George III Ale Glass with Etched Barley Decoration

• Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
• Etched - Glass decorated with an etched design, which is achieved through marking out the pattern, protecting the area that is not be etched, and then immersing the object in acid to dissolve the surface of the unprotected area. With some glass objects, such as cameo glass, there may be several layers of different coloured glass, and part of the top layer is dissolved leaving the bottom layer as the background. The longer the time of exposure of the object to acid, the deeper the etching.
  
  The word etching is also sometimes used to describe another method of decoration, where wheel grinders were used decorate the surface, but this technique is usually known as engraving.
• Baluster (glass) - An architectural term for a column in a balustrade or staircase.
  
  When used to describe glass, it can either refer to the shape of the stem of a wine glass, being slender above and pear shaped below, or the shape of the whole vessel, usually a vase. In fact the baluster shape is often described as being vase-like.
  
  The description of a vase as being of baluster shape covers a wide variety of shapes that often bear no resemblance to the original architectural form.
• Stem - In drinking glasses the stem is that section of the glass that joins the bowl to the foot. In mass produced glasses is usually solid and of cylindrical shape, but in antique drinking glasses it may be long and short and in various styles or with decoration, such as air twist, baluster, collared, faceted, hollow, knopped, teardrop, twisted or incised.
• George Iii - George III (1738 - 1820) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• ale glasses - Georgian glass 65