Gallery

Spoons, fountains and glasses

Spoons, fountains and glasses, from Christofle silver of 1888 to the fountains still dripping in New Orleans. Every photo is credited to the person who took it.

Compiled by Bryen Beglinger

Read the marks on a spoon

French silver is stamped on the back of the handle. Drag the glass along the spoon, or press the button, to see what each mark means. Where to buy the real ones is in the spoon buying guide.

Or drag the glass along the spoon.

The spoon is drawn after an 1888 Christofle spoon. The marks are drawn for the example and are not any real maker's.

Spoons

The spoon sits across the rim and holds a sugar cube. Ice water drips through the sugar and the holes into the absinthe below, and the drink clouds as it fills. The makers cut the holes in every pattern they could think of.

Silver absinthe spoon hanging in a museum case, its bowl pierced in a leafy branch pattern, with a small museum label below — A Christofle sugaring spoon, model 1327, dated 1888, in the Bouilhet-Christofle silver museum.Photo by Hegor, 2008, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Christofle silver absinthe spoon lying flat, its long bowl pierced with curling leaf shapes on both sides of a central rib — A Christofle spoon of 1888 seen flat, the piercing curling out from the center like fern fronds.Photo by Hegor, 2008, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Dark metal absinthe spoon with a bowl shaped like a leaf, the veins cut through as openings — The leaf, or feuille, pattern: the bowl is a leaf and the holes are its veins.Photo by Viktor Fiala, Plzeň, 2010, who released it into the public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Steel absinthe spoon on a dark background with the word ABSINTHE cut through its bowl twice, once on each side — The word itself cut through the bowl.Photo by SDC, English Wikipedia, 2006, who released it into the public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Silver spoon with an ordinary round bowl and an openwork sieve set into the middle of its handle — A rarer form: a plain spoon with the sieve built into the handle.Photo by SDC, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Four flat pierced absinthe spoons in pewter or silver laid in a row beside a black and white scale bar — Four pierced spoons in pewter or silver at the Musée de la Gourmandise.Photo by Ted Lowe, 2026, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Single pewter absinthe spoon with rows of slots and two star cutouts in the bowl and lettering on the handle, beside a scale bar — An advertising spoon. The handle reads Oxygénée Cusenier, a rival brand, and the photographer reads a date of 1898 on it.Photo by Ted Lowe, 2026, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Pewter spoon laid across the rim of a stemmed glass, its handle carrying a small pierced spatula — Two tools in one: a stirring spoon whose handle carries a pierced spatula for the sugar.Photo by Ted Lowe, 2026, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Museum case with a glass water carafe printed Absinthe Joanne, a pierced spoon and old postcards — A spoon beside a water carafe printed Absinthe Joanne, at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Colombes.Photo by Tangopaso, 2015, who released it into the public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Fountains

A fountain holds ice water and lets it out through small taps, a drip at a time, so two to six people can prepare a glass at once. Cafés set one on the bar or the table.

Pewter absinthe fountain with two taps and a small glass in a museum case lit pink — A pewter fountain and glass in L'ivresse des sommets, an exhibition on drinking in the Alps at the Musée dauphinois, Grenoble.Photo by Patafisik, 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Black and white photograph of a long wooden bar with bottles behind it, a stove, a ceiling fan and a sawdust floor — The bar of the Old Absinthe House, New Orleans, photographed between 1900 and 1906.Detroit Publishing Co., Old Absinthe House bar, New Orleans, published between 1900 and 1906. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Tall absinthe fountain topped by a bronze figure standing on a marble base on a bar, with bottles and a clock behind — The same bar more than a century later: a drip fountain in the back barroom.Photo by Infrogmation of New Orleans, 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Second drip fountain on the bar of the Old Absinthe House, a figure on top of a column above a wooden drip board — A second fountain in the same room, with a clock behind it.Photo by Infrogmation of New Orleans, 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Tall glass and silver absinthe fountain with six taps and a pointed lid, lettered Legler Pernod, on green cloth — A rare six tap fountain lettered for Legler Pernod.Photo by David Nathan-Maister, 2006, CC BY-SA 2.5. Wikimedia Commons.

Glass fountain with four brass taps in a museum case, glasses set around it and an old absinthe poster behind — A four tap fountain with its glasses around it.Photo by Rama, 2007, CC BY-SA 2.0 France. Wikimedia Commons.

A woman fills a large glass fountain with ice water over a tray of reservoir glasses, bottles on the shelf behind — Filling the fountain at the Armand Guy distillery, Pontarlier.Photo by Arnaud 25, 2013, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Absinthe fountain with four taps on a shelf beside an old wooden barrel — A fountain at Les Fils d'Emile Pernot, Pontarlier.Photo by Arnaud 25, 2014, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Glass fountain with taps above a row of empty reservoir glasses, green fields through the window behind — A fountain and its glasses at Morteau, in the Doubs.Photo by Arnaud 25, 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Absinthe fountain on a slender stem shaped as a standing woman, with a domed glass reservoir and a glass beside it — A fountain on a figural stem.Photo by Хрюша (Chriusha), 2009, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Silver fountain with an etched glass jar on a figural stem, a small glass waiting below the tap — Another figural stem, with a glass waiting under the tap.Photo by Dmitry Brant, 2017, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Glasses

The classic glass marks the dose. A bulb, a line or a ridge near the bottom shows where one measure of absinthe should come to before the water goes in.

Reservoir glass with bright green absinthe in the bulb at the bottom, a pierced spoon leaning against it outdoors — A reservoir glass. The bulb at the bottom holds one measure of absinthe.Photo by Eric Litton, 2006, CC BY-SA 2.5. Wikimedia Commons.

Two absinthe glasses with blue spoons and sugar cubes across their rims, the left tall and swirled, the right with a bulb of green — Left, a swirl glass. Right, a Pontarlier glass. Each has its spoon and sugar.Photo by Eric Litton, 2006, CC BY-SA 2.5. Wikimedia Commons.

Empty faceted absinthe glass on a knopped stem with a pierced spoon and a sugar cube across the rim — The setup before the water: glass, spoon and one sugar cube.Photo by Cornischong, Luxembourgish Wikipedia, 2005, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Faceted absinthe glass on a white tablecloth with a sugar cube on a spoon across the top — A verre à absinthe, the spoon and sugar set across it.Photo by Arnaud 25, 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Glass dripper sitting in the top of a stemmed glass, with pale green absinthe clouding at the bottom — A brouilleur, a glass dripper that sits in the glass and lets the water fall slowly.Photo by Madison Scott-Clary, 2007, CC BY 2.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Painting of a stout man in a bowler hat seated at a marble café table with a stemmed glass of green drink and a carafe — Toulouse-Lautrec, Monsieur Boileau at the Café, 1893. The museum does not name the green drink in his glass.Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Monsieur Boileau at the Café, 1893. Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0.

Sources

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, each linked to its file page on the image rights page with the photographer and license.
Old Absinthe House bar, Detroit Publishing Co.: Library of Congress
Toulouse-Lautrec, Monsieur Boileau at the Café, 1893: Cleveland Museum of Art