Stills were extravagantly camouflaged, even as cemetery plots: old pictures show these plots uncovered, with neat rows of glass flagons winking in the light.
Back even further are the demijohns, large glass flagons in wicker baskets that hold, sometimes for almost a century, brandy that has grown too old to remain in the barrel.
The plain glass, a tall, purplish flagon with a thin neck, could have been made on Murano last week or last century and collected for a mid-century-modern apartment.
Why serve drinks from an ordinary decanter when you could present (Bar barian's Flagon, a swirling glass vessel that resembles the horn of some mythical beast?
Sensors on the roof relay temperature, wind speed and humidity back to a computer, which conveys information into a flagon of yeast, visible through a glass door at the far end of the hall, where it sits, connected up to tubes and probes and an array of computers.
The museum's celebrated American collection, now in a refurbished Street Hall, is a cornucopia of silver, glass and ceramics, with bowls, plates, creamers, beakers, bottles, vases, flagons, pitchers and teapots virtually spilling out of display cases.
The Cask 'n Flagon close to Fenway.
Notably in the foreground a syphilitic mother sitting on the steps lets her child fall to its death over the railing, towards a flagon labeled "Gin Royal", as she takes a pinch of snuff; below her in the steps, an emaciated, bare-chested ballad-seller sleeps with a glass in one hand and a basket and a jug in the other; the ballad hanging from the basket is entitled 'The downfall of Mdm Gin".
DRINKS Bottle service is encouraged (starting with a $250 flagon of Absolut).
