This is one of the rare groups where copies of original designs survive (these sketches are from Sloane Manuscripts, 857, in the British Museum) and where glasses can be dated with some precision. This is possible for a number of reasons:
The drawings shown here were copies of those that went with Greene's letter to the Venetian glass maker Allesio Morelli on January 18th 1671/2 (note: years still ended in March then, so this was 1671 by the old calendar, but 1672 as we understand it). On the drawings are Greene's instructions about how the lower part of the bowl and the button (stem) must be blown thicker than normal - reflecting customers requirements for thicker, stronger and heavier glasses.
On some of Greene's orders, drawings of glass were labelled as according to what type of drink they are for: beer, French wine and Spanish wine (or sack). The ones shown above were for beer, and the same page had smaller ones for French wine.
During the later parts of this period, some glass makers put a seal on some of their glasses, by impressing a crest into a molten blob of glass. They probably copied this from seals on bottles, but here the seal represented the maker and not the owner. The first clear mention of a glass-maker using a seal was in the London Gazette for 5th October 1676. A notice six-months earlier may also refer to using seals. Only a boar's head seal has been found on a glass with a 'Greene' type stems. This is not made from lead crystal, although lead glass examples are known, such as the one illustrated here. This one is criselled
The only known form of decoration in this group is that which was applied while the glass was moulten; no engraved or painted examples have been found. Simple moulding, such as that shown on the right in the Sloane 857 illustration above, is most common, although examples of one form of honeycomb moulding have been found in England, Holland and Maryland USA.
The Greene designs themselves are the best guide to dating. The first order was in 1667 and there is no evidence that glasses of this type were produced before then. Material recovered from the remains of a glass-seller's shop that was burnt down during the fire of London in 1666 does not include any glasses of this type. Since this would have been a prestige retail location, it is probable that they would have stocked contemporary designs. Thus it seems that these were the first type of glass 'designed' by a market-conscious merchant rather than being evolved by the makers. The style did not last long (previous styles had lasted at least sixty years, virtually unchanged) because this period saw the birth of 'fashion' as a concept. There is evidence from one excavation that glasses of this period were thrown away because they were out of fashion, rather than because they were no longer useable. Glass makers also complained bitterly that they were having to discount sales from the ends of batches in order to sell them, because fashions changed so quickly.
The general trend is for the stem to become less complex and the glass thicker and more solid as the period progresses.
A number of features in Greene's designs are similar to those found on late sixteenth/early seventeenth century English glasses. Some of these general features reappear around a hundred years later, and it can be argued that Greene's designs were the inspiration for the classic late eighteenth/early nineteenth century 'Rummer'. It is also probable that another source of inspiration for the bucket-bowl design that Greene frequently used was the gold and silver mounts used for mounting seventeenth century glass beakers. Although the group is identified with the glasses that John Greene ordered from Venice, most of the excavated glasses are probably English in origin. The quality of the glass is inferior to that produced by the Venetians and the majority do not match any of Greene's drawings, usually because they lack collars at the stem-bowl and/or the stem-foot junctions.
For notes on the 17th Century glass classification used Click Here . Unlike the classifications of some earlier stem forms, the basic form of the Greene stem does not include a strengthening merese at either the stem-to-bowl and the stem-to-foot junctions.