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Description, References and Size

This is a tapered carafe with three bladed neck rings. It has a broken pontil and kick in the base to stop the pontil scratching the table. Absolutely no cutting in the making of this carafe. Made circa.1780.

This is an elegant carafe for the purist collector.

When blowing the bottle of a decanter, the lip of the decanter has to be cut away from the blow pipe whilst the glass is still hot and malleable. This is done by first attaching a metal rod with a blob of molten glass to the bottom of the bottle, then when the top is cut away from the blow pipe the bottom is now attached to the of a metal rod. The top of bottle is usually put back into the furnace so that it can be reheated so that the lip of glass can be shaped and smoothed out. As the bottle cools this leaves the bottom stuck the metal rod. This is broken off leaving a rough broken mark on the bottom of the bottle. If you don't polish this out and the bottom of the bottle is flat it would scratch any table the bottle rests on and make the bottle unstable. This broken mark is called a pontil mark. Before they started polishing out pontil marks, the trick was to push in the bottom of the bottle so that it rested on the outer edge, as you still see in modern wine bottles where the kick in the base is now a tradition and serves no useful purpose. Apologies if you knew all this and I am teaching grannies to suck eggs.

Reference: The Decanter, Andy McConnell, page 449

Reference: The Decanter Ancient to Modern, Andy McConnell, page 333

Reference: Hallmarks of Antique Glass, R. Wilkinson, page 42

Height: 9.35 inches

Width: 3.25 inches

This is a club shaped carafe with three neck rings and a polished pontil. This carafe has quite a wide throat and couldn't be mistaken for a decanter. Made circa.1800.

This is a classic text book piece for the collector. It won't be cheap, unless you get lucky.

Reference: The Decanter Ancient to Modern, Andy McConnell, page 341

Reference: Hallmarks of Antique Glass, R. Wilkinson, page 42

Height: 7.4 inches

Width: 4 inches

This is a shouldered shaped carafe with three neck rings and a polished pontil. Made circa.1800.

I would say the shape of this carafe is not as good as the one above, but this carafe is more desirable because of one aspect; size. This carafe is easily big enough to take a whole bottle of wine and the one above is not and makes a big difference. So whilst this is desirable to collectors of old glass it is also desirable to flash gits who want to put something old on their table to serve win out of.

Reference: The Decanter Ancient to Modern, Andy McConnell, page 341

Reference: Hallmarks of Antique Glass, R. Wilkinson, page 42

Height: 8.5 inches

Width: 4.5 inches

This is a shouldered shaped carafe, with two bladed neck rings, panel cut shoulders, and a small pouring lip. It has a polished pontil mark. Made circa.1810.

Design wise this has mismatched features that would not normally be seen together, the small pouring lip and two bladed neck rings seem to indicate an earlier design of decanter but the slim panels cut on the shoulders are usually post 1800.

This might be an Irish decanter by B.Edwards of Belfast they stuck to the older shapes, and two bladed neck rings with a small pouring lip was common. Happy to be advised on this.

I have called them bladed rings, but they are also sometimes called triangular rings.

Reference: Irish Glass, Revised Edition 1978, Dudley Westropp edited by Mary Boydell, page 84-5.

Height: 6.5 inches

Width: 3.5 inches

This is a fancy shaped carafe with a flange at the base of the neck, and slice cutting to the neck and shoulders. Made approximately 1830s

I have seen the description fancy applied to decanters with this type of flange at the base of the neck in a number of books. Why "fancy" other than it is a new at that time, I don't know.

Height: 8 inches

Width: 3.5 inches

This is a shouldered shaped carafe with a single neck ring at the base of the neck, the body covered with large printies, and slice cutting to the neck and shoulders. Made approximately 1830s

This is a really nice carafe, the optic effect caused by the large printies is cool (even my teenage son thought so, so it must be true). As good looking as this carafe is, you won't find it in any text book. If this were a decanter with big printies like this it would be quite a desirable thing. whilst a carafe like this gets stuffed on a high shelf at the back of an antiques centre and sold to me for £10. So if you are looking for something cheap to collect; carafes.

