Just the other day I was in a fret about the ultimate fate of all the neglected glass and crystal in the world. I was worried enough to take this photo of small, essentially useless, sherry glasses collected on a table at a local secondhand shop.

None of these is particularly fabulous, of high quality or of advanced age. They were however once considered ‘for best’ which is probably why they survive. They were in large part engagement and wedding presents. Some of them are rather pretty. Some are delicate and beautifully engraved. Some are miniscule. Tiny enough to be comic in the hand.

I cooked up schemes designed to reuse these glasses. I’ve thought about reintroducing Sherry. I’ve plotted to bundle these (and unwanted parfait glasses) off to friends at Christmas time as gifts. In the hope that an up close engagement with the best and prettiest of the table top pile might make people realize how nice a little glass really is. Then at least I’d feel I’m doing my bit to stem the flow of neglect currently suffered by crystal glasses.

Then today while perusing another local shop I encounter two young ladies, accompanied by an older brother and their mother. They were scooping up armfuls of small glasses – in this case the small tumblers the used to come with heavily engraved whisky decanters. They explained that they were going to use them to put tea lights in on the tables at a wedding reception. The brother and mother were holding unloved cut crystal and pressed glass bowls – destined I suspect for the same event.

Happy that some one else was on the case – I let them into the secret of the tables illustrated here and once they’d located their destination on their phones – they set off.

When I got home I had a look at my little tumblers (my parent’s wedding presents). I’m not sure I’ll be using them for tea lights anytime soon – but I’m really pleased someone else has thought up something to keep these little treasures sparkling a little longer and what’s more I like the irony that these little one time wedding presents are heading back for a second matrimonial outing.

DLJ