I have been collecting shotglasses for almost half of my life, and for the longest time, I felt like I was the only one who collected these things. Over the years, I have searched for information on shotglasses and shotglass collecting. There is not much information available, so I decided to create this site to share what I have learned.

Shotglass Size

While researching this I had found one attempt at creating an "official" definition for a shot in a State (the state of New York tried to legislate the minimum size of a shot in 1947), but the bill was not passed. The next closest thing was a law in South Carolina that required the use of mini bottles (at first 1.5 ounces, and later 1.7 ounces) -- no shotglasses or free pours allowed. This was repealed a few years ago. In March of this year, the state of Utah changed their definition of a shot from one ounce to one and one half ounces. As far as I can tell, Utah is the only state with a current law.

Bejing Olympics Shotglass Set

Over the years, there have been a couple of different sets of glasses available at Epcot. These sets usually have the flag of the country along with the name of the country. There are often more than eleven glasses in the set, as glasses from Finland and Sweden are available in Norway, while Nothern Ireland, Scotland and Wales glasses are available at the United Kingdom pavillion. These sets are specific to Epcot.

There are occasionally other shotglasses available at the pavillions, usually representing some part of the host country. This year there was a set at the China pavillion that I just had to buy. They have created a set of 38 shotglasses to commemorate the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There is one glass for each of the sports. I have many Olympic shotglasses, but I have never seen a set with this many glasses. For those of you who are interested, I have found a place online where you can Buy This Set.

Doc Holliday's cup from the movie Tombstone

My usual answer to this question is that metal cups are easy to make on a small scale, and they often have no maker's mark on them, so their origin is difficult to determine. So even if I had the item in front of me, I might not be able to determine where (or when) it was made. Trying to identify an object from a movie is almost impossible.

Well, I decided to use some of my knowledge of the theater and movie making, and see if I could find out more. Asking somebody to remember a small prop from a movie made over a dozen years ago is quite a longshot, but as it turns out, I was able to contact someone from the the production who remembers the cup. If a prop comes from the property department (props) they will have more than one, just in case one gets lost or damaged. This cup stood out because there were no replacements, so when it went missing, it HAD to be found. Most likely this cup was picked up in Santa Fe by Val Kilmer himself, and he brought it to the set.

Anybody in Santa Fe want to start checking out the local metalsmiths?

Metal Shotglasses

There are certain fields such as the sciences where classification is exact, and where the categories do not overlap (something cannot be both a reptile and a mammal.) But these rules often get blurred once you leave the world of the experts: most people do not know that a spider is not an insect. The world of consumer goods does not have anywhere near the detailed requirements for classification as the scientific community, and when you mix the "average joe" and a marketing department, things take on a life of their own.

Some metal glasses may be old enough to have been used for dramming, but if they also fit the general size and shape of a shotglass (a more recent invention than the dram glass), they should qualify as shotglasses. There are quite a few newer glasses that have been created explicitly as shotglasses (some of this is thanks to the marketing departments). There are also many metal glasses from countries such as Germany, India and Peru where the act of "dramming" was not common.

The final point, that a "glass" must be made of glass is a pretty weak argument. Most people call spectacles (the things that you wear to correct vision) "glasses" but today, many of them are made out of plastic, because plastic is lighter, and harder to break than the original glass lenses. During the 1950s aluminum timblers became common, but most people still called them "glasses."

I include metal glasses in my shotglass collection. Some of them, especially the newer ones, are exactly the same size and shape as a standard shotglass. But there are also some, especially those from outside of America, that are different. As long as they function like a shotglass and are not something else like a double-ended jigger, they belong in a shotglass collection.

NASCAR Shotglasses

Recently, I have been finding it harder to locate NASCAR glasses. My wife's favorite driver is Jimmie Johnson, who is the reigning champion, but I have been unable to find a glass celebrating his championship. We visited the Hendrick Motorsports Museum and Speed Shop in North Carolina, and Daytona International Speedway in Florida and could not find one. I have checked all of the obvious places online, but still have not found one.

