HISTORY OF WINES

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1933, Page 3

HISTORY OF WINES

GHOSTS OF MANY THIRSTS

‘REMARKABLE EXHIBITION

The ghosts of a. thousand lordly 7 thirsts of history lurk at the Vintners’ Hall, in Upper Thames Street, East London, where a unique loan exhibition illustrating—with drinking vessels, books and documents—the history of wine in England, wa l 5 lately assembled. ; Mr. Francis Berry, the honorary organiser, had gathered a desplay of absorbing interest. The layman stood bemused before the amazing array ot materials which contained prinks from B.C. to D.O.R.A. Gold, silver, glass, horn, wood, “treen,” leather—they wink and flash from the cases.

There was a beautiful glass gobl.et lent by the King, which Queen Elizbeth is said to have used. There was a Greek . tasting vessel in lovely pink glass;, they used it in Cyprus in the fifth century B.C. From the peat bogs of Ireland was dug the thirteenth-century ‘mether,” and Garantua himself, would gaze •respectively at a wassail, or “lamb’s wool,” bowl of lignum-vitea wood, the largest known the capacity being 5.} gallons.

That respect would kindle again when confronted by .the giant claret bottle, with a capacity, of 28 ordinary bottles, described lovingly in the catalogue as “a triumphant example of the glass-blower’s craft.’Mb was an erstwhile Duke of. Edinburgh, .who. had i.t filled to-theitop, Beside it, in charming contrast,-were’ two- tiny bottles, filled, corked and labelled, ' exactly 7 similar to these- made, for the Queen’s doll’s house. .

And there .was. - the very ■ • gilt cup mentioned by Pepys, with four bells hanging from it, which' was Henry Vlll’s gift, to the Worshipful Company of Barbers—-whose loan it is—in 1540. Probably the most intrinsically Valuable single exhibit on view, it is worth, at a modest estimate, £IO,OOO.