Page 48 - The Hunt - Winter 2019/2020

VINTAGE
78 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
winter 2019-20
By Roger Morris | Photographs by Jim Graham
Crystal Clear
The long holiday tradition of glittery glass.
Decades ago, before drinking wine every
day caught on with many Americans—and before
Riedel became synonymous with what we drank it from—I
was a lowly writing instructor and my wife was finishing her degree at Arizona State University. The winter
holidays were approaching, and we decided we couldn’t afford tickets to fly east to visit family. Living in the Sonoran Desert, there was little prospect of a white Christmas.
But there was this little shop in Scottsdale, Ariz., that looked, sounded and smelled like Christmas as soon
as you opened the door. We bought our first two stems of small, delicate crystal—Orrefors white wine glasses— from its Danish owner, who had a unique philosophy. “Even if you can’t afford wine to drink in them, use them anyway—even if you just drink Kool Aid,” he said. “It will look beautiful.”
I can’t remember what we drank that Christmas, but we did use the Orrefors. In time, we bought a fuller set. By today’s standards, they’re no
longer practical for entertaining thanks to their small sizes. Still,
we bring them out every year to toast the holiday season.
While many types of glass are referred to as crystal, true crystal contains lead. Englishman George Ravenscroft discovered the process in 1674, finding that crystal glass could be made thinner, was more durable and had clearer, more reflective qualities than typical potash or flint glass.
Ireland quickly became a hotbed
for handmade crystal. With a growing merchant class in the 17th century, the ancestors of modern chandeliers were often made of cut glass from places
such as Bohemia and Murano in the Venetian archipelago. Candles—and later whale oil—were the original sources of illumination. Tin shields were employed to reflect and therefore increase light from lamps and wall sconces, which was especially important in smaller homes. Many of those grand and simple chandeliers and lamps are still available today in antiques and collectibles shops, waiting to be hoisted above a beautiful table spread.
“The criteria for effective light fixtures were that they should reflect and refract light into the dark areas of a room,” says Ann Wagner, a curator at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. Crystal also had the advantage of amplifying rays of sun in the mornings and afternoons, so much so that sometimes lighting needed to be toned