More notes towards a history of the beer mug

Loved and disliked in equal parts, and enjoying an unexpected renaissance in hipstery parts, despite being more than 70 years old, the dimpled beer mug is undoubtedly an icon of England.

It was invented in 1938 at the Ravenhead glassworks in St Helens, Lancashire by an in-house designer whose name is now forgotten, and given the factory identity “P404”. Although the dimple has its enemies, who dislike its weight and its thickness, it soon became extremely popular, and at a rough guess some 500 million have been manufactured since it was born.

Strawberry pink pint beer mug of the kind George Orwell enjoyed, stamped 'Pint MxCC GR 29', for Middlesex County Council
Strawberry pink pint beer mug of the kind George Orwell enjoyed, stamped ‘Pint MxCC GR 29’, for Middlesex County Council

The dimple had much competition: even in 1938, many pubs still served beer in the pottery mugs that George Orwell praised in his “Moon Under Water” essay about his ideal pub, from the Evening Standard in 1946. Orwell declared that “in my opinion beer tastes better out of china,” but “china mugs went out about 30 years ago [that is, during the First World War], because most people like their drink to be transparent.” However, two documentary films made just before Orwell’s essay, The Story of English Inns, from 1944, and Down at the Local, from 1945, both show pint china mugs were still being used alongside glass ones, at least in country pubs. Orwell talked about the pottery beer mug as being strawberry-pink in colour, but they came in other shades (baby blue and a dark biscuit-beige, for example), all with white interiors and white handles, and also with transfer-print designs. The majority of pottery beer mugs, however, appear, in fact, to have been of the kind known as mochaware, invented around the end of the 18th century, which have tree or fern-like patterns on the sides, made by a drop of acid dropped onto the glaze of the mug while it was still wet. Most mochaware pint beer mugs seem to have been blue, or beige-and-blue, with black and white bands. Many were made by TG Green of Church Gresley, South Derbyshire, while the plain coloured mugs were the speciality of Pountneys of Bristol. TG Green stopped producing mochaware at the outbreak of war in 1939, when it was apparently the last company still making mochaware beermugs. It tried to revive the tradition in 1981, without success. The company closed in 2007.

Pewter mugs were pretty much obsolete by the middle of the 20th century, though Orwell claimed that “stout … goes better in a pewter pot”, and they were described as “old-fashioned” even in 1900, when they were said to have been replaced by the glass mug, “a thick, almost unbreakable article”. The problem, for publicans, was that their pewter pots kept being stolen, and they cost around ten times as much as china beer mugs. The better class of premises kept silver-plated pewter beermugs and, to guard against theft, carved the name and address of the pub into the base. Glass was also cheaper – and, it was claimed, the working man at the end of the 19th century liked to have his mild beer served in a glass so that he could see it was bright, and not hazy or cloudy.

Two men drinking from china pint mugs, from the film Down at the Local, 1945
Two men drinking from china pint mugs, one mochaware, the other transfer printed, from the film The Story of English Inns, 1944

Fortunately for the beer mug collector, after the Weights and Measures Act of 1878, drinking vessels used on licensed premises for draught beer or cider purporting to be a specific size – half-pint, pint or quart – had to bear an Official Stamp Number, either acid etched or sand-blasted through a stencil, a system that lasted, with tweaks, until 2007, and each district – county council, county borough and the like – had its own numbers, so that, for example, 19 was Derbyshire and 490 Bristol. They also carried the mark of the crown, and the initials of the reigning monarch of the time, something that had first been required by the Act “for ascertaining the Measures for retailing Ale and Beer” that had become law under William III in 1700. (That Act covered vessels “made of wood, earth, glass, horn, leather, pewter or of some other good and wholesome metal”, suggesting the variety of drinking vessels you could expect in a Stuart inn or alehouse, and it also only mentions quarts and pints, suggesting the half-pint was illegal – or at least extremely rare.) It is thus possible to tell roughly when an older beer mug was made, and roughly where, too. In 2007, when the CE, or “Conformitée Européenne” mark replaced the old system (leading to the Daily Mail to declare: “EU stealing the crown of the great British pint”), it became easier to tell when a glass was made, but no simpler to find out where and by whom. Alongside the CE on the glass will be an “M” and the last two digits of the year of manufacture, plus the identification number of the “notified body” that verified that the container was an accurate measure. To identify the notified body you have to go to the Nando website – nothing to do with peri-peri chicken, this stands for New Approach Notified and Designated Organisations.

Glasses specifically for drinking beer out of have been made in Britain since at least 1639, when a glasshouse (probably in Newcastle upon Tyne) owned by Sir Robert Mansell, who had acquired a monopoly on glass making, was selling beer glasses at a price half that of similar glasses imported from Venice. But such glasses were still expensive: in the 1660s a glasshouse owned by the Duke of Buckingham in London was selling “English Christall” beer glasses at six pence each, equivalent to more than £50 today. These were bowl-shaped glasses, with broad feet and heavy “knops”, the technical term for the ornamental knobs on the stem. Later, in the 18th century, beer and ale glasses became smaller and more delicate – at least in part because glass was taxed by weight from 1745 onwards – and were frequently decorated with fine engravings of hops, barley and so on. These engraved glasses held just five ounces (14cl) of strong beer or ale, or less. But they were still restricted to the rich: when all the belongings of the late Earl of Grantham were auctioned off in February 1755, for example, among all the “fine pictures, antique marble busts, large wardrobe of linnen, curious and magnificent collection of fine old Japan China, &c” for sale were 53 jelly glasses, 18 water glasses, 18 wine glasses and 30 beer glasses. Those beer glasses cost a hefty two to three shillings each, after tax, and according to a letter in the Pottery and Glass Trades Journal in October 1879, because of the expense of glass, in the pub, inn or tavern, “time was” that ale in a glass tumbler cost more than the same drink in a pewter mug: two pence per half pint, against one and a half pence.

