was a Quaker then Bristol has excellent Quaker records. glassmaking seen at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
However, if he was some other faith you would be in There are two appendices (analytical techniques and
trouble. If you could give me some idea of a date range I analytical results) and a glossary. As is necessary for any
could tell you the parishes where flint glass was made discussion of archaeological glass remains, the volume is
(Bristol was mainly bottles and window glass). well illustrated, with colour figures provided at the end
and black and white ones in the text.
An ancestry website might just produce
something, but I would not bet on it! Unfortunately, the book suffers in places from poor
editing, with some minor typographical errors and other
Rod Dowling discrepancies not related to academic content. It is also
inevitably the case that the current rate of change in this
BOOK REVIEWS field means that recent findings have already superseded
some of the discussions presented (e.g. on the provenance
Lapis Lazuli from the Kiln: of Aegean glass). This latter point is intended as a caution
glass and glassmaking in the rather than a criticism, however, as the author makes it
Late Bronze Age clear that the book was not meant to provide a definitive
statement on this still dynamic subject.
Andrew Shortland
In summary, Lapis Lazuli from the Kiln is a very useful
Leuven: Leuven University Press, resource, particularly for the student or for those who are
2012 new to the material or to the Late Bronze Age, for whom
160 Pages it provides a good introduction to the huge volume of
ISBN: 978-9058676917 research on glass production in this period. The glossary,
£60.50 images, analytical data and the overview of the subject
provided by the text are useful; the integration of
This much anticipated work from Andrew Shortland is analytical, archaeological, historical and linguistic
intended to provide an up-to-date introduction to Late aspects is well managed; and the book is well written and
Bronze Age glass. As he himself notes in the preface, the accessible.
text is aimed at the student of archaeology and is largely
a summary of the current ‘state of play’ in the study of Chloë N. Duckworth
this early glass. Shortland, a senior lecturer at Cranfield University of Nottingham
University, is well placed to write such a book, as he has
been one of the major contributors to this state of play in Le Verre en Lorraine et dans
recent years. les Régions Voisines. Actes du
Colloque de l'AFAV, Metz, 18
In particular, Shortland’s research has focused on the et 19 novembre 2011
chemical and isotopic analysis of Bronze Age glass from
Egypt and the Near East. Due to this specialism the book Eds Véronique Arveiller and
offers an interesting focus on the compositional, as well Hubert Cabart
as the archaeological and historical evidence for Late
Bronze Age glass production. The introduction (chapter Monographies Instrumentum 42
1) provides a general scientific background to glass and Montagnac: Editions Monique
glass production, which can be found in a number of Mergoil, 2012
other works, but which is crucial to understanding the ISBN: 978-2355180286
processes discussed later in the book. Similarly, chapter 2 396 pages, 14 colour plates, numerous b/w photographs
provides a brief background to Egypt and the Near East and other illustrations
in the Late Bronze Age. A chronological path is then
followed in chapters 3, 4, and 5, which cover the first Enthusiasm for archaeological glass in France continues
appearance of man-made glass, the first regularly to flourish, and this volume provides further testimony of
produced glass, and the ‘Golden Age’ of glass, the eagerness of researchers, many who would not
respectively. Chapter 6 provides an analysis of Late describe themselves as glass specialists, to engage in
Bronze Age glass workshop sites, of which just two glass studies. The papers collected here are the product of
(Amarna and Qantir) are currently known from well a two-day colloquium on glass from Lorraine and
published archaeological work. Chapter 7, entitled ‘Trade neighbouring areas, and have been published in addition
and display’, provides an overview of the value of glass to the regular yearly bulletin of the Association Française
and its wider distribution from Egypt and the Near East, pour l'Histoire du Verre.
particularly to the Aegean but also to other parts of
Europe. Chapter 8 briefly covers the decline in 13
Glass News 34 July 2013
The 27 contributions (four in English) stretch The collected papers are predominantly concerned with
chronologically from the Bronze Age to the 20th-century. typological and historical themes, and only two papers
They are divided into five groups; protohistoric, Gallo- report on archaeometric projects. The first presents a
Roman, late antique-early Middle Ages, medieval and comprehensive study of later Bronze Age beads in Alsace
modern and finally workshops and glass production. Well and Lorraine, noting the compositional similarities with
over half the papers concern glass of the Gallo-Roman to beads from the Frattesina workshops in northern Italy.
early medieval period. There are contributions from The second describes the analysis of three Roman
France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the window glass fragments by infra-red and Raman
Netherlands, reflecting the international interest in the spectroscopy at the University of Lyon 1, with the
archaeology of this historically much-disputed territory purpose of determining method of manufacture. This
and the surrounding areas. seems unconvincing as a way of sorting matt/glossy from
blown panes, not on account of the science, but because
Of particular value is the cluster of papers at the heart of of the cost and effort involved. A visual examination of
the volume, reviewing evidence for one of the most the fragments is surely simpler and considerably faster.
intriguing episodes in glass history, spanning the 4th-7th-
centuries AD. These begin with Samuel Lelarge's There are many other valuable contributions in this
investigation of the late Roman glass from the cemetery volume and though it is not possible to comment of all of
of Nempont-Saint-Firmin (Pas-de-Calais). M. Lelarge them here, it is worth highlighting particular favourites.
writes in engaging and accessible French and presents a Véronique Arveiller-Dulong describes an extraordinary
useful preliminary report on this large assemblage. The hoard of five skyphoi and two decorated cups, from the
quantity and variety of glass vessels in the cemetery is Roman camp at Boulogne. The discussion of a
striking, with 50 vessels coming from around 90 burials – fragmentary and unfinished late Roman cage cup from
an extraordinarily high proportion compared with the Grenoble provides further convincing evidence in favour
relative scarcity of glass vessels in late Romano-British of the theory that the outer layers of late Roman cage
cemeteries, even such celebrated examples as Lankhills cups were ground in their entirety from a thick-walled
in Winchester. Many burials have more than one vessel. blank, rather than being part-moulded. A paper in English
The article is generally well illustrated, though it is by Davy Herremans describes the findings from an 18th-
unfortunate that one of the most interesting vessels, a century nuns’ latrine with its collection of fashionable
bowl with an engraved hunting scene, has no line and highly decorated glassware. An article by Denis
drawing, though the same rather grainy photograph Henrotay and Catherine Hercot catalogues a particularly
appears three times. Three particularly useful papers rich deposit, again from a latrine, of mould blown and
examine the late Roman and Merovingian glass from enamelled 16th-century drinking vessels from Arlon in
sites from the adjoining regions of Lorraine and Alsace as Belgium. Stéphane Palaude’s article on medieval and
well as across the Rhine in the Breisgau area of Germany. early modern glass production in the “Grande Thiérache”
The glass from Alsace and Lorraine is from funerary region on the French/Belgian border is a delightful read
contexts, and the authors highlight the curious absence of for fans of glass genealogy. An examination of glass
5th-century cemeteries in both regions. Whether this is a from First World War German rubbish dumps on the
result of the lottery of archaeological investigation or an western front illustrates the heavy reliance by German
actual reflection of practice is unclear. Despite this lacuna troops on industrially produced food supplies, in contrast
there is interesting evidence for a number of distinct with the greater availability of fresh food on the French
practices across the 4th-7th-centuries both in the choice side. This area of research will no doubt receive
of vessels and the position in which they are placed increased interest as the centenary of the outbreak of the
relative to the body. East of the Rhine, Christel Bücker’s war approaches, though the authors warn of the fragility
review of the glass of Breisgau takes in a broader range of the battlefields and their remains, which have been
of sites – funerary, military and domestic. Here, the 5th- targeted by souvenir hunters and pillagers for a hundred
century is better represented. Fragments from Wyhl, years.
