Types of Drinkware

Find the perfect glass for your beverage with drinking glasses from Crate and Barrel. Our collection
of drinkware includes cocktail glasses, water glasses, juice glasses, coffee mugs, tea cups, margarita
glasses, beer glasses and wine glasses for every occasion.

Bar Glasses
Selecting bar drinkware is an important decision. Your glassware choice will get lots of use and
should give you simple pleasure every time. At Crate and Barrel, we have a variety of glasses
perfect to add to your home bar, including:
Highball—The highball is a tall cocktail glass used for serving mixed drinks. It can also be used as
a tumbler for milk, iced tea and more.
Double Old Fashioned—A double old fashioned is a large wide glass for serving drinks on the rocks
(over ice). This glass is sometimes called a rocks glass and also can be used as a tumbler.
Martini Glass—This cocktail glass has a V-shaped open style used for serving martinis and
cosmopolitans as well as desserts.
Cordial Glass—A cordial is a very small bar glass designed to serve liqueurs, aperitifs and shots.
Our shot and cordial glasses typically hold up to three ounces.
Brandy Glass—A brandy glass has a short stem so the bowl can be held easily in the palm of the
hand.
Tumbler—This is a standard drinking glass and usually holds around 16 ounces. It is great for
everyday beverages like milk, soda, lemonade, juice or iced tea.
Margarita Glass—This curvaceous cocktail glass is an interpretation of the martini glass. Today it is
used almost exclusively for the traditional lime and tequila based drink it is named after.
Goblet—Typically the largest glass at the table, the goblet is often used for water.

Beer Glasses
The right glass can help accentuate the distinct flavors of each beer. We have a variety of glass
styles for your favorite brews, including:
Pilsner Glass—The pilsner is a classic glass for serving beer. These glasses are tall, cone-shaped
and footed to provide a great distribution of flavors.
Pint Tumbler—Effortlessly versatile, pint glasses are great for stouts, ales and IPAs.
Tulip—Inspired by the brandy snifter, these wide-bowled glasses are best for aromatic beers with
lots of flavor.
Blonde Glass—Wide-mouthed blonde glasses can be used for serving most IPAs.
Stout Glass—Our stout glasses are designed to accentuate the distinct rich flavors and notes of dark
beers.
Mugs—Our handled glass mugs are ideal for serving beer as well as soda.
Wine Glasses
The shape of a wine glass can greatly affect your drinking experience. If you are a seasoned wine
drinker, you might choose the broader “bowl” with a rim that slopes in at the top that will capture
the aromas of bold red wines and white wines with bigger bouquets. Narrower, tulip-shaped glasses
are better for concentrating the delicate aroma of lighter white wines. Tulip shapes also keep the
contents colder longer by holding less fluid and protecting the wine from the heat of your hands.
Choose from our selection of red, white and sparkling wine glass styles, including:
Goblet, Red Wine and White Wine Glasses—These three classic types of stemware range in size,
from the largest (goblet) to the smallest (white wine).
Champagne Flutes—The flute is the preferred shape for champagne because its narrow opening and
slender bowl do not allow the champagne bubbles to escape easily, keeping it fizzy.
Champagne Coupes—This is a classic style shape that has become more popular for champagne
and cocktail glasses.
Stemless Wine Glasses and European-style Wine Tumblers—These glasses offer a casual alternative
for everyday enjoyment. Stemless wine glasses often have the same bowl shapes as stems and load
more easily in the dishwasher.

Bar Accessories
In addition to our wide selection of wine, beer, bar and water glasses, we also offer tools for your
household bar. We have bar gadgets, cocktail recipe books, cocktail napkins, coasters, decanters,
tags, cocktail shakers, cocktail trays, ice buckets and blenders to help you create the perfect
entertaining station at home.
Shop our complete collection of drinkware, including drinking and cocktail glasses as well as bar
accessories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Drink

