Object Number 2011.0054

Object Name

Glass (for drinking) (Passglas or passglass)

Category

Glass

Credit Line/Donor

Gift of Richard and Pam Mones

Place of Origin

Germany or Netherlands, Europe

Date

1610-1630

Mark or Signature or Inscription or Label

1. Label; Underside; Blue circular sticker with penned "27".
2. Label; Uncerside; White rectangular sticker with penned "German Pass / Glass. C. 1620 / Princes of Hanover"

Materials

Glass (nonlead)

Techniques

Blown, Threaded, Tooled

Dimensions (inches)

11.7 (H) , 4.1 (Diam)

Dimensions (centimeters)

29.8 (H) , 10.5 (Diam)

Object Description

Web - 09/13/2012

This drinking vessel (passglas) is of slightly greenish, heavily seeded nonlead glass. It is blown in a tall, nearly cylindrical form with applied, horizontal glass threads which have been tooled to create narrowly-spaced vertical ridges. The vessel is supported on a tall, widely flaring foot with a folded rim.

Passglasses were made from at least as early as the 1500s through the 1800s and also are known in enameled glass versions. They seem to have been used during drinking games. Players laid bets on whether or not they could drink exactly the amount of an alcoholic beverage (such as ale, beer, or wine) included between one pair of the glass's horizontal rings. The glass then was passed to the next imbiber, so they might have a try.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Book] 1969 Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, The Toledo Museum of Art.
• Silimar "passglas", listed as 16th-century German: p. 49.
[Book] Adams, Len & Adams, Yvonne. 1987 Meissen Portrait Figures.
• Meissen porcelain harlequin figure drinking from passglas: p. 199, Kaendler model, c. 1740, with goat
[Book] Grulich, Anne Dowling. 2004 Façon de Venise Drinking Vessels on the Chesapeake Frontier: Examples from St. Mary’s City, Maryland.
• St. John's Site, MD excavated fragmetns of passglas: pp. 26-27, fig. 61 with comparable intact vessel, fig. 22 (see Notes)
[Book] Fairbanks, Jonathan L. & Trent, Robert F. 1982 New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century. II. 100-360.
• Discussion of this form as perhaps being the "Beer Glasses" noted in early documents: pp. 282-83, no. 277