Sponeck, Zähringer Burgberg and elsewhere are
discussed, though some of the accompanying illustrations The only criticism of the production of the volume is in
are a little ambitious, full reconstructions often being the quality of some of the photographs and plates, and on
based on a single, very small fragment. occasion the line drawings and maps. On the other hand,
this collection appeared within a year of the conference
These four key papers are complemented by further itself, and the editors should be warmly congratulated on
articles on glass from late Roman and early Frankish the speed with which they have worked. For anyone with
sites, including Trier, Metz, and Montaigle in Belgium, an interest in the late Roman and Merovingian glass in
as well as an in-depth typological study of late Roman northern France this volume is essential reading, but it
and early post-Roman cylindrical flasks and other
containers from burials in Mayen. 14
Glass News 34 July 2013
can also be recommended to all glass enthusiasts for its techniques, including “Eye Beads and Core Glass”,
varied, stimulating, and often entertaining contributions. “Sandwich Gold Glass”, “Marbled Glass” and “Mosaic
glass”. Colour photographs illustrating replicas and the
Sally Cottam way they were made are included in several of these
King’s College London chapters, and I was particularly impressed by the replica
of the British Museum’s spiral lace bowl, and the
Ancient Glass: Feast of sequence of photographs illustrating its manufacture on a
Colour core, held horizontally on its side, in the manner of more
standard core-formed vessels. This is very convincing as
Eds Taniichi Takahashi, Shikaku it readily allows heat to be applied and controlled, unlike
Ry ji and Azuma Y ko rotating a vessel on a potter’s wheel, which has been
suggested elsewhere.
Japan: Miho Museum, 2013
399 pages, many colour plates In the back of the book are a series of essays on the
ISBN: 978-4903642123 history and technology of glass, covering properties,
¥2800 (c. £19) chemical compositions, provenance studies, Sasanian
glass and detailed explanations of the replications
Available from the Miho undertaken. Not only are the glass objects themselves
Museum Shop: lavishly illustrated with excellent large format colour
www.miho.or.jp/english/inform/tpshope.htm photographs, but each vessel has a separate catalogue
entry at the back with a profile drawing. Furthermore,
This volume is the catalogue of an exhibition held during Professor Izumi Nakai and his group have analysed each
2013 at two locations in Japan: the Miho Museum (near object with their powerful non-destructive X-ray
Kyoto) and the Okayama Orient Museum. Largely based fluorescence system, so that the entries indicate the type
upon the collections of the two host institutions, plus of glass (natron or plant ash), the colourant and the
objects from the Hirayama Silk Road Collection and the opacifier. The integration of technical information is very
loan of a number of important and iconic artefacts from good indeed.
the British Museum, the imaginative and novel
arrangement of the material reconciles the beauty of the Overall this is an excellent book and I cannot recommend
artefacts and their academic significance with a degree of it highly enough to anyone who is interested in ancient
success which is rarely encountered. At the same time, it glass.
manages to report the results of recent research into the
technology of the glasses at an accessible level. As far as Ian Freestone
I can tell, the great majority, if not all, of the material of University College London
interest is presented in English as well as Japanese, which
makes this a useful reference text for international Verre XXe-XXIe siecles,
readers. Collection du Musée des Arts
Décoratifs, Les Arts
The material covered in the volume ranges from the Late Décoratifs
Bronze Age through to the Sasanian period. The Jean-Luc O1ivié
inclusion of the enigmatic cobalt blue glass lump from
Eridu, here dated to 2050 BC, prompts the claim that Paris: Édition Les Arts
3000 years of glass are presented, but this is the only Décoratifs, 2012
potentially misleading statement I encountered. In fact, 224 pages, 110 illustrations
the shaped glass objects range from the 16th-century BC ISBN: 978-2916914374
through to about the 7th-century AD and this emphasises Language: French
the need for a really thorough investigation of the Eridu 39.00€
piece, including trace element and isotopic analyses, to
allow us to come closer to understanding its significance. Contemporary glass was first acquired by the Musée des
Arts Decoratifs, Paris, at the Exposition Universelle held
The relationship between glass and precious stones in the in Paris in 1878. Thus, the first glass artists to be
ancient world is given as justification for the grouping of represented in the collection were Émile Gallé and
the 200 or so glass objects on the basis of their colour and François-Eugene Rousseau. In the following decades
visual appearance. Wisely, this has been flexibly glass in all the current styles, from historicism to Art
interpreted so that, while there is are chapters on blue Nouveau, joined those early acquisitions, along with
glass, colourless translucent glass and “glass in many glass from the Middle Ages onwards. As little of the
colours”, there are a series of chapters on decorative glass collection is currently exhibited and is accessible
Glass News 34 July 2013 15
only with difficulty in a store outside central Paris, it is 54 for the Karhula-lttala glasshouse in Finland (from
surprising to learn that it consists of over 4500 pieces. Alexandra de Vazeilles, 2009) and the intriguing Bodhi
During the 20th-century the Museum acquired a fine by the Italian artist Laura de Santillana (given by L’Arc
group of art glass, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s en Seine gallery, C. Boutonnet and R. Ortiz, 2007),
when the art of glass making reached a high point in amongst many others. A large number of makers and
France. In 1981 the Musée d'Art Moderne transferred a glass factories have also donated work, from the Coupe
number of important 20th-century works to the Musée by Simon Gate presented by the Orrefors glassworks,
des Arts Décoratifs, which became the national collection Sweden, in 1926, to a vase moulded with putti entitled
for art glass when the Centre du Verre was established in Ronde d’amours et feuillage given by Lalique in 1930, a
the following year. Under the leadership of Jean-Luc superb glass sculpture called Château fort by Emile
Olivié, the author of this catalogue, it has flourished with Gilioli dating from 1961 and presented by Baccarat in
an online presence and a programme of exhibitions 1993 as well as gifts from Kosta Boda, Leerdam, Dale
including one in 2003 of Venetian and façon de Venise Chihuly, Stanislav Libenský, Jaroslav Brychtová, Lino
glasses accompanied by a catalogue by Erwin Tagliapietra and, most recently, Barbara Nanning, have
Baumgartner. The present publication comprises a immeasurably enhanced the collection. All the work is
selection of 107 pieces made in the 20th- and 21st- carefully analysed and the techniques used are clearly
centuries (10 date from 2003 onwards) from France, explained in each of the catalogue entries, some of which
Britain (represented by New Texture by Diana Hobson, include working drawings, and an introductory essay
Wrack by Keith Cummings and Salt Box by Tessa Clegg) provides a succinct overview of glass art in the last
Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, hundred years. This is a masterly catalogue, with useful
USA and Japan. The collection, inevitably, is strongest in scholarly apparatus of bibliography, a list of exhibitions
work created in France, from Marinot's Coupe à trois held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs from 1884-2011
pieds dating from 1912, which is almost Secessionist in which included glass, as well as a list of museums and
style, to Anne-Lise Riond Sibony's amusing Dans tous foundations all over the world where studio glass can be
mes états of 2007. The purest French Art Deco glass is found. Sadly, only one of those listed is in the United
represented by Marius-Ernest Sabino (1878-1961), Jean Kingdom. The catalogue is recommended.
