From Baluster to Silesian: The Evolution of the English Drinking Glass Stem 1680–1750

June 23, 2026

Introduction

The period from approximately 1680 to 1750 represents one of the most dynamic and consequential chapters in the history of English glassmaking. In the space of seven decades, the dominant stem form of the English drinking glass passed through a remarkable sequence of development — from the bold, sculptural heavy baluster of the late 17th century, through the lighter and more varied baluster forms of the early 18th century, to the architecturally distinctive Silesian stem introduced around 1714, and finally to the transitional balustroid forms that bridged the gap between the baluster tradition and the twist stems that would come to define the mid-18th century.

Understanding this progression, what came first, why forms changed, which ran concurrently, and which are the rarest, is essential for any serious collector of early English glass. It is also a story that connects the objects themselves to the broader history of the period: to the invention of lead crystal, to the politics of the Hanoverian succession, and to the fiscal pressures that would ultimately transform English glassmaking in the 1740s.

What Came Before the Baluster: The Pre-Lead Glass Tradition

To understand the baluster stem, it is necessary to understand what preceded it. Before the development of English lead crystal in the 1670s, English glass was produced in the Continental tradition, primarily soda-lime glass in the Venetian or façon de Venise manner, made by immigrant glassmakers from Lorraine and Venice who had established themselves in England from the mid-16th century onwards.

This pre-lead glass was light, fragile, and relatively inexpensive. The stem forms of façon de Venise glass, hollow blown stems, elaborate serpentine forms, winged stems, were designed to exploit the lightness and ductility of soda glass, producing objects of great decorative elaboration but limited physical substance. They were, in a sense, the antithesis of what was to come.

The transformation came with George Ravenscroft (1632–1683), who in the early 1670s developed a new glass formula incorporating lead oxide, lead crystal, that was heavier, more brilliant, and more durable than any glass previously produced in England. Ravenscroft's lead crystal, refined and stabilised by the late 1670s, gave English glassmakers a material of entirely new possibilities: a glass that could be worked in thick, solid sections without losing its brilliance, that rang with a clear tone when struck, and that caught and refracted light with an intensity that soda glass could not match.

The baluster stem was the direct and immediate response to this new material. It was a form designed specifically to exploit the properties of lead crystal, its weight, its brilliance, and its capacity to be worked in bold, solid sections that would have been impossible in soda glass.

The Heavy Baluster: c.1685–1710

The heavy baluster represents the first great flowering of English lead glass design, and the finest examples are among the most impressive objects in the entire canon of English decorative art. Dating from approximately 1685 to 1710, these glasses are characterised above all by their weight and physical presence.

The lead glass of this period was produced in relatively thick sections, and the knops, the swellings that define the baluster stem, are large, bold, and sculptural. The dominant knop forms of the heavy baluster period are the true baluster (a pear-shaped swelling wider at the base) and the inverted baluster (the same form reversed), often combined within a single stem to produce a satisfying symmetry of swelling and tapering forms.

Feet on heavy balusters are typically domed and folded, the dome adding height and visual weight, the folded rim adding structural strength. Bowls are most commonly funnel or thistle shaped, the thistle bowl being particularly associated with the finest heavy baluster glasses and complementing the bold knops of the stem with considerable elegance.

The Rarest Heavy Baluster Forms

Within the heavy baluster category, rarity is determined by the combination of knop types, bowl form, and foot. The rarest and most valuable examples include:

Thistle bowl with true baluster stem and domed folded foot — the classic combination of the finest heavy baluster period. Examples in good condition are now primarily found in museum collections.
Acorn knop stems — the acorn knop is among the less common heavy baluster forms and is particularly sought after.
Mushroom knop stems — the broad, flat-topped mushroom knop is found on some heavy balusters and is considerably rarer than the true or inverted baluster.
Multi-knop combinations — stems incorporating three or more distinct knop types are rarer than simpler single or double knop examples.
Engraved examples — engraving on heavy baluster glasses is uncommon; armorial or commemorative engraving adds very significant premiums.

It is worth noting that the heavy baluster period predates the widespread use of wheel engraving in England — the engraving tradition that would produce the Jacobite and other decorated glasses of the mid-18th century had not yet fully developed. Heavy balusters are therefore almost always plain, and their beauty is entirely a matter of form and material.