It would take the invention of pressed glass, made by pressing semi-molten glass into an iron mould, before beer glasses could begin to come into the reach of the common drinker. Pressed glass was being made in Europe in the late 18th century, but the first patent for a commercial glass-pressing machine was granted in the United States in 1825 to John Palmer Bakewell, son of an English-born Pittsburgh glassmaker, Benjamin Bakewell. The first glass-pressing machine in Britain was installed at the Wordsley Flint Glass Works in Stourbridge in 1833, founded by Benjamin Richardson, whose firm became the first in the country to make mass-produced pressed glass tumblers. Indeed, before pressed glass, tumblers – handle-less, footless glasses, tapering (known as “conical”) or straight-sided – and glass mugs, with handles (called “cans” by the glass makers), were difficult to produce. Moulded glass made their manufacture much easier.

However, in Britain glass remained relatively expensive until the abolition of the glass tax in 1845, which caused an “immense” increase in the production of glass of all kinds. But even after that date, the evidence suggests that glass drinking vessels remained rare in pubs until the end of the Victorian period. While the catalogue of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851 showed Thomas Webb of Platt’s Glass Works, near Stourbridge, exhibiting “ales” among his many types of glassware, from sugar bowls to vases, this appears to be the only specific mention of beer glasses among the more than 30 British glassware manufacturers there, and can be put alongside the porcelain porter mug exhibited by the Hanley pottery manufacturer Charles Meigh & Sons. There were more foreign exhibitors of beer glasses, from Prague and Prussia, than British. Three decades later, John Henry Henshall’s painting In the Pub from 1882, otherwise known as “Behind the Bar”, a view of what is believed to be a pub in Old Street or Caledonian Road, London from the staff side of the operation, appears to show only pewter pots on the shelves and in the sinks.

John Henry Henshall's painting
In John Henry Henshall’s 1882 London pub there are no glass beer mugs, only pewter pots

A decade later, however, there was suddenly a rush of evidence for the increasing popularity of beer in glass containers. In June 1894 the Portsmouth Evening News reported:

It has been noticed, says the Daily News, that the old-fashioned pewter pot has disappeared from public-houses and is replaced by beer glasses. In connection with the supply of these glasses – an enormous number of which is required – a serious complaint is heard from the glass trade in London. The stamping and verifying of the glasses costs a penny each – almost as much as the cost of production. Several County Councils in the north of England have been in the habit of allowing the makers to have the glasses stamped, under supervision of Council officials, on their own premises. This means a saving to the Councils, and they allow the manufacturers rebates of 30 or 40 per cent, which enables them to compete successfully with London makers. The fine machinery which the London County Council obtained to stamp the glasses is therefore now practically standing idle. A few months ago many thousands of glasses were being stamped every week, but now cheap stamped glasses are being imported from the north, the London glass trade is suffering in consequence and the Council is losing its fees. The Board of Trade has decided that it has no power to compel County Councils to stop the rebate system and do their own stamping.

The social researcher Charles Booth, in 1896, wrote in Life and Labour of the People in London that “until comparatively recent years the publican’s customers were very particular as to their ale being served in a ‘nice bright pewter pot’ … the pot is, however, being now largely supplanted by the glass.” Two years later, in 1898, a witness to a parliamentary inquiry into the materials being used to brew beer talked about “the alleged preference of the working man to have his beer in glasses” – which he denied, saying that it was the publicans leading the movement towards glass, because it was cheaper than pewter, and took up less space. All the same, the Brewers’ Journal that year carried an article on brewing “brilliant” beer, saying that there was a “steadily increasing demand for light fresh beers … capable of withstanding the critical glass test”, suggesting that the use of glass mugs and tumblers in pubs was indeed rising because of customer preference.

Although under the 1872 Weights and Measures Act all draught beer or cider sold in quantities of a half pint or more had to be delivered to the customer in glasses bearing an official stamp, there was no such requirement governing the sale of quantities less than half a pint (10 fluid ounces). Publicans asked for “a half pint” or “a pint” or “a quart” had to give their customer exactly that, in a stamped glass, but if asked for “a glass” of beer, as long as it was less than half a pint, it could be any quantity. Most landlords, it would appear, kept a stock of unstamped 8fl oz beer glasses to supply those customers who asked for “a glass” of ale or beer. The charge was a penny: but when David Lloyd George’s budget of 1910 imposed big extra costs on brewers, pushing up the price of beer, a penny for eight fluid ounces was suddenly uneconomical. To keep the retail price of a “glass of beer” at a penny, smaller glasses were needed. A “pony”, holding around a quarter of a pint, 5fl oz, was too small, so the publicans introduced a new beer glass holding four-thirteenths of a pint – 6.15fl oz – which was swiftly dubbed by customers the “Lloyd George”. (The “glass” of beer was finally outlawed by the Weights and Measures Act of 1963, since when draught beer can only legally be sold in stamped glasses holding a third of a pint, half a pint or a pint – and, more recently, two thirds of a pint.)

