Heavy baluster glass

Heavy baluster glasses or goblets (French 'balustre' = 'pomegranate flower') were popular in the period 1680–1740.

After about 1720 the heavy baluster glasses were replaced with thinner glass and stems, featuring smaller knops, and known as light balusters or balustroids.

Because the difficulty in grasping such a shape, it was replaced by inverted baluster with a swelling at the top.

Taxes in the eighteenth century were imposed according to the weight of the glass, leading to a reduction in the size of the knops and more elegant glasses, known as light balusters or just balusters.

When the knops became no more than swellings of the stem, the term balustroid was used.