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"HERE'S TO YOUR HEALTH" - FOR THE GOOD OF MASONRY - PUBLIC - Access To This Area For All Members, New Posts for Hall Lodge Members Only - HALL LODGE MESSAGE CENTER

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Posted: Tue May 6th, 2008 05:21 PM

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"HERE'S TO YOUR HEALTH"
AN ESSAY ON GLASS AND KINDRED THINGS
By John Smith

WHEN it comes to this season of good will, with all its bustling preparation
for the eventual feast, we are apt to look back to those merry days when the
fields were ever-green, and riotous play was the prime object of existence.
We remember those old people in quaint clothes, who had such old-fashioned
ideas about how we should behave. They took such a distant delight in our
exuberance.

In our thoughts we go beyond those old relations to the people of the
customs of the long ago, before they were born, and think of Christmas as it
was to them.

There was a time when Christmas day, still confused with the confraternity
of Pagan Gods, fell on January 5th, and not on December 25th as it now does.
The Puritans when they came into power abolished it altogether but it found
its way back to the hearts of the people after the restoration of Charles
II, and became the family affair which we know today.

The Scots, as an earnest of their sagacity, ignored this second change, and
adopted Hogmanay as a counter. Now, by virtue of the ever-changing tastes of
changeful man, they enjoy the best of both worlds, and keep both feasts with
equal gusto.

The tendency of happy men is to be generous, and this is most potently
expressed in an atmosphere of fraternal trust, where all men are hosts and
the burden of the board is equally shared. It is the vanity of those who
feel that they are normal, to believe that when men are truly happy their
thoughts turn to good wine. It is then that the barriers of diffidence may
be swept away in the convivial traffic of congenial talk. Then the heavy
chains of self-consciousness melt into the silken threads of brotherhood,
and men become knit closely together in the bonds of an open heart.

With good wine goes good glass. When the Romans reclined at table for the
feast of the Winter Solstice they draped themselves in garlands of bright
flowers maidens supporting huge earthenware jars, brimful with wine,
decanted these sweet waters of Bacchus into liquid cavities of the richest
metal.

Today at the festival of Christmas, men of good taste bring out their finest
glass to adorn the glowing picture of the feast, and many a health is drunk
in earnest, and many a good friend pledged over the fragile brims.

Between these two points of time, the slow transition. in the development of
glass has witnessed great improvements in the quality of the material and
the finer touches of workmanship, but the technique of the glass-blower has
changed in very few essentials from those far-off days when the blow-pipe
was first invented between the years of 300 and 20 B.C.

Its slow development can be traced throughout Europe, from the early days of
Christianity until we reach those unsurpassed examples of medieval
craftsmen, which testify to their skill and complete mastery of the medium.

The records of glass making in England are extremely scarce, but we know
that it was understood during the Roman Occupation, and had even by then
developed a barbaric splendor, placing it in the very forefront of Celtic
Art. The blow-pipe had not then reached England, and the glass vessels then
being made were mainly of the built-up type, or cast in rough moulds,
following closely the technique of the potter's craft.

The blow-pipe is a hollow tube between four and five feet long, having a
mouth-piece of one end and a knob at the other. The worker makes a "gather"
by dipping the knob-shaped end into a pot of hot viscous glass, and when the
blow-pipe is dexterously removed, a mass of hot glass adheres to the end.
When the worker blows into the mouth-piece, the "gather" is blown into a
hollow bulb. By swinging and rotating the still hot bulb, by rolling or
otherwise manipulating it with a few simple tools, and by reheating it from
time to time as it cools in working, a hollow vessel of almost any
symmetrical shape can be created.
When it has reached the desired shape, the bulb of glass is reheated at a
suitable distance from the end, and the softened glass is then cut with a
pair of shears, so leaving a bowl. The rim is then reheated and the shear
marks smoothed out, until it regains its original shape. When the whole is
cool it is broken off the blow-pipe, and is ready to have the stem affixed.
Beautiful as this thin plain glass is, it is greatly enhanced by being
decorated either by being cut, engraved or etched.
Cutting and engraving, although separate processes are done by means of
rapidly revolving wheels, against which the glass is moved by the operator,
and carving of the most exquisite detail, (see illustrations) is commonplace
to these skilful hands.
To etch the glass, it is first dipped into a protective paint. When this has
hardened the pattern is scratched through the glass with a fine point. The
surface is then treated with an acid which attacks the surface of the glass
not protected by the paint. When the action of the acid ceases, the whole is
washed, removing all traces of the acid and protective coating, leaving
those beautiful designs which we so much admire. These methods may be used
singly or in combination, and the designs which may be produced by them are
manifold.

