An antique decanter makes a durable present to a fellow wine lover, or even yourself, and one which, given our (for which read my) general clumsiness, will presumably continue to appreciate in value as the world’s supply of fragile old decanters is sacrificed to slippery hands and drunken revellers.
I set off one Saturday morning on my first-ever trip to Portobello Road market in London’s fashionable Notting Hill in search of a beautiful old decanter for a friend. Many of the stalls on the road itself have a few old glass jars of various, not generally brilliant, quality but I found...