Sep
15
Antique Glass Vessels
September 15, 2009 |
Some of the Phoenician glass-makers
began to set up factories in the west, and
by the early ist century A.D. were making
mould-blown glasses in Italy. It was these
Syrian workers who exploited the new
blowing technique, expanding their ac-
tivities to the west and north of Europe in
Gaul (France), Germany and the Alpine
provinces by A.D. 40-50. The famous
Cologne factories were founded by the ist
century A.D., while the north Gallic and
Belgic factories were probably in full
production by the 2nd century A.D. Their
mould-blown and free-blown products
were directly related to the products of
Italy and the Near East. The Egyptian
workers based at Alexandria continued to
specialise in fine coloured wares, such as
mosaic vessels and plaques, and did not
adopt the blowing technique for cheap
glassware until some time in the 2nd
century A.D. The difficulty that was
encountered in free-blowing is exemplified
in the crude angles of the bowl illustrated.
ewer in pale green glass
Persia, 6th-7th century A.D. Ht. 254 mm (10 in.)
With the decline of the Roman Empire
during the first half of the 5th century
A.D. came changes in the shape and
decoration of glass vessels, but no differ-
ence in the methods used for making them
or in the ingredients of the batch. Luxury
glassware was produced in Persia and
Mesopotamia under the Sassanian em-
perors. In the course of the 7th century
A.D. Persia and Mesopotamia, and also
Egypt and Syria, were conquered by the
Arab armies under the banner of Islam.
This bottle is a characteristic example of
the free-blown ware of that time. The
dimensions are crude. The glass, once
pale clear green, has become covered with
thick opaque white weathering, a common
occurrence on examples of this glass. Some
ornament has been added in the form of
applied trails and a handle, but it is the
body of the vessel that is important, as
illustrating the free-blowing technique of
that time.
Simple free-blown vessels were produced
throughout the mediaeval period in Ger-
many and are known as Waldglas or ‘forest
glass’. The name Waldglas is thought to
have referred originally to the Bohmer
Wald, an area where there were many
glass-houses producing such wares. The
glass ‘metal’ comes in varying degrees of
colour, depending upon the combination
of the rather crude raw materials that were
used and the firing conditions. Flasks,
lamps and phials were the chief products,
in greenish, yellowish or brownish glass.
These products are related to the earlier
‘Teutonic’ glass, the degenerate glass
produced after the Roman period in
Merovingian and Frankish times. It is
impossible to identify the productions of
particular regions, since glass-makers were
constantly moving in their search for fresh
sources of wood fuel. The chief glass-
making areas in Germany at this time were
the forest country of Hesse, east of the
Rhine, the thickly wooded mountainous
countries on the borders of Bohemia, and
the Bohmer Wald on its Bavarian side, as
well as Saxony and Thuringia.
The production of Waldglas was not
fined to the Germanic countries; siftipl^
glass vessels in crude glass were to b
found in most western European couri triefe
during the mediaeval and later mediaeval
periods. The most homely glass com-
modity, increasingly popular from about
the mid-i7th century, was the bottle. Th:
discovery in the ist century B.C. that i
bubble of glass could be blown irto
spherical shape at the end of a hollow
metal tube automatically resulted in th
first free-blown bottles. Bottles in Rc mai 1
Britain were used for any purpose, Ton
containers for wine to receptacles fo:” th:
mortal remains of the owner. Wher, th
Romans left England, however, glass
bottles disappeared until well into th:
Middle Ages. By the end of the 15ti 1
century glass-makers in the Weald wer:
producing simple thin green glass bottle >
where the base of the bubble had
pushed upwards into a ‘kick’. Similar
products were made in England by Jeai 1
Carre’s Lorrainers during the 16th ami
early 17th centuries.
been
A considerable English bottle industry
grew up rapidly during the second half of
the 17th century. By 1696 forty-two bottle
houses were producing nearly three million
bottles annually. Techniques of manufac-
ture remained the same throughout the
17th and 18th centuries, simple free-
blown shapes being used at first, with
moulding later. The earliest shape was a
purely glass creation, a simple thick-walled
bubble with a ‘kick’ below and a tall neck
roughly struck from the blowing-iron.
The only addition was a trailed string rim
|-i in. below the mouth. The bottles were
rather unstable, so some glass-makers took
to shortening the necks, creating a more
shouldered body. These early shapes date
approximately from 1650 to 1720. Between
1720 and 1770 the shape revealed an
upward trend, away from this squat body
form. Cylindrical shapes began to appear,
and ocragonally moulded bottles were
manufactured around 1770. These new
shapes were suitable for ‘binning’, or
storage of wine bottles on their sides in
racks or bins.
The beauty of free-blown work has found
full expression in modern glassware. The
glass illustrated is thick and heavy, show-
ing a sophisticated purity of form. Geoffrey
Baxter (b.1922), who made it, works for
Whitefrairs (originally James Powell &
Sons of London). The larger British glass-
making firms now employ professional
designers, a development which has led to
an improvement in standards of decora-
tion. Geoffrey Baxter has been resident
designer at Whitcfriars since 1954. Prior
to Baxter, Whitefriars gained a new
notability in glass design under their
director James Hogan (1883-1948). Apart
from stained glass work, he created a new
style in blown glass, using a heavily fluid,
transparent lead metal which was made
into plain, well proportioned vessels.
Baxter absorbed this style of work, giving
it a free and discreetly personal expression,
especially in these heavy, furnace-worked
vases.