Glass

While I was in America I was asked all sorts of interesting questions about collecting, buying and also quite a few were about how to look after antiques. In my Care & Repair of Antiques & Collectables there are all sorts of tips about such things. One lady asked me how to remove a glass stopper from a decanter; it's one of the most frequent problems for collectors if the number of times I've been asked about it is anything to go by.

Glass stoppers in decanters and claret jugs often get stuck because they are put back in the neck when the neck is still wet with alcohol. The first rule is never attempt to tap the stopper or the neck as you risk breaking one or the other. Instead pour a little olive oil around the area where the stopper enters the neck. Leave the vassal to stand for a couple of hours while the oil will gradually seep between stopper and neck, making it easy to remove the stopper. Don't forget to wash off all traces of the olive oil.

pictured is an 18th Century French magnum decanter

A friend of mine has an early 19th century English rummer, which he uses to drink his red wine. It's about 6 inches high and with its large ovoid bowl it certainly holds a fair bit of wine – but that's not my point! He rarely drinks his red wine from anything else and he's had it for about twenty years and so it's seen a good bit of use. One day another friend was with him having dinner and they got talking about the wine glass. When his friend asked him how much it was worth he turned to me and I said, "somewhere between £60 and £70."

"Aren't you afraid by using it so often that you're going to break it when you’re washing it up?" Asked his friend.

"Well, that's a chance you take. Many years ago Judith bought me a pair of rummers just like this one and a friend washed both together in the sink and smashed them. Naturally I was upset but hey-ho these things happen. The fact is that I was able to buy another and it has given me immense pleasure. Drinking even an ordinary claret from this glass makes it taste twice as expensive as it cost!"

That really is the point of having nice things. Use them, enjoy them and gain pleasure for yourself and your friends. Next time I'm visiting the friend perhaps I'll ask him if I can have my red wine in his glass.

“It is well known that panes of stained glass in old European churches are thicker at the bottom because glass is a slow-moving liquid that flows downward over centuries. Well known, but wrong. Medieval stained glass makers were simply unable to make perfectly flat panes, and the windows were just as unevenly thick when new… "
Read the rest of this fascinating article in the New York Times