Mid 19th Century Bristol Blue Wine Glass Cooler

This is an unusual and striking example of a ‘Bristol Blue’ wine glass cooler. Wine glass coolers or rinsers are an unusual item of the late 18th and 19th centuries. They were used to rinse or cool wine glasses between each course of a meal. In the 18th century it was customary for glasses to have relatively large feet. This was because when sipping wine, the glass was held by the foot and it was easy to invert the glass into the wine cooler. This also enabled the glass to be removed from the rinser or cooler without grasping it by a slippery wet stem. Coloured glass helped mask the presence of sediment in the bowl and Bristol Blue wine coolers were popular between 1780 and 1820. The use of coloured glass for wine coolers had begun to decline by the mid 19th century, presumably due to the improvement in wine quality. Very few examples were displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The cooler is broadly cylindrical in form, with two opposing lips on the rim. The base has a central polished out pontil. The height of the wine cooler is approximately 9.5cm, with a diameter at the rim of about 11.0cm and at the base of about 10.0cm. It is in excellent condition, with no chips or cracks.