Martin has a large collection of glasses which includes some Waterford Crystal, some old Irish Crystal, some bistro and Absinthe glasses from "Belle Époque" France and some modern and coloured glass.
Curiosities include "Verre a lecher" or licking glass which features in Manet's painting "The Plum", his Butler's glass to moniter the bubbles in champagne, his Toastmasters glass which can insure the minimum of drink is consumed, or even his Victorian glass wasp trap.
From left : Victorian wasp trap, Butler's glass, "Verre a lecher" and Toastmasters glass.
"The Plum" by Manet
ABSINTHE GLASSES
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the cult of Absinthe corresponded with the great flowering of impressionism and indeed post impressionism in France. The Absinthe drinker and his glass has been painted by most of the artists of Belle Époque.
"Absinthe Drinkers" by Rafaellin"Drinker" by Manet
"Absinthe Glass" by Van Gogh"Absinthe Drinker" by Ihly"La Beuveuse d'Absinthe" by Picasso
Martin, who is a member of the Glass Society of Ireland, has been gathering glasses of the period featured in the above pictures in French Brocantes and Antique Fairs for the last 12 years.
"En toi je tomberai, végétale ambroisie,
Grain précieux jeté par l'éternel Semeur,
Pour que de notre amour naisse la poésie
Qui jaillira vers Dieu comme une rare fleur!"
- Baudelaire
"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were.
After the second, you see things as they are not.
Finally you see things as they really are - and that is the most horrible thing in the world."
- Wilde
