"Uncorked!': Wine history at Winterthur

If you're curious about what was really going on in history while kings were off fighting those tedious epic battles, look to the physical objects that people bought and discarded, picked up and used, washed and stored in their cupboards. In these everyday items you'll find the wheel of life turning slowly and deliberately, spinning out tales that are as revealing and interesting as they are ordinary.

Nobody does the stuff of history better than Winterthur, the great repository of America physical culture from the early centuries of this country. "Uncorked!," its current show in the Winterthur Galleries, is a perfect example, offering an abundance of objects related to that favorite human occupation of all times and places: drinking.

As always at Winterthur, the scholarship is impeccable, so you can learn a satisfying amount from the display, which includes drinking memorabilia of all kinds, from the delicate to the rough-hewn. Quotations on the walls add to the fun, and the learning.

Perfect bowl

The most entertaining quotes come from Cyrus Redding, a 19th-Century author with strong opinions. Redding chides drunkards, offers advice on packing for shipping, and waxes lyrical on the ideal glass for an exceptional wine. "If we could divide a soap bubble in half while floating on the zephyr," he theorizes, "we should have a perfect bowl out of which to quaff Romanée, Lafitte, or Sillery."

The variety and use of drinking vessels make for a revelation of habit, taste and ingenuity. One long wall shows the evolution of the wine bottle as the shape gradually adapts to the challenges of ocean travel. Another case highlights the monteith— a pre-refrigeration method of chilling wine and glasses— in a range of materials from fine Chinese porcelain to brass and pewter. Another relates the story of posset, a once-revered medicinal mix of milk, wine and spices that was partly drunk and partly eaten with a spoon.

Commerce is highlighted with trade cards, flyers and even discount coupons promoting businesses, and with punch bowls decorated with detailed pictures documenting the trade. One fascinating Chinese piece, called a Hong Bowl, is a wonder of detail showing the Hong, the district in Canton for foreign merchants, complete with tiny figures going about their business in Canton's teeming streets. Cyrus Redding appears here, too, offering a way to doctor wine that's gone past its prime (his remedies include milk, fish glue, and boiling for an hour).

Whistling frog

Politics comes into the picture with celebratory vessels, as well as a few protest pieces, mainly against taxes. You'll find a "caudle" cup for Charles II (caudle, a mixture of wine, spices and egg yolk, has happily passed out of use along with posset), a mug for Queen Anne, an elegant black and white jug for King George, and finally a raft of post-Revolution memorabilia bearing images of Washington and Franklin.

The exhibit includes an 18th-Century mug with a frog that whistles as the drink is consumed, a sure precursor to the familiar child's mug with the frog at the bottom. A puzzle jug with an expensive lusterware finish presents a clever challenge to the drinker, who had to figure out how to down the contents without spilling it out the sides. This intriguing show, like a good wine, will linger on your palette well after your visit.