The antique decanter has been very popular back in the 18th, 19th and the early 20th century, when rich folks used them along with the now so-called antique wine glasses to serve the wine to their guests. The truth is, however, that even now they are very popular and heavily used particularly by the real wine connoisseurs who have other matching antique glassware pieces in their collection.
So right now it doesn’t really matter the actual age of the piece (of course, the older it is, the more expensive it becomes), as it will be forever known as an elegant way to decant wine and pour it in the glasses. Also it makes a perfect match with any exquisite home decor.
When you want to authenticate your antique decanter, you need to take age in consideration. The older it is, the more precious it gets. Also can you find out how many of these pieces have been actually made? Are they mass produced, or you can only find a dozen make in this series? Obviously the less pieces, the more authentic the item and the higher the price.liquor
However, even if there is only a limited number of pieces made and sold, if the quality of the material is cheap, such as those made by Jim Beam a while ago, they are truly not ‘antique’, no matter the scarcity of the product.
So as you can see there are a number of factors that make a decanter antique, and when researching upon the antique piece that your grandmother left you in her will, you need to take into consideration all these aspects, without ignoring any of them.
Currently it can be easily classified in a few types, depending mostly of the drink it stores. So for example you can find the following:
- antique wine decanter
- antique liquor decanter
- antique whiskey decanter
- antique bourbon decanter
- antique scotch decanter
- antique brandy decanter
You won’t find, however a decanter for beer:)
Also it is easily classified based on the material, such as antique glass, crystal or silver decanter, and also based on the way it is created, such as the antique cut glass decanter. Each of these types serve a different purpose and obviously you won’t use to decant wine the piece made for scotch or whiskey.
While in most cases it is performing the function of aerating your wine and splitting it from the sediments so they don’t enter your glass, when you use a collector piece such as an antique decanter, you will certainly not use it for that purpose. Since it is so valuable and precious, and in most cases unique, the piece is mostly used for decorative purposes only to be displayed in the wine cabinet with other similar glassware pieces, such as a collector’s edition set of glasses and the set of decanter cleaner beads.