Sotheby's Glass Glossary
Glossary from the back of Sotheby’s Concise
Encyclopedia of Glass biblio
Provided here under fair use of copyright
Not completely proofed, especially foreign language names.
Rev. 2008-04-05 add alphabetical links
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- A
- -
- abrading
- Technique of grinding shallow patterns into a glass surface with a wheel.
- acid-etching
- Technique developed in the 18th century to give glass a satin matt, shiny or
frosted finish by exposing it to hydrofluoric acid. Areas not to be etched were
covered by an acid-resistant protective layer (wax, varnish or oil) into which
a design was scratched before the acid was applied. Also used on cameo
glass to remove areas of the overlay.
- agate glass
- See calcedonio
- air-twist
- See twist.
- alabaster glass
- Type of translucent glass, usually white, first developed in
Bohemia in the Biedermeier period. Frederick Carder produced iridescent
alabaster glass at Steuben. See lattimo and opal.
- alabastron
- Small, cylindrical perfume flask of ancient Greece,
made in core-formed glass, with a rounded
base, broad rim and two small side handles.
- albarello
- Italian; waisted,
cylindrical jar, more usually made in tin-glazed earthenware, for holding medicines.
- Aldrevandin Group
- Group of Medieval enamelled glass beakers made toward the end of the 13th
century, their place of manufacture in doubt; named after an example in the British Museum
inscribed 'magistkr aldrevandin me FECI(T).
- alkali
- Essential ingredient in making glass, added to the batch in the form of potash (to make Waldglas)
or soda (from barilla) to reduce the
temperature at which the silica (in the form of sand and occasionally flint)
would fuse.
- Almorratxa
- X or almorrata Spanish; type of sprinkler with many spouts
for containing
rose-water.
- Amen glass
- Type of English glassware used for toasting
the Jacobite cause (particularly the
Old Pretender, James Stuart), decorated with verses of the Jacobite Hymn ending
with the word 'Amen'
and a crown executed in diamond-point,
- usually on a drawn-stem wine glass.
- amphoriskos
- Small perfume jar of ancient Greece, sometimes made in core-formed
glass, with a shouldered body, pointed base
and two handles; a miniature amphora used for oil and wine.
- amulet
- Glass ornament worn from Egyptian times to ward off evil.
- Annagelb
- German; see uranium glass.
- Annagriin
- German; see uranium glass.
- annealing
- Process through which all glass vessels pass, wherein the finished hot object is
cooled very slowly and evenly in an annealing oven to reduce any internal stresses that might have built up during its
manufacture that would otherwise cause it to crack once cold.
- art glass
- 1. Term applied to ornamental rather than functional glassware. 2. Types of American glassware
dating from the 1890s onward, such as Aurene glass.
- Aryballos
- Small globular bottle of ancient Greece, with two handles for suspension, made in
core-formed glass; for cosmetic oils and balms.
- Aurene glass
- Type of American art glass developed by
Frederick Carder, its metallic surface obtained by spraying the glass with
metallic chloride solutions through a flame.
- aventurine
- Translucent glass with glittering metallic inclusions
made in imitation of aventurine quartz;
flakes of gold were used in i 5th-century Venetian glass,
copper from the 17th century.
- B
- -
- balsamarium
- Small container of ancient Greece and Rome, usually a bottle; for perfumed oils, cosmetics or
balms.
- baluster
- Type of drinking glass, its stem in the form
of a baluster (adopted from Renaissance architecture), which could be inverted
or decorated with knops, internal
tears and bubbles
-
- balustroid
- Type of baluster glass but with a lighter, more elongated stem.
Although sometimes called 'Newcastle light balusters', they are now thought
to have been produced mainly in Holland. (Above)
- barilla
- (Salsola soda),
salt-water marsh plant, the ashes of which were used as the alkali in making glass.
- Baroque
- From the Italian barocco, a late
Renaissance style dating from c.166o. Its exaggerated movement is reflected in the stem
formations of Venetian glass and in German glass as Laub und Bandelwerk.
- basket
- 1. Glass in the shape of a basket, sometimes with an
overhead handle. 2. Type of paperweight with a funnel-shaped lattice
support, usually holding fruit and flowers.
- batch
- Mixture of raw ingredients (generally alkali, lime and silica) that are melted and fused
together in a pot or crucible to make glass. To this was added a proportion of broken
glass, or cutlet, and metal oxide colorants.
- Berkemeyer
- German; 16th-and 17th-century Waldslas drinking glass, with a
cylindrical lower part decorated with prunts and a flaring bowl.
- bevelled
- Type of flat glass with a sloping edge to protect it from chipping, usually found on the edges of mirrors.
- Biedermeier
- German, 'honest fellow'. The bourgeois style current in
German decorative arts from (".1825 to 1840. In glass it takes the form of a
change away from colorless to colored glass (including Hyalith, Lithyalin and uranium glass), and flashed glass.
