Raise a glass to William on his Birthday and another glass to the launch of the Blake Society’s new magazine VALA
THOU HOLDER OF IMMORAL DRINK
I GIVE THEE PURPOSE NOW I THINK
BLAKE IN ANGUISH FELPHAM AUG 1803
Blake’s Rummer (acquired 1988)
Corning Museum of Glass
Overall H: 13.8 cm; Rim Diam: 10.8 cm
Colorless lead glass; blown, diamond-point engraved (scratched and stippled), ground. Large tulip-shaped bowl; diamond-point engraved on one side “THOU HOLDER OF IMMORAL DRINK / I GIVE THEE PURPOSE NOW I THINK,” and on the opposite side, a diamond-stippled full-length angel with raised arms, one wing fully detailed with feathers, the other only outlined; bladed collar at the base of the bowl inscribed in diamond point “BLAKE IN ANGUISH FELPHAM AUG 1803”; thick, waisted, solid stem, ground at the base, where it is set into a silvered brass circular foot, the underside filled with plaster and covered with textured black paper.