Luce (1895-1964) and Auguste Heiligenstein (1891-
1976) as well as by Franyois Decorchemont (1880-1971), Aileen Dawson
the Daum factory and by a monumental vase by Aristide The British Museum
Colotte (1885-1959), whose association with the Vichy
regime is sensitively explored to place this piece in its Please send your contributions:
true context. A mould-made head by Henri Navarre Finds • Research • Ideas • Enquiries
(1885-1971) dating from 1936-7, which is well illustrated Publications • Conferences • News
with three views, is an intriguing example of sculpture in
glass and a design by Henri Matisse for a wheel-engraved for Glass News 35
vase made by the American firm of Steuben Glass in by
1939 documents the artist's encounter with glass 10 years
before he created the world-famous stained glass panels 29th November 2013
for the chapel at Venice. Overshadowed in some respects
by developments in America and the Czech Republic, to either of the editors:
which are represented only minimally in this catalogue,
French glass seems to be having a renaissance in the Rachel Tyson
work of Didier Tisseyre (b. 1958) and Xavier Le
Normand (b. 1978), the first initially trained as a painter [email protected]
and working on glass in the Czech Republic after
receiving a state bursary in 1991, the second spending or
time at the Pilchuck Summer School established in 1971
by Dale Chihuly in Washington State, USA. Both have Andrew Meek
created powerful and original expressions of art in glass, The British Museum
to judge from the works illustrated in this catalogue. Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
That this collection exists at all is thanks to the generosity
of numerous commercial galleries and private donors. [email protected]
Their gifts include the wheel-engraved vase designed in
1923 by the Czech Jaroslav Horejc for Lobmeyr of 16
Vienna (given 1928 by Jehan Kappès-Grangé), wheel-
engraved vases designed by Tapio Wirkkala from 1948-
Glass News 34 July 2013
Glass News
Published by The Association for the History of Glass Ltd
www.historyofglass.org.uk
January 2014 Number 35 ISSN 1362-5195
Rachel Tyson were all re-elected, and Caroline Jackson, a
former President, returned to the Board.
We are delighted that Neighbours and Successors of
Rome, resulting from the AHG’s York meeting in 2011,
will shortly be published; see page 13 for details. Do not
miss Oxbow Books pre-publication offer, valid until
1st May!
For our Spring meeting we are planning a study day
Messages in Bottles. See page 2 for details if you are
interested in contributing or attending.
The editors would like to thank this issue’s contributors
for their material; please keep it coming for future issues!
We are always happy to receive long or short pieces
about glass research or discoveries. We particularly urge
students to keep us up to date with what they are
researching – we are interested! We also need people to
write reviews of the meeting they have attended, AHG or
otherwise; please contact one of the editors if you would
be interested in doing this. See back page for contact
details.
New Discoveries: Part of a Venetian tazza excavated at Subscriptions and memberships for 2014-2015 are due in
East Lenham in Kent, displayed at A Miscellany of April, and a form is enclosed to send with cheques to
Glass in November. © Lesley Feakes, Lenham John Clark.
Archaeological Society
REMINDER
Welcome to Issue 35 of Glass News!
Would you like to see the photos in this issue in
Our recent meeting A Miscellany of Glass: New colour?
Discoveries and Hidden Treasures was a very well- We can send a colour PDF version of this issue of
attended and successful day, and we thank Sally Cottam Glass News on request TO MEMBERS AND
for organising such an interesting and enjoyable SUBSCRIBERS (in addition to your paper copy –
programme. See pages 4-5 for an account of the day. we know you like something to read in the bath!).
Please email one of the editors (see back page) if
The recent AGM saw some changes to the Board of you would like a PDF copy.
Management. We say farewell to Aileen Dawson of the
British Museum, whom we thank enormously for her ten- FACEBOOK PAGE
year contribution on the Board. Justine Bayley, Denise
Allen, Angela Wardle, Colin Brain, Suzanne Higgott and The AHG is on Facebook!
To keep up-to-date on news and current research on
the history of glass visit:
facebook.com/TheAssociationForTheHistoryOfGlass
Click ‘Like’ and please share.
Glass News 35 January 2014 1
AHG SPRING STUDY DAY CONFERENCES AND
EXHIBITIONS
Messages in Bottles
GLASSAC2014
Friday 25th April 2014
LAARC, Mortimer Wheeler House, London Glass Science in
Art and Conservation
We are planning a study day in April on glass bottles of
all periods. If you would like to present a paper or bring Durham - 10th to 12th September 2014
some examples to show, please email us at York - Saturday 13th September 2014
[email protected].
The glass community worldwide embraces many diverse
If you would like to attend please send your full contact strands of glass expertise. This conference in September
details and a cheque for £20 (members), £30 (non 2014 is designed to weave together those diverse strands
members), or £15 (students), which includes a sandwich to create a web of knowledge and experience which
lunch, payable to The Association for the History of transcends barriers and divisions.
Glass Ltd to Denise Allen, 8 St Catherine’s Road,
Southampton SO18 1LJ. If you would like a receipt We are so different. Scientists and Art Historians,
please include an sae, provide an email address, or creative Artists and inspired Designers, Archaeologists
request to collect on the day. and gritty Industrialists, Engineers and Conservators of
historic glass artefacts - the list is seemingly endless. But
Details to be confirmed; see the website for the latest we are united by our obsessive fascination with glass.
information: www.historyofglass.org.uk Sadly our community is blighted by the legendary Curse
of Babel. Each strand of glass expertise develops its own
AHG GRANTS jargon, method of speaking, circle of knowledge.
Unconsciously we form inward-facing groups. It’s hard
Grants are available from the Association for the History to cross over these artificial barriers and share our
of Glass, for educational or research activities consistent enthusiasms and perplexities with colleagues from other
with the Association’s charitable aims. These could strands. All too often, we don’t understand one another.
include, for example, attendance at a conference to Our creativity and our achievements are thereby
present a lecture or poster, a study visit, fieldwork, or diminished.
publication of scholarly works. There are no restrictions
on who may apply or on the topics of applications, which This conference, like previous conferences in the
will be judged on merit. Multiple applications in different GLASSAC series, is dedicated to breaking down barriers,
years will be considered with individual awards up to building bridges, and allowing us to share our glassy
£500. passions with experts from other strands. For once, let’s
meet one another in mutual respect and talk to one
An application form may be downloaded from the another in plain language, so that together we may learn.
website, or can be obtained from the Honorary Secretary,
Denise Allen. Email: [email protected] So the scope of GLASSAC14 embraces all strands of
glass knowledge, celebrating those occasions when one
THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE area of glass expertise has collaborated with and been of
HISTORY OF GLASS help to another different area. And we invite Authors to
contribute papers, posters and exhibitions from the
Registered charity 275236 growing points of their particular strand of glass passion.
Don’t wait for your endeavours to become stale and old -
Board of Management bring work-in-progress as well as finished achievements,
experiences which raise questions as well as those which
President: Justine Bayley provide answers.
Hon Secretary: Denise Allen
Hon Treasurer: Angela Wardle The scope includes:
Aesthetics of contemporary glass
Members of Board Bronze Age glass and glassmaking
Colin Brain Suzanne Higgott Martine Newby Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic glass
Creativity in glass design - then and now
John Clark Caroline Jackson Jennifer Price
2
Sally Cottam David Martlew John Shepherd
David Crossley Andrew Meek Rachel Tyson
Glass News 35 January 2014
Medieval stained glass window Glass is a magical and less-exploited medium for artists
Glass in the 18th and 19th century
Problems facing current studio glassmaking to work with because unlike any other material it has
Venetian glass and façon de Venise glass such a vast range of possible appearances - it can be
Dating and provenance of glass
Art history and iconography of architectural glass bright or dull, coloured, transparent, mirrored and
Archaeometry of glass metallic or take any number of surface treatments and
Mould-blown glass
Social impact of glass - the people dimension textures. Hot glass can be incandescent and glow bright
Restoration and conservation of glass orange yet still be transparent when it’s molten. Alchemy
Glass technology production has played an important part in the history of
Raising public awareness of glass, ancient and
modern glassmaking and glass colouring processes. Glass has
Glass decoration and enamel been worked for many centuries producing a vast range
Raw materials
Glass corrosion and weathering of glasses with differing properties that offer artists
Making glass live in the minds of today’s people fantastic possibilities to create work. White Light/White
Heat fuses together the vision, creativity and freedom of
a group of artists with diverse specialisms, ranging from
sculpture, to fashion and filmmaking, with the expertise
and artistry of the renowned Berengo Glass Studio in
Venice.
