Trade parlance test excludes magnifying glasses from glassware under sales tax entry classification.

For sales tax classification, the meaning of "glassware" in an entry is determined primarily by trade or common parlance unless the context requires otherwise. Magnifying glasses sold as optical appliances were not so regarded in trade, and their description and business treatment showed they were not glassware. The articles also failed on a dictionary approach because they were not predominantly articles of glass; the cost and character were driven more by the handle and frame than by the lens. They therefore fell outside entry 44 of Schedule C.

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Issues: Whether magnifying glasses (optical appliances) sold by the assessee were "glassware" within entry 44 of Schedule C to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: The expression "glassware" in a sales tax entry must be understood in trade or common parlance unless the context requires otherwise. On the material available, the articles were described and dealt with as optical appliances, and the nature of the business and the description of the goods indicated that they were not regarded in trade as glassware. Even on a dictionary meaning, the articles could not be treated as glassware because they were not articles made predominantly of glass, the main cost being attributable to the handle and frame rather than the lens. The alternative reliance on domestic use or on decisions concerning articles wholly made of glass was not accepted as governing the present goods.

Conclusion: The magnifying glasses were not glassware for the purpose of entry 44 of Schedule C and therefore fell outside that entry.

Ratio Decidendi: In classifying goods for sales tax purposes, the decisive test is the meaning borne in trade or common parlance, and an article not regarded in that parlance as the specified commodity does not fall within the entry merely because it contains a component of that material.

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