If you know where I can get a championship glass for the 48 car, let me know

Another Movie Shotglass

I had known that this type of glass was very popular during the 1940s and 1950s, and since the movie was released in 1963, I now know that they were still popular in the early 1960s. Unfortunately, these glasses are usually ignored by most collectors today because they do not conform to the "small glass with thick sides" stereotype. The outside dimensions of one of these glasses is identical to the dimensions of standard "Double Shot" so they are not any larger than a glass that is often included in a shotglass collection, so it is either the fact that they are made of thin glass, or the fact that they hold four ounces of liquid that cause collectors to ignore them.

This style of glass is particularly interesting to me, because, if these are considered shotglasses, I purchased my first shotglass while I was in elementary school. During a class trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York City, I picked up a small glass with a dinosaur on it. It does not have any measuring lines on it, and I did not associate it with a shotglass until very recently, but it is the size and shape of these often ignored shotglasses.

Shotglasses in really old movies

Over Christmas vacation I went to Disney MGM Studios at Disney World in Orlando. One of the rides there is called The Great Movie Ride, and while you wait to get onto the ride, they show clips from old movies. I commented to my wife that there was only one of the movies that they show that I have not seen -- Footlight Parade. So after returning from the trip I watched the movie, and there is a musical number called Shanghai Lil where James Cagney is a sailor looking for a girl in China. During the scene he grabs a bottle and a shot glass.

The glass that he uses looks like a fairly common one ounce whiskey without the thick base we associate with shots. According to the dialogue, what he is drinking is brandy. The scene shows him sipping the brandy instead of "doing a shot." I am not sure if this means people were not drinking shots in 1933 when the movie was made, or whether sipping fit the scene better (he puts down his un-finished glass and his friend pours the rest into his own glass).

So are there any other film buffs out there who can point out scenes in movies made in the early 1930s or earlier where the characters use shotglasses? I have had a number of people point out the "Play it again, Sam" scene in Casablanca, but Rick drinks from a juice glass, not a shot glass. If you know of any let me know.

Retro Video Game Shots

State Shots (and more)

Shot Of The Month Club

Here is the web site for the Shotglass Club . It is still in the final stages of planning, so you cannot get any glasses yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it opens. You can also submit your own designs, which will be considered for a "glass of the month."

Dramshop

While looking for a definition for dramshop, I ran across a 1913 supreme court decision that gives the definition as (places) "where intoxicating liquors, in small quantities, to be drunk at the time, are sold" (not the best grammar but hey, its the supreme court :) The term usually applies to all types of places that sell "spirits" for immediate consumption, but for at least part of the 1800s, that was not the case.

An article about the town of Ellsworth Kansas in 1873 lists saloons and dramshops as different types of businesses. At that time, the term saloon was reserved for the large, fancy establishments, while dramshop was used for the less fancy establishments. The same article gave an example of a non-saloon drinking establishment when it indicated that three of the hotels were licensed to sell alcohol; the bar in a hotel would be considered a dramshop. The scene in the movie Unforgiven where Clint Eastwood's character shoots an un-armed man, and then says the memorable line "Well, he should have armed himself" takes place in a less-than-fancy bar that would count as a dramshop.

The Most Valuable Shotglasses

I cannot find a price for the 1945 glass, but the least valuable of the 1987 glasses is worth about $300. There were two sizes of glasses in 1987, with two designs for each size glass. The last price that I saw for the most valuable variety was over $1,000. Every Kentucky Derby shotglass from 1992 or earlier is worth more than $20.

Another group of valuable glasses are also the oldest shotglasses, but some people argue that they are not shotglasses because they are made of thin glass. They are known by a number of different names: "pre prohibition sample glass" or "pre prohibition whiskey taster." My friend Robin runs a site dedicated to these: Pre-Pro.com

Adding To The Database

The information that you provide will not be automatically added to the database because it will need to be reviewed to prevent abuse, but when you submit the information, you will see how the entry will appear when it does get added to the database. If you include your name and email, you will eventually be able to search on that information. If you submit every glass in your collection, you will be able to do a search that displays your entire collection.

Happy New Year!

New Message Board Update: I have finished updating the message board link on every page. Unfortunately, some search engines still point to the old links.