- blank
- Any preliminary shape of a glass object that requires further forming or finishing processes.
- Blankschnitt
- German, 'polished cut'. Style of engraved decoration, attributed to Georg Schwanhardt,
found on German potash glass, particularly from Nuremberg, in which the relief effect
is enhanced by polishing the ground part of the intaglio.
- blowing
- Technique of shaping a molten mass of glass by blowing air into it through a
blowpipe, either freehand or into a mold of two or more parts. It was
first developed in the latter part of the 1st century BC.
- blowpipe
- Hollow metal tube, about 1.5m (5ft) long and
2cm (3/4in) in diameter, with a mouthpiece
at one end and a thin ring fitted to the other that helps to retain the gather of molten
glass from the pot. Air is blown through the mouthpiece to inflate and form the glass.
- boracic
- Type of glass produced bv
Clichy in 1849 using borax, which,
in the form of boric acid, was added to the batch as a flux in making lead glass. It was claimed to be free from bubbles and other
impurities, and strong, being resistant
to chips and changes in temperature.
- brilliant cut
- Style of cut glass with very deep and highly polished
complex cuts; developed in the United States
during the second half of the 19th century.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- C
- -
- cage cup
- Type of thick-walled late Roman glass that was undercut with an intricate openwork
or figural pattern attached to the main body
of the vessel by small hidden bridges. See Lycurgus
Cup.
- calcedonio
- Italian; marbled glass (with brown, blue, green and yellow
swirls) made in imitation of banded semiprecious stones; originally made in
Venice from the late 15th century and
revived in the second half of the 19th century. Also known as agate and chalcedony glass.
- came
- Grooved
slip of lead securing glass in leaded- and stained-glass windows.
- cameo
- Decorative cased or flashed glass with two or more different colored
layers, the outer layer(s) cut away so that tile design
stands out in relief against the background color. First developed by the
Romans from techniques used for banded stone and shell
cameos at the end of the 1st century BC and revived in the 19th century. See also Portland Vase,
- cane
- Slender, patterned rod formed by fusing together groups of colored rods which, while still
molten, were pulled out to reduce their diameter and to produce an internal polychrome
design. Once cold, slices were cut, either to make millefiori and mosaic glass, or
to incorporate into stems of drinking glasses. See twist.
- casing
- Technique of forming two or more layers of glass to make cameo glass. A
hollow blank of the outer layer is made before a gob of the inner
background is blown inside it. The two then
fuse as they are inflated together. Also
used in paperweights, where the opaque colored outer layer is cut away
to form 'windows'
through which the design can be seen.
- cast glass
- Made from the 8th century BC by fusing powdered frit in
single or interlocking molds.
- chalcedony
- See calcedonio.
- cinerary urn
- Large container, sometimes lidded,
with a spherical or ovoid body and a broad rim, used at first for storage purposes
and later, from the 1st to mid 3rd centuries AD, as burial urns for ashes.
- claw-beaker
- Tall Merovingian beaker, dating from the 5th
to 8th centuries, with a body tapering toward a narrow foot and decorated with several rows of hollow,
claw-like prunts. Called Russelhecher
in German.
- Clichy rose
- Cane made at Clichy resembling an open rose, with a pink central cylindrical
motif surrounded by fLmened tubes of green glass. Used in millefiori
paperweights.
- collar
- Circular ring of glass used at the junction of bowl to stem or between
stem and foot on some wine glasses.
- color band
- Early Roman glass combining the techniques of casting and blowing, wherein globular
bottles arc formed from mosaic canes that were gathered on a blowpipe and
inflated.
- concentric
- Type of millefiori paperweight
- in which florets (slices from large canes) are arranged in
concentric circles.
- core-formed glass
- Type of glass dating from 1500 BC (before the invention of blowing),
whose method of manufacture involves shaping trails of molten glass over a core
of mud or clay (sometimes supported by a metal rod) and fusing them together in
the furnace. After annealing the core was scraped out. Made in the form of alabastra, amphoriskoi, aryballoi
and other vessels.
- cristallo
- Italian; type of soda glass made with the ashes of barilla, which, with the addition of
manganese oxide, produced a colorless glass that resembles rock crystal. First developed
in Venice in the 15th century. See also crystal.
- crizzling or crisselling
- Defect in glass caused by an imbalance in the batch, usually an excess
of alkali, which makes the glass deteriorate; characterized by an internal
network of fine cracks and sometimes surface dampness. It was corrected by
George Ravenscroft in his development of lead glass in c.\6'j6.
- crown technique
- Technique for producing sheet glass wherein a bubble of blown glass was
cut open, rotated rapidly and reheated frequently until it formed a flat disc
attached to the end of the pontil rod.
