Beschreibung:

A very rare engraved acorn-knopped baluster sweetmeat or 'lemon' glass, circa 1730-40With an oval or elliptical pan topped or double ogee bowl, finely engraved with a baroque border of anthemions issuing foliate scrollwork, sprays of fruiting vine or flowers suspended beneath, the stem with an acorn knop between shoulder and basal knops, on a domed foot, 16.7cm highFootnotesProvenance Francis Berry Collection Donald Beves Collection, Sotheby's, 11 May 1964, lot 84 Sotheby's, 17 April 1978, lot 44 Stephen Pohlmann Collection Sometimes known as 'lemon' glasses, these exceedingly rare dessert glasses are traditionally thought to have served as centrepieces atop a pyramid of tazzas, with the unusually shaped bowl holding a lemon. The incorporation of vine into the engraving suggests that they may have instead been used for grapes or wine. The present glass would appear to be one of an original set, all with virtually identical engraving. One is illustrated by L M Bickerton, Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses (1986), p.97, no.179 and was latterly in the Tughan Collection, see Delomosne and Son's 2017 catalogue, no.34. Another is illustrated by Delomosne and Son, The Baluster Family (1985), no.28. A third was sold by Bonhams on 14 November 2018, lot 35. An example with slightly different but related engraving is illustrated by W A Thorpe, A History of English and Irish Glass (1929), pl.XCIV, no.2.