When collecting antique glass you are
collecting some of the most delicate, most beautiful and most precious
items that man has ever produced.
Glass is one of the few materials that has survived
into the 20th century with nothing to replace it and the manufacturer
of glass is becoming more and more technically advanced and we are
finding more uses for it.
 The
actual manufacturer of glass began in the Middle East more than
3,500 years ago, with the earliest known production of glass in
the UK around 1226. The wealth and breadth of glass available to
collectors is staggering and new collectors should try to concentrate
on a specific period or style of glass.
The History of Glass
Basically glass consists of sand with the addition of an alkaline
flux to help it melt at a lower temperature and a stabiliser, usually
lime, as glass tends to be quite unstable so over time all glass
will break down and crumble. How long this takes depends on how
well the glass is made and what went into it, in what proportions.
Generally glass has a greenish tint, due to the presence of iron
in the sand, so neutralisation is usually accomplished by the addition
of its spectrally opposing colour achieved with manganese. Of course
some glass is meant to have colour and this is given by adding various
metallic oxides such as copper, cobalt, gold etc.
In early times these were probably impurities in the sand and glass
makers learned how to use them for decorative effect. Over the centuries
people have tried to improve the clarity and brightness of glass
and this has been achieved by adding lead oxide as a flux.
George Ravenscroft
is usually attributed with this discovery in the late seventeenth
century but lead oxide was already being used in Italy in the production
of paste jewellery and it is more likely that he had found out this
fact and put it to use here and in doing so put Britain to the forefront
in the production of glass vessels during the eighteenth century.
Glass is worked in a molten form
requiring constant reheating to keep it plastic. It is shaped usually
by being free-blown through a rod and then manipulated into the
desired shape or blown into a mould a technique used in Ireland
and America in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
though this method had been invented in about 25 B.C. In this way
decoration can be produced quickly and easily.
Once the piece has been made it then has to be annealed i.e. cooled
very slowly so that any stresses can be reduced that might build
up causing it to shatter. Even so glass still has stresses within
it with handles being particularly prone to damage.
The exact origins of the process of glass making are unsure but
it is thought that it first appeared in Mesopotamia about 3000 years
B.C. probably as a result of experimenting with glazes for pottery.
At first glass was used as an alternative to precious stones as
it could be coloured and cut.
Glass reached Egypt by about 1540 B.C.
where vessels were formed using various complex techniques of moulding
and shaping.
By Roman times glass was being blown
in large quantities to form containers for liquids and for drinking
from. Some beautiful pieces were being made in early times with
coloured glass, trailed decoration even double-walled pieces containing
gold leaf decoration and by the first few centuries B.C. the millefiore
style had been invented. Some of the greatest pieces of Roman glass
are the cameo cut examples such as the Portland Vase from the end
of the first century B.C.
Glass was produced in the Islamic Kingdom from the seventh century
where they continued using similar techniques to the Romans including
the invention of one or two others such as the use of lustre decoration.
Until the Venetians became the worlds
leading glass producers in the fifteenth century Islamic glass makers
led the world with their colourful and innovative designs. They
cut, engraved, gilded and moulded using great skill in the production
of intricate and splendid designs.
After the Roman Empire had declined the glass produced in Europe
was of a fairly mundane bubbly green type generally of plain and
functional form. By the eighth century however luxury glass was
again being produced and throughout the centuries that followed
techniques improved and some more interesting pieces were being
made.
 In
the twelfth century stained glass windows were being used
for churches and by about 1400 colourless glass was being manufactured
again on a large scale. Towards the end of the fifteenth century
the Venetians had perfected the production of colourless glass and
became the leading glass makers in the world. The manufacture of
glass brought great wealth to Venice with exports to all over the
world and Venice is still renowned for its magnificent glassware.
Glass was being produced all over Europe in Spain, France, Holland,
Germany and Britain. Spanish glass having a very much Islamic style
and in other countries the Venetian influence can be seen as well
as taking on the forms of silver and pottery wares from these respective
countries.