A Toast to the Drinking Glass―In History and Life

11 September to 10 November 2013 *There will be an exhibition change during the course of
exhibition

Offerings
Glass was first made about 5,000 years ago, in Western Asia, Egypt, and Mycenae, on Crete, an
island in the Aegean Sea. Today the word “glass” is associated with transparency, but the earliest
glass was an opaque material. Lustrous, easy to work when heated, ancient glass was made to
resemble lapis lazuli, turquoise, and other precious stones. Like those precious stones, glass was
used for ornaments worn by pharaohs, funerary goods, and other very special purposes.
The production of glass vessels began in Mesopotamia and Egypt in about the sixteenth century
BCE. During Egypt’s 18th Dynasty (1570 BCE), glass vessels produced under the patronage of the
royal family were used as gifts to powerful persons. The footed cup of core-formed glass (cat. no. 1)
in this exhibition is one example. Given to a member to the nobility, it was doubtless cherished and
may have had ritual uses.
Wine and other alcoholic beverages have long been part of exalted occasions, washing away
pollution and enhancing rulers' power. The patella cup (so called because it is shaped like a
kneecap), cat. no. 3, was a holy vessel for serving sacred wine to the gods. Millefiori glass, its name
derived from the Italian for “thousand flowers,” does look like a thousand flowers in bloom. Such
works beauty expressed reverence for the gods.
When transparent glass began to be made from about the eighth century BCE, its transparency
opened up a new dimension: enjoying the sight of the contents of the glass. Perhaps that is why
vessels that had been made of metal or clay were replaced by glass vessels. For example, the rhyton
terminating in a lion’s head (cat. no. 2) was a vessel designed for pouring liquids; through it, a
liquid filled with animal power would be offered to the gods or the king during rituals.
This first section of the exhibition introduces wine vessels used in offerings to exalted beings.

Core-glass Footed Cup

Egypt
14th century BC
Miho Museum, Shiga

Conversations
In ancient Greece, the symposium was an
opportunity to drink together after dinner and
on into the night while discussing ideas,
dreams, and philosophy.
In Greece, where the production and
appreciation of wine and the resulting wine
culture had been spreading from the thirteenth
century BCE, it was customary to drink wine
diluted with water. Thus, a variety of types and
shapes of wine vessels were created, including
vessels for mixing wine and water, ewers, wine
cups, and storage and shipping containers. Pottery vessels, however, were dominant in Grecian wine
vessels.
From the mid second century BCE, Grecian wine culture reached ancient Rome, where it swiftly
spread in the next century. That expansion coincided with a turning point in the history of glass, the
invention of glassblowing, probably in the Syria-Palestine region of the Roman Empire in about 50
BCE. Blowing into a gather of glass spooled onto one end of the blowpipe inflates it, permitting the
formation of a vessel. This new technique permitted working glass much more swiftly than any of
the glassmaking techniques in use earlier and brought glass from the exclusive domain of powerful
elites to the lives of ordinary people. The invention of the pointil or punty rod soon followed the
invention of glassblowing. A solid metal rod tipped with a wad of hot glass, it is applied to the base
of the piece being worked, making it simpler to work the mouth of a vessel or add handles, making
possible a great variety of forms.
As glassblowing developed, the many forms of Greek pottery drinking vessels influenced the forms
of glass vessels. A splash glass footed cup (cat. no. 31) is thought to have been modeled on the
Greek krater, a vessel used to mix wine and water. A bowl with cut decoration (cat. no. 25) was
based on a phiale (a Greek term for a shallow cup used as a drinking vessel or libation bowl). A
pitcher with handle (cat. no. 35) recalls the form of the oenochoe, a Greek vessel used to pour wine.

Section two of this exhibition offers a glimpse of the glass vessels that inherited or were influenced
by the forms of drinking vessels used at Greek symposia and other sociable occasions.
Ribbed Bowl
Eastern
Mediterranean
1st century BC-1st
century AD
Suntory Museum of
Art, Tokyo
(Tsuji Seimei
Collection)

Pitcher with Handle

Eastern
Mediterranean
4th century
Okayama Orient
Museum, Okayama

Vows
Wine is enjoyed for its bouquet and flavor, of course, and is also indispensable, now as in the past,
in situations when a pledge or oath is being made. It was also the custom to drink wine in turn from
the same cup, to confirm
relationships of trust. The German
Daumen glass (cat. no. 40) was a
large drinking vessel; all the
members of a community would
drink wine from it an expression of
their commitment to harmonious
coexistence. Among friends, people
would also drink together as a prayer
for or pledge of mutual affection and
tranquility. A double stirrup cup (cat.
no. 45), used in wishing for a safe
return and confirming mutual
friendship before a friend set off on a
trip, and goblets with angel motifs
(cat. no. 42 and 43) with the word
“friendship” inscribed in them were
among examples of such drinking
glasses. Throughout the world, it is
customary during wedding
ceremonies to drink together and
vow eternal love. The Bohemian tiered goblet
with birds and animals motifs (cat. no. 46) is a
two-tiered nuptial goblet: wine was poured into it
and the groom drank from the lower tier and the
bride the upper one. Similarly, in Japan, the bride
and groom carry out a three-times-three exchange
of nuptial cups. The sets of three tiered cut-glass
sake cups with stand that may be used on such
occasions are beautiful examples of cut glass. In
this example (cat. no. 51), the stand is hollow, so
that any sake left undrunk can be disposed of in
it. While alcoholic beverages were part of
weddings in both cases, the volume of drink
involved varied with the country. The difference
in the size of the vessels is astonishing.
Pledges are not always carried out between
human beings. The silver-colored mug with stag
design (cat. no. 41) is a beer mug decorated with
images of faith and allegiance to God.
Section three introduces drinking vessels and the context of pledges of love, common destiny, and
loyalty in which they were used.
Tiered Goblet with Birds and Animals Design
Bohemia 18th century
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo
Freemasonry Goblet
England
1868
Takahata Arts and Crafts Museum, Chiba

