Sep
15
Antique Blown Glass and Green Glass
September 15, 2009 |
Manipulation of the Blown Glass is a
natural development of glass-making once
a bubble has been blown. The body of a
glass vessel can be pinched and pushed
into a variety of shapes before the metal
cools. The Romans used their manipula-
tive skills to produce such charming items
as this small bottle, with fins pincered out
from the main body of the vessel. The
inner face of the pincers must have had
lines cut into them, since the lined im-
pression they made has been left on the
fins. The bottle is in the characteristic
Roman greenish-tinted glass. Tooled de-
pressions and pincered ribs were also
common decorative features used by glass-
workers throughout the four centuries that
cover the period known as Roman. The
bottle was probably used as a receptacle
for perfume or cosmetics, as were many of
the smaller mould-blown vessels produced
by these glass-makers.
With the decline of the Roman Empire ahd
the onset of the Dark Ages in the west,
many decorative techniques were lost.
After r.400 A.D. no indenting or decor
tive tooling is found on any glass in the
West until many centuries later. Most of
the techniques of surface manipulation
were known in the early Islamic world,
and between the 8th and 10th centuries
there was in Egypt a type of vessel pro-
duced with moulded decoration of dots
and occasionally with stylised animil-
forms in relief, in medallions produced by
nipping the wall of the vessel with ton;;s.
Manipulation of the blown glass was
familiar technique to the forest gla s-
makers of western Europe in the mediaeval
period, a simple example being illustrated.
The beaker has five regular indentations
on its surface, formed by the glass-maker
while the metal was still hot. The pushed-
in foot rim so often found on Waldg’as
vessels throughout western Europe is a
measure of the manipulative skill of these
craftsmen.
bottle in green glass,
Germany, about 1500. Hi 160 mm (6-3 in.)
Bottles like the one illustrated were pro-
duced for round about a century between
c. 1430 and 1530. A bubble of glass would be
blown and elongated by swinging the
blow-pipe. The middle of the bubble
would then be reheated and pushed slightly
up into itself, producing a fold in its centre.
At some point the base of the vessel would
have been transferred to a ‘pontil rod’, in
order that the neck could be cut off and
tapered. These vessels were only produced
in Germany, remains of them having been
found in western parts of Germany and
the Rhineland, which might indicate they
were made in the Spessart area. Their
shape was very popular, as they appear on
many oil paintings and copper or wood
engravings of the period. The drinker
could hold them by the neck, or more
elegantly by the rim of the foot.
Kullrolf with four tubes, in pale
green glass
Germany, 16th century. Ht. 170 mm (6-7 in.)
The Kuttrolf ov Angster is possibly one of
the most tortuous of the glass-blower’s
inventions. These complicated vessels,
which were designed to allow liquid to
pour very slowly or to drip from them,
were used to hold spirits. The neck of the
Kuttrolfapptars to have been produced by
inhalation, which collapsed the walls of
the neck tube. The type first appeared in
Roman times in Syria and the Near East,
and became very popular in the Middle
Ages, reaching its most developed form in
the 16th and 17th centuries and later. The
name Kuttrolf derives from the Middle
High German guttern, to drip, and Angster
comes from the Latin angustus, meaning
narrow, which indicates its characteristic
slowness in depositing its contents. The
Kuttrolf comes in many forms, but all
types have the small tubes either in the
neck or in the body of the vessel.
Blowing and Moulding
vase in ci-ear cololri-ess glass
Daum, Nancy, France, after 1945
The flowing lines of Michel Damn’s
creations make them fall naturally into the
category of manipulated glass. The linn of
Daum in Nancy, France, was founded by
Jean Daum in 1875 with a group of
Alsatian craftsmen. His sons Auguste and
Antonin came direct ly under the influence
of the great French glass-maker Emile
Gallc, and they produced much exciting
Art Nouveau glass in Galle’s style. With
Galle’s death, the glass-making at the
Daum works became less remarkable. The
designers looked for and found further
inspiration in Maurice Marinot’s work,
but the new style of the Daum factory was
created in 1945 by Michel Daum. A
perfect and brilliant colourless metal was
used to form vessels pulled out into almost
abstract shapes. Occasionally, purely sculp-
tural forms were produced. Modern pro-
ducts of Daum reach a high technical
standard, but the results have been de-
scribed as being sometimes rather osten-
tatious.
vase in ‘ariel’ colourless and dark purplish
glass
ImU in Ohrstrom, Orrefors, Sweden, 1957.
Ht. 164 mm (6-45 in.)
The technique of the ‘Ariel’ glass il us-
1 ruled here is a variation on the them; of
glass manipulation. It was invented about
1930 at the Orrefors glass-works in Swe-
den. There are two descriptions of how} the
effect of ‘organised air-bubbles’ in [the
glass is achieved. One is that air bubbles
are introduced into the soft glass by
sticking a pointed tool into it, then sea ing
them in by smoothing over the surface;
when reheated, the glass bubble becomes
round, but it may be guided into many
shapes, including figurative representa-
tions. Alternatively, ‘Ariel’ glass can
produced by sand-blasting patterns
the core of the cooled glass, rewarm
and enclosing these in a further casing of
glass, which forms enclosed pockets of air
where the patterns have been cut away.
Edvin Ohrstrom (b.1906), a sculptor
the permanent staff at Orrefors since 1036,
brought ‘Ariel’ glass to its perfection fifom
1939. His creations were described
Ada Polak, in 1962, as ‘the purest wt rks
of art glass ever conceived’.
Blowing into Patterned Moulds: The tech-
nique of blowing glass into moulds must
have been developed in the ist century
B.C. almost simultaneously with the dis-
covery of how to blow glass. Once a gather
of glass had been taken out of the furnace
on the end of the blowing-iron, it was
placed inside a mould. The mould, until
the more modern period, would have been
made of wood or clay, and would have had
the required pattern formed on its interior
surface. By blowing down the pipe the
worker could force the glass bubble into the
shape of the mould. After being slightly
cooled, the bubble was released from the
mould and the blow-pipe cracked off;
when the vessel had been finished it would
be put to cool slowly in an annealing kiln.
In modern times, moulds are kept wet, so
that the steam caused by the hot bubble
touching the mould forms a natural pro-
tection and ensures a longer life for the
mould. Pattern moulds of wood would
otherwise tend to burn away.