Your papers, exhibits and posters would be welcome. If
you'd like to present a paper (within a 40-minute tine
slot), please download the Abstract Template from the
website, and email to Christine Brown.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 27th January
2014.
www.glassac14.sgt.org
White Light/White Heat: Contemporary Goblet, c.1500, Italian, Venice, Wallace Collection
Artists and Glass
The invited artists have responded to the theme of light
27 November 2013 – 23 February 2014 and heat, the components of fire, the destructive/creative
The Wallace Collection, London element linked to the formation of the universe and
primal matter from chaos. The energy from the sun’s rays
A unique collaboration between the Berengo Glass Studio, provides the light and heat essential to all life forms and
Venice, the London College of Fashion and the Wallace survival on this planet. Light and heat are fundamental to
Collection, featuring the work of major contemporary glassmaking - light is integral to our perception of glass,
artists and designers using glass as a new medium for while heat is required to shape it.
expression.
The Wallace Collection, home to a beautiful and important Polly Apfelbaum, I Tip My Hat to You, 2013
collection of historic Venetian glass, will showcase pieces
by artists and designers including Tracey Emin, Thomas We hope that visitors will take this chance to experience
Schütte and Meekyoung Shin. Other major international both the work of the these established contemporary
names in art and fashion will feature in the complementary artists and the exquisite craftsmanship of the Wallace
exhibition at the London College of Fashion’s Fashion Collection’s own pieces of historic Venetian glass in a
Space Gallery. new light, and, in turn, appreciate glass not merely as
decorative and functional, but as a vibrant medium for
These works were created for a project at the 55th Venice contemporary art.
Biennale entitled Glasstress: White Light/White Heat,
which grew out of the original Glasstress concept conceived
in 2009 by Adriano Berengo, President of Berengo Glass
Studio and Venice Projects.
Glass News 35 January 2014 3
A Life in Archaeology and Glass: Discover why the Stourbridge Canal was created and
Honouring David Whitehouse (1941-2013) enjoy the architecture of its bridges and locks. See the
iron foundry that made the first steam locomotive that ran
March 13-15, 2014 in the USA. Find out why Stourbridge was ideal for
Corning Museum of Glass, New York glassmaking and about the people who lived and worked
here in Victorian times. Visit Britain’s most complete
This seminar will honour the life and work of the former working ‘glass cone’. Choose between a written or audio
executive director of the Corning Museum of guide to download. The printable guide of 28 pages
Glass, David Whitehouse, and celebrates his scholarship includes maps and information about the glassmaking
in glass, ceramics, and archaeology. industry at 14 locations en route.
The program begins with a free, public keynote lecture at Glass in The Wilson: Cheltenham Art
6pm on Thursday evening by Paul Roberts, senior Gallery and Museum
curator, head of the Roman Collections, Greek and
Roman Department at The British Museum. Roberts will The Wilson, Cheltenham’s newly refurbished art gallery
speak on themes related to his 2013 British Museum and museum has recently hosted a unique retrospective
exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum. exhibition ‘Casting Brilliance’ showing the work of
contemporary British glass sculptor Colin Reid. This has
The next two days will be filled with lectures, drawn a large audience into the museum, and to coincide
reminiscences, and time with many of David’s colleagues with it the museum has devised a Glass Trail around its
and friends. Preliminary programme includes Simon permanent galleries. This is in the form of a booklet that
Cottle, Ian Freestone, Yael Gorin-Rosen, William can be collected from reception, which gives further
Gudenrath, Stephen Koob, Andrew Meek, Rosa Barovier information about each glass, its technology, meaning
Mentasti, Lisa Pilosi, Jenny Price, Susan Rossi-Wilcox, and uses. The earliest piece on the trail is a Roman lidded
Amy Schwartz, St. John Simpson, Lino Tagliapietra, cinerary urn; then it leaps in time to a 17th-century wine
Dora Thornton, Astrid van Giffen, Rachel Ward, Karol bottle, 18th-century ale glasses, and a variety of 19th-
Wight and Mark Wypyski. century vessels. An impressive gallery is given over to
the Arts and Crafts movement, and includes glassware
The programme will begin on Thursday at 6pm and including Lygon glassware inspired by the ‘wrythen’
conclude with a dinner on Saturday evening. All technique, Clutha glass by Christopher Dresser, and
activities will take place at The Corning Museum of stained glass panel ‘Taffy was a Welshman’ by Paul
Glass. Woodroffe c.1920. The Glass Trail runs until the end of
February 2014; after that a selection will remain on
Cost to attend is $150. Please contact [email protected] display.
Royal Geographical Society AHG MEETING REVIEW
Self-guided walk: The Crystal Canal
A Miscellany of Glass: New Discoveries
Discover glass and iron making along the and Hidden Treasures
Stourbridge Canal
Dana Centre, London
Downloadable guide available at: 15 November 2013
www.discoveringbritain.org/walks/region/west-
The AHG autumn meeting organised by Sally Cottam
midlands/stourbridge-canal.html#tabbox was attended by around 80 delegates, proving the
popularity of multi-period topics. It began with a useful
During the Industrial Revolution the ‘Black Country’ was guide: Assessing Excavated Glass Assemblages by John
a manufacturing landscape where rows of factories and Shepherd. He summarised the development of
foundries lined a network of canals. Barges carried coal, glassmaking, and considered the effect of recycling on
sand and limestone to works that manufactured what is left in the archaeological record. An outline was
everything from heavy bridges to delicate jewellery. given of the different categories of glass finds, including
the various examples of glassworking waste. The topical
Stourbridge became world-famous for making iron and issue of the lack of museum storage was referred to, and
glass. This 1¾ mile walk follows the Town Arm of the researchers were urged to consider what should be stored
Stourbridge Canal, which was the spine of local iron and or discarded at an early stage.
glassmaking sites. The walk was inspired by Graham
Fisher MBE and his book Jewels on the Cut which tells 4
the story of the industries that emerged here.
Glass News 35 January 2014
Caroline Jackson’s presentation Call the Scientist! The Fifteenth-century glass from St Saviour’s priory, with
How, When and Why of Glass Analysis pointed to the silver stain on the reverse side. ©Jo Moran
types of archaeological questions that a scientist might be
able to answer through chemical and structural analysis. Mark Curteis brought the Tunstill Collection of Georgian
She stressed the crucial point that it needs to be an glass in Chelmsford Museum to our attention, comprising
archaeologically informed scientist who will know what a diverse collection of over 400 glasses (see pages 7-8).
you want, rather than ‘Brains’! She gave some examples Chris Jarrett outlined the glass found from three wells in
of information about glassmaking gained from different Greenwich, dating to the 1830s, 1840s and 1860s, and
types of analysis, the latest techniques, and a useful whether the character of the glass could be matched with
indication of the timescale and costs of having any those documented as living in the adjacent houses.
analysis carried out. Finally, Martina Bertini and Miranda Lowe outlined the
on-going conservation of the stunning 19th-century
Colin Brain’s Clues to Identifying 17th-Century Glass Blashska glass marine models, originally made as an
showed it as a period of change reflected by new alternative to pickled creatures for teaching marine
discoveries and surprises in glassmaking. He pointed out biology. They include other materials such as paper and
that the accepted view of a change to coal-fired furnaces resin, making conservation a challenge. Laser ablation
around 1614 was not quite as simple as thought, as many analysis can reveal the condition below the surface, and
reverted to wood-firing in the 1650s/60s. Early large compositional differences have been found between
undocumented experiments with lead glass are coming to different models and the different colours of glass and
light, and exotic forms like serpent stems thought to have enamel used.
been made in Venice or the Netherlands are now also
being revealed as London products. He showed an The remainder of the afternoon was spent examining the
interesting example of an early forgery of a raven’s head glass brought for viewing from a number of different
seal, attempting to pass a glass off as a Ravenscroft sites, and there was plenty of animated discussion and
product. Another revelation was an example of dichroic ‘ooh it’s one of those!’ moments. Roman glass was well
glass – white with an orange shadow- stressing how glass represented, with glassworking waste, vessel and crucible
finds are essential as so much is undocumented from the fragments from St Algar’s Farm, window glass from a
period and the literature is a long way behind. villa in Bedford, and a range from a villa in
Cambridgeshire. I was particularly excited by a fragment
Liz Stewart spoke about The Early Modern Glass from a 13th-century deposit at Randall Manor in Kent
Industry in Merseyside, from Haughton Green and that appears to come from an Islamic enamelled beaker.