An adAd for beer tumblers from 1922
An advertisement for beer tumblers from 1922

Earlier Victorian beer glasses included rummers, or footed goblets, an attractive style that unfortunately died out. Glass beer mugs in late Victorian and Edwardian times seem to have been heavily ribbed, or cylindrical, while the tumblers were slightly slope-sided or conical. An advertisement for British-made beer tumblers from 1922 shows three different types, plain, with a rayed pattern on the bottom, and with internal ribs, in a style called “Venetian”. [addendum April 2022] The first showing for what what was to become the first iconic beer glass, the ten-sided (or “lantern”) mug, came the same year, 1922, in a catalogue issued by Sowerby’s Ellison Glassworks Ltd of Gateshead. Sowerby’s called the style the ”Fluted Can”, and gave the pints the catalogue number 1513, while the half-pint version was catalogue number 2336. Somerby’s also made four other styles of handled glass beer “cans”, one plain and the others showing different stles of fluting.

By 1930 the Crystal Glass Company, a subsidiary of Bagley & Co of Knottingley, West Yorkshire was also showing showing a version of the lantern glass in its catalogue, as well as two other styles of handled “can” mug: plain and cylindrical; and with ribs or dentition around the base.

Mr XXX leads his army of ten-sided beer mugs
Mr XXX leads his army of ten-sided beer mugs

Jobling & Co of Sunderland apparently also had ten-sided mugs in its catalogue, and Ravenhead certainly made them too. They quickly became common, and when the Brewers’ Society began its “Beer is Best” advertising campaign in 1933, to try to reverse falling beer sales, it soon started using the lantern mug in its advertising, with the campaign’s mascot, “Mr XXX”, depicted as a cheery face inside a ten-sided pint glass, with arms and legs. While most examples were made in standard clear glass, Bagley & Co made some in yellow glass, and examples in amber glass are also known. Despite, as we shall see, being challenged and eventually being defeated by two rival designs of beer glass, the ten-sided mug was still being made, by Ravenhead in St Helens, as late as 1966, meaning it was in production for at least 37 years, and probably longer.

The first challenger to the ten-sided beer glass was the dimple mug. The design of the dimple, which seems particularly suited to reflecting and refracting the colour of amber beers, such as classic British ales, may have been inspired by the glass beer mugs with a flat hexagonal faceted exterior manufactured in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1920s and/or early 1930s. The dimple, despite being a Ravenhead design, was also picked up by other manufacturers, notably Dema of Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, which was Britain’s largest domestic glassware manufacturer, though much less well-known to the public than Ravenhead. But the dimple had its enemies, and in 1990 it was the subject of a vicious attack by Design magazine:

What’s short, fat, ugly and increasingly shunned by beer drinkers? The ‘dimple’ beer glass. You know the one; it’s barrel-shaped with indentations, a handle and eco-unfriendly walls of thick glass. An early attempt at ergonomic design, the dimple is a miserable failure. No one’s fingers actually seem to fit the depressions in the glass. The addition of a handle tacitly acknowledges this. Real ale and lager drinkers both dislike the dimple for the same reason; they don’t think the glass shows off the drink to its best advantage. What they want is something taller, slimmer, and less weighty; a thin glass through which they can admire the colour and clarity of the beer. Bar staff aren’t too keen on the dimple, either. It is heavy, awkward to store and does not stack and, because of its bulk and the projecting handle, difficult to wash, especially in the small sinks found in most bars.

Over the next decade, the dimple mug did seem to be disappearing from pubs, as did the traditional question barstaff asked someone asking for a pint: “Straight or handle?”. When the only two makers of the dimple left in Britain, Ravenhead and Dema, went into receivership within months of each other in 2000 and 2001, the headlines insisted: “Dimpled Pint Pots Doomed”. Fortunately for traditionalists, that hasn’t happened, and in the past few years the dimple beer mug has actually become trendy in pubs and bars frequented by bearded hipsters. Even the “straight or handle?” question has returned, at least in some bars. Today, however, your dimpled pint glass is most likely to have been made in China, by someone like the Zibo Hondao Trading Co Ltd of Shandong, or Bengbu Longyu Glass Products of neighbouring Anhui, or the Shanghai Jingsheng Glass Co Ltd, minimum order 100,000 glasses, cost FOB as low as 20p a glass, depending on order size.

