Rundlet-May House

English and Irish Cut Glass

The Rundlet family owned large sets of fashionable cut glass imported from England and Ireland, including an array of pieces for dessert, and decanters. Nineteenth-century advice books for household staff such as that written by Robert Roberts often recommended placing “four or six water decanters or cut glass pitchers, on your supper table” to allow the dinner to flow more smoothly without a lot of formality of more attendance than necessary. This was also likely a method of encouraging dinner conversation with honored guests, which was elevated to something of an art in the nineteenth century.