Bickerstaffe in the early 1600s, to Liverpool itself. The There was a stunning Venetian vetro a retorti tazza (see
building of the Old Dock in 1709 made a huge impact on Figure, page 1) as well as other glass of that date from
local industry, and it would be interesting to know how East Lenham moated manor, again in Kent. Martine
much glass was exported to the American colonies from entertained everyone with a ‘spot the fake’ game!
the north-west. Martine Newby Haspeslagh regaled us
with an alarming number of glass Fakes, Forgeries and The day was hugely successful and many thanks are due
Fantasies, many of which were Roman copies acquired to all the speakers and contributors, to Sally Cottam for
on the Grand Tour. While some were convincing, others organising it, the Science Museum’s Dana Centre for the
were shockingly obvious fakes, often marriages of loan of the room, Ceri Lambdin for her IT skills, and
different vessels, particularly with an animal head at one Denise Allen and Angela Wardle for their sterling work
end! on a very busy front desk.
The afternoon began with sessions on glass from Rachel Tyson
different sites. Ceri Lambdin and Rachel Tyson presented
the latest developments from the excavations that have 5
been taking place annually at St Algar’s Farm in
Somerset, a Roman villa site later used for a number of
manufacturing processes. Plentiful evidence has been
found for glassworking in the 4th century; the challenge
is to distinguish cullet collected for recycling from the
products that were being manufactured. Jo Moran
described the medieval painted window glass excavated
at St Saviour’s priory, Limerick, an amazing discovery as
it is so rare in Ireland. The fragments mainly consisted of
borders, suggesting that the central panels had been
removed separately, which also seems to have occurred at
Kells priory.
Glass News 35 January 2014
New discoveries.... all, of these also show similar longitudinal scours. So, if
they were able to build up canes by multiple drawing, this
One of the great things about the AHG Autumn 2013 process could also have produced: “thick straight and
study day A Miscellany of Glass - New Discoveries and even pipes...”.
Hidden Treasures was the wide mix of expertise there.
This led to some fruitful discussions in the margins of the Glass tubing with cellular cracking, c.1670
meeting, one of which may help solve a mystery about a ©Colin Brain
recent glass discovery. The discovery was a couple of David’s suggestion may not be the full answer, but it
short lengths of glass tubing found last year during an opens up new possibilities for experimentation and
archaeological evaluation in the Minories, just outside the analysis to get closer to understanding how these early
old London city wall. These appear to be glassmaking glassmakers were able to rise to the challenges of
residues from the near-by Goodmans Yard glasshouse facilitating the birth of science in the ‘age of reason’. As
and to date from around 1670. Both tubes have shallow usual this analysis and experimentation will probably
longitudinal scours on the surface which look to me as generate yet more interesting questions.
though they have been extruded, or drawn through a die.
One piece also has some unusual cellular cracking which Thanks to all who participated in this excellent study day
only penetrates the outside part of the tube wall (see the and to L-P: Archaeology for allowing me to study and
photo on the right, the grid is in centimetres). How was photograph this new glass discovery.
this tube made and what caused it to crack? One
suggestion was that the cracks were due to rapid cooling Colin Brain
of the surface in an attempt to toughen it, but that seemed
to raise even more questions. History and Heritage Day
A documented customer of Goodmans Yard in the 1660s Cambridge
and 1670s was the famous scientist Robert Hooke. His 13 September 2013
equally famous book “Micrographia”, published in
September 1665, contains many references to glass, As usual the Society of Glass Technology included an
including the one below on the subject of thermometers: history and heritage session in their annual meeting. The
“The stems I use for them are very thick straight, and session featured an eclectic mix of speakers and topics;
from artists to scientists; from glass myths to Mycenaean
even Pipes of Glass, with a very small perforation, and vitreous fragments. As usual the mix worked surprisingly
well with many synergistic themes emerging.
both the head and the body I have made on purpose at
Barry Clark and Sarah Cable started proceedings with
the Glass-house, of the same metal whereof the Pipes are Lead Crystal, the beginning and the end? suggesting that
drawn: …” art glass’ adoption of lead crystal was partly
commercially driven. The lack of mainstream lead
These tubes clearly do not fit his description and are crystal producers has removed this economic incentive.
more likely to be for the barometers he also discusses, but Barry and Sarah argue that, to survive, art glass needs to
what is of interest here is that Goodmans Yard is the most return to the pre-lead crystal techniques alien to
likely candidate in 1665 as ‘the Glass-house’ and that glassmakers trained in lead. My paper on this pre-lead
they were apparently able to draw pipes to meet Hooke’s crystal period echoed the theme of training glassmakers
demanding requirements. The trouble is that glass during transformational change, but highlighted the lack
tubes/pipes cannot just be ‘drawn’, because if the of reliable literature on this period for anyone wanting to
viscosity is low enough for the glass to flow through the study what was made and how. Jonathan Cooke’s paper;;
die, it is too low to support the tensile forces needed to Time and temperature – techniques of multiple layering
pull it through. However, discussing this at the study in glass painting also stressed the inadequacies of both
day, glass-technologist David Martlew suggested that it craft training and later secondary literature in preparing
would theoretically be possible to modify the shape of a artists to try to emulate the achievements of past masters
pre-formed tube, provided that the temperature and the years of careful experimentation that it takes to
distribution was carefully controlled so that the core
remained cool-enough to give the required tensile 6
stiffness, whilst the outer was hot-enough to flow in the
die. This explanation appears to fit. It explains why the
cooling cracks only penetrated the ‘hot’ outer part of the
tube wall and it fits with the technique being a
development of that for making decorative canes. All the
canes found in Goodmans Yard glass-making residues
appear to be multi-layer, with a clear-glass core, one or
more coloured /opaque layers and a clear-glass outer (cf
Query on Complex Canes, page 11). Some, or perhaps
Glass News 35 January 2014
rediscover lost skills. Oksana Kondratyeva made many excavations are surprisingly rare - this group may well
similar points in relation to a different stained-glass skill outnumber those found in the whole of London –
in her talk: Acid Etching Technique and Stained Glass: emphasising the need for English scholars to note ‘export
Art versus Science, stressing the need to understand the finds’ and the reliance of foreign scholars on a sound
genesis of the craft if one hopes to take it in new foundation history of British glass. Their work on these
directions. Jerome Harrington’s talk on Glass making glasses appeared considerably more thorough than any I
and Myth making brought out some lingering myths and recall on similar material from England. Doris Möncke,
misperceptions about glass and glassmaking and a senior glass researcher from the Otto-Schott-Institute at
questioned how much people really understand about the University of Jena, summarised the results of an
how common things are made and the avenues available extensive experimental study of surface effects on
to them to find out. Michael Cable spoke on What the Mycenaean vitreous relief fragments, showing that
Siemens Brothers did for the Glass Industry, outlining the modern vibrational spectroscopic techniques are able to
achievements of this innovative family and particularly probe surface layers of only a few microns thick.
looking at the people themselves; observing that the However the point of the paper was not simply to present
brother generally regarded as being the most innovative analysis results, but to use these to learn how and why
was the one with the least formal education. these surface effects were achieved.