Two pints of mild and bitter, served in ten-sided glasses in a North of England pub in 194, from the film Down at the Local
Two pints of mild and bitter, served in ten-sided glasses in a North of England pub in 1944, from the film Down at the Local

The third “Great British beer glass” – though personally it’s one I hate as much as others dislike the dimple – was invented by a largely unsung giant of 20th century British design: Alexander Hardie Williamson. You may never have heard of him, but it is very likely you have drunk out of one or more of the glasses he designed, on thousands of occasions. Hardie Williamson, who was born in 1907, had designed for Bagley & Co in the 1930s, began designing glassware for United Glass, parent company of Ravenhead in 1944, and within a few years produced a host of simple design classics that are, in many cases, still with us today: the champagne saucer, picked up and personalised by Showerings as the Babycham glass, first made in 1948; the Paris wine goblet, designed in 1952; the “New Worthington” stemmed goblet, the Harp lager tankard and more. In all he designed 1,634 glasses for Ravenhead. But his most widely produced design, still to be found in pubs almost everywhere, was the iconic Nonik tumbler, a slightly conical beaker with a bulge around an inch below the rim, first made by Ravenhead in 1948 and given the product number P708. The bulge near the top was intended to keep the rims from being chipped or nicked by rubbing or banging together in the glass washer or on the shelf – hence the name, from “No Nick” – and had the added advantage that the bulge made it easier for the drinker to hold on to their pints when the glass was slippery than with straight-sided tumblers. Unfortunately, it’s irredeemably ugly, with what Design magazine called its “unsightly bulge”.

That has not, however, prevented it from becoming probably Britain’s most ubiquitous glass. Like the dimple, the Nonik was quickly copied by other manufacturers: Dema had the style in its catalogue by 1952, under the slightly altered name “Nonic”. Given that the glasses were produced for pubs during the last four years of the reign of George VI, there must, somewhere, be examples of Nonik/Nonic glasses stamped “GR”, though their thinness was always going to make them rarer survivors than the heavier, thicker dimples and ten-sided mugs, despite their being produced in enormous quantities. It has been estimated that 60 million beer glasses are supplied to British pubs, clubs and other drinking establishments every year (which implies that every establishment is breaking two to three a day). Let us take a very broad-brush guess and say that over the years a quarter of all beer glasses used in British pubs have been either dimples or Noniks/Nonics, with the rest tulips, straight-sided beakers, other types of tankards and so on. That would mean more than a billion individual Noniks and dimples have clattered over British bartops since the 1940s – and both look like continuing for a time yet.