After annealing the glass could be cut to various sizes.
- crown weight
- Hollow paperweight, made at St Louis, in which a pattern of twisted ribbons is
arranged vertically and drawn together at the top.
- crystal
- Colorless, transparent glass that resembles rock crystal. The word is
derived from the Greek word for rock crystal, krystallos,
or 'clear ice'.
The term is now generally applied to high-quality cut glass. See also cristallo
and lead glass.
- cullet
- Fragments of raw or broken glass melted down with the new ingredients
of a batch to act as a flux to reduce the time required to make
glass. More here
- cutting
- Decorative technique, employed since pre-Roman times, in which glass is ground away
from an object's surface by a rotating wheel fed with water.
- cylinder technique
- Technique for making flat or 'broad' glass for mirrors or windows. A large, elongated
glass bubble is blown and then removed from the blowpipe so that both ends can be cut to produce a cylinder. This cylinder is slit lengthwise
with shears [MF error: scored with cutter or hot rod while cold] and placed in a furnace, where
the two sides uncurl (through mechanical force or gravity) to form a flat sheet
of glass. [alternate Broad]
- D
- -
- Daumenglas
-
German, 'thumb glass'. Large cylindrical or barrel-shaped Waldglas
beaker with circular indentations for the fingers and thumbs to grasp while drinking from it.
- decanter
- Decorative bottle with stopper used for serving wine, spirits
and even ale. The many shapes include bell,
claret, club-shaped, cruciform, magnum, mallet, onion-shaped, Rodney, shaft and
globe, ship's, shouldered, stirrup and whisky.
- decanter jug
- Type of jug with a handle and stopper used as a decanter
- diamond air-trap
- Decoration wherein air pockets embedded in the glass are arranged in a
diamond-shaped pattern; patented by W.H., B.
&J. Richardson in 1857. A gather of glass is blown into a mold with
projections of the desired design and covered by another parison so that the indentations trap air
pockets.
- diamond-cutting
- Decorative cut patterns: plain, strawberry or hobnail.
- diamond or diamond-point engraving
- Linear drawing on a glass surface by means of a
diamond or metal point, used since the second quarter of the 16th century
across Europe. Later the technique of stippling with a diamond-point was developed.
- diatretarius
- Latin; Roman glass-cutter or glass decorator, as
opposed to vitrearius, glass-maker or glass-blower.
- diatretum
- See cage cup.
- dichroic
- Showing different colors when viewed in transmitted
or reflected light. Achieved by adding metal to the batch, originally
gold, later uranium or copper oxide, in a reducing atmosphere. See Lycurgus Cup.
- dip-molding
- Technique using a one-piece mold to achieve a pattern that can be further
expanded on the blowpipe.
- double ogee bowl
- Type of wine-glass bowl with a
profile of two connected 'S's.
- dromedary flask
- Type of post-Roman glass flask, found in Syria from the 6th to 8th
centuries AD, decorated with
heavy openwork trailing and shaped to resemble a dromedary.
- E
- -
- enameling
- Decorative technique wherein colored powdered glass, mixed with an oily
medium, is painted on to the glass surface
and then reheated in the furnace to fuse the
design. Practised since the 1st century AD.
- engraving
- Technique of cutting into the surface of a glass by holding against the glass a rotating wheel of stone or metal fed with an abrasive.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- F
- -
- faceting
- Technique of decorating curved glass surfaces by grinding to make shallow
depressions that are flat or nearly so.
- façion de Venise
- French, 'in the Venetian style'- Term used
to describe high-quality glassware of Venetian
influence, as opposed to forest glass or Waldglas,
made throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- faience
- Porous body of finely ground quartz (a form of silica) held together by a glassy 'connective tissue'
and covered with a colored vitreous glaze. It can be modeled or thrown on a
wheel to achieve its final shape before being fired.
- filigrana
- Italian, 'thread grained'. Type of glass originally
made in Murano in the second quarter of the 16th century. Term covers
all styles of decoration in which threads of glass (usually opaque white)
are embedded in clear glass to form a very fine network pattern. The terms latticinio or latticino are also used. These designs
include vetro ajili, vetro a reticello and vetro a retortoli.
See also filigree.
- filigree
- English term for filigrana,
wherein a rod incorporating thin white or colored
threads is manipulated to give the appearance of lace.
- flashing
- Technique of applying a thin glass layer of a contrasting color to a glass
object by dipping it into a pot of molten metal that can be cut away to
leave a design in cameo.
- flint glass
- Misused term for lead glass, wherein the silica is obtained from powdered flints
(impure quartz) rather than from sand.
- flute
- Very tall and slender flaring wine glass on a short stem.
