In 1675 George Ravenscroft invented the lead glass formula which was to transform glass selling in England. Previously table glass was imported from the continent, mostly from Venice, but now an indigenous industry developed rapidly, producing drinking glasses of such quality and fascinating design as to capture the entire home market. This book explores the variety of drinking glasses, from the heavy balusters of before 1700 to the faceted stems of around 1800 which are so sought after by collectors. Superb craftsmanship and ingenuity, typical of all art forms in the eighteenth century, are beautifully encapsulated in the drinking glass, and a large and significant collection can be housed in a couple of display cases. Accompanied with detailed illustrations of the range of glass designs, this is an ideal guide for any collector.

An Archaeology of the British Atlantic World, 1600–1700 is the first book to apply the methods of modern-world archaeology to the study of the seventeenth-century English colonial world. Charles E. Orser, Jr explores a range of material evidence of daily life collected from archaeological excavations throughout the Atlantic region, including England, Ireland, western Africa, Native North America, and the eastern United States. He considers the archaeological record together with primary texts by contemporary writers. Giving particular attention to housing, fortifications, delftware, and stoneware, Orser offers new interpretations for each type of artefact. His study demonstrates how the archaeological record expands our understanding of the Atlantic world at a critical moment of its expansion, as well as to the development of the modern, Western world.

In 1717, the notorious pirate Blackbeard captured a French slaving vessel off the coast of Martinique and made it his flagship, renaming it Queen Anne's Revenge. Over the next six months, the heavily armed ship and its crew captured all manner of riches from merchant ships sailing the Caribbean to the Carolinas. But in June 1718, with British authorities closing in, Blackbeard reportedly ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground just off the coast of what is now North Carolina's Fort Macon State Park. What went down with the ship remained hidden for centuries, as the legend of Blackbeard continued to swell in the public's imagination. When divers finally discovered the wreck in 1996, it was immediately heralded as a major find in both maritime archaeology and the history of piracy in the Atlantic. Now the story of Queen Anne's Revenge and its fearsome captain is revealed in full detail. Having played vital roles in the shipwreck's recovery and interpretation, Mark U. Wilde-Ramsing and Linda F. Carnes-McNaughton vividly reveal in words and images the ship's first use as a French privateer and slave ship, its capture and use by Blackbeard's armada, the circumstances of its sinking, and all that can be known about life as an eighteenth-century pirate based on a wealth of artifacts now raised from the ocean floor.

There is a continuing interest in 18th-century drinking glasses which is fuelled by the enormous variety of bowls and stems. They are an eloquent testimony to the ingenuity and craftmanship of glass workers of the time. This guide is illustrated with over 1200 photographs.