Three Victorian pewter beermugs, pint (stamped James Lashan & Co Glasgow VR with the Official Number 36, for Renfrewshire, in Scotland), quart (stamped VR and G Farmiloe & Son, who were making pewter pots in St John Street, off West Smithfield, in London from 1876: the firm only seems to have ceased in 1940) and unmarked half-pint, with glass bottom. Pewter mugs with glass bottoms are apparently rarely found with stamps, suggesting they were uncommon in pubs, and that the story about having the glass bottom to be able to see the king's shilling is a myth …
Three Victorian pewter beermugs: pint (stamped James Lashan & Co Glasgow VR with the Official Number 36, for Renfrewshire, in Scotland), quart (stamped VR and G Farmiloe & Son, who were making pewter pots in St John Street, off West Smithfield, in London from 1876: the firm only seems to have ceased in 1940) and an unmarked half-pint, with glass bottom. Pewter mugs with glass bottoms are apparently rarely found with stamps, suggesting they were uncommon in pubs, and that the story about having the glass bottom to be able to see the king’s shilling is a myth …
One-pint silver-plated pewter mug, stamped 'W Loftus 321 Oxford Street' and engraved on the bottom 'Sloanes Head New St Brompton Rd'. Loftus was a well-known pewterer, and also a 'Hydrometer, Saccharometer, and gauging instrument maker, to the Government, and manufacturers of bottling and corking machines and all utensils for the spirit and brewing trades'. He was based at 321 Oxford Street from around 1880 to around 1900. The Sloanes Head was at 16 New Street from at least 1839, when it was the Sir Hans Sloane's Head. New Street became the top part of Hans Crescent in 1904: the pub seems to have been swallowed by the growth of Harrods about 1896
One-pint silver-plated pewter mug, stamped ‘W Loftus 321 Oxford Street’ and engraved on the bottom ‘Sloanes Head New St Brompton Rd’. Loftus was a well-known pewterer, and also a ‘Hydrometer, Saccharometer, and gauging instrument maker, to the Government, and manufacturers of bottling and corking machines and all utensils for the spirit and brewing trades’. He was based at 321 Oxford Street from around 1880 to around 1900. The Sloanes Head was at 16 New Street from at least 1839, when it was the Sir Hans Sloane’s Head. New Street became the top part of Hans Crescent in 1904: the pub seems to have been swallowed by the growth of Harrods about 1896. The silvering has worn away in two patches on the body of the mug either side of the handle, but the handle is largely unworn, suggesting drinkers held the mug by the body with their fingers through the handle – unlike the way the two drinkers up above are holding their earthenware mugs, by their handles.
Thick, ribbed Victorian half-pint glass beer mug with a pronounced punt, stamped 324, for Gateshead, where there were several pressed glass manufacturers
Thick, ribbed Victorian half-pint glass beer mug with a pronounced punt, stamped 324, for Gateshead, where there were several pressed glass manufacturers
Internally ribbed half-pint conical beaker stamped 'GR 471', for Ayrshire, probably from the 1920s, and almost certainly made by at the Portland Glass Works in Irvine in the style known as 'Venetian'
Internally ribbed half-pint conical beaker in the style known as ‘Venetian’, stamped ‘GR 471’, for Ayrshire, probably from the 1920s, and almost certainly made at the Portland Glass Works in Irvine, which opened in 1920
Mochaware pint mug stamped GR 19, made by TG Green of Church Gresley, Derbyshire
Mochaware pint mug stamped GR 19 for Derbyshire, made by TG Green of Church Gresley, Derbyshire
Edwardian stoneware Doulton pint mug, made in Lambeth and marked 'ER 4 LCC', for London County Council
Edwardian stoneware Doulton pint mug, made in Lambeth and marked ‘ER 4 LCC’, for London County Council
Two plain glazed pint pottery mugs, one with a baby blue exterior, the other biscuit-cream, both stamped 'GR 490' and made by Poultney & Co of Bristol
Two plain glazed pint pottery mugs, one with a baby blue exterior, the other biscuit-cream, both stamped ‘GR 490’ and made by Poultney & Co of Bristol
A ten-sided pint glass mug stamped 'GR 301' for West Yorkshire, very likely by Bagley & Co of Knottingley, with 'British Made' in the base
A ten-sided pint glass mug stamped ‘GR 301’ for West Yorkshire, very likely by Bagley & Co of Knottingley, with ‘British Made’ in the base
Ten-sided one-pint glass mug stamped 'ER 301' for West Yorkshire, again probably by Bagley & Co. Is the 'ER' for Edward VIII? The base of the glass has bubbles in it, and looks more primitive than similar glasses stamped EIIR
Ten-sided one-pint glass mug stamped ‘ER 301’ for West Yorkshire, again probably by Bagley & Co. Is the ‘ER’ for Edward VIII? The base of the glass has bubbles in it, and it looks more primitive than similar glasses stamped EIIR
Slightly glass-sick 10-sided half-pint glass stamped 'GR 323' for Gateshead, possibly manufactured by George Davidson & Go of the Teams Glassworks
Slightly glass-sick 10-sided half-pint glass stamped ‘GR 323’ for Gateshead, probably manufactured by Sowerby
A ten-sided glass pint mug stamped '478' for St Helens and dated 1964 (dates were used alongside Official Stamp Numbers between 1961 and 1969), manufactured by Ravenhead – one eof the last ten-sided beer glasses to be made
A ten-sided glass pint mug stamped ‘478’ for St Helens and dated 1964 (dates were used alongside Official Stamp Numbers between 1961 and 1969), manufactured by Ravenhead – one of the last ten-sided beer glasses to be made
One-pint and half-pint glass mugs with a hexagonal tiled design, stamped 'GR 64' for Newcastle upon Tyne. Did this design inspire the dimple?
One-pint and half-pint glass mugs with a hexagonal tiled design, stamped ‘GR 64’ for Newcastle upon Tyne. Did this design inspire the dimple?
Two early one-pint dimples stamped 'GR 478', for St Helens, made by Ravenhead probably in the 1940s, showing how little the design has altered since the start
Two early one-pint dimples stamped ‘GR 478’, for St Helens, made by Ravenhead probably in the 1940s, showing how little the design has altered since the start
One-pint straight-sided mug marked 'EIIR 301' for Elizabeth II and West Yorkshire, probably made by Bagley & Co of Knottingley
One-pint straight-sided mug marked ‘EIIR 301’ for Elizabeth II and West Yorkshire, probably made by Bagley & Co of Knottingley
A rare smooth-sided glass pint mug with a lattice design in the foot, stamped with crown and pint but no monartch's initials, and '478' for St Helens, presumably made by Ravenhead
A rare smooth-sided glass pint mug with a lattice design in the foot, stamped with crown and pint but no monarch’s initials, and ‘478’ for St Helens, presumably made by Ravenhead
Two hand-blown Waterford Guinness glasses, made for the national roll-out of Draught Guinness in the 1960s. The half-pint version carries the Guinness name in the font known as Hobbs-face, itself designed specially for Guinness by Bruce Hobbs, art director at Guinness's ad agency, Bensons, in 1963. The glasses bear the official numbers 886 and 888, for Somerset, presumably where they were imported through from Ireland
Two hand-blown Waterford Guinness glasses, made for the national roll-out of Draught Guinness in the 1960s. The half-pint version carries the Guinness name in the font known as Hobbs-face, itself designed specially for Guinness by Bruce Hobbs, art director at Guinness’s ad agency, Bensons, in 1963. The glasses bear the official numbers 886 and 888, for Somerset, presumably where they were imported through from Ireland
Two classic tulip lager glasses, one from Carlsberg of the sort that John Mills lusted for in the film Ice Cold in Alex from 1958 ()although in the book the film was based on, the beer in Alexandria was Rheingold from New York …) and the other from Barclay Perkins, once one of London's biggest lager brewers
Two classic tulip lager glasses, one from Carlsberg of the sort that John Mills lusted for in the film Ice Cold in Alex from 1958 (although in the book the film was based on, the beer in Alexandria was Rheingold from New York …) and the other from Barclay Perkins, once one of London’s biggest lager brewers. showing the brewery’s Dr Johnson trademark

All © Martyn Cornell MMXV including the photographs

74 thoughts on “More notes towards a history of the beer mug

    1. I nearly put a pic of a Maß up to say: “Did this inspire the dimple?”, but as I know nothing about the history of the Maß, and whenthe dimpled stein was introduced, I left it out …