- flute
- cutting Pattern of parallel grooves on cut glass occurring
in a variety
of forms: mitred ("V'-shaped), round
(concave semi-circular) and hollow (concave semi-elliptical).
- flux
- Alkaline substance that is an essential ingredient in the batch to aid
the fusion of the silica, added as potash or soda.
- forest glass
- English term for glass with a strong greenish tint in which the alkali
or flux in the batch is obtained from the ashes of burnt wood or ferns.
The green is caused by iron alloys from the impure potash. Called Waldglas in German.
- frit
- Term referring to some of the ingredients of glass that are pre-heated
until they are red-hot but not fused; these are then cooled and ground
into a powder and added to the other ingredients of the batch. This
process removes moisture from the material and the gases that might result when
heated, thus producing glass with fewer impurities.
- G
- -
- gadrooning
- Continuous decorative pattern of short sections of ribbing either molded, applied or deep
cut; inspired by patterns on late 17th-century silver.
- gaffer
- The head glass-maker, sometimes called a master blower, who does the most skilled
work.
- gather
- Blob or mass of molten glass attached to the end of a blowpipe or pontil
before an object is formed from it.
- gilding
- Technique of decoration wherein the surface or back of a glass vessel is
covered with gold leaf, gold paint or gold dust mixed with a fixative and then fired. Alternatively, the
gilding can be engraved with a design, cold-painted or sandwiched between
another layer of glass (gold sandwich). See also Zwischengoldglas.
- glass
- Homogeneous material which has a random, liquid-like (non-crystalline)
molecular structure.
- Glasschneider
-
German, 'glass-cutter'.
- gold-band glass
- Type of ancient mosaic glass with serpentine lengths of pre-formed canes of blue, purple, green and
gold-sandwich glass.
- gold-sandwich glass
- See gilding and Zwischengoldglas.
- Graal glass
- Trade name for colored mosaic-like glass developed by Orrefors
in Sweden in 1916. [Graal]
- grisaille
- 1. Decorative painting in shades of grey on glass,
sometimes used to imitate relief sculpture. 2. Brownish paint made from iron
oxide, fused on to glass to define details
in stained-glass windows.
- H
- -
- hand cooler
- Small, egg-shaped glass object used either
as a darning egg or to cool the palms of a lady's
hand.
- Hausmaler
- German, 'home painter'. A freelance or independent painter
who decorated glass direct from the factory during the 17th and 18th centuries.
- Hedwig beaker
- Type
of thick-walled glass beaker of the 11th or 12th century, cut in high relief with stylized lions,
griffins, eagles or palm-leaf patterns. Named after St Hedwig (d. 1243), because one of the
surviving examples supposedly belonged to her.
- Hochschnitt
-
German, 'high engraving'. Technique of cutting glass in
which the design stands out in high relief from the vessel body; opposite of intaglio.
- Hofglasschneider
-
German, 'court glass-cutter'. Highly skilled glass-cutter attached to a
German court, especially in the 18th century.
- Hofkristalschneider
- German, 'court crystal cutter'.
As for Hofglasschneider.
- Humpen
- German; tall, cylindrical beer or wine beaker made of
Valdglas from the mid 16th to the 18th centuries.
- huqqa
- Indian, 'hookah'. Globular or bell-shaped bottle, to which a long flexible tube for smoking tobacco is
attached.
- Hyalith
- Opaque black and, more rarely, opaque red glass in imitation of Wedgwood's basaltes ware, made
in Bohemia from 1817 by the glasshouse of Count von Buquoy.
-
- I
- -
- ice glass
- Decorative glassware with an outer surface resembling cracked ice, first
produced in Venice during the 16th century. Made principally
by plunging the hot glass briefly into water and then reheating it, or by
rolling the hot glass over splinters and fragments of glass laid out on a marver and then reheating it to fuse the
pieces to the surface. (Above)
- incrustation
- Technique of inserting non-glassy matter, commonly ceramic, into glass,
introduced in the last third of the 18th
century. These encrusted pieces, also known as 'crystallo
ceramic' and sulphides, were used in paperweights, pendants, decanters
and jewel boxes.
- inlay
- Any small, flat piece of glass fastened on to the surface of a larger object and
cemented into place to form a component of a larger decorative design.
- intaglio
- Technique of engraving or wheel-cutting a design below the surface of a
glass object, in order to produce an image in relief whose background is in the
highest plane; therefore, the opposite of Hochschnitt.
- Intarsia glass
- A type of art glass, introduced by Frederick Carder, which has a layer of colored
glass with an etched design sandwiched between two colorless layers.
- iridescence
- Rainbow-like effect found on the surface of excavated glass objects caused by a
chemical attack on the surface of the glass resulting from its environment.
