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Identifying vessel glass fragments

Wine glass stems, phials, and the anatomy of broken glassware.

Table glass identifies from its anatomy: wine glass stems are the classic — baluster forms (early 18th century), air-twist and opaque-twist spirals (mid-18th), faceted stems (later 18th). A twist stem fragment is instantly datable within decades.

Small phials and bottles — thin, often pale green or colourless — served medicines and perfume from Roman times onward; their rims and bases narrow the period. Lead crystal (from the 1670s) is heavier, brighter, and rings; earlier soda and forest glass is lighter, often greenish or straw-tinted.

Record which part you hold (rim, stem, foot, base), colour, and any moulded, cut, or engraved decoration. Foot fragments keep pontil scars; rims keep their finishing. Even a stem section deserves its photograph — twist patterns are a catalogue in themselves.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on glass

Identifying ancient glass — Iridescence, bubbles, and weathering.

Dating glass wine bottles — From onion to cylinder — bottle shape is a timeline.

Identifying trade and glass beads — Drawn, wound, and chevron beads that travelled the world.

Identifying Roman glass — Blue-green vessels, ribbed bowls, and iridescence earned underground.

Identifying window glass — Crown bullseyes, cylinder sheets, and painted church fragments.

Identifying inkwells, stoppers, and small glass objects — The little glass things that survive whole.

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