100 Essentials: #2 Glasses

I am still thinking about my "essentials".  I am not really counting or even listing, but I am becoming more aware of what is just "stuff" and what items truly fill a need. I am also thinking more about trying to make sure where I can that the essentials are things that are pleasant to use. After twenty four years in this house and twenty two years of parenting a lot of our stuff had seen much better days; over the last year or two we have been working on a much needed "reboot" of our house, redecorating, repairing and replacing as necessary. Glassware has been on our list of the things we would like to replace for a while. We had the remains of a dated set of uninspiring crystal glassware bought thirty years ago and reduced over the years by breakages, a few good quality but mismatched glasses, some ugly tumblers for daily use (in two sizes) bought because they were cheap and dishwasher proof, and various other odds and sods.

Inspired by Francine Jay I suggested we should try to find a single style of glass that could be used for pretty much anything. Among our hotchpotch of glassware there were two tumblers which came as part of a Baileys Irish Cream gift set. M and I both liked the shape and feel of these tumblers and decided to try to buy some as similar to the Baileys glasses as possible. We came up with these from Marks and Spencer's barrel range:

They are slightly larger and heavier than the Baileys glasses, but pretty close. Francine Jay used a  single "essential" glass for everything, including wine. We decided we weren't ready to go that far and still wanted separate wine glasses, so we bought some from the same range. We liked the non-traditional shape and they feel nice to hold:

We got rid of most of the old glassware. We did keep some - the good quality items and a few of the oddments that one or other of us particularly liked - but these are the two glasses that are on my "essential" list.