Which forms turn up most often?

The stemmed wine glass, by a wide margin. "Wine" is in a third of titles on Sellingantiques, with the stem named as twist or plain and the bowl shape given in about a tenth. Rummers are the next block, then decanters. Behind them sits a long tail of small table items: salts, cream jugs, jelly and monteith glasses, toddy lifters and rinsers.

Are Georgian glasses ever marked?

No. Nothing in this category is marked, signed or documented, and a scan across more than 1,200 listings returned no maker names at all. That is why titles lean so hard on stem, bowl and foot. Those three features are how the category is described and sorted.

Does Bristol blue mean the glass was made in Bristol?

In these listings, Bristol blue and Bristol green work as colour terms. They describe a deep blue and a deep green, not an attributed place of making. Bristol appears in 83 titles and blue in 94, so it is one of the well-populated corners of the category.

How reliable are the dates in the listings?

The dealers' dating field is usually a label. "Georgian" alone accounts for 443 entries and "18th Century" for 247, against 329 listings that carry a clean year. Where years are given they cluster in the 1750s and the 1800s, and title dates echo that with c1750, c1760, c1740, c1820 and c1830. The outer edges of the field run 1700 to 1920, and a handful of entries are Georgian Revival or Georgian style.

What sort of engraving appears on these glasses?

Hops and barley is the recurring one, along with swags. Beyond that the archive records Jacobite and anti-Jacobite emblems, Masonic devices and armorials. Named occasions turn up too: "Speed the Plough", "God speed the carpenter", "Tally Ho" with a fox, a ship with initials and a Royal Fusiliers regimental decanter.

Can you still buy matching sets?

Yes, more often than glass of this age might suggest. Pairs appear in 136 titles and six in 36. Sets of six rummers, six ale glasses, six port glasses and six coloured wine flutes have all been listed.

Which unusual pieces have come through?

The largest are serving pieces: table rummers, tazzas, punch and turnover bowls, epergnes and magnum decanters. The oddities are one-offs. A boot dram glass with rigaree, a double-ended dram measure, a glass caddy spoon, a gimmel flask, a Lynn-ringed shoulder carafe and a half-pint coin tankard dated 1837.

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Antique Georgian Glass

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British lead-glass drinking and table glass of roughly 1700 to 1840: stemmed wines, ale and dram glasses, rummers and decanters, made for wine, spirits and punch on the table.