, the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, will open Cheers! Drinking Glasses from the Permanent Collection. The exhibition, which remains on view through July 10, 2005, displays a selection of British and Dutch drinking vessels from the mid- to late-eighteenth century. As diverse in style as in purpose, the objects range from an ale glass to a magnificent wine glass with Jacobite engravings. In the 1400s, Venetians manufactured cristallo (clear, colorless glass) and developed unique glassblowing techniques that spread throughout Europe in the 1600s. In 1676, an English glassmaker’s invention of lead glass (a sturdier yet more malleable material containing lead oxide and potash) encouraged the development of the glass industry in Great Britain and enabled innovations in stem formations using knops, filigree, and air twists. Drinking glasses were traditionally molded or blown in three parts — bowl, stem, and foot — then fused together while hot. Using a copper wheel, artisans engraved designs that signified the intended contents of the glass from fruit vines for wine to images of barley for ale.
Glass styles and shapes also varied according to drinking and dining habits. For example, larger bowls would be used for drinking wine during a meal and smaller, more delicate bowls would hold sweetmeats (a dessert) or cordials (liqueurs). Resembling a modern shot glass, the “firing glass” included in the exhibition has a thick, heavy foot and stem that made the noise of firing a pistol when slammed onto the table following a drink. Decoration and stem shape signify the location, era, and culture of a particular wine glass. For example, the assortment of opaque twist stemware in the exhibition shows how glassblowers revived the Renaissance Venetian technique, called latticino, of filling the hollow air twist stems with filigree. Also on display is a rare set of Dutch glasses with the Silesian stems — a molded pedestal stem technique that originated in Germany and demonstrates the influence of Germanic culture across the European continent. Decorative arts were sometimes also used as an outlet for people to express political sympathies that otherwise would have been considered treason, acts that could be punishable by death. Aside from serving as decoration, some glass motifs acted as subtle propaganda. For example, an engraved open rose on an English glass from the 1700s (highlighted in the exhibition) symbolized allegiance to the exiled Stuart King James II of Britain and his sons. More Jacobite glasses will be displayed in the upcoming exhibition Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Royal House of Stuart, 1688-1788: Works of Art from the Drambuie Collection, at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, from February 5 to May 7, 2005. A selection of American pressed glass goblets from the mid-1800s will simultaneously be on view in Booker Hall, Modlin Center for the Arts. Developed in the early nineteenth century when glassmaking changed from a craft to a factory-based process, pressed glass involves the pouring of molten glass into a plain or patterned mold. The display features some of the most sought after patterns of the time such as the “Bellflower,” the “Squirrel,” and the “Giant Excelsior.” The English and Dutch pieces are from a collection of glassware donated in 1995 by Mr. and Mrs. John H. Nugent, III, of Richmond, Virginia. Percy Scott Smith, a 1916 Richmond College alumnus, gave the pressed glass goblets in 1967. The exhibition was co-curated by N. Elizabeth Schlatter, Assistant Director, University Museums, and Bradley Jane Wright, ’06, marketing major, University of Richmond, and 2004 University Museums Summer Research Fellow.