28 
House & Garden 
There is a rare old beauty 
in these samples of Irish 
glass — candelabra, pickle 
urns and decanters. Courte¬ 
sy of Miss Persse of Dublin 
OLD IRISH GLASS 
From Cork, Belfast, Londonderry, Ballycastle and Other Parts of Erin 
Comes a Glass Fit for the Collector s Cabinet 
MRS. T. P. O’CONNOR 
A LARGE dining room with two doors, 
Fx. one leading from the hall, the other 
opening on a flight of stone steps descending 
to an old Southern garden which breathed the 
perfumes of Araby. 
Night blooming jessamine, crepe myrtle, 
clove pinks, honeysuckle, a riot of roses, gera¬ 
niums, and heliotrope, gardenias, and star jes¬ 
samine all commingled their sweet breath in 
spicy, intoxicating fragrance. 
The six windows of the long room were cur¬ 
tained in wistaria and clematis. A high black 
mantelpiece with a red brick hearth gave it 
character, the floor was of oak, and it was fur¬ 
nished with a sideboard and table of noble 
proportions, a dinner wagon, and many chairs 
—which were needed for the open-hearted hos¬ 
pitality of the old South. 
The summer was just beginning. The win¬ 
dows were all open. The shadows were at 
their longest. At sundown the darkies would 
set the table elaborately, for “Miss Marcia” 
their mistress and the Judge’s wife were expect¬ 
ing company to supper. Crocheted mats would 
be judiciously distributed—tablecloths were 
only used for dinner—a candelabra from Cork, 
holding many sperm candles would be placed 
at either end of the table. Round cut glass 
dishes fitted to orange melons—a watermelon 
which can be pealed like an orange leaving a 
globe of delicious red pulp—would flank the 
candelabra and glow like rubies with candle 
light falling on them, while blue and white 
Nankin bowls filled with white roses would 
cool the brilliant color. 
The china closet would be unlocked by the 
black housekeeper, and the piece de resistance, 
an imposing Waterford epergne of cut and 
engraved glass, would be carefully lifted and 
placed in the centre of the table. The custard 
cups of generous proportions, in a grapevine 
design, with the edge of gentle oblong scallops, 
would be filled with delicious cool custard 
made of fresh eggs, rich milk, flavored to a 
nicety, and ornamented with little snowy vol¬ 
canoes of stiffly beaten white of egg erupting 
quince jelly. 
Around the Table 
When supper was announced—the pleas¬ 
antest and most characteristic meal of the 
South—a merry informal party of kinsfolk and 
neighbors gathered about the board,—the host, 
a handsome, kind, dignified, black-eyed gen¬ 
tleman, sat at the head of the table, and against 
precedent, his youngest child, a big-eyed little 
girl of six, was at his right. The glittering 
glass centrepiece seemed to her the most beauti¬ 
ful object on earth, more lovely even than the 
magnolia grandiflora, upon whose leaves she 
printed with a pin communications to the 
fairies. The time was long before those rain¬ 
bow cups with quivering white mountains were 
served, and she was not surprised to see her 
cousin William, a good-looking West Point 
cadet—pretty Mary Fleurnay’s sweetheart— 
grow tired of waiting for the butler, reach his 
hand over the table, and with little finger ele¬ 
gantly separated from the others, delicately lift 
a cup of custard to present Mary as a love 
offering. 
Alas, a mischievous fate was too generous. 
His hand not only carried the ambrosial gob¬ 
let, but attached to that gracefully curved little 
finger was the stiff white mountain and the 
quivering peak of jelly from the neighboring 
cup. It waved like a tasty flag of truce; would 
it fall? Would it cling until his hand bliss¬ 
fully touched Mary’s? The big eyes of the 
little girl distended to an enormous size, she 
watched her embryo soldier cousin with breath¬ 
less interest. Presently her father noticed her 
absorbed gaze, saw the impending catastrophe 
and uttered a severe reprimand in a single 
word, “William”! 
The hand quivered, the white banner seemed 
about to furl, but no, the fold clung tenacious¬ 
ly to the finger, cup and mountain were both 
victoriously deposited on Mary’s plate, amid 
shouts of laughter and heartless exclamations. 
The middle decanter dates from Cork, 1800, the left one is of 1 0th 
Century Cork make and the third, with trifle rings, is from Cork, 1820 
The first water jug is from Waterford, 1820. The second, strawberry dia¬ 
mond cutting, Cork, 10 th Century. The third, from Cork, 18 th Century 