It was not until the 18th century that there was any great development in
the art of glass making in England, and collectors are chiefly interested in
drinking glasses, which were produced in great profusion, and adopted for
every description of beverage. The most noted are the glasses with stout
cylindrical legs, containing spiral threads of air, or of white or colored
enamel. To this type of glass belong many of the Jacobite glasses which
commemorate the old and young pretender, and a great number of Masonic
glasses.

The largest glasses, known as "Goblets" or "Constables," lend themselves
admirably to decoration, with their cascades of grape and vine clinging to
the satin surface of the frozen crystal, kaleidoscopic with each change of
liquid treasure, cupped to the brim with the gorgeous harvest of the total
moments. The heart itself holds no more precious delight.

Drinking has had many rituals in the past and one with which we are still
slightly acquainted was used in what were known as "Table Lodges." On those
occasions there was a peculiar method of drinking which hints at our present
"Masonic Fire." This introduced into use a new type of drinking glass known
as a "Firing Glass," which was stoutly made with a thick bottom to withstand
the shock of banging on the table. There are still some old Lodge tables in
the country, which have holes beaten through the wood by the vigor of
several generations of zealous Masons. The engraving on these glasses is
usually a simple Masonic symbol, sometimes with the Lodge number added.
Beyond this they make no claim to elegance.

Sometimes, on special occasions, these glasses are brought out today, but as
the oldest among us are rather vague as to their correct use, and as modern
furniture is unlikely to withstand the burden of our lusty blows, they are
kept away in their lockers, often forgotten for years.

It may be of interest to mention some of the other old drinking customs in
which our ancient Brethren used to indulge.
At one time it was recognized that on election to the "Chair" the Worshipful
Master had to pay a "Fee of Honor," which usually consisted of a bottle or
two, and often the other officers were expected to do likewise on promotion.
In some of the older by-laws a specific number of bottles were mentioned.
The fee was often a five pint bottle, which seems a good one to me. I have
never seen a five pint bottle.

Another custom which was of a domestic nature, was when a Brother took unto
himself a wife, or when he later became the father of a Lewis. Then he was
pledged to eternal bliss at his own expense, according to the depth of his
pocket or the brightness of his vision.

One can imagine that in those days before the mass production of pleasure,
that the average man would learn to entertain his friends in some simple
manner; he would play or sing, and in wine he sang lustily. Lodge histories
are full of references to music, especially as one of the liberal arts which
was most popular in its vocal form. When such men as Laurence Dermott could
give a song in Grand Lodge and Thomas Dunckerley could give a solo in his
favorite Provincial Grand Lodge, we can be assured that there was much
competition among the lesser fry.

Of those old Masonic songs few have survived in the popular sense, except
here and there in the provinces. There they have preserved many of the old
ballads which exercised the lungs of our forefathers, and brought joy to
their simple hearts.
Today we sometimes hear the "Master's Song" mumbled by assemblies who pride
themselves on their antiquity, but whose stiff colors are too unyielding to
allow them to bend to a spirit that seems to be forgotten.

This does not mean that we should revert to those hard drinking days so
grossly depicted with Hogarthian vulgarity, in such drawings as "Night," or
"Gin Lane," but rather, that in our more enlightened minds we should control
ourselves sufficiently to drink enough to be happy, and not to be ill.

But there are always some occasions when even the most temperate among us,
can be excused for inhibing with some freedom, and that is when we raise our
glass to a friend, and say: "Here's to your health."

From masonic paper #452 submitted by, BR. T.K. McCutcheon

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