At the beginning of the century, however, the use of different glasses for different kinds of wine had not yet arisen. A bowl of water was placed on the table in which the drinkers rinsed their glasses when a new vintage made its appearance. Subsequently each guest had [Illustration: FIG. 40. Examples of Baluster Stems and Tear Glasses.] his special bowl for this purpose. These bowls are exceedingly rare, and are generally described as wine-coolers. Their modern equivalent is the finger bowl. There was naturally a vast difference between the glass of the early part of the century and that of the later part. Speaking very broadly, the order of progress was as follows:-- 1. Heavy glass with baluster stems. 2. Lighter glass with air-twisted stems. 3. Drawn stems. 4. Opaque-twisted stems. 5. Cut glass. Many of these glasses are still in existence and it is even possible for the amateur collector to acquire an occasional specimen. This early eighteenth-century glass is of remarkable quality, both as regards form and lustre. It is true that it is less perfect in shape and texture than the products of to-day, but it is superior in artistic merit, in originality of design and softness of outline. The lack of perfect symmetry is one of its charms, as it is in the case of old lace which, so far as absolute and meticulous perfection of detail is concerned, is often far behind the modern machine-made product. But what it lacks in symmetry and precision is more than compensated by artistic feeling. Mr Hartshorne in his monumental work on “Old English Glasses,” a work to which the present writer and every other writer on the subject must acknowledge a vast indebtedness, makes an exhaustive classification of the various types of eighteenth-century glasses. To his order one is bound closely to conform, although it is far from the province of the present work to attempt to deal exhaustively with the various types he so fully and admirably describes. The earliest examples have funnel-shaped bowls with tall stems. These are of great variety of shape. Some are quite plain, others are twisted, others ribbed. Some, again, are “baluster” shaped, _i.e._ formed after the pattern of the columns of a balustrade. Many have a knop or button in the middle, others are ornamented with twisted lines, either hollow or filled with glass of different colours, interwoven in spirals, twists, networks and plaits in all kinds of ingenious ways.