This effect was artificially reproduced in Art Nouveau glass by the application of a metallic lustre.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- J
- -
- Jacobite glass
- English glassware principally engraved (or, rarely, enamelled) with portraits,
emblems (rose, star or thistle) or inscriptions ('Fiat', or 'Let it be done'; 'Redeat',
or 'May he return') and verses from the Jacobite anthem — see Amen glass — to commemorate the
Stuart cause of the Old and the Young Pretenders (James Stuart and Charles Stuart, or 'Bonnie
Prince Charlie')/
- jelly glass
- Small vessel, usually of inverted conical or bell form on a flat foot, used for
custards, jellies or syllabubs-kick Conical indentation in the base of a
glass vessel formed by the pontil rod, ranging
from a slight concavity to a deep, conical hollow, to add stability and to collect sediment from the liquid
inside.
- K
- -
- knop
- Decorative blob or bulge on the
stem of a glass; can be hollow or solid and
comes in a variety of shapes, including acorn, annular, ball, bobbin, cylinder,
drop, egg, flattened, melon, multiple, mushroom and winged-
- Krautstrunk
- German, 'cabbage stalk'-Type of beaker, decorated with large flat prunts, made in Waldglas during the 15th and 16th centuries.
- Kugler
-
German; glass-cutter in the 18th and early 19th centuries who specialized in
circular and oval cutting and other techniques in the Biedermeier style.
- Kunckel red
- Type of glass colored ruby red through the addition of gold chloride to the batch.
Developed by the chemist Johann Kunckel, probably before 1679. Called Rubinglas,
or Goldrubinglas, in German.
- L
- -
- lacy glass
- 1. See
filigree. 2. Type of American pressed glass in which the decoration of flowers or foliage
is set against a diaper background, giving an overall sparkling lacy effect.
- lampwork
- Glass either blown or manipulated from clear or colored
glass rods over a torch or blow lamp, used in paperweights and Nevers figures.
- lathe-cutting
- Technique whereby blanks of glass are mounted
and turned slowly with the aid of a bow or handled wheel while a tool fed with
an abrasive is held against the glass in order to cut sharp profiles or to polish the overall
surface.
- lattichinio or latticino
-
Italian, from the word fatte,
'milk'.
Clear glass decorated with embedded threads of white glass to form network patterns- See filigrana-
- lattimo
- Italian, from the word latte, 'milk'- Opaque white glass colored by adding bone ash
or tin oxide to the batch and sometimes
by adding antimony or zinc. Known as Milchglas in German.
- Laub und Bandelwerk
- German, 'leaf and strapwork'. Term for a Baroque decorative
pattern of intricate intertwined leaf and floral motifs.
- lead glass
- Type of glass containing a large amount of lead oxide (24-30%), first made by
George Ravenscroft as a remedy for crizzling. The resulting glass is more brilliant than cristallo and softer and better suited for cutting.
-
- linen smoother
- Glass object with a heavy flat, rounded base and a
handle used as a pressing iron. (Above)
- Lithyalin
- Type of glass, invented by Friedrich
Egermann, which is opaque (usually red) and
marbled on the surface in imitation of semiprecious stones.
- lustre painting
- Technique of producing an iridescent effect on the surface of glass by using metallic pigments that are fired in
a reducing atmosphere.
- Lycurgus Cup
- A cage cup of dichroic glass (opaque pea green in
reflected light and red in transmitted light) made in the
4th century AD; cut with figures from the myth of King Lycurgus.
- M
- -
- marbled
- Type of glass
decorated with different colored streaks resembling the patterns in marble.
- marver
- Flat iron (probably originally marble) table upon which the gather is rolled into an evenly
shaped mass.
- marvering
- Technique of rolling hot, softened glass over a flat
surface (a marver) in order to smooth out the vessel,
to consolidate trailed decoration applied to the vessel or to pick up
decoration in the form of blobs or fragments of glass.
- matrix
- Mass of glass that encloses mosaic glass.
- Matsu-no-ke glass
- Japanese-influenced design developed by Frederick Carder
and registered by Stevens & Williams in 1884. Term also covers a Japanese style of
decoration used in the latter part of the Victorian period
-
- merese
- Type of collar like a flattened knop,
with a sharp edge generally applied to the stem, often in the form of a joint between the bowl and the stem.
(Above)
- metal
- Term describing glass while molten or cold, used to distinguish the material from
the object.
- Milchglas
- German, 'milk glass'.See Ultimo.
- millefiori
- Italian, 'a thousand flowers'. Term used to describe mosaic
glass used in ancient and Venetian glass as well as in paperweights.
- mosaic
- Pre-formed, sliced
canes of glass placed around or in a mold, heated slowly until the elements
fuse together to form the required shape and
then polished when cold to smooth the surface.
- mosque lamp
- Hanging lamp with bulbous body, flaring mouth and thick loop handles for
suspension from mosque ceilings. First made in Syria in the 13th and 14th
centuries, they were decorated in gilding and enamel, often with
inscriptions from the Koran.