The Light Baluster: c.1710–1725

From approximately 1710, baluster stems become progressively lighter and more refined. This is not a sudden transition but a gradual evolution, the heavy baluster did not disappear overnight, and there is a period of overlap in which glasses of intermediate weight and character were produced. But the direction of travel is clear: toward lighter, more elegant forms with smaller, more numerous knops and more slender overall proportions.

The light baluster period sees the introduction of a greater variety of knop types, the angular knop, the annulated knop, the cylinder knop, the drop knop, and the bladed knop all become more common, and multi-knop combinations of considerable complexity are found. The merese, a flat, sharp-edged collar connecting elements of the stem, becomes a characteristic feature, adding a crisp, architectural quality to the stem that anticipates the more geometric forms to come.

Feet on light balusters are typically conical and folded, the domed foot becoming less common as the period advances. Bowl forms diversify, the bell bowl and round funnel become more common alongside the funnel and waisted forms of the heavy baluster period.

The Rarest Light Baluster Forms

Bobbin stems — a series of small, rounded swellings resembling a bobbin of thread; relatively uncommon within the light baluster category.
Egg knop stems — the oval, egg-shaped knop is among the less frequently encountered light baluster forms.
Engraved examples — wheel engraving begins to appear on light baluster glasses, and engraved examples are more desirable than plain ones.

Enter the Silesian: c.1714 and the Hanoverian Moment

The Silesian stem, also known as the moulded pedestal stem or shouldered stem, did not develop gradually from the baluster. It arrived as a distinct and fully formed alternative, introduced into English glass production around 1714, the year of the Hanoverian accession.

This timing is not coincidental. The death of Queen Anne in August 1714 and the accession of George I, the first Hanoverian king, brought to the British throne from the German state of Hanover under the terms of the Act of Settlement, created an immediate political context for a new glass form with Continental associations. The Silesian stem, with its origins in the glassmaking traditions of Central Europe, was adopted and promoted as an expression of Hanoverian loyalty, and the earliest examples bear explicit political decoration, moulded GR cyphers, crowns, and in some cases the motto ‘God Save King George’, on the shoulder of the stem.

The Silesian stem is produced by moulding rather than free manipulation, the molten glass is pressed into a mould that imparts both the overall shouldered, pedestal form and any surface decoration simultaneously. This is a fundamentally different production technique from the baluster stem, which is formed by free manipulation of the gather on the end of the blowing iron. The two techniques are not related by direct development, the Silesian stem is an import, not an evolution.

Did the Baluster and Silesian Run Concurrently?

Yes — emphatically so. This is one of the most important points for collectors to understand. The Silesian stem did not replace the baluster stem; it ran alongside it for approximately a decade, from around 1714 to 1725. During this period, both forms were in production simultaneously, and a collector assembling a representative collection of English glass from the 1715–1725 period would need examples of both to tell the complete story.

The two forms appealed to different markets and expressed different things. The baluster stem, by 1714, was an established English form with no particular political associations, it was simply the dominant English drinking glass of the period. The Silesian stem was new, fashionable, and politically charged, a statement of Hanoverian loyalty in a period when that loyalty was both significant and contested.

By approximately 1725, the Silesian stem had largely run its course as a politically charged form. The Hanoverian succession had been secured, the Jacobite rising of 1715 had been suppressed, and the need for overt political statement in glass had diminished. The Silesian stem continued to be produced in its later, more decorative six- and eight-sided forms into the 1730s and 1740s, but it was no longer the politically loaded object it had been in its earliest years.

The Rarest Silesian Forms

Four-sided stems with explicit Hanoverian moulding — GR cypher, crown, or motto on the shoulder. These are the rarest and most historically significant Silesian glasses and command very significant premiums. Fine examples are now primarily found in museum and major private collections.
Terraced foot examples — the stepped, tiered terraced foot found on some Silesian glasses is a particularly desirable feature and is less common than the standard conical foot.
Engraved Silesian stems — period engraving on a Silesian stem glass is uncommon; the combination of moulded Hanoverian shoulder decoration and engraved bowl is exceptionally rare.
Jacobite-engraved Silesian stems — a paradoxical but documented combination; a Silesian stem glass — a form associated with Hanoverian loyalty — bearing Jacobite engraving is among the most historically intriguing objects in English glass collecting.