      1. I have a couple of Victorian dimpled glasses, one free blown and cut with ‘printies’ another later but basically the same form, is moulded. If you are interested I will send pictures. I have Georgian / Regency tankard and ale glasses too, if you are interested…

  1. Dear Martyn,
    Very very interesting article ! On the pewter tankards – I always love the pubs where the locals have their own pewter tankards hanging from the (low) ceilings.
    Are silver tankards not the oldest beer mugs ?? My wife has a collection of frog beer mugs – they are rather fun when the last drop of the mug lands on your nose!
    With thanks and regards,
    Gerard

  2. Nicely done. Since this type of discussion pre-eminently invites expression of personal preference, I sing the glass nonic. The thin walls permit full appreciation of clarity or (quite often, these days) degree of murk. The swelling does help to handle the glass easily. I must be so used to it by now I fail to see that it lacks aesthetic appeal but if need be will appeal to the maxim, form meets function. The dimple is a favourite too but I like the type, not pictured, with relatively small dimples. I think the dimple thing was always decorative – if it wasn’t, examples would survive sans handle. Don’t like the china ones, I like to see the beer always. Pewter though is a partial exception since it does seem to give a certain quality to English (real) beer, and not just porter. 20 years ago the Davy pewter pots of Wallop were absolutely first-class, the metal somehow assisted and prolonged the prickle the natural conditioning imparting. The apparent source of the beer didn’t hurt either – Courage Director’s, a datum I first gleaned in these columns, I believe.

    Gary

  3. As an American, my first introduction to English pubs, beer and glasses was in the early 60’s, while I was still a teenager, in the comic strip Andy Capp. Andy always drank dark ale, no doubt mild since he was a northerner, from wide mouthed cylindrical glasses. It seemed exotic compared to yellow American beer, and probably contributed to a lifelong fascination with British ale and to my brewing of it.

  4. I’ve never liked dimple mugs; they always remind me of the Worthington E ad with the glass E filling with beer, and of the 1970s generally. The revival of the dimple mug baffles me, but I guess it’s just a generational thing. The change I’ve really noticed in glassware is the return of the straight-sided conical tumbler. Drinking in the 1980s – almost exclusively out of Nonics – I was convinced that the straight-sided tumbler was the proper old original style of beer glass; I think this was largely based on a scene in The Singing Detective, which shows the patrons of a WMC in the late 40s or early 50s drinking from them. In 1990 the cafe bar Manto opened, in what wasn’t yet Manchester’s gay village; that was the first place I saw straight-sided glasses, which went on to become pretty much standard in the kind of place that calls itself a bar rather than a pub.

    Later, of course, I learned about ten-sided mugs and strawberry-pink china and the rest, dispelling my illusion that the straight-sided tumbler had ever been the glass. But it’s interesting to read that conical tumblers had been around much earlier – possibly in the late 19th century, certainly as early as 1932.

  5. Also meant to add: 6d in 1660 can’t really have been the equivalent of £50 today, can it? I mean, on that basis a farthing in 1660 would be worth the equivalent of £2. What did they use for small change?

    1. Ron Pattinson makes the point that the price of beer remained constant from 1870 to 1914.That’s because there wasn’t a coin small enough to reflect duty and commodity price changes.Brewers dealt with this by weakening or strengthening the beer. Gravity always dropped during a war for example.

      Back to topic, I picked up a pair of half pint 10 sided glasses at a car boot sale for just 10p.They also are somewhat glass sick.

  6. Some American interpolations. The schooner (not unknown elsewhere in former Colonial lands) in the States is a fast-disappearing measure that only 30 years ago was a commonplace.

    In the first five images here, you see the schooner (16 oz) used by Lum’s, the late lamented U.S. burger and hot dog chain:

    http://www.ebay.ca/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Lums%20Extra%20Large%20Beer%20Soda%20Fountain%20Schooner%20Glass%20Restaurant%20Advertising&_itemId=261049710320

    In the 6th and 7th images, you see a dimpled version, goblet-shaped but still on the indispensable (for America) stem. This particular one was used for root beer (no alcohol), but similar glasses were used for beer too – you see a goblet schooner (non-dimpled) a few further images down.

    I was looking at a Lum’s menu online. Those were the good old days (40+years ago). Glass of Ballantine Dark (yes), 30 cents, regular Ballantine, 25 cents. The choice (for draft) was rounded out by Budweiser and Lowenbrau. This was a small schooner. Large ones were e.g. 50 cents a glass. I think the small one was 10 or 12 ounces and the big one 16, but maybe the small was 16 and the big one 22 or something. Martyn, if Ron rents the time machine he keeps talking about, we can hop on and hie over to Plattsburgh, NY in 1970 for an Ollieburger and a few schooners (large size only) of Ballantine dark and light and 1970’s-era Bud. If this palls, the menu I mentioned states about a dozen bottled beers including Guinness Stout or Four Lions from Denmark.

    Gary

      1. Australia still has a ‘schooner’ but these days it means a glass of beer that’s smaller than a pint, Usually 500ml I think…..

