 Claret
Jugs
Courtesy of
30 Second Wine Advisor
By Robin GarrBefore we
begin today's excursion down one of the less-traveled byways of
wine, we had better start with a definition: What IS a claret jug?
To get a picture in your mind, think of a decorative decanter,
often fashioned in the shape of an animal or whimsical object. Add a
handle and a sculptured lid or cover made of silver, gold or other
precious metal. Now you've got a claret jug, a collectible wine
accessory that was popular in Britain during most of the Nineteenth
Century.
Interested? You won't want to miss "The
Kent Collection," an intriguing wine-accessory Website where
Richard Kent displays an impressive collection of nearly 100 antique
claret jugs on an extensive site that's full of background
information, history and photos.
"The collection includes some of the finest silver-mounted glass
claret jugs in the world," Kent says on the site, emphasizing that
the presentation is non-commercial: "These jugs are not for sale."
One of the more interesting points about claret jugs is that they
developed so relatively recently in history, Kent observed. The
history of wine goes back at least 6,000 years, and potters and
silversmiths have been creating artful containers for it for almost
that long. Pottery was the standard for thousands of years, until
the Middle Ages, when rich families turned to classy silver, brass
and pewter pitchers to serve their wine.
Hard glass vessels came along in the 1600s, and by the 18th
century, Kent says, "wines were either served out of solid silver
vessels or from glass decanters and bottles. Most households
purchased wines in casks which were stored in the cellar, from which
the head butler would decant into the chosen serving vessel prior to
the meal."
Only in the early 19th century did glass manufacturing develop to
the point that most wines could be packaged in uniform bottles at
the winery. "This probably explains the sudden appearance of
silver-mounted claret jugs from about 1830 onwards," Kent says. "As
the use and storage of wine became easier, and as the industrial
revolution produced a larger consumer class for finer living and
drinking, so the demand and consumption of wine grew and with it the
need for new conventions, customs and accessories."
The Kent Collection contains only jugs that are a combination of
solid silver and glass. The Website makes it easy to browse, with
jugs indexed by many criteria, including the year they were made
(all are from 1835 to 1920); the country of origin (mostly English,
French, Russian and American); the artist or maker (including such
familiar names as Tiffany and Gorham and such less-familiar monikers
as, well, The Fenton Brothers); and the type or style of the jug, in
a wild variety of categories such as art deco, cut glass, gothic,
novelty, and a number of jugs in the form of animals, from birds and
a fish to monkeys and a couple of otters.
Kent is appropriately discreet about the value of his collection,
which is privately held and displayed to the public only online; but
you'll find quite a number of claret jugs on sale at
eBay.com, currently ranging from $10 to $700; and a quick web
search reveals several British vendors offering collectible jugs
online for prices ranging up to more than 5,000 pounds sterling.
The Kent Collection is well worth the time spent browsing. You'll
find it at
http://www.claretjugs.com/.
|
