Stemmed glasses were traditionally made in three steps. A certain type of mould would be used to form the bowl, to which the stem and the foot would then be appended. Of the thousands of existing models, only a few of those moulds are still in use in French crystal glassworks for the production of handmade glassware. With the decline of the glassmaking industry, these forms, which produce unfinished objects, have lost their purpose.
These bells keep the memory of our glassmaking heritage alive. Their shapes, blown into moulds stored at the Vannes-le-Châtel factory in Lorraine (Cristal de Sèvres, Daum), are models for discontinued stemmed glasses.
These “glasses” can now ring thanks to a 3D-printed clapper.