design. This simple form probably has its origin in the horn cup made from the base of a cow’s horn and closed at the smaller end. The later forms in the late 15th century and after, followed the fashion in other materials, and were raised on a tall foot, so that from the 16th century onwards the type of wine glass has hardly changed, except in details. An interesting variety in one detail is seen in the German fashion of providing an elaborate silver stand into which the foot of such an ordinary-shaped glass was made to fit. Frequently, as might be expected, such stands are found without glasses, and their use then seems difficult to explain.
Another characteristic German type is the “wiederkom,” a vessel more conspicuous for capacity than for its artistic qualities. It is usually a cylindrical vessel of green glass often holding as much as a quart, elaborately enamelled with coats of arms and views of well-known places; and at times when the cup was a wedding gift the figures of the bride and bridegroom are seen upon it.
A very fanciful kind of cup was known in England as a “yard of ale,” a long tube of glass generally shaped like a coach horn, but ending sometimes in three prongs as a trident, the opening in the latter being at the end of the handle, which was about a yard in length.
Small silver cups were often made in dozens with various devices, differing in each, such as the signs of the zodiac, the occupations of the months, or figures of the classical gods and goddesses, engraved upon them.
The tankard came into fashion in the 16th century, a practical, but seldom graceful object. At first some attempt was made, by shaping the sides, to attain to some artistic quality, but usually the tankard from the late 16th century to the present time is found with straight sides, either vertical or contracting towards the top, which is of course always furnished with a hinged lid.
A material that has one obvious merit, that of being practically unbreakable, is leather, and drinking cups were often made of it. The flagon called a “black jack” is the best-known, and examples are very common, mostly of the 17th and 18th centuries. A quaint fashion was to have a leather cup 17th and 18th century types.made in the form of a lady’s shoe; this, however, was confined to Germany and might be thought in somewhat questionable taste.
In the 17th and 18th centuries a great impetus was given to the production of curious drinking vessels in pottery. In England at various potting centres a great number of cups called “tygs” were made: capacious mugs with several handles, three or four, round the sides, so that the cup could be readily passed from one to the other. Many of these have quaint devices and inscriptions upon them. Another favourite plan is to make a jug with open-work round the neck and a variety of spouts, one only communicating with the liquid. These “puzzle jugs” no doubt caused a good deal of amusement when attempted by a novice, who would inevitably spill some of the contents.
The horn of the rhinoceros is much favoured by the Chinese as a material for drinking cups often of a somewhat archaic form. The dense structure of the horn is well adapted for the purpose, and its beautiful amber hue makes the vessel a very agreeable object to the eye. The usual form is of a boat shape on a square foot, and the carved decoration is often copied from that of the bronze vessels of the earlier dynasties. Others are treated in a freer and more naturalistic manner, the bowl being formed as the flower of the magnolia, and the entire horn, at times more than 2 ft. in length, is utilized in carrying out the design. One of this kind is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Cups of the former type are commonly found imitated in ivory-white porcelain, and are known as “libation cups.” Rhinoceros horn is held by the Chinese to be an antidote against poison, a belief shared by other nations.
There is but little to be said about the vessels used in the drinking of tea and coffee. In Europe the type has practically remained unchanged since the introduction of tea and coffee drinking, except that in the 18th century the tea-cups imported from China had no handles, and were generally thinner than the coffee cups. In Japan there is a ceremonious way of drinking tea, known as Cha no yu. Here powdered green tea is used; Tea and coffee cups.the party assembles in a small pavilion in a garden, and the tea is made in accordance with a rigid etiquette. The infusion is stirred with a whisk in a rudely fashioned bowl, holding about a pint, and passed from one guest to another. The bowls are of very thick pottery, never of porcelain, and the most valued kind is that made in Korea. In the drinking of rice spirit (saké) in Japan small wide shallow cups are used, made generally of porcelain, but sometimes of finely lacquered wood. Both kinds are usually ornamented with elaborate and sometimes allusive designs.
Among savage races the most peculiar drinking ceremony is that of kava drinking in Polynesia, principally in the Fijian, Tongan and Samoan groups. The best description of the process is given in Mariner’s Tonga. The principal vessel is usually a large bowl, sometimes measuring 2 or 3 ft. in Savage utensils.diameter, cut from a solid block of wood. It has four short legs and an ear at one side to which a rope of coco-nut fibre is generally attached. The liquid is prepared in this bowl and ladled out in small cups often made of coco-nut shells, and these are handed round with great ceremony. Both the bowl and the cups become coated in the inside with a highly polished layer, pale blue in colour; but this beautiful tint fades when the vessel is out of use, and it is therefore very rarely seen in specimens in Europe. The kava itself is prepared from the root of a tree of the pepper family (Piper methysticum); the root is cut into pieces of a convenient size, and these are given to young men and women of the company, who masticate them, and the lumps thus shredded are placed in the large bowl, water is poured over them, and the mass is strained with great care by wringing it in strips of the inner bark of the hibiscus. The liquor is slightly intoxicating.
If the Polynesian method of preparing kava as a drink is distasteful to our ideas, the favourite drinking bowl of the old Tibetans is even more so. Friar Odoric (14th century), quoted by Yule, describes how the Tibetan youth “takes his father’s head and straightway cooks and eats it, and of the skull he makes a goblet from which he and all his family always drink devoutly to the memory of the deceased father.” This recalls Livy’s account of the Boii in Upper Italy, who made a drinking vessel of the head of the Roman consul Postumus. Among the Tibetans skulls are still used, but generally for libations only; for this purpose great care is exercised in the selection of the skull, and the “points” of a good skull are well understood by the Lamas. (C. H. Rd.)
DRIPSTONE, in architecture, a projecting moulding weathered on the upper surface and throated underneath so as to form a drip. The term is more correctly applied to a string course. When carried round an arch its more correct description would be a hood (q.v.). When employed inside a building it serves a decorative purpose only.
DRISLER, HENRY (1818–1897), American classical scholar, was born on the 27th of December 1818, on Staten Island, New York. He graduated at Columbia College in 1839, taught classics in the Columbia grammar school for four years, and was then appointed tutor in classics in the college. In 1845 he became adjunct professor of Latin and Greek there, in 1857 was appointed to the new separate chair of Latin language and literature, and ten years later succeeded Dr Charles Anthon as Jay professor of Greek language and literature. He was acting president in 1867 and in 1888–1889, and from 1890 to his retirement as professor emeritus in 1894 was dean of the school of arts. He died in New York City on the 30th of November 1897. Dr Drisler completed and supplemented Dr Anthon’s labours as an editor of classical texts. His criticisms and corrections of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, of which he brought out a revised American edition in 1846, won his name a place on the title-page of the British edition in 1879, and in 1870 he published a revised and enlarged edition of Yonge’s English-Greek Lexicon. He was ardently opposed to slavery, and brilliantly refuted The Bible View of Slavery, written by Bishop
