_Tavern and Household Glasses._--It is customary to refer to tavern and household glass as belonging to a separate classification. There is really no justification for any such division; it is perfectly natural that utensils for common use should be stronger and clumsier editions of the better-class glasses. The very earliest were clumsy in the extreme as regards design, and rough in execution, but later specimens show greater elaboration and skill. With the advent of the drawn glass, most tavern and household glasses took this form, and have retained it with little variation. Two kinds are noticeable--those with a “blow” inside the stem, and those without. In the drawn stems the blow shrank in dimensions, and became a tear, which, by the way, is almost invariably upside down, the broader end being uppermost. Half-way through the eighteenth century the tear vanished altogether, and the plain solid stem came into use. The common wine glasses were small editions of the larger glasses, and frequently bore rudely executed decorations of festoons, vine leaves, and flowers. The feet are flat, and may be either folded or unfolded, the former being of the earlier type. Specimens are fairly easily obtainable, the thickness of the metal and the stoutness of the design carrying them safely through the dangers to which they were specially liable. Apart from their age they have no special merit. The metal is as inferior as the form. Tumblers were less frequently made in the eighteenth century than were wine glasses, and in the early part, at any rate, those that were met with were chiefly foreign importations. It is possible that the plain lines of the tumbler did not appeal to tastes accustomed to the graceful outlines of the wine glasses. The early ones are cylinder-shaped, and very large, while eighteenth-century tumblers taper somewhat toward the base. Both are very scarce. Now and again one meets the barrel shape. Foreign tumblers are often profusely decorated by engraving, colouring, and gilding--the quality of the decoration being distinctly inferior to its quantity. The rummer is a characteristic Old English public-house glass, and is of various types. It was, of course, as the name implies, used for making punch. Among the types are the ogee-shaped bowls--either plain or pressed--barrel-shaped bowls, and trumpet-shaped bowls. All have short, thick stems, often with a collar, sometimes baluster-shaped. The base is strong and generally flat. Some specimens have heavy, square bases, evidently designed to secure their stability.