Glass Dictionary
Jacks
A tool with two metal arms joined at one end by a spring. The distance between the arms is controlled by the glassworker, who uses jacks for a variety of purposes while shaping the parison (for example, to form the mouths of open vessels). This tool is also known as a borsella or pucellas.
Jacobite glass
An 18th-century English drinking vessel most often used for toasting Prince Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”). The Jacobites were supporters of the exiled King James II , who abdicated in 1698, and of his descendants James Edward Stuart (the “Old Pretender”) and his son Charles Edward Stuart (the “Young Pretender”). Before the defeat of the Young Pretender in 1746, Jacobite glasses were usually engraved with the English rose, representing the Crown, and an optimistic motto such as “Redeat” (Latin, “May he return”). After 1746, glasses at first bore cryptic symbols and messages, but later, secrecy was abandoned. In recent years, many Jacobite glasses have been shown to be fakes.
Jelly glass
A vessel, popular in the 18th century, for serving jelly and other desserts. Jelly glasses usually have an inverted conical bowl, a square stem, and a foot. They may have one or two handles.
Jugendstil
(from French, “new art”) An international late 19th- and early 20th-century decorative style characterized by organic foliate forms, sinuous lines, and non-geometric, “whiplash” curves. Art Nouveau originated in Europe in the late 1880s, and reached the peak of its popularity around 1900. In America, it inspired, among others, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). The name is derived from La Maison de l’Art Nouveau, a gallery for interior design that opened in Paris in 1896. The German term for Art Nouveau is Jugendstil.
