The victorias recorded their drinking by the glass and the bottle. But the sizes of these have changed. One glass of wine can now hold ten or more georgian wine glasses.

From the BMJ Christmas Issue.

We sought to measure the capacity of glasses used for unfortified wine (excluding sparkling wines) with a stem and foot that have been available or sold in England from 1700 to 2017. We searched online and contacted experts in antique glassware, including museum curators, although no single source captured wine glass size over the period of interest. We obtained measurements of 411 glasses from five sources:

• The Department of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, the University of Oxford (years 1700-1800; n=43)
• The Royal Household, where a new set of glassware is commissioned for each monarch (years 1808-1947; n=24)
• eBay, the auction and retail website (years 1840-2016; n=65)
• Catalogues from Dartington Crystal, an English glassware manufacturer (years 1967-2017; n=180) and John Lewis, the department store with the largest online selection of wine glasses (year 2016; n=99)

Two of these sources, eBay and John Lewis, were in the public domain. We had to seek access to the other sources to obtain capacity measurements.

We recorded the total capacity of the bowl of the glasses. Glasses from the Ashmolean Museum and Royal Household were measured by calculating the difference between the wine glass’s initial weight and its weight when filled to the brim with water (1 g water = 1 mL water). The capacity of glasses for sale on eBay was already provided for 12 glasses as part of their descriptions, and we requested this from the vendors for a further 82 glasses, obtaining information on 53. From Dartington Crystal we obtained capacity information from its current and archived catalogues, and John Lewis listed capacities on its online platform (www.johnlewis.com, accessed on 24 November 2016).

Figure 1 shows the capacity of wine glasses from the five sources over time, along with the non-parametric regression fit for the mean (solid line) and the corresponding pointwise 95% confidence intervals (shaded area). Wine glass capacity increased from 66 mL (standard deviation 21.69) in the 1700s to 417 mL (SD 170) in the 2000s, and the mean wine glass size in 2016-17 was 449 mL (SD 161). This increase was gradual until the 1990s, when it became more marked.

SO our one to two glasses of wine would be five or six to a Victorian author. Bottles have stayed between 600 and 800 ml for two hundred years… so out modern glass can easily take half a standard (750 ml) bottle of wine. When you also note that the alcoholic strength of wine has increased, this paints quite a wallop.

On glass of wine, for your health, is probably good for you. But ensure your glass is not too big. Or you will need to call a taxi. Or do as I do: if I drink (at all) I don’t drive.