Francisca Pulido Valente, Inês Coutinho and Márcia As usual it proved a fascinating day and as usual I am
Vilarigues spoke on Eighteenth-Century Lead glass struggling to keep up with all the emails resulting from
Goblets found in Portugal, describing a large group of marginal discussions! The planning for next year’s
glasses found during renovation of a Lisbon house, from GlassAC 14 at Durham is well advanced and judging by
art-historical, scientific and conservation perspectives. this year’s event it promises to be well worth attending.
They argued convincingly that these glasses were of
English origin. Comparable glasses from English Colin Brain
The Tunstill Collection at Chelmsford Museum
Mark Curteis
In 1958 Chelmsford Museum received a bequest of over
four hundred 18th-century English stemmed drinking
glasses from Frederick Walter Tunstill. Born in
Broomfield near Chelmsford in 1875, Tunstill started
working for the electrical engineering company
Cromptons in 1887 and later became a travelling
salesman for the firm. It was a colleague who got him
started collecting and he also collected Hedingham ware,
miniature china, furniture and paintings. He kept his
collection of glasses in a seldom-used dining room from
which many (including his wife) were excluded. He was
described as a shy man, but he also gave lectures on
collecting, and encouraged younger collectors.
Travelling around the country greatly helped him build
up his collection.
There are a variety of drinking glasses in the collection A bell-shaped wine glass with double series
and different shaped glasses were used for different opaque white twist with outer white backed scarlet
drinks. The majority of the glasses in the collection are thread, c.1755-75; a round-collared wine glass
wine glasses, but it also includes ale, which was drunk engraved with Jacobite emblems of a rose and two
from narrow “flute” glasses, cordial glasses and a large buds, an oak leaf, and inscribed FIAT, c.1750.
toastmaster’s glass. ©Chelmsford Museum
The collection was arranged by stem types from the several with ‘Jacobite’ engraving;; a few colour-twist
balusters of c.1695 onwards to the facetted stems of stems; and two glasses with Beilby-style enamelling.
c.1800. Tunstill had an eye for unusual specimens within The facetted stem group includes some unusual patterns.
his means, and acquired a number of air and opaque
twist stems, some with multiple knops; a few 7
‘Newcastle’ light balusters with Dutch engraving;;
Glass News 35 January 2014
The collection is augmented by another significant including jelly and sweetmeat glasses, and a tazza.
group of thirty-five 18th-century ale glasses on long-
term loan known as the McKelvie collection; and a few Most of the glasses are on public display, and all can be
examples of other types of 18th-century glassware made available to researchers on request.
Late Bronze Age Glass Beads
Sarah Paynter
English Heritage, Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth
Between 2007 and 2010, Albion Archaeology undertook The decorated bead <568> (rear left), and two of
archaeological investigations in advance of a housing the annular beads <575> (right) and the weathered
development near Stotfold, in Bedfordshire. The bead <584> (front left). Bead <584> was sampled
excavations revealed activity dating from the middle for analysis. ©Sarah Paynter
Bronze Age to the post-medieval periods, including
settlement activity and several distinct burial areas (Keir (Henderson 1988). Similar glass has been identified in
forthcoming). Within one of these burial areas, an un- Ireland at Rathgall (8th and 9th centuries BC) and at a
urned cremation burial (G613) was found to include a growing number of sites in Europe of the 10th and 11th
small fragment of folded gold sheet, fragments of a centuries BC, including in Switzerland, France, Italy and
copper alloy tubular annular ring and a collection of Germany (Artioli and Angelini 2013, Hartmann et al.
glass beads. Seventeen of the beads were wound, 1997, Henderson 1988, Towle et al. 2001). This glass is
annular translucent blue glass, some of which were thought to be a European product due to the probable
noticeably eroded by weathering, and one was a evidence of production at Frattesina in Italy combined
cylindrical glass bead in translucent blue and opaque with a concentration of this material in Europe. The
white glass (Holly Duncan pers. comm.) (see below). rarity of this glass in England, together with the absence
The largest of the monochrome beads was 8.9mm long so far of any evidence for glass production at this date,
and 7.1mm wide. The decorated bead was 10.6mm long strongly suggests that the Stotfold beads were imported
and 5.5mm at its widest point with a series of white from Europe and that they would have been objects of
trails applied in bands to create a chevron pattern (see great rarity and value.
below).
Acknowledgements
Radiocarbon dating of the cremated bone by SUERC
provided a Radiocarbon Age of BP 2905+30 (1220- With thanks to Albion Archaeology, in particular Holly
1000calBC at 95% probability). Glass is very rare at this Duncan, the landowners Persimmon Homes Ltd and
date in the UK (Henderson 1988, Paynter and George Wimpey UK Ltd and to CGMS Consulting Ltd.
Dungworth 2011) and so a small sample of one of the
beads was analysed using scanning electron microscopy References
with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS) to
identify the glass type. Artioli, G and Angelini, I, 2013 Evolution of Vitreous
Materials in Bronze Age Italy, in K Janssens (Ed.),
Analysis confirmed the early date of the beads because Modern Methods for Analysing Archaeological and
they were made from potassium-rich glass with low Historical Glass, Volume I, Wiley, 355-68
levels of magnesium, which is sometimes referred to as
low-magnesium, high-potassium glass (abbreviated to Brill, RH, 1999 Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses,
LMHK glass) or mixed-alkali glass because it also Volume 2: Tables of Analyses, New York, The Corning
contains soda (Brill 1999, Henderson 1988); this glass is Museum of Glass
known from other Late Bronze Age sites. The glass was
coloured blue by adding several weight percent of 8
copper oxide. The opaque white glass used for the
stripes on the decorated bead appears to have been made
by adding quartz particles to otherwise uncoloured glass.
The full analyses will appear in the site publication (Keir
forthcoming).
Of the other beads known from Britain, only one has a
similar LMHK composition; a single bead from All
Canning’s Cross, thought to date to around 900 BC
Glass News 35 January 2014
Hartmann, G, Kappel, I, Grote, K and Arndt, B, 1997 south of Stotfold, Bedfordshire 2007-2010, East Anglian
Chemistry and Technology of Prehistoric glass from Archaeology, Oxford, Oxbow
Lower Saxony and Hesse, Journal of Archaeological
Sciences 24, 547-59 Paynter, S and Dungworth, D, 2011 Archaeological
Evidence for Glassworking, Swindon, English Heritage
Henderson, J, 1988 Glass production and Bronze Age
Europe, Antiquity 62, 435-51 Towle, A, Henderson, J, Bellintani, P and Gambacurta,
G, 2001 Frattesina and Adria: Report of scientific
Keir, W, forthcoming Prehistoric settlement and the late analyses of early glass from the Veneto, Padusa 37, 7-
Saxon origins of Stotfold – excavation on land to the 66
AHG GRANT REPORT
Glass Beads in Early Iron Age Taiwan (the 1st millennium AD)
Kuan-Wen Wang
University of Sheffield
[email protected]
Figure 1: map showing the location of Taiwan and the site studied. (TY:
Taoyeh site. WCT: Wuchientso site. CHL: Chiuhsianglan site.) Map data
©2013 Auto Navi, Google, Kingway, ZENRIN (with additions)
Taiwan is a small island located off the southeast coast fieldwork undertaken with the generous funding from
of mainland China. In the Iron Age of Taiwan (c.1st AHG allowed a preliminary study of the glass beads
century AD onwards) glass beads were luxury items from two sites in southern Taiwan (Taoyeh site and
found in funerary and settlement contexts. It is assumed Wuchientso site) and one site in eastern Taiwan
they replaced indigenous nephrite which was used for (Chiuhsianglan site) (Figure 1).
