Object Type
This straight-sided, cylindrical form is standard for a tumbler of this period and typically it would have been used for water. By this date tumblers were invariably made of glass despite their earlier history as a form made in ceramic or metal which could take a tumble during a convivial meal. Glass as thinly-blown as this example would stand few if any falls. The designer, probably Philip Webb, has had the forethought to give the straight-sided form an anti-slip bulge around the body, much like present-day beer glasses.

People
Webb designed a set of table glass by 1860. It was intended for the personal use of William Morris at Red House, to be made by James Powell & Sons. That first set, for which drawings only survive, was elaborately historicist in style, influenced as it was by Roman glass, 17th-century enamelled German glasses and 18th-century English drinking glasses. This wide range of historic influences show how eclectic Morris's own interests were. By 1862, the more elaborate designs were being converted into a plainer range, probably by Webb, for multiple production by James Powell & Sons. This plainer range was subsequently added to by the glassworks. This tumbler was presented to the Museum by Mrs J. Mackail, daughter of William Morris's great friend, the painter Edward Burne-Jones, and the widow of William Morris's biographer.