The British glass industry does not
seem to have really taken off until in the mid sixteenth century
when Venetian glass makers came over. Before this time glass was
produced on a small scale in woodland furnaces where timber would
have been used as fuel.
In the seventeenth century the next great development was the invention
of the coal burning furnace by Sir Robert Mansell allowing much
higher temperatures to be achieved. Because of this the main centres
for glass production moved to areas where coal was mined such as
Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Bristol. At this time the Venetian influence
was still prevalent but as the century advanced the style became
more individual and less flamboyant with the emphasis being on balance
of form and refinement of engraving on colourless glass.
With the introduction of lead as a flux in the latter part of the
century by George Ravenscroft glass could be produced which had
a denser and clearer appearance thus lead crystal was produced.
This meant that good quality mirrors and chandeliers could be made
as well as wine glasses and consequently Britain manufactured some
of the best glassware throughout the eighteenth century. However
early Ravenscroft glass had a tendency toward crazing or “crizzling”.
In Northern Europe the emphasis was
on fine engraving and enamelling with some of the best engravers
in the world coming from the Low Countries. The closeness politically
between Holland and Britain in the late seventeenth century meant
that our fashions and styles were closely linked and it can sometimes
be difficult to differentiate between the two as lead glass was
also being made in Holland.
 The
earliest development in the eighteenth century in Britain was that
of the baluster wineglass, so called because of the architectural
nature of the stem, but as time advanced more and more complex designs
were being produced with multi sided stems different shaped knops,
tears in the stems, i.e. carefully formed bubbles of air, beaded
knops with many bubbles and probably as a development of these the
air twist and opaque twist glasses.
Later in the century faceted stems became popular. Wineglasses
in the eighteenth century often had engraved decoration sometimes
commemorating causes such as the Jacobite and Williamite glasses.
Family crests and armorials were also engraved on glasses. The Beilby
family, based in Newcastle, are famous for their enamel decoration
on glassware in the second half of the eighteenth century with pieces
decorated with armorials a considerable rarity. Other glassware
produced in the eighteenth century included decanters, tankards,
salts, tumblers and a wide range of tableware.
 Cutting
was employed to decorate glass during the eighteenth century
at first it would have been done using bevelling equipment from
the mirror industry so therefore cutting would be of the flat plane
type. As the century progressed different cutting techniques developed
and by the end of the eighteenth century steam power was being introduced
so speeding up the process and allowing more intricate cutting styles
to be used. By the early nineteenth century the regency style began
to emerge and many of these pieces leave very little areas of glass
which are uncut.
Glass was produced in Ireland from around 1780 when export taxes
were lifted and is world famous for its style and quality.
During the nineteenth century developments in the glass industry
were immense.
Many new techniques were being developed France, Germany, Bohemia
and America as well as Britain were producing some wonderfully exuberant
pieces. 
Acid etching, fine engraving, magnificent cutting, cameo and rock
crystal style engraving were all being used to great acclaim.
In Britain the Dudley, Stourbridge and Wordsley areas in the West
Midlands are renowned for quality items that were produced and there
is still much to learn about the manufacture of glass in these areas.
In Manchester the technique of press moulding was being used to
mass produce pieces and items could be made with a variety of designs
on them including some by great names such as Walter
Crane.
In the early part of the twentieth there was a continuation of
the nineteenth century style and some of the best glass was being
made in America and France.
In America Louis Comfort Tiffany is
particularly famous for his iridescent glassware and for leaded
glass lamp shades. In France René
Lalique was making very high quality pressed glass.
However there were many more producers of fine decorative glassware
throughout Europe at this time.
With the First World War there was a decline in quality though
some good pieces were still being produced between the wars.
However after the Second World War there was a marked decline with
the production of utilitarian designs dominating the glass industry.
Many of these pieces are collected and they fit in well with the
modern home.
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