- Moss Agate glass
- Type of art glass developed by John Northwood
and Frederick Carder in the late 188os. A gather of soda glass was cased in
lead glass, coated in powdered colored glass and again cased in lead
glass, which was injected with water to
cause the weaker soda glass to crack. After the water was emptied out it was reheated to
leave a crackled network.
- mold-blowing
- Technique of blowing a gather of glass, while attached to a blowpipe,
into a wooden or iron mold in two or more parts; the decoration on the inside can be
further inflated to reduce the sharpness of the design.
- molded pedestal stem
- Type of molded stem that is ribbed and shouldered with generally between four and eight sides;
made in England and Germany and popular from ^".1715
to 1765. Sometimes called Silesian stems.
- mold-pressing
- Technique of forcing or pressing hot glass into an open or multiple-part
mold.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- N
- -
- Nef
- Table ornament in the shape of a rigged sailing ship.
- Neoclassicism
- Style from the latter part of the 18th century based on a renewed interest in the
arts of Greece and Rome; largely inspired by
the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum and the publication of the collections
of ancient Greek vases belonging to the Comte de Caylus and Sir William Hamilton.
-
- Nipt diamond wares
- Diamond-shaped network decoration made by nipping together ribs or trails of glass
threads. A Venetian design but offered by Briton George Ravcnscroft in
his 1677 price list of new lead glass. (Above)
- Nuppenhecher German,
- 'drop glass'. A Waldglas
drinking glass decorated with applied prunts; made in northern Europe from the 14th century. See also
Krautstrunk.
- O
- -
- ogee bowl
- Bowl for a wine glass shaped with a double curve or an 'S'.
- oinochoe
- Ancient one-handled jug, often with a trefoil mouth, made in core-formed glass.
- opal glass
- Translucent white glass made by adding calcined bones to the batch.
- opaque twist
- See twist.
- overlay
- The outer layer of glass on cased and flashed glass.
- P
- -
- pan-topped
- Shape of bowl on some drinking glasses and sweetmeats, in which the upper part of the bow! is wider than the curved lower part.
- paperweight
- Small solid-glass decorative object used to hold down papers on a desk,
originally made in France by Baccarat, Clichy and St Louis during the 'classic'
period of paperweight manufacture (1845-55). Beneath a magnifying dome of clear glass (usually lead
glass), an orderly millefiori or lampwork design was set low, near the base.
The pontil mark on the underside was removed and the resulting slight concavity
decorated with cutting (star, strawberry diamond or crosshatching). The dome could be faceted
or cased with one or more colors through which windows were cut.
- parson or paraison
- Bubble of molten glass formed on the blowpipe after air has been
blown into it, expanded from the gather.
- pate-de-verre
- French, 'glass paste'. Ancient technique, revived in France
during the second half of the 19th century, of melting
in a mold ground glass, to which was added
a fluxing medium and coloring agent (this was either powdered, colored
glass or metallic oxide).
- phial
- Roman; small glass bottle used for ointments, medicines and perfumed oils.
- phiaie
- Greek; shallow bowl with a flat bottom or base-ring
used as a wall ornament or for pouring libations-
- piggin
- Glass with a small bowl and vertical handle that was used as a dipper for milk or cream.
-
- pilgrim flask
- Type of bottle with a flattened bulbous body and four loop handles for
suspension, intended for use
by pilgrims to carry water. The two flattened sides lent themselves to decoration, especially
by Venetian enamellers- (Above)
- pillar cutting
- Style of cut decoration with parallel vertical, convex ribs.
- pincering
- Technique of pinching or squeezing the trailing or other ornamentation on an object
for decorative effect by pincers.
- Pokal
- German, "goblet*. Usually applied to a late 17th- to mid-19th~century type of engraved, covered goblet with
a flared bowl, for drinking toasts.
- polishing
- Technique of giving a glass object an even finish, either by reintroducing it into the furnace
or smoothing it against revolving wheels.
- pontil
- or
punty Solid iron rod to which the object
from the blowpipe is transferred so that the rim may be finished, handle applied
or any other final shaping carried
out. Once the glass has cooled it is knocked off the rod, leaving a rough mark,
the 'pontil mark', which, beginning in the 19th century, is usually ground away.
- Portland Vase
- A dark blue cameo amphora with an opaque white overlay, carved on one side with Paris, his mother Hecuba and the goddess
Athena, representing the Fall of Troy, and on the other side, the Rise of Rome
with Augustus, his mother Atia (between whose legs rises a snake) and the god Neptune.
Possibly made in Rome during the last quarter of the 1st century BC for the emperor
Augustus. Formerly in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome and Sir William Hamilton's collection, then sold to the Duke
of Portland and the British Museum. Lent to Josiah Wedgwood, whose Black Basalt it inspired.
