about the breast mold

there’s a little story behind the champagne glass, dating back to greek mythology. the first “coupe” was said to be molded from the breast of helen of troy. the Greeks believed that wine drinking was a sensual experience, and it was only fitting that the most beautiful woman take part in shaping the chalice.
centuries later, marie antoinette, queen of france, decided it was time to create a new champagne glass. she had coupes molded to her own breasts, which changed the shape of the glass entirely, since marie antoinette was – shall we say- better endowed than helen of troy.

there’s lots of versions of this story floating around. a writer by the name of maurice des ombiaux bestows the honor on no less a personage than helen of troy. supposedly the gods were so enamored of helen’s chichibangas that they decided to have the shepherd paris make a wax cast, whence to make goblets. quoth maurice:
“helen appeared with her attendants, looking as radiant as phoebe among the stars…. the veil which covered her bosom was lifted and one of the two globes was revealed, pink as the dawn, white as the snows of mount rhodopus, smooth as the goat’s milk of arcadia…. with wax provided by the golden daughters of hymettus, the shepherd paris … took the cast of the breast, which looked like a luscious fruit on the point of falling into a gardener’s hand. when paris had removed the wax cast, the attendants hastened to replace the veil over helen’s gorgeous breast, but not before her admirers had glimpsed a teat whose freshness was as tempting as a strawberry.”
clearly, this was a woman who made a good first impression. e have also heard that four porcelain champagne glasses molded from the breast of marie antoinette were kept at the queen’s dairy temple at the chateau de rambouillet, and that one remains today with the antique company of new york, inc. looking at the question objectively, i think we’d have to agree that the female breast, however interesting in situ, would make for a singularly misshapen champagne glass. but you know how it is with these male fantasies.