Height: 9 inches

Width: 4 inches

This is a club shaped carafe, with a thick single ring at the base of the neck, slice cut neck and body. It has star cutting over the pontil mark. Made circa.1860s-70s.

This is a quality made item, only it's a pity the glass is so thick that it doesn't hold a full bottle of wine making it less useful.

Reference: The Decanter Ancient to Modern, Andy McConnell, page 333

Height: 9.5 inches

Width: 4 inches

This is a shaft and globe shaped carafe, with a single ring near the top of the neck, a broken step at the base of the neck, no pouring lip, and no other decoration. It has a polished pontil mark. Made circa.1850-60s.

Whilst being totally impractical as it only holds about 2 glasses of wine, this is a really aesthetic and ergonomic design. It actually feels good to pick up by the neck and pour.

Height: 8 inches

Width: 4.5 inches

This is a plain conical carafe with a single annulated neck ring at the base of the neck and a panel cut neck. Circa 1850-80

This is a great carafe that would look good on anyones table, the bonus being that it should hold a full bottle of wine. This is the kind of that you would find in hotels and good inns of the period.

Height: 8.5 inches

Width: 5 inches

This is a flat bottomed carafe, with a row of printies cut around the body and a slice cut neck. It has star cutting over the pontil mark. Made late 19th Century.

This is good carafe to get drunk with, it looks good on the table, it has a nice wide neck for easy filling, will easily take a bottle of wine, has a flat bottom so won't be easily knocked over, and best of all, if it suffers an accident, you won't have broken a valuable piece of glass.

Reference: Collecting Glass, Norman Webber, Page 125

Height: 8.75 inches

Width: 5.75 inches

This is an ovoid shaped carafe, with two rows of printies cut around the body and a slice cut neck. It has star cutting over the pontil mark. Made late 19th Century.

This is a really useful carafe as you should just be able to squeeze a bottle of wine into it. The two rows of oval printies look good too.

Height: 8 inches

Width: 4.75 inches

This is an ovoid footed carafe with a panel cut neck. It also has the cipher of Queen Victoria engraved on it. Circa 1880-1900.

I have asked around on Facebook about this carafe and the general consensus is that it is right. I think it's right too. Although it is very plain it is high quality and the engraving is nicely done. Anyone trying to copy this would have to already be skilled engraver, in which case it's not worth it, because I didn't pay much for it. The silver top that came with it pretty much had all the value.

Height: 7.25 inches

Width: 3.5 inches

This is a footed ovoid carafe with wrythen moulding up the body and neck, with four dimples and a feathered neck ring. Made Late 19th Century.

I have seen this pattern has been ascribed to Whitefriars and to John Walsh Walsh. These were purchased with glasses and a jug, and is amongst Whitefriars glasses in the Museum of London and in the John Walsh Walsh Book (see bibliography). It is listed in the Christies Partington Collection Catalogue as Whitefriars. These decanters also aren't in either of the Whitefriars books, and as they are not uncommon they should be. The David Leigh Decanters book does describe the decanter as Whitefriars and I am willing to go with that as it seems he knows what is he is doing.

Reference: Christies, The Parkingon Collection Part II, 8th April 1998, Lot 320

Reference: Decanters 1760-1930, David Leigh, Page 31

Reference: The Glass of John Walsh Walsh 1850-1951, Eric Reynolds, Page 32

Height: 7.25 inches

Width: 3.5 inches

This is a French carafe with panel cutting to the base of the body, a band of printies on the prow of the shoulder, a break step above the shoulder and slice cutting running in a continuous strip from the shoulder to halfway up the neck.

This is a distinctly French shape, and the decanters in this shape generally have tall blown stoppers with vertical panels cut in them.

Height: 10.25 inches

Width: 4.25 inches