The first type in this period (type 6) is generally referred to by reference to a glass seller John Greene. It is unique in the period in that copies of original designs survive (Sloane Manuscripts, 857, in the British Museum - Hartshorne 1897). Many of these drawings are copies of those produced to go with Greene's letters to the Venetian glass maker Allesio Morelli. Some of Greene's designs reuse ideas of seventy years earlier. In turn, features of his designs re-occur around a hundred years later and possibly form the inspiration for the classic late 18th/early 19th century 'Rummer'. Although the type is identified with Venice, most of the excavated glasses are probably English in origin. The quality of the glass is generally inferior and the majority does not match any of Greene's drawings, usually because they lack collars at the stem-bowl and/or the stem-foot junctions. The general trend is for the stem to become less complex and the glass thicker and more solid as the period progresses. The Greene designs themselves are the best guide to dating. His first order was in 1667 and there is no evidence that glasses of this type predate this. No stems of this type are known to have come from fire-of-London sites. His orders ceased in 1672. Thus it seems that these were the first types of glass 'designed' by a market-conscious merchant rather than being evolved by the makers. The style did not last long because of 'fashion' and the introduction of a new crystal glass poorly suited to the production of 'Greene' style glasses. One glass in a derivative style is made of crystal glass and is sealed. This probably dates from around 1676 [Fryer 97]. It is not made from glass containing lead oxide, but displays crisselling (progressive decay due to an unstable glass mixture. The only form of decoration in this group is moulding and trailing. See the classification for further details Greene stems
Type 7 glasses are probably the most important group of English-made glasses of the seventeenth century. They have no recognised name, so the descriptive term 'tapering stems' has been adopted. They represent the first real 'English' glass designs; introducing the simplicity of form and reliance on proportion which were to be the hall-mark of English-made drinking glass for the next century. These designs both resulted from, and exploited, the new crystal glass. They form the root for both the classic inverted-baluster stemmed and plain-stem trumpet glasses that dominated the early Georgian era and their influence can be traced into the early nineteenth century. As with the Greene designs, some original designs survive in Sloane Manuscripts, 857. These show three sizes - 170, 150, & 125 mm high- for beer, French wine and Spanish wine (or sack). See the classification for further details taper stems.
From 1676 to about 1684, many glassmakers put a seal on their glasses, by impressing a crest into a molten blob of glass. They probably copied this from bottle seals, but here the seal represented the maker, not the owner. The most common is a raven's head crest used by the glassmaker George Ravenscroft (Charleston 68) (Watts 75 & 90). All but one of these are known to be made of lead crystal. All sealed drinking glasses should be treated as potentially unstable and specialist conservation advice should be sought. Other known seals on tapering stems are:
The following features indicate a glass from the early part of the period:
Quite frequently taper-stems have four vertical indentations to give it a quatrefoil-shaped (four-leafed clover) cross-section. Approximately the same number of glasses is known with these markings as without them.
Type 8 glasses continue this quatrefoil theme, only in this case as the plan view shape of the central knop. This may be solid, but is more frequently hollow. For more details see their classification at quatrefoil-knop stems.
Non-stemmed drinking glasses, such as beakers have not yet been split-up by period, but their classification can be found at beakers.