English Kit-Kat, or Kit-cat Type Baluster Wine Glass c1720
Directory: Antiques: Decorative Art: Glass: English: Pre 1837 VR: Item # 1359520
Please refer to our stock # g1409 when inquiring.
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A fine antique baluster drinking glass of the type often referred to known as being "Kit-cat" glass. The form is a drawn trumpet bowl with a medial inverted baluster knop in the plain stem. The foot is folded with a rough, snapped pontil.
The height of the glass is 6 5/8", with a bowl diameter of 2 5/8" and a foot diameter of 2 7/8". The condition is excellent, with no chips, cracks, haze, or restoration.
NOTES: 1. Though this form is quite often called a "Kit-cat" (or Kit-Kat), and accepted as such, an actual Kit-cat glass has a true baluster knop rather than an inverted baluster.
2.The Kit-cat Club was composed of a group of influential men pledged to uphold the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 and the Protestant succession. Founded by Somers, the Lord Chancellor and the publisher Tonson, the club began meeting in Christopher Cat's tavern near Temple Bar, and took its name from his mutton pies known as Kit-cats
The association of the term "Kit-cat" with a particular form of glass comes from a painting done by Sir Godfrey Kneller as part of a set he did in the 1697 to 1721 period. The painting showed 6 members of the club gathered around a table, enjoying their wine from glasses of the form discussed here.
3. An almost identical example of the glass offered in this listing is shown as Figure 117 in the 1986 revised edition of L.M. Bickerton's "Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses".
