Roman Drinking Glass. The Lycurgus Cup , c. Byzantine Antioch Chalice, c. Venetian Cristallo glass, late 16th century. Bohemian wine glass , c. Ravenscroft Romer, c. Baluster stem glass , circa Firing Glass, c. Georgian air-twist stem , circa Jacobite wine glass, c. Victorian wine glass by Phillip Webb , circa Favrile glass , designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, circa Fenton carnival glass.
Lalique Tosca wine glasses, circa Fostoria Wavecrest, Orrefors Seaford, c. Rosenthal Variation. Libbey Ashburton wine glass.
Paris Goblet. Gorham, Lady Anne. Share this: Click to share on Facebook Opens in new window Click to share on Twitter Opens in new window Click to share on Pinterest Opens in new window Click to email this to a friend Opens in new window Click to print Opens in new window.
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Name required. Follow Following. The Armchair Sommelier Join 7, other followers. Sign me up. During 15th century Venetian glass blower, Angelo Barovier, crated cristallo, nearly colorless, transparent glass. By , English glassmakers were made glass in Venetian fashion.
In , an English glassmaker George Ravenscroft invented lead glass. The first glass factory in the United States was built in Jamestown, Virginia in In the s, the age of blowing individual bottles, glasses and flasks was ended by the invention of a hand-operated machine. In the s, the first semi-automatic bottle machine was introduced.
After , glass use, development and manufacture began to increase rapidly. Machinery has been developed for precise, continuous manufacture of a host of products. In , Irving W. It is clear, however, that glass was gaining greater recognition as an attractive and colourful alternative, especially to silver serving and drinking vessels. Although glass vessels from both Syria and Alexandria were traded widely-examples reached Italy and South Russia, as well as Asia Minor-their manufacture was a laborious and costly process.
Consequently, glass-ware remained a relatively scarce and expensive item, and the industry still depended heavily on the patronage of the wealthy, whether leading citizens of Greek cities or members of Hellenistic royal families. The Roman Period The Roman glass industry was founded on the inspiration and expertise provided by glass-makers from the Hellenistic world. It rapidly developed, however, into an independent and innovative enterprise that further spread the art of making glass vessels beyond the Mediterranean basin to western Europe and elsewhere.
As it grew, it furnished the ancient consumer for the first time with inexpensive, mass-produced glass-ware. The principal impetus to this industry came from the timely and fortuitous invention of glass-blowing. However, this technological advance by itself was not sufficient reason for the sudden transformation of glass from a rare luxury to a commonplace article. Other factors played an important role.
The first was the enormous expansion of trade that occurred in the early imperial period, coupled with the increase in prosperity heralded by the restoration of peace under Augustus.
The second is to be connected with the Roman campaigns in the East in the first century BC. The annexation of Syria and increasing Roman involvement in the affairs of Palestine and Egypt brought the Romans into direct contact with those very regions where glass-making had long been established and was still very much active. Just as the Romans developed under Augustus a taste for marble in civic architecture, it could be argued that at about the same time they acquired a passionate appetite for glass-ware.
Their preference was not restricted only to vessels and receptacles but extended also to the use of glass for interior decoration in mosaics, panelling and revetments. The Romans were the first people to appreciate fully the functional uses of glass as a covering for windows and, when backed with a metal gold or silver foil, as a reflective material.
Glass windows and mirrors are so much a part of the modern world that, as a consequence, it is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of these innovations. They also tend to be overshadowed by the appearance of stunning new forms of tableware and utilitarian vessels in the early imperial period. Yet the glass mosaics, panelling and windows were probably as ubiquitous and indispensable in the Roman world as the glass bottle.
In short, the Romans were capable of recognising all the qualities of glass that are today so much taken for granted. The Romans were, it seems, eager to try out all sorts of novelties and experiments. For the nascent Roman glass industry this inquisitiveness, coupled with their ability to indulge their acquisitive tastes, stimulated an unheralded flowering in the art of glass.
New forms, techniques colours and applications were eagerly adopted. Their appreciation of the various properties of glass is echoed in the relatively scarce references to it in contemporary literature.
Perhaps most revealing is the story told by Trimalchio of a craftsman who presented to the Emperor Tiberius a glass bowl that would not break and could be hammered back into shape if it got dented. The glass-maker expected to be rewarded for his 'invention'; instead, the emperor ordered him to be executed, fearing that if the secret became common knowledge gold would lose all its value. The story well illustrates the high prestige of glass in the early first century AD and the mood of innovation and experimentation that permeated Roman society at that time.
Unfortunately, the story has been more frequently used by modern scholars to argue that the Roman world had no interest in technical progress, greater efficiency and increased productivity.
The evidence of the Roman glass industry speaks strongly against such a view. Because of its size and complexity, it is possible to identify certain salient aspects of the Roman glass industry. First, a clear distinction is to be drawn between types of glass, especially with regard to vessels. So, some were patently made as luxury items and were regarded in antiquity, just as today, as works of art.
Cameo glass, for example, undoubtedly falls into this category. These highly prized objects may or may not have had a functional use. At a slightly lower level stands a second class of vessels, the finely made and often elaborately decorated tableware. Many of the signed mould-blown vessels can be assigned to this group.
Below them come the more mundane but still attractive containers-the jugs, flasks and bottles that could be used for both serving and storage. Finally, one has the mass of utilitarian vessels, typified by the plain, cheaply produced perfume bottle. This wide range of products reflects the various markets for which the glass industry catered.
At one end of the scale one must envisage a clientele comprising the very highest strata of Roman society. Indeed, it has recently been argued that such exquisite pieces as the Portland Vase were made for the imperial family itself. Likewise, one example of the late Roman vasa diatreta, the now destroyed Strasbourg cage-cup, bore the name of the Emperor Maximian AD At the other end of the scale are the glasses that, in the words of the Augustan writer Strabo, "could be purchased for a copper coin".
Some bottles, in fact, may be regarded as disposable containers, and it is certainly true that glass more or less supplanted various types of Roman commonware pottery. A third aspect that may be considered is the distribution of the industry. It has commonly been supposed that there was a number of major production centres in Syria, Egypt, Italy and the Rhineland.
On the other hand, a cursory acquaintance with the blown glass of the Roman world makes it quite clear that practically every region must have possessed its own glass-houses, at least from the end of the first century AD onwards. But it was during the Victorian era, in the s, that the drinking-glass as it is known today became popularized. But while such glasses may be beautiful to behold, they are not perfectly suited for the enjoyment of their contents.
The collection was officially launched in ; and Riedel and Riedel-inspired glasses have been the standard ever since, with companies such as IKEA, Pottery Barn, and Williams-Sonoma offering similarly designed, machine-made stemware at affordable prices. Search for:. Glassware Humans have drunk from vessels from time immemorial—whether from naturally formed objects adapted for drinking, such as shells and gourds, or from handcrafted forms made of wood or metal.
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