The Balustroid: Concurrent with the Silesian, Not After It

This is perhaps the most commonly misunderstood aspect of the chronology, and it is worth addressing directly.

The balustroid stem, a lighter, more attenuated form that retains elements of the baluster vocabulary (knops, mereses, tapering sections) but in a more slender and less substantial form, is often described as succeeding the light baluster. In fact, the balustroid is better understood as running concurrently with both the light baluster and the Silesian stem, from approximately 1715 to 1745.

The balustroid is not a distinct invention or a response to any single external factor, it is the natural continuation of the lightening tendency already visible in the light baluster period, carried further toward the plain and twist stems that would emerge in the 1730s and 1740s. It represents the baluster tradition gradually exhausting its formal vocabulary and moving toward simpler, lighter forms.

So the picture for the period approximately 1715–1725 is one of three concurrent stem types:

The light baluster — the established English form, still in production and still the dominant type by volume.
The Silesian stem — the new, politically charged import, fashionable and distinctive.
The balustroid — the transitional form, lighter than the light baluster but retaining its vocabulary.

From approximately 1725, the Silesian stem begins to decline in its most politically explicit form, though it continues in its later six- and eight-sided versions. The light baluster also declines, giving way to the balustroid as the dominant form within the baluster tradition. By approximately 1735–1740, the balustroid is the primary surviving representative of the baluster family, and it is from the balustroid that the transition to the plain stem, and ultimately to the air twist, is made.

What Came After: The Plain Stem and the Excise Act of 1745

The story of the baluster and Silesian stems ends not with a stylistic revolution but with a fiscal one. The Excise Act of 1745 imposed a tax on glass by weight, fundamentally altering the economics of English glassmaking. Lead crystal, the heavy, brilliant material that had made the baluster stem possible, was now expensive to produce in the thick sections that the baluster tradition required. The incentive to produce lighter glass was suddenly overwhelming.

The response was immediate and dramatic. The plain stem, a simple, drawn stem of minimal weight, became the dominant form almost overnight. And from the plain stem, the air twist developed: a stem that achieved visual interest not through mass and form, as the baluster had done, but through the manipulation of trapped air — a solution that was both aesthetically brilliant and fiscally advantageous, since the air itself added no taxable weight.

The baluster stem, the Silesian stem, and the balustroid all effectively ended with the Excise Act. They were forms of a pre-tax world, a world in which the weight and brilliance of lead crystal were assets to be celebrated rather than liabilities to be minimised. After 1745, that world was gone.

A Summary Chronology

c.1680–1685 — Ravenscroft's lead crystal established; façon de Venise tradition in decline.
c.1685–1710 — Heavy baluster period. Bold, sculptural stems; domed folded feet; thistle and funnel bowls. The first great flowering of English lead glass design.
c.1710–1725 — Light baluster period. Lighter, more varied knop combinations; conical folded feet; greater bowl variety. Concurrent with the emergence of the balustroid.
c.1714–1730 — Silesian stem introduced. Four-sided forms with Hanoverian moulding dominant in the earliest years; six- and eight-sided forms follow. Runs concurrently with the light baluster and balustroid.
c.1715–1745 — Balustroid period. Lighter, more attenuated baluster vocabulary; transitional toward plain stems. Concurrent with later Silesian production.
c.1730–1745 — Plain stem emerges alongside balustroid and later Silesian forms.
1745 — Excise Act. Weight-based tax transforms English glassmaking. Baluster, Silesian, and balustroid effectively end. Air twist emerges.

Conclusion

The evolution of the English drinking glass stem between 1680 and 1750 is not a simple linear progression from one form to the next. It is a more complex story of concurrent development, political intervention, and fiscal pressure, a story in which the heavy baluster, the light baluster, the Silesian stem, and the balustroid all coexisted for significant periods, each expressing something different about the culture and politics of the age that produced it.

For the collector, this complexity is part of the appeal. A collection that documents the full range of stem forms from this period, heavy baluster, light baluster, Silesian, balustroid, tells a coherent and genuinely fascinating story about seven decades of English history, from the invention of lead crystal to the fiscal revolution of 1745. It is a story told in glass, and it rewards the collector who takes the time to read it carefully.

The Wonder Room occasionally offers baluster stem glasses, Silesian stem glasses, and early 18th-century English drinking glass of historical significance. Browse our current collection or explore further guides in Collector's Insights.