Dice glasses without a foot but often with a silver mount were popular in the second half of the 16th century and throughout the 17th. The glass was used in a drinking game in which it had to be drained in one for the number of times shown on the dice. It was also known as a 'drink-up' - a glass that had to be placed on the table upside-down, preferably empty.This glass, blown '?a façon de Venise,' is of clear, colourless and white glass with diamond-point engraving. It belongs to the earliest group of Dutch glasses decorated with diamond-point engraving, and it derives from Italian examples.