Green’s Dictionary of Slang

champagne.

1775		[H. Fielding] The Sot : [stage direction] A bell rings, and a Waiter is heard [...] Cham coming — Score a botte [sic] of Negus in the Griffin.
1869		Man about Town 23 Oct. 51/3: A large amount of ‘Chammy’ was consumed.
1869		‘Rollicking Rams’ in L. Levy Flashes of Merriment (1971) 269: In the pockets of the Rollicking Rams, / Each one puts a bottle of Cham.
1873		Siliad 119: Let our supper be a thing of joy! [...] Let no petroleum ‘cham’ our taste offend, / No logwood port to our disorder tend.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Apr. 4/1: The Glass of Fashion — Cham!
1881		Leeds Times 22 Jan. 7/6: We had a nice dinner and some cham.
1888		J.F. Mitchell ‘Gilhooley’s Supper Party’ 🎵 There was ham and lamb, / Beer by the bucket and imported ‘Cham’.
1891		Morton & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Don’t Laugh 🎵 [L]ovely tarts of strawberry jam / And perhaps a pint or so of cham.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 53: Wh-a-t say you to – to a bo-o-tt-tt-tle of ch-ch-ch-am, eh?
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 178: I put away two bottles of superior ‘chammy’.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 11/3: I’m a desolate, donah-less bloke, / Though I’d sooner swig cham, than sheoak.
1905		Marvel III:55 2: Drink this glass of cham’, man.
1914		Knight & Lyle [perf. Vesta Tilley] ‘Marble Arch to Leicester Square’ 🎵 He used to drink quarts of ‘Cham’ with that fellow who rules Siam.
1916		R. Service ‘A Pot of Tea’ in Rhymes of a Red Cross Man 127: I’ve gurgled pints of cham.
1918		Aussie (France) 9 Dec. 1/2: You could have knocked those Tommies’ eye-balls off with a stick when we produce the cases of cham.
1929		(con. WWI) J.B. Wharton Squad 3: Tea and cham, cham and tea.
1960		(con. c.1930) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 207: A little drop of sherry and a little drop of cham!