FT Magazine Wine

Drink up: the real reason wine glasses keep getting bigger 
Polly Russell on what the evolving history of glassware reveals about our changing attitudes to alcohol

© Paula Castro
Polly Russell 11 HOURS AGO

Wine glasses, like wines, go in and out of fashion. But whether you prefer the newest trend in
stemless tumblers or the voluminous style of the 1990s, one thing has marked their evolution. Over
time, wine glasses have increased in size.

In a study published in the British Medical Journal last year, researchers investigated wine glasses
between 1700 and 2017 and discovered a sevenfold increase in volume. 

“We wanted to know if wine glasses had got bigger and whether any change might parallel our
increased consumption of wine,” explains Professor Theresa Marteau of Cambridge university. “We
know that larger tableware increases how much we eat — often without our awareness — and that
plate sizes have increased over the past 100 years but we could find no evidence in relation to wine
glasses.”

Marteau and her team are still investigating the implications of glass size for reducing wine
consumption. But just because our ancestors favoured diminutive glasses, does that mean they
drank less than us?
Left: glass with hollow-blown stem and artichoke design, c 1670. Right: glass with air-twist stem, bell bowl and vermiform collar, c 1750. After the 1745
Excise Act was imposed on glass according to weight, air twist stems became increasingly popular. © Paula Castro
During the late 17th century, a revolution took place in English glass production after a new way of
producing lead crystal glass was discovered by businessman George Ravenscroft.

Developed in his glassworks in Henley-on-Thames and supported by the Worshipful Company of

Glass Sellers, Ravenscroft’s methods meant glass was easier to melt, had an extended “working
period” and produced stronger, clearer and more practical glassware. As a result, Venice, the centre
of European glassmaking since the 14th century, was usurped and English glassmaking flourished.

According to Matthew Winterbottom, curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Ashmolean
Museum in Oxford, the English renaissance in glassmaking resulted in a proliferation of
production. By 1696, there were 27 glass houses in England exporting throughout Europe.
Left: a stemmed wine glass designed by Philip Webb, possibly for William Morris, in around 1859. Right: the classic bistro wine glass known as the "Paris
Goblet" was mass produced in the 1980s. Spherical in shape and thick-rimmed, it became hugely popular due to its affordability. © Paula Castro
“There was a delight in the ingenuity of the maker creating these incredible bowls and increasingly
elaborate stems,” explains Winterbottom. Glasses from the period are dazzling in their variety,
with many of mesmerising complexity and delicacy. They must have thrilled contemporary diners
as they sparkled and glittered.

Compared with today, Georgian wine glasses were tiny, often no more than 3in or 4in high. Small
glass size, however, did not necessarily correspond to restrained alcohol consumption. With their
gluttony and gout, Georgians were renowned for drinking copious amounts. The diminutive size of
the Georgian wine glass was nothing to do with abstemiousness.

From 1745, Britain’s trade in glass was so lucrative that it was the subject of successive

taxation on the basis of weight. This incentivised glassmakers to produce lighter “excise” glasses.
These often featured hollowed out stems and were decorated with complex cutting and engraving
to seduce potential customers.
Winterbottom, however, argues that tax is only part of the picture: “For the first half of the 18th
century, people don’t tend to drink wine from the table,” he explains. “Wine is brought to them in a
glass on a little salver, they take a swig and drain it and then it is taken back to the sideboard and
rinsed. That’s really why they are so small in the 18th century — it’s to do with fashion, not so much
[to do with] tax.”

During the Victorian period, the size and number of

By the time garages were
giving away ‘crystal’ sets
with a purchase of petrol in
the 1980s, the ornate wine
glass was officially naff
wine glasses served with the meal began to increase.
Where previously dinners were served à la française
in two or three help-yourself courses, the 19th
century saw the adoption of eating à la russe, where
successive courses of ready-plated food were placed
in front of diners. 
From the 1990s and into the 2000s, a more voluminous, tulip-style glass with a thin rim becomes popular, allowing drinkers to appreciate the taste and
scent of wine. In the 2010s, tumbler-style glasses begin to appear as a more informal way to serve wine © Paula Castro
The relative informality of Georgian grand dining was replaced by Victorian rigidity and rules that
helped the aspiring middle classes navigate the contours of social acceptability. Dinners of seven or
more courses were now accompanied by paired wines served in bespoke glasses. “With glasses
remaining on table and not being brought to you,” says Winterbottom, “they needed to be bigger,
because they are not being refilled every time you took a drink.” 

Well into the 20th century, hand-blown, elaborately cut wine glasses were associated with fine
dining, but their status diminished with industrial manufacturing and the subsequent fall in prices.
By the time garages were giving away “crystal” sets with a purchase of petrol in the 1980s, the
ornate wine glass was officially naff. Today’s liking for simple, large glasses can be traced to the
gradual rejection of style over content in matters of dining from the 1970s onwards. 

According to the study in the BMJ, wine consumption rose fourfold between 1960 and 1980 and
almost doubled again during 1980-2004. Glass size may play a factor in encouraging consumption
but ultimately the growing popularity of wine has been determined by its availability and
affordability in the late 20th century. The BMJ study reveals how the girth of glasses has grown
over time but, in the context of the 18th and 19th centuries, this says less about quantities imbibed
than it does about changing fashions in dining and drinking. Size, it turns out, may not always
matter. 

How glass size has changed over the past 300 years. Data: BMJ, 2017

Polly Russell is a curator at the British Library; @PollyRussell1

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