Wash glass
Wash glasses were essential parts of any genteel dining service in the second half of the eighteenth century. Placed at regular intervals around the table, and sometimes at each setting, they were filled with water or ice and functioned as tableside basins in which to wash and cool glasses in between courses or wines. George Washington's choice of an opaque "Bristol Blue" glass was as utilitarian as it was elegant, for its masked the bowls' often dirty contents.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 171.
James C. Rees, Treasures from Mount Vernon: George Washington Revealed (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1999), 94.