        Come to think of it I prefer a smaller beer than a pint these days…

    1. They look like wine glasses to me, although they could be rummers – the painting is apparently now owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber, anybody know him well enough to pop round and ask for a closer look?

  7. Any thoughts on what is called the ‘pint glass’ in the U.S.? It is conical, thicker than the nonic, and holds 16 ounces to the rim. It is associated almost exclusively with beer, especially craft beer. To my mind, it attempts to imply Englishness. Its fatal flaw is that it leaves no room for the head. If your beer has a proper head and isn’t spilling over the sides, then you’ve been served less than a pint.

  8. So what do you make of the “in a thin glass” bit in Get Carter:

    Is the barman assuming that Carter will want a mug because he’s from London when actually he wants a thin glass because he’s originally from Newcastle. Or is he assuming that Carter will want a mug because they’re as-standard in Newcastle when actually he wants a thin glass because he’s from London? Is a thin glass the sharp, modern, urban option or the hard old-school Northern option?

  9. The stamping of glasses by different authorities led to the glass collector’s version of the beer “ticker” who kept a record of all the different numbered glasses they drank from. On that subject I feel obliged to mention my (very small) local authority Bury which was one of, if not actually the, last councils to run a stamping facility. Based at Bradley Fold, it had a high turnover of staff as the job was very repetitive and dull. It was always busy but when Derma and then Ravenhead in 1996 started using it, the output was phenomenal. Massive trailers from St Helens would arrive with thousands of glasses that needed certifying. And that is why Bury’s humble 562 stamp is to be found up and down the land.

  10. Great article as always!
    I have just been given a lovely solid brass “ale measurer” stamped GR and “quart” in the shape of a tankard with a handle. I know that it dates from the early 20th C (George V). It seems quite an expensive piece of kit for a pub to measure out its pours, and tankards at the time had were stamped as far as I can find out.
    I am guessing it might be for a ‘weights and measures’ inspector to check pub measures were correct. Am I close?

    Pic found here: https://instagram.com/p/0vTPj5i7ut/?taken-by=wranglerjonny
    Any ideas?

    Thanks

  11. Hi,
    I was again pleased to be informed about British pub glassware, etc. Thank you.
    In case you are interested I have a ten-sided mug exactly like the one you illustrate (so far as I can see) except the date is 1966 not 1964. I wonder whether that helps your history of ten-sideds.
    regards
    MJRP

  12. Hi Martyn

    Thanks for such a well researched and informative article. The ten sided mug is a great favourite of mine and I wish that maybe someone would consider producing them once more. I keep one of these down at my local and it always attracts interest – old timers are delighted to see one again while the youngsters seem to think it’s ‘well wicked’…
    I also have a late example, crown stamped 478 and dated 1966. Any idea as to where it was made and by whom?

    Cheers Ian E

  13. Hi, thanks for the fascinating article. I’ve come via http://abeerglasscollector.com/ in a bid to find some info on a charity shop find I got today. I can tell you it’s a 10 sided ‘lantern’ glass (new to me; born in the 70s) with GR and the crown, and from the ‘323’ stamp it was verified in Gateshead. What I can’t seem to find is the meaning of the 3 letters beneath the 323? They’re either GCC or CCC, it’s hard to tell from the etching. The whole is enclosed in an oval split in 4, with PINT above and a U or partial D below. Any ideas? I’m fascinated now!

  14. Hi Martyn, Another nice article, and with some good pictures to boot! The Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, NY) has one of the nicest collections of beer drinking vessels I have seen. Lots of very nice Humpen. Their collection is huge, but only a small bit is available for viewing online.
    Look here:
    https://www.cmog.org/set/beer-bottles-and-glasses

    I took some pictures a while back, one of which is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ensmingr/114370126/in/album-72157626529252192/

    Cheers!
    Peter A. Ensminger
    Syracuse, NY

  15. I’m drinking my pre-dinner pint from a GR 478 stamped 10-sider, a 50p charity shop find a few years back. Sorry if this is a few years behind the curve!

  16. There has been huge transforms in the shape and size of the beer glasses. They now vary beer to beer, as it is not noticed that there is huge change in the taste and aroma according to the glass

  17. I have my great grandfather’s plain, unmarked conical beer tumbler, he died in 1892 aged 63, so it’s probably 1880s or earlier. The glass holds 22 fluid ounces, so there is good room for a head on the beer, but the amazing thing is its weight, 4.5 ounces; “straight” pint glasses today weigh 8-9 ounces. The glass is so thin you can flex it slightly in your hand and feel you might cut your mouth drinking from it – when you first pick it up you’d think it’s made of plastic. Incidentally, my great grand father was an older brother of Alfred Barnard, author of “Noted Breweries of Great Britain & Ireland” and “Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom”. Alfred might possibly have drunk from this glass !

    1. Thank you so much for commenting, Andrew – I have all four of your great-granduncle’s Noted Breweries volumes, cost me an arm and a leg … that beer glass sounds amazing, do you have a picture?

  18. I’ve tried to access the excellent beerglasscollector website but it’s showing as 404 not found so I assume it’s been taken down. A pity as it had a full list of all beer glass stamp numbers and where they related to.