New Message Board

I have not updated the message board link on every page yet, just on the main page, and the message pages.

Shotglass Origin

I will not tell the whole story here at this time, but based on my research, the shotglass was born in America in the early 1900s. Some well-known facts that support this position are that shotglasses from before the 1940s are very rare, and that most shotglasses are found in America. A less-known fact is that the word shotglass (or phrase "shot glass") does not show up in print until the 1940s and does not come into common usage until much later.

Assuming that the origin of the shotglass was sparked by some type of "special circumstances" that existed in America in the years before the Second World War, there are two likely candidates: the passage of the Volstead act (more commonly known as Prohibition) and The Great Depression. Since the Great Depression was a worldwide phenomenon, and shotglasses evolved only in America, the depression was probably not a major influence on the birth of the shotglass. That leaves Prohibition as the most likely influence.

Claiming that Prohibition was a significant influence on the birth of the shotglass is not too hard for most people to imagine, especially since there is an obvious connection between Prohibition and the shotglass: they are both related to alcohol. Before Prohibition, thin-sided sample glasses were common; After Prohibition the shotglass with its thick base and sides had replaced the sample glass. Something must have happened during Prohibition to spark the change.

... to be continued ...

Football Glasses

I originally thought that these glasses were part of a complete set of NFL glasses, but since I have only found glasses for two teams after years of searching, it is possible that there may only be two glasses in the set. If there are only two glasses in the set, then the set was probably made for an important game -- either a playoff or a championship. After looking through the list of football championships and playoffs, the only time that the Colts and the Packers met was for the Western Conference Championship in 1965.

If anybody has seen other glasses like this, let me know!

Shipping Shotglasses

• Crumpled newspaper is a BAD packing material for glasses unless it is compacted tightly
• Put as much "stuff" between glasses as possible
• Putting stuffing inside thin walled glasses helps them survive some crushing
• Many people remember to keep the glasses away from the sides of the box, while others are good at keeping them away from the top and bottom, but few keep them away from all sides
• Most original packaging was not designed to survive shipping via UPS or USPS
• If there is an original box and you can remove the glasses, wrap them individually BUT DO NOT PUT THEM BACK IN THE BOX unless there is lots of extra room! In many boxes the slots were designed for the glass, not the glass plus wrapping -- putting wrapped glasses back in damages the box
• If there is an original box, with sufficient padding between the glasses, wrap the box tightly (like a birthday present) so the top cannot come loose, then put padding around it
• If you remove the glasses from the original box, try to put something in the box that will protect it from crushing, but that will not damage the cardboard insert(s)
• More is Better when it comes to padding

In the previous paragraph I mentioned insurance. In general, insurance for shotglasses is a waste of money (although some people think that a package marked as insured will get better treatment.) In order to make a claim, you need the small, green insurance receipt, and most shippers do not put it in the box. If you have the receipt, and wish to make a claim, you need an independent book or guide that identifies the glass and provides a value. Very few glasses can be identified this way.

Reviews

I NEED YOUR HELP!

I am in the process of trying to come up with guidelines for dating a glass based on the shape of the glass, and what the maker's mark on the base of the glass looks like. I am trying to determine the earliest use of a particular style of glass and the range of dates that a particular maker's mark was in use. For example, the Libbey Glass Company recently changed the base of their glasses -- The main mark is still a script upper-case L but the "mold numbers" are now below the letter, while prior to 1998 they were to the left of the letter.

This is where you can help me. If you have any glasses that have a date on them, such as those that were were made for a specific event, like a wedding, or the Superbowl, tell me the date, what the mark on the bottom of the glass looks like (see my identification page ) and the shape of the glass. Also, some newer glasses have copyright dates on them, and this information can be useful, but be aware that designs are usually copyrighted before they are used. An example of this is the logo for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics -- it was copyrighted in 1992, so glasses with this design might have been made 4 years before the "big" date.

You can send me the info by leaving feedback, or by leaving a message on the MessageBoard If you have a photograph, and you have your own website, you can link to the photo in your MessageBoard message.

Thanks
              Mark

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