- potash glass
- Type of hard glass containing potash (potassium carbonate) derived from
plant ash (forest glass); suitable for cutting, unlike cristallo.
- press-molding
- Technique wherein molten glass is poured into a metal mold and a plunger
lowered into the mass, leaving a smooth centre with a patterned exterior. Fine pressed pieces
are often finished by hand to obliterate the mold marks. May bear maker's marks.
- printy
- Below-the-surface pattern of shallow concaves, circular or oval, made with a slightly
convex cutting wheel.
- prismatic cutting
- Decorative cut pattern consisting of long, straight mitred grooves
cut horizontally in parallel lines.
-
- prunt
- Blob of glass, sometimes in a
contrasting color, applied to the surface of an object for decoration (Above).
- pyxis
- Greek; covered receptacle, usually cylindrical, used for cosmetics, ink or jewelry. Made in Roman times in cast, blown or
mold-blown glass.
- Q
- -
- Queen's Burmese glass
- Type of art glass that changes shade from light rose at the top to greenish
yellow at the bottom; developed by the Mount Washington Glass Company of
Massachusetts and Thomas Webb & Sons in Stourbridge.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- R
- -
- raised diamond-cutting
- Decorative cut pattern wherein diagonal grooves arc cut close together and again at right
angles to form four-sided diamonds in pyramidal form standing in relief. See
also strawberry diamond.
- reactive glass
- Type of art glass, introduced by Louis Comfort Tiffany, that changed color when reheated.
- relief-cutting
- Cutting on glass creating a design that stands in relief against the
background, as on cameo, Hochschnitt and Tiefschnitt glass.
- reticello
- See vetro a reticello.
- reticulated glass
- Decorative glassware on which trails of glass are manipulated to form
an open network Originally a Venetian technique used from the 16th to 18th
centuries.
- rhyton
- Greek; unstable drinking glass, usually made in the form of a human or
animal head tapering to a point.
- rock crystal engraving
- Type of engraving, developed in England at the end of
the 19th century by Thomas Webb & Sons and Stevens
& Williams, wherein all the surfaces are polished.
- Rococo
- Probably from the French rocaille, or 'rockwork'. An ornamental style, dating from
c.1740 to 1760, that was marked by asymmetry and the use of abstract design suggested by shells, rocks, waves,
flowers and foliage.
- rod-formed glass
- Type of glass made by winding molten glass around a narrow metal rod
to make beads.
- Roemer
- German; traditional 15th- and 16th-century German Waldglas drinking vessel with an ovoid bowl, a
hollow cylindrical stem decorated with prunts and a spreading coiled or blown foot.
- Rubinglas
- German, 'ruby glass'. Glass color with copper, gold or selenium. See Kunckel red.
- ruby glass
- Related to Rubinglas, introduced by Frederick Carder, in either pink or brilliant red.
- rummer
- Term usually applied to a 19th-century English
low drinking goblet with a square or domed stemmed foot.
- Russelbecher German.
- See claw-beaker.
- S
- -
- salver
- Glass with flat bowl used for displaying foods such as fruit or for supporting jelly glasses.
- Scheuer glass
- German; type of 15th-century German Waldglas drinking vessel with a wide, cylindrical
neck and a bulbous body decorated with
prunts, one of which is pulled out to form a handle.
- Schwarzlot
- German, 'black
lead’. Transparent enamel used during the Middle Ages for painting lines and shadows on stained-glass
windows and in the l7th and 18th centuries by Hausmaler to decorate glass and
porcelain.
- Silesian stem
- See molded pedestal stem
- silica
- Silicon dioxide occurring as quartz and as the principal constituent of sand
used in the making of glass.
- silvered glass
- Type of glassware popular in the second half of the
19th century, its
silvery appearance created by pouring silver nitrate solution between the
double walls of a vessel through a hole in the base, then sealed to prevent
oxidization.
- Silveria
- Type of art glass developed by John Northwood II in c.1900
with silver foil encased between two colorless or colored layers of glass.
- silver staining
- Technique of applying silver chloride in an acid solution to a glass surface to
produce a yellow stain.
- Skyphos Greek;
- hemispherical or semi-ovoid drinking cup with two handles.
- snake thread
- Applied trailed decoration in an irregular, sometimes ridged, winding pattern resembling
snakes; found on 3rd-cenl;ury Roman glass from Cologne and the Near East.
- snowflake
- glass 18th-century Chinese glass with white inclusions and bubbles
- soda glass
- Glass in which the alkali in the batch is obtained from soda (sodium
carbonate) rather than potash. In Venetian cristallo
the soda is derived from barilla.
- sprinkler
- flask Glass flask which has a narrow or constricted neck so that the contents
can only be poured out slowly or drop by drop.
