The Feet of Tumblers
Even the bases of tumblers were made thick, though they were smaller in circumference than the top of the tumbler.
VII The Various Types of Stem
Wine glasses and other drinking vessels of glass may best be classified according to the shape or decoration of the stem.
1 The Baluster Stem
The oldest English drinking glasses are those which have lumpy, knobby, bulbous stems, of wavy outlines imitating the stems of Tudor and Stuart silver goblets, and rather resembling the shape of balusters in stair or terrace balustrades, or the uprights in some old gate-leg tables; perhaps among the baluster stems we should class those which rather resemble an inverted obelisk, the broad part just under the bowl and the point within the foot (see, page 84); this long remained the favourite shape (and is almost the characteristic shape) for what are called sweetmeat glasses on stems, and for comports or glass stands for sweetmeat glasses; it gives a kind of shoulder to the stem. Sometimes the lower part of such a stem as this is square in section.