Glorifications
With the development of improved materials for glassmaking and progress in decorative techniques,
greater freedom of form emerged. Even among vessels with the form of wine goblets, for example,
examples with a variety of implicit messages appeared. The vessel type known as Holy Roman
Emperor and Electors Humpen (cat. no. 63-66), for example, were beer glasses, designed for
drinking in turn from the same glass. They are decorated with a double-headed eagle design, the
seven electors who chose the Holy Roman Emperor, and other symbols of the Holy Roman Empire.
Their role was to encourage and enhance attachment and allegiance to the empire, in a region
constantly best by internal strife. Similarly, in Britain, which became the central player in the
international economy in the eighteenth century, goblets (such as cat. no. 79) were made with
inscriptions of scenes expressing that glory. We also see inscribed on them, as in this example, the
phrase "Floreat London," with its hope for continued prosperity. Drinking vessels were often made
with such extraordinary techniques that their very use was a status symbol. The Venetian lace glass
goblet with lid (cat. no. 54), with lace motifs formed within the glass, was a type of large goblet
highly popular among the European aristocracy. Rather than being actually used as a wine glass,
such works were adornments for the table, conveying the owner’s lofty status to others. Goblets
decorated with hunting scenes, a popular type, had a similar function. Scenes of fox hunting, a sport
reserved for the royalty and aristocracy, informed others of the owner’s membership in those ranks
of society. The fourth section of this exhibition offers an extensive view of drinking vessels
designed to encourage moral or political ideas or to express one’s pride and status.

Holy Roman Electors Humpen

Germany
1606
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of
Art

Celebrations
Wine implies a party. Throughout
the world, ceremonial annual
events and festive banquets are
accompanied by wine, and by the
clinking together of wine glasses
as an auditory component.
Vessels for simply enjoying wine,
to add to the visual spectacle at a
formal banquet, to use at outdoor
parties and create a sense of
refreshing coolness--goblets and
other wine vessels, in great
variety, are party animals.

Romer cups from Germany and

the Netherlands take their name,
it is said, from a word meaning
“welcome.” Such cups were used on ordinary occasions to serve wine or beer. The example with
"Ein Glasj van welkomest" (a welcoming glass) carved in beautiful ornamental lettering (cat. no.
112), however, probably was used in celebrating the arrival of a special guest.
Events were people gather and enjoy themselves often are accompanied by games and other forms
of entertainment. A puzzle goblet (cat. no. 116), for example, requires great ingenuity to figure out
how to drink from it. Vessels with two cups attached (cat. no. 117) were designed for a man and
woman to drink wine from together. A cantir (cat. no. 118) is a drinking vessel with no mouth; the
wine is poured from its spout into the drinker’s mouth. These vessels bring to mind laughing voices
and scenes of enjoyment.
Given glass’s cool texture and appearance, it is a popular choice for summer banquets. Sets of sake
decanters, tiered sets of boxes, small dishes, and other items fit in boxes designed to be carried to
outdoor feasts. The boxes were often of lacquer, but sometimes the box itself was also made of
glass (cat. no. 131). The clear, clean effect of the glass evokes a sense of refreshing coolness and
brings a suggestion of fresh breezes to hot summer parties.

The final section of this exhibition introduces drinking vessels in conjunction with celebrations,
gatherings, hospitality, and sheer enjoyment from all over the world. It also introduces the drinking
glass of today through the work of six now active glass artists.

Picnic Box with Glass Saké

Bottle, Two-tiered Food Box, and
Dishes
Japan
18th century
Bindeisha Vidro-Diamante-Glass
Museum, Ehime
Set of Liqueur Glasses with Geometrical Design Austria
c. 1920
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art