- stained glass
- Decorative windows, usually found in
churches, made up of colored glass panes further decorated by staining or enamelling and usually held in place by lead cames.
- staining
- Coloring on the surface of glass achieved by the application of metallic oxides and reheating,
like silver staining, to produce yellow or ruby colors by copper oxide.
Used since the 14th century on window glass and from the beginning of the 19th century
on decorative glass, notably by Anton Kothgasser and the Mohns.
- stamnos
- Greek; wide-mouthed storage jar with an ovoid body and two loop handles attached at the
shoulder.
- Stangettglas
- German, 'pole glass'. Tall, cylindrical drinking vessel of the 15th and l6th centuries standing on
a pedestal base.
- star cut
- Type of cut decoration with grooves radiating from a central point and tapering outward. The earliest have six to
eight points, while later examples have as many as 32.
- stippling
- Technique of tapping a glass surface with a pointed implement to produce a
pattern of tiny dots that build up to make a picture; practiced by Frans Greenwood
and David Woiff.
- stopper
- Piece of glass acting as a cork to a bottle or decanter.
Made in a variety of shapes and sizes, such as ball, bull's eye, conical, disc, mushroom and spire.
- strawberry diamond
- Form of raised diamond-cutting wherein the flat areas between the high-relief diamonds are crosshatched to make a low-relief diamond pattern.
Sometimes used on the bases of paperweights.
- sulphide
- Silvery-looking opaque relief medallion or cameo (usually a portrait) made of a white
porcellaneous material enclosed in transparent glass. Because of a thin layer
of air under the glass the medallion acquires a silvery appearance.
- sweetmeat
- Tall-stemmed container used to hold crystallized fruits
and a variety of sweetmeats.
- T
- -
- tazza
- Italian, 'cup'. Shallow ornamental cup or dish on a stemmed
foot, used for fruits or sweetmeats, as a stand for other glasses or possibly
for drinking.
-
- tear
- Drop-shaped air bubble enclosed in a glass, usually in the stem. (Above)
- trail
- Strand
of glass, roughly circular in cross section, which has been drawn out from a
small gather of glass and applied to the surface of a vessel.
- trailing
- The laying of threads or trails of hot glass over a glass object to form a
decorative pattern.
- trulla
- Latin; ladle with a round bowl and a horizontal handle.
- trunk beaker
- See claw-beaker.
- turn-over rim
- Type of rim curved outward and downward; commonly found on late 18th- to early 19th-century
Irish bowls and salt cellars.
- twist
- Decorative device in the stems of 18th-century drinking glasses and sweetmeats
produced by twisting a glass rod in which
are embedded columns of air (air-twists and mercury twists), threads of white or
colored glass ('cotton-twists', 'color-twists' or opaque twists) or a mixture of
the three to give an elaborate multi-spiral.
- U
- -
- uranium glass
- Yellowish-green (Annagelb) or green
glass (Annagriin) made through the
addition of uranium to the batch, introduced in Bohemia by Josef Riedel in around 1840.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- V
- -
- Vandyke
- Scalloped decoration on the rims and edges of vessels, derived from the lace
collars in Van Dyck's portraits.
- verre eglomise
- Decorative technique in which gold or silver leaf is
applied to the surface of glass (usually on the reverse), engraved and
protected by varnish, metal foil or another layer of glass. So called after
French mirror and picture framer Jean-Baptiste
Glomy (d.1786). Loosely used to describe types of Zwischengoldglas in jewelry and
medallions.
- vetro a fili
- Italian, "thread glass'. Type of filigrana
- decoration in which clear glass has a pattern of continuous parallel lines.
-
- vetro a reticello
-
Italian, 'glass
with a small network'. Type of filigrana
decoration in which clear glass has a pattern of embedded threads in a
diagonal, crisscrossing arrangement trapping small air bubbles between them. (Above)
- vetro a retortoli
- Italian, 'glass with a twist'. Type of filigrana
decoration in which intricately twisted threads
are embedded in clear glass in parallel lines.
- vitrearius
-
Latin; glass-blower or glass-maker (as opposed to a diatretarius, or glass-cutter).
- W
- -
-
Waldglas
-
German. See forest glass.
- wheel-cutting
- Process of decorating glass by means of a rotating
wheel that grinds a pattern or inscription into the glass surface.
- wheel-engraving
- See engraving.
- wrythen
- Decoration of swirling vertical ribbing that gives a spiral effect.
- X
- -
- Y
- -
- Z
- -
- Zwischengoldglas
- German, 'gold between glass'.
Decorative technique, found on Bohemian glass (c. 1730-40), wherein gold
leaf applied to the outer surface of a glass vessel is engraved with a metal
point and protected by being encased in another glass layer or sealed with
transparent varnish.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z