"Collecting this type of glass is rather restricted and a very French thing," says Bernard Dragesco, senior partner at Dragesco-Cramoisan, a Paris antiques shop specializing in French porcelain and glass. "Simple pieces generally used by the middle class were not highly prized or decorated and therefore have not survived in great numbers."

In explanation, Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, curator of European glass at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, reaches back to the 1500s, when the French industry was infiltrated by foreign craftsmen, dominated by imports, and heavily influenced by Italian, especially Venetian, designs. "By the 17th century, there were large numbers of Venetian and other foreign glassmakers working in France," he says. "They found a market and could make a good living creating work called façon de Venise through the early 18th century.

"After King Louis XIV ordered his entire collection of Venetian glass at Versailles destroyed, it seems that this type of glass fell out of favor in France," von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk continues. As a result, people embraced the use of simple glassware called verre de fougère, which was slightly green or yellowish-gray glass produced from fern ash. "That was a unique situation because at that time, Venetian glass was still esteemed all over Europe -- except in France, where it was held that wine tasted better in verre de fougère."

However, by the mid-18th century, von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk says, the French glassmaking industry declined to such an extent that in 1760, the Académie des Sciences took steps to conquer the problems that had plagued the business for so long. The result was the stepping up of production and the founding of several new factories. Some of the most important -- The Verrerie de Sainte-Anne, established at Baccarat in 1764 and renamed the Cristalleries de Baccarat by the 1800s, and the Verrerie Royale de Saint-Louis, established in Lorraine in 1767 -- are still active today.

As the industry rebounded and eventually became self-sustaining, it began to produce, for the most part, simple glassware, which is coveted by an enthusiastic group of collectors.

Surprisingly, and certainly unlike the fate of other fragile antiques, these now-precious mouth-blown, hand-cut drinking vessels are not always relegated to display shelves. Rather, the pieces -- including tiny and large liqueur glasses, graduated white and red wine glasses, Champagne flutes, and tumblers -- are loved and used daily by their owners, who consider them the exclamation point to a perfect French table.