Table glass in the West Country home, c.1500-1700

This paper examines selected groups of excavated table glass from the three urban centres of Exeter, Poole and Plymouth. By examining the changes in provenance and range of forms present it is possible to chart the evolving patterns of consumption taking place in the West Country home during the 16th and 17th centuries. As well as growing competition between the emerging European centres of production, innovations in style, technological advances and developing patterns of trade can all be seen to have affected directly the consumer choices of the emerging middling sort.