the manufacture of decorative and prestige items
throughout the earlier Neolithic. This replacement has Around 50-60 glass beads were excavated from the TY
led archaeologists to suggest that the same eastern trade and WCT sites respectively. These two sites show
routes used to export nephrite from Taiwan to other different cultural phases of the Niaosung culture of the
areas in South East Asia in the late Neolithic were used Iron Age in southern Taiwan. Glass beads from the TY
to import glass beads in the early Iron Age. Preliminary site (the 2nd-6th century AD) are usually 1-3mm in
observations suggest the potential sequence of length and 3-5mm in diameter, and green and blue beads
emergence and subsequent distribution of glass beads is dominate. Most of the glass beads are cylindrical, while
earlier in eastern sites than in south-western sites. The a small proportion are oblate. Microscopic observation
Glass News 35 January 2014 9
suggests that it is probable that most of these beads were The CHL site (the 2nd century BC – the 7th century
made by the drawn method, as distinct fabric lines AD), is the only prehistoric site showing potential
parallel to the perforation axis can be easily identified evidence for glass bead making in Taiwan; thousands of
(especially the inhomogeneous yellowish lines on the glass beads and some debris were found. Glass beads
surface of green bead, Figure 2). At this site, glass beads from this site cover a range of colours including red,
were found in either funerary context or middens. The blue, yellow, green, orange and black (Figure 3), with
burial tradition at the TY site, with the fragmented red and blue being in the majority. Most of the glass
pottery under the body and an intact pottery vessel beads were found close to the potential area of a multi-
placed in front of the head, is quite unique compared to functional workshop, which shows evidence of both
other contemporary sites in this region. Glass beads are metal working and glass bead making at the CHL site.
not common among mortuary items, and all the glass Fifty of them, including finished beads and related
beads found in burials are close to the mandible. debris, were collected for further examination and
chemical analysis as part of my PhD research. These
Figure 2: Glass bead from Taoyeh site (left) and samples are generally 2-5mm in length and 3-6mm in
Wuchientso site (right), showing the paralleled diameter. Oblate and cylinder beads are the most
fabric line, which may suggest the use of drawn common shapes, with paralleled lines on the bead
method, on the surface. The different degree of end surface suggesting they were produced using the drawn
roundness between beads in two sites can also be method. During this field work, very basic semi
observed. ©Kuan-Wen Wang quantitative compositional analysis was conducted on
CHL beads through SEM-EDS analysis to determine the
At the WCT site (the 6th-10th century AD), most of the basic compositions of the beads from the site and to
glass beads are blue and cylindrical in shape, with the suggest which raw materials might have been used to
average size of 1-5mm in length and 2-5mm in diameter. produce the beads, if indeed they are locally produced.
The cylindrical glass beads from WCT seem to be The results of the analysis and further more quantitative
different in shape to those from TY, tapering at the end analysis will be undertaken and reported as part of the
rather than having rounded ends. Whether or not this broader PhD project.
difference suggests different workshop origins or
different manufacturing processes is yet to be In summary, glass beads from the three sites do not
determined. Microscopic observation of the WCT beads reveal great differences in terms of the size and shape,
also suggests the potential use of a drawn method for although slightly differentiations can be observed on the
bead production. Most of the glass beads at the WCT degree of end roundness between TY and WCT site, and
site were found in the midden/settlement area, with only the range and dominance of colours observed at each of
a small amount from mortuary contexts. the three sites. It is also obvious that drawn beads are
dominant, which is consistent with the method of glass
bead making in contemporary South and South East
Asia. As yet no definitive statements can be made
relating to the movement of beads from the east, but it is
hoped the results of the chemical analysis will shed
some light on this. Further investigation will thus be
carried out in order to understand the picture of
trade/exchange of glass beads within Taiwan and
between Taiwan and South East Asia in this
transitionary period.
Figure 3: Different colours of
glass beads from Chiuhsianglan
site. ©Kuan-Wen Wang
(Colour PDF available on request
from the Editors, see back page)
Glass News 35 January 2014
10
Acknowledgements beads, to Dr Scarlett Chiu for providing office space for
research in Taiwan and to Dr Caroline Jackson for
The author would like to thank Professor Kuang-ti Li supervision of the PhD and for providing suggestions on
(Academia Sinica, Taiwan), Professor Cheng-hwa Tsang the report and the on-going research. The author is
(Academia Sinica, Taiwan) and the staff in the Nanke grateful to Mr Kun-Hsiu Lee (National Museum of
Archaeological Work Station and the National Museum Prehistory in Taitung) for providing CHL beads for
of Prehistory in Tainan for allowing the study of glass analysis. She would also like to thank the AHG for
beads from TY and WCT sites. Special thanks are also providing some of the funding to enable this research
given to Dr Yoshiyuki Iizuka and Mr Yu-shiang Wang visit to take place.
for helping with the compositional analysis on CHL
QUERIES
Query on Complex Canes Looking at a number of different examples of vessels
which appear to be of 17th-century date, some have solid
Since the early core-formed glasses, glassmakers have canes and others have the complex canes described
used white or coloured glass canes to decorate their above. I have come across both types in the past, but had
products. These canes may be marvered into the glass or never stopped to think why there are at least two types
trailed on the surface. However, I am finding out that and what differentiates their use. I can come up with a
these are not as simple as they might seem and wondered number of theories, for example: the complex cane would
if anyone can shed any light on why, when and where the probably help manage differences between the
cane became more complex. coefficients of expansion of the different glasses
involved, or the complex cane might be cheaper on raw
The specific context for this question is 17th-century materials since it uses less of the expensive materials.
glass vessels and glass-making waste found in London Looking through published information I cannot find
(see page 6). The canes used for these are made up of a anything very useful on the topic, so I wondered if AHG
clear glass core, a concentric opaque white layer, members might be able to help with information on
possibly a coloured layer and then a clear glass coating. where solid or complex canes have been found and to any
Typically the resulting cane is around 1-2mm in published analyses of the types of glass involved.
diameter. The picture below shows the cross section
through a broken piece decorated with white and blue Colin Brain, [email protected]
canes.
Cross section through broken glass fragment decorated
with white and blue canes ©Colin Brain
Glass News 35 January 2014
11
NEW PUBLICATIONS co-dependence and similarities between the various sites
considered. Such an approach, particularly within
Resulting from the AHG conference in York in May Byzantine and early Islamic glass production, is a
2011, Oxbow Books is offering a pre-publication pioneering concept that contextualises individual sites
within the wider region.
discount on:
By twinning a critique of archaeometric methods with the
Neighbours and Successors of Rome: latest archaeological results, the contributors present a
Traditions of glass production and use in foundation for glass research, seen through the lens of
Europe and the Middle East in the later consumption demands and geographical necessity, that
1st millennium AD analyses production centres and traditional typological
knowledge. In so doing the they bridge an important
Edited by Daniel Keller, Jennifer Price and Caroline divide by demonstrating the co-habitability of diverse
Jackson approaches and disciplines, linking, for example, the
production of Campanulate bowls from Gallaecia with
Pre-Publication Offer until 1st May 2014 the burgeoning international late antique style. Equally,
Regular Price: £48.00 the particular details of those pieces allow us to identify a
Special Price: £36.00 regional style as well as local production. As such this
compilation provides a highly valuable resource for
Published by Oxbow Books Due April 2014 archaeologists, anthropologists, and art historians.
