Guide to Wine Glasses

As long as there has been wine there has been a way to hold it. A wide variety of vessels have been used over the many centuries it took for the wine glass to evolve.

The history of wine glasses begins with the discovery and production of the world’s first glass materials. Types of glass, like Obsidian, occur naturally in nature and have been used as tools since the Stone Age. Glass production for things like jewelry started in the third millennium BC in Egypt. However, it was not until the reign of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC) that we see the first evidence of glass hollowware. There are several formulas for making glass contained in the clay-tablet library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (668-627 BC). Remarkably, the recipes recoded contain basically the same ingredients that glass is made from today, but in different ratios.

In his Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) describes the composition and manufacture of glass which during his time, were as expensive as precious metals in the Roman Empire. He believed that glass was the preferred vessel for drinking wine, however the time required to produce it made drinking wine from glasses too expensive and impractical.

In the meantime, on the heels of the bronze age, the Romans used goblets made of lead, silver, or pottery. The technology of drink-ware evolved immensely during this time and there were many alternative materials to glass that were used in different parts of the world.

The Roman-Britons of the 5th Century created a shallow cup on a tall stem called a Cylix. Other types of Cylices were more functional with thicker stems or wider bowls. Earthenware vessels were made for common use. Horn Flagons were used for communion by the church until AD 785 when they were forbidden. The church then moved to wooden chalices and then silver and gold over the next 400 years. Wood tankards were in common use in households and taverns by the end of the first millennium and were made of wood that was bound together with wattle or hide and came complete with a handle and a lid.

Leather vessels known as ‘Black Jacks’ became popular in the 14th Century. They consisted of pieces of leather sewn together to form the shape of a jug and handle. The first part of the name comes from the black pitch that was used on the inside of the jug to seal it. The latter part of the name derives from the leather used to make the vessel. The material was similar to the leather vests that archers used as light armor known as a ‘jack of defense’.

The wine glass was well on its way. As the methods for glass making improved, costs diminished and the glass became the vessel of choice. By the 1400’s, we see the first examples of wine glasses with a base, a stem, and a foot.