  19. Being a collector of uranium glass as well as old beer glasses I checked my glasses under UV light and some of them exhibit a pale but distinct green glow like uranium glass. Do you think this is deliberate or just a case of the glass types being mixed? Bagley and Sowerby glass made large quantities of uranium glass in the same factories as their beer glasses.

    1. A pale, lime green fluorescence under UV black light indicates the presence of manganese, which served as a clarifying agent for the glass batch, or “metal,” from which the end product was made. The manganese leeched out any iron in the silica that would make the final product a brownish or greenish color. This resulted in a clear final product. It was used extensively by American glass makers during the Brilliant Period of cut glass, arbitrarily given the dates 1876-1916. Subjecting cut glass to a 20W UV black light in a dark room is one of the tests collectors and dealers use to verify the authenticity of ABP glass, though there are several notable exceptions to the rule that blanks of the period will glow lime green under the black light. Antique English and Continental glass will often show an orange-yellow color, while newer glass often shows a pink glow or none at all.

      1. Thanks Arn, having researched more into various types of glass over the past year I’ve come to realise that was the case. My beer glass collection keeps growing, now about 50, and I’ve also been finding some Victorian Rummers/ pub glasses as well.

        1. I am drinking my beer from a Victorian footed goblet at this moment. It is stamped half pint and VR with a number 91. Is this a rummer? And what area is 91? Can you help me with this?

  20. Hello Martyn, thanks for adding the link to the list of stamp numbers, I’ve been looking for something like it for a while. My latest rummer is one with a Registered Design Lozenge for 1848.

  21. Hello there,
    I enjoyed reading through your blog and I’m wondering if you can help me out with a ‘beer’ glass I have. It’s a small 100ml glass in the Nonic shape. Air bubbles, stones, striations, bump on the rim … Really interesting
    Kind Regards,
    Kath

  22. My grandfather, born around 1900 in Gorton (Manchester), recollected that half pints were the norm in that area and referred to as a ‘glass’ of beer. He said that it was during ‘the war’ (I don’t know which one he meant, and I’m a bit late to ask him) pints became popular because there were beer shortages so people wanted to be sure to get plenty when they ordered at the bar! Can this be true? I can’t find any reference online, indeed half pins seem to be little more than a footnote. Still in the 1970s in Stockport, when I started visiting pubs, the habit was to order a ‘glass’ (a half pint) of beer (Robinsons mild, of course).

    1. I believe (but I don’t have a copy to check) that in the famous study of pubs and drinking in Bolton in the 1930s conducted by Mass-Observation, half-pints were still the norm

    1. Absolutely fascinating, thank you very much indeed, Neville. You can just see the torn edge of what is clearly the “lantern” glass in the 1922 Sowerby’s of Gateshead catalogue, and it’s more fully shown in the 1926 edition, which shows that the design is at least 100 years old.

  23. You are welcome Martyn, looking closer at the half-pint VR glass I have, I found it has a Sowerby Peacock mark embossed on the bottom. It is very similar to the No.1586 shown in the 1885 catalogue.

  24. I am trying to identify a mark on a pottery pint mug similar to the one pictured above.
    The form is identical to the biscuit-cream, but the color is baby blue. It is stamped VR 19. Is there a source for finding the location and maker of this mark. I appreciate any information you can provide.

      1. Thanks so much for the information. Purchased several years ago as a Late 19th c. Mocha Tavern Mug, I have been quite curious as to the meaning of the 19. Assumed the crowned VR was for Victoria Regina and the period of 1837-1901. I think “cornish ware” would have been a more accurate description than “mocha ware”. Again, appreciate the information on the stamp identification numbers – so helpful!

  25. I have a straight beerglass that I love – marked “pint – then the crown – then GR – then 3”
    can anyone date it and tell me it’s manufacturer or location?

  26. Martyn, thanks so much – what a wonderful and interesting article. I’ve been researching my blue mug for ages and have just found this article – what a joy! It is etched with PINT, MxCC, GR, 29 (the same as your pink mug) – and also etched on the other side in capitals – STOLER EVANS GREYHOUNDS. The handle is exactly the same as the pink mug in your first picture. Would you say it’s from around 1920?

  27. Martyn, I have a question that’s been puzzling me for quite a while. You say that

    “even after that date [1845], the evidence suggests that glass drinking vessels remained rare in pubs until the end of the Victorian period”.

    Assuming that this is correct, I’m wondering at the proliferation of rummers, bucket bowl ale glasses and so on (free-blown and mould blown) that you see on eBay, online shops, at antiques fairs and auctions. Most seem to be dated from 1780 to 1860, based on the shape, size and presence of either a pontil scar or polished scar, or the 1860s to 1890s with a gadget mark. The volume of rummers seem to far outnumber either pewter beer mugs or the earthenware mugs, whether mochaware or plain. Indeed, mochaware mugs are much more expensive than rummers. Do you think it is simply because rummers and the like were only used at home and not in taverns and were handled with more care? Or, assuming that production was quickly ramped up after the Act’s repeal, have the majority of rummers been mis-dated by sellers because a Georgian rummer sounds more appealing than a Victorian rummer and therefore more valuable?

    1. I’d b e speaking from a position of almost complete ignorance, so I’m afraid I don’t really have an answer. Judging by the rate at which I manage to smash glasses, I don’t think they were handled in homes with any greater care than in pubs and alehouses, though …

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