Part 27 (2/2)

[206] _Wine Trade Loan Exhibition of Drinking Vessels_ [catalog] (London, 1933), no. 226, p. 26, pl. 95.

[207] CAPPON & DUFF, _Virginia Gazette Index 1736-1780_, op.

cit. (footnote 93), vol. 1, p. 451.

[208] ANDRE SIMON, _Drink_ (New York: Horizon Press, Inc., 1953), pp. 139-140.

[209] DOW, op. cit. (footnote 178), p. 104.

[210] RITA SUSSWEIN, _The Arts & Crafts in New York, 1726-1776_ (New York: J. J. Little and Ives Co., 1938), p.

99. (Printed for the New-York Historical Society.)

TABLE GLa.s.s

A minimum of table-gla.s.s sherds was recovered, and these were fragmentary. Gla.s.s is scarcely mentioned in Mercer's accounts, although there is no reason to suppose that Marlborough was any less well furnished with fine crystal than with other elegant objects that we know about. Three sherds of heavy lead gla.s.s have the thickness and contours of early 18th-century English decanters, matching more complete fragments from Rosewell and a specimen ill.u.s.trated in plate 98a in the Wine Trade Loan Exhibition catalog.[211] Two fragments are body sherds; the third is from a lip and neck.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 46.--Clear-gla.s.s tumbler blown in a ribbed mold (fig. 82b). Same size. (USNM 59.1864.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 47.--Octagonal cut-gla.s.s trencher salt (fig.

82a). Same size. (USNM 59.1830.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 82.--GLa.s.sWARE: a, cut-gla.s.s salt (ill. 47); b, tumbler base (ill. 46); c, engraved sherds (ill. 45); d, tumbler and winegla.s.s sherds; e, part of candle arm (see p. 154); f, mirror fragment; g, window gla.s.s; and h, medicine-bottle sherds.]

Several forms of drinking gla.s.ses are indicated. A fragment of a foot from a long-stemmed cordial gla.s.s shows the termini of white-enamel threads that were comprised in a double enamel-twist stem. The twists consisted of a spiral ribbon of fine threads near the surface of the stem, with a heavy single spiral at the core. The indicated diameter of the foot is 3-1/4 inches (USNM 59.1761, ill. 43).

Fragments of large knops are probably from heavy bal.u.s.ter winegla.s.ses dating from Mercer's early period before 1750. A teardrop stem from a trumpet-bowl winegla.s.s has been melted past recognition in a fire. The stem of a bucket-bowl cordial gla.s.s has suffered in the same manner (USNM 59.1607). Still with their shapes intact are two stems and base sections of bucket-bowl winegla.s.s. Two engraved bowl sherds from similar-shaped cordial gla.s.ses and a rim sherd from another engraved piece are the only fragments with surface decoration (USNM 59.1634, 59.1864, ill. 45). Several sherds of foot rims, varying in diameter, were found, including one with a folded or ”welted” edge.

Tumblers, depending on their sizes, were used for strong spirits, toddy, flip, and water. The base and body sherds of a molded tumbler from Marlborough are fluted in quadruple ribs that are separated by panels 1/4-inch wide (USNM 59.1864, fig. 82c, ill. 46). Plain, blown tumbler bases have indicated diameters of 3 inches.

A few unusual, as well as more typical, forms are indicated by the Marlborough gla.s.s sherds. One small fragment comes from a large f.l.a.n.g.ed cover, probably from a sweetmeat bowl or a posset pot. A specimen of more than usual interest is a pressed or cast cut-gla.s.s octagonal trencher salt (USNM 59.1830, fig. 82a, ill. 47). This artifact reflects silver and pewter salt forms of about 1725. A curved section of a heavy gla.s.s rod is apparently from a chandelier, candelabrum, or sconce gla.s.s (USNM 59.1696, fig. 82e). We have seen that Mercer, in 1748, bought ”1 superfine large gilt Sconce gla.s.s.”

Although precise dates cannot be ascribed to any of this gla.s.s, it all derives without much question from the period of Mercer's occupancy of Marlborough.

FOOTNOTES:

[211] Op. cit. (footnote 206), no. 244, p. 66, pl. 68.

MIRROR AND WINDOW GLa.s.s

We know from the ledgers that there were sconce and looking gla.s.ses at Marlborough. Archeological refuse supplies us with confirmation in pieces of clear lead gla.s.s with slight surviving evidence of the tinfoil and mercury with which the backs originally were coated. One piece (USNM 59.1693) has a beveled edge 7/8 inch wide, characteristic of plate-gla.s.s wall mirrors of the colonial period. A curved groove on this piece, along which the fracture occurred, is probable evidence of engraved decoration.

Window gla.s.s is of two princ.i.p.al types. One has a pale-olive cast. A few fragments of this type have finished edges, indicating that they are from the perimeters of sheets of crown gla.s.s and that Mercer purchased whole crown sheets and had them cut up. It may be a.s.sumed that this greenish gla.s.s is the oldest, perhaps surviving from Mercer's early period.

The other type is the more familiar aquamarine window gla.s.s still to be found in 18th-century houses. A large corner of a rectangular pane has the slightly bent contour of crown gla.s.s, which is the English type of window gla.s.s made by blowing great bubbles of gla.s.s which were spun to form huge discs. The discs sometimes were cut up into panes of stock sizes and then s.h.i.+pped to America, or else were sent in whole sheets, to be cut up by storekeepers here or to be sold directly to planters and other users of window gla.s.s in quant.i.ty.

The centers of these sheets increased in thickness and bore large scars where the ma.s.sive pontil rods which had held the sheets during their manipulation were broken off. The center portions also were cut into panes, which were used in transom lights and windows where light was needed but a view was not. Hence they served not only to utilize an otherwise useless part of the crown-gla.s.s sheets, but also to impart a decorative quality to the window. They are still known to us as ”bullseyes.” A piece of a bullseye pane of aquamarine gla.s.s occurs in the Marlborough finds. The pontil scar itself is missing, but the thick curving section leaves little doubt as to its original appearance. A similar fragment was found at Rosewell.

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