Raise a Glass

November 25, 2015

Thanksgiving is upon us, which means lots of turkey, pumpkin pie, and of course cranberry everything: sauce, stuffing, desserts, and even glassware. That’s right, this rose-colored type of glass is named after the holiday fruit, but it actually dates back to the Roman Empire. Surprisingly, the art of making the glass is rather expensive because gold is added to the molten glass to achieve the cranberry color before it is molded or blown into its final shape.

The photograph above pairs a full-size Victorian-style cranberry glass goblet with a variety of fine-scale miniature cranberry glass works by Francis Whittemore. The pieces include diminutive stemware, decanters with functional stoppers, and a punch bowl with cut details that is just big enough to fit an actual cranberry.