All glass is made of silica, i.e., sand. Other basic ingredients in glass are an alkaline "flux," such as potash (potassium) or soda, to help the glass melt, and "cullet," or broken glass, and various trace amounts of minerals to affect the color or clarity of the glass. Return

How is free-blown glass made?

Free-blown glass is thousands of years old. Before blown glass, the Egyptians and Mesopotamians had made small glass beads, c. 2500 B.C., and later formed glass around a clay core, c. 1500 B.C. Glass blowing was a Middle Eastern invention of about the first century B.C., popularized by the Romans. The techniques of glass-blowing have remained essentially the same. The glass ingredients, the "batch," are placed in clay pots and then melted in a large furnace at about 2700 degrees F. Next, a small blob of molten glass, the "gather," is pulled from the pot with an iron blowpipe. By blowing puffs of air through the blowpipe into the gather, a glassmaker can quickly inflate a bubble of glass and work it into a great variety of sizes and shapes, or blow the bubble into a mold. Glassmakers also need pontil rods, for holding the still-hot glass; shears, for cutting and manipulating the glass; wooden, hand-held molds for shaping, the molten, honey-like glass; and an annealing oven, or "lehr," for slowly cooling the fiery glass. Glassmakers work in teams, with a master "gaffer," his assistants and shop boys each having part of specialized tasks: gathering the glass, blowing, shaping and trimming, attaching handles or feet, and fire-polishing. Return

What makes lead glass sparkle?

Lead glass is refractive, i.e., it bends waves of light, creating a prismatic effect. Lead also gives the glass remarkable clarity. Cutting facets into lead glass, in the same way one facets a diamond, enhances the brilliant sparkle of the glass by creating more angled surfaces, allowing multiple reflections and refractions. Lead glass is also noted for the distinctive weight lead gives glass, and the melodious, bell-like tone it makes when struck. Return

What are cut, engraved and rock crystal glass?

When George Ravenscroft developed lead glass in 1674 he created a "soft," heavy glass. The glass is much less fragile than earlier soda glass, allowing extensive deep cutting or engraving. All cut, engraved or rock crystal glass started with the "blank," the unmarked solid glass body from the glass blower. Cut glass was cut with large stone (now carborundum) wheels, in miter cuts and other deeply marked designs. Cut glass was traditionally polished with wooden wheels (now acid polished) to remove the gray, "matte" surface left after cutting. Engraved glass was intaglio-carved (cut into) with much smaller copper wheels. Before engraving, the copper wheel is coated with carborundum or other similarly abrasive materials. Engraved glass was carved with images of figures (often princes or kings), animals, landscapes, genre scenes, and abstract or heraldic patterns. Engraved glass retains the grey matte finish caused by the engraving wheel. (Glass, in its natural state, has a glossy finish.) Rock crystal glass was deeply carved in relief (raised) and intaglio (sunken) designs and then given a high overall gloss. Return

How heavy is lead glass?

The lead in the glass adds tremendously to the weight of the glass and even small objects such as tumblers and plates have a surprising heft. To cut a piece of glass, the cutter held the thick, heavy blank up to the wet, spinning cutting wheel (which was rotating with a downward motion), and looked through the blank while cutting accurately. Some large ware was made in several pieces. Return

When did American cut glass become famous?

This question can be answered with two dates: 1876 and 1893. At the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876, American glassmakers such as Dorflinger showed they were as technically competent as the more respected English. In the next seventeen years, the Americans, not the English, innovated and changed. The brilliant, or "rich-cut" style came into its own at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Again with an international audience, and the "home-field advantage," Libbey produced spectacular examples (one wit said no table was socially correct unless it cost a million and weighed a ton), and after 1893 English goods were thought no better than American. Return

Who bought cut glass? How did they use it?

Purchasers of cut glass were often the social arbiters in their communities. The ritual that was dining in an upper-middle class Victorian household meant foods had their own plateware--exotica like bananas and ice cream, and staples like salt and butter, were all on their respective cut glass servers. Some commonly used pieces were: creamers and sugars, toothpicks and whiskeys, and epergnes and compotes for fruits or nuts. Cut glass found other uses in the eclectic Victorian household as hair receivers, umbrella stands and cuspidors. The household that bought cut glassware was probably conservative, membering in the upper to upper-middle class. The art glass in the Runyon Collections, which was made at the same time as the cut glass but for about half the price, appealed to a wealthy, more progressive and avant-garde clientele. Return

How much did cut glass cost?

Libbey offered a punch bowl for as much as $200.00, but most were $40.00 to $50.00. Hawkes' prices of c. 1900 were stemware for $22.00 to $106.00 a dozen, bottles for $7.00 to $18.00. J. Hoare had tumblers for $19.50 to $37.50 the dozen. Even these seemingly low prices were well out of reach for most. Return

Why did the brilliant period end around 1915?

There were three major causes for the demise of the richly-cut brilliant period cut glass. As labor costs for cutters rose, makers went with simpler patterns or mold-blown shapes to reduce cutting costs. Lead, critical to producing crystal-clear glass, was needed for World War I. And, public tastes changed to simpler, less ornate styles. Return