More glasses !
Well what else is a collector.

People look at my collection from time to time and ask why I collect so much stuff which is the same.
They may well look the same to you- I say- but to me they are all individuals.

Take this six.

Number three and number four we found in an antique fair in Fayence in 1990, 25 years ago. One is marked with a thin line inside the glass which was a measure line for Absinthe, this I only discovered after a bit of on line research. This shape turns up endlessly in Impressionist paintings of Absinthe drinkers in bars during the Belle Epoque in France.

These glasses were the ones that set me off on my quest for French Café glasses of that age. I now own three dozen odd,which we use all the time as wine and beer glasses and possibly more now in boxes in my cellar.

But to get back to my three sets of non-identical twins.

Number two and number six I have picked up since we moved out here, in vide greniers or fairs.
Both are clearly marked with etched lines for an absinthe measure.

Number one and number five I found just last weekend in Angouleme at a fair in the town, both are marked and number one has a particular elaborate stem, unique in my collection.
So if you have a careful look at the set you will see that there are no identical twins among them, each was individually made, blown and shaped by hand, what an amazing thing in these times of mass production.

The other thing which I find charming about the collection is that they had a strict commercial use and are far from being delicate antiques. They were intended as workaday glasses for cafés and bars, to easily withstand being thumped on marble tables and roughly rinsed under taps. This permits me to pour wine into them every night for my guests and explains how, probably over one hundred years after manufacture, they are still doing their job.