Modern wine glasses are seven times bigger than they were in the 18th century Paul Harding/Press AssociationEvery era leaves its mark on Christmas: the Middle Ages gave us Christmas pudding; roast potatoes were a Georgian delicacy and the Victorians perfected turkey and crackers. Now scientists say that the distinctive contribution of the 21st century may turn out to be drunkenness. Wine glasses are seven times larger than they were in the 18th century and much of the increase has come since 2000, researchers at Cambridge University have found. After an exhaustive study into the collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the tableware of the Royal Household and the John Lewis catalogue, they say that the swelling size of our glasses could be causing us to over-indulge. They suggest that making glasses smaller could cut people’s drinking.

Source: The Times December 14, 2017 00:23 UTC