ISBN: 978-1782973973
Hardback: 231pp, 216x280mm, 92 b/w figs, 79 col illus Medieval to early post-medieval tenements
Available from www.oxbowbooks.com and Middle Eastern imports: excavations
at Plantation Place, City of London,
1997–2003
Ken Pitt, with Lyn Blackmore, Tony Dyson, Rachel
Tyson
MOLA Monograph Series 66
Museum of London Archaeology 2013
Hardback: 138 pp, 71 b/w and col illus
ISBN: 978-1907586163
£22
Available from: [email protected]
Presented through 20 case studies covering Europe and Excavations at Plantation Place provided evidence for
the Near East, Neighbours and Successors of Rome medieval and early post-medieval occupation of an entire
investigates development in the production of glass and block in the eastern part of the City of London near the
the mechanisms of the wider glass economy as part of a Thames waterfront. Contemporary ground surfaces and
wider material culture in Europe and the Near East
around the later first millennium AD. Through 12
highlighting and solidifying chronology, patterns of
distribution, and typology, the primary aim of the
collection is to present a new methodology that
emphasises regional workshops, scientific data, and the
wider trade culture.
This methodology embraces a shift in conceptual
approach to the study of glass by explaining typological
change through the existence of a thriving supra-national
commercial network that responded to market demands
and applies the results of a range of new scientific
techniques to an archaeological framework that stresses
Glass News 35 January 2014
buildings did not survive, but associated pits and wells chemical compositions in both the East and the West
have been related by documentary and cartographic from its invention to the 17th century AD. Julian
research to identified tenements in this thriving area of Henderson focuses on three contrasting archaeological
shops, warehouses and merchants’ residences. Important and scientific case studies: Late Bronze Age glass, late
assemblages from pits and wells include vessels used in Hellenistic-early Roman glass, and Islamic glass in the
refining gold, crucibles and moulds from bronze casting, Middle East. He considers in detail the provenances of
and the largest assemblage of late medieval Islamic-style ancient glass using scientific techniques and discusses a
glass yet found in Britain, alongside Middle Eastern range of vessels and their uses in ancient societies.
ceramics.
Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the
The glass, by Rachel Tyson, includes a full discussion of Collection of the Princeton Art Museum
the many unusual Islamic-style vessels from the site.
These include sprinklers and flasks with bulges in the Anastassios Antonaras
neck, and other Islamic glass found in Britain is
reviewed. A number of impressive imported vessels from Yale University Press 2013
various parts of Europe were excavated, including an Hardback: 408pp, col illus throughout
exceptional late medieval gold-painted blue goblet and ISBN: 978-0300179811
cover with eastern Mediterranean influences; analysis £45
showed it to contain boron, which could indicate an
Ottoman origin. The large glass assemblage ranges from
the 12th to the 17th century; c.184 selected fragments are
catalogued, and some illustrated, in an appendix.
Ancient Glass: An Interdisciplinary For the first time, this important volume features nearly
Exploration all of the ancient glass objects in the collection of the
Princeton University Art Museum. Collected over the
Julian Henderson course of more than a century, the objects originate from
Cambridge University Press 2013 locations across the eastern Mediterranean region. Taken
Hardback: 450pp, b/w illus together, the 509 ancient glass vessels and plaques
ISBN: 978-1107006737 provide a timeline of archaeological and cultural history
£70 from the middle of the second millennium BC to the rise
of Islam in the 7th century.
This book is an interdisciplinary exploration of
archaeological glass in which technological, historical, An introductory essay by award-winning scholar
geological, chemical, and cultural aspects of the study of Anastassios Antonaras summarizes the history of Greek,
ancient glass are combined. The book examines why and Roman, and Byzantine glass, with a special emphasis on
how this unique material was invented some 4,500 years people – workers, artisans, owners, and vendors – and on
ago and considers the ritual, social, economic, and the processes they used to create and decorate these
political contexts of its development. The book also artefacts. Conveniently arranged according to production
provides an in-depth consideration of glass as a material, technique, each entry in Fire and Sand features a colour
the raw materials used to make it, and its wide range of photograph, ink drawing, and detailed description.
Glass News 35 January 2014 13
The Medieval Stained Glass of Merton jewellery and ornaments, gemstones, vessel glass,
College, Oxford pottery, finds of soapstone, whetstones, and textile-
production equipment. The artefacts are described and
Tim Ayers dated, and their areas of origin discussed. An exceptional
wealth and diversity of artefacts distinguishes sites such
Oxford University Press 2013 as Kaupang from all other types of site in the Viking
Hardback: 762pp, 2 vols, b/w illus throughout, 40 col World. Above all, they reflect the fact that a large
plates population of some 400-600 people lived closely together
ISBN: 978-0197265444 in the town, engaged in a comprehensive range of
£165 production and trade.
This is the first full study of the important medieval The chapter on vessel glass and glassworking by Bjarne
stained glass of Merton College, Oxford. The scheme in Gaut (pages 169-279) presents and discusses the glass
the chapel is exceptionally well preserved; with the nave finds from Skre’s excavations in the settlement area of
of York Minster, it represents the largest surviving set of Kaupang 1998-2003. These comprise 322 vessel fragments,
early 14th-century windows in Britain. Research for this nearly 700 pieces of raw material and waste from
volume in the rich college archives has provided a new glassworking, and more than 30 other miscellaneous glass
date for them, and identified the glazier, whose business objects: window fragments, inlays and linen-smoothers.
is considered locally. Outstanding early 15th-century The work has three main aims. It explores what
panels from the transepts are attributed to the workshop information the vessel sherds may provide about the
of Thomas Glazier, who had worked for William of presence of glass vessels on the site. It reviews the
Wykeham, Chancellor of England. Seven windows in the evidence for local glassworking and attempts to determine
Old Library contain the earliest glazing to survive from the raw materials used by beadmakers. Finally the
any English library. The glass will therefore be of interest assemblage is placed in the context of other Scandinavian
to many students of English medieval art and and North European finds of glass, and some conclusions
architecture. are drawn concerning the use and distribution of glass.
A general introduction also explores the potential of the In addition to a typological study, spatial and
monument for study within a university context. Merton compositional analyses are combined here to explore the
was a model for the self-governing graduate college of archaeological potential of the material from the main
the later middle ages in England. The glass invites research excavation (MRE). It is argued that the sherd
consideration of the relationship between art and ideas, in assemblage predominantly represents complete vessels
a lost astrological window, for example; and the self- used within the buildings excavated. The glass was
presentation of the scholar and college communities, both discarded in primary refuse areas to the side of the plots
to themselves and to the society that supported them. As and in ditches when broken. It is established that the
a result of the central place of the universities in national vessels are of types regularly found in western Europe in
life, the Merton glass was an inspiration during the the 8th-10th centuries, and that the most frequently used
Gothic revival to artists and glazing businesses such as vessel forms were tall palm cups/funnel beakers and small
the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais, and Morris, jars. An estimated minimum number of 32-34 vessels
Marshall, Faulkner and Co. were broken and deposited in the five excavated plots in
the MRE area in the early 9th-century Site Periods (SP) I-
Things from the Town: Artefacts and III. The many unidentified sherds indicate however that
Inhabitants in Viking-Age Kaupang the real number was somewhat higher – possibly around
fifty. The analysis also revealed distinct differences in the
Dagfinn Skre (Ed.) frequency of vessel consumption and glassworking
between the plots.
Aarhus University Press and the Kaupang Excavation
Project, University of Oslo 2011 Small-scale glassworking also took place in this area
Hardback: 483pp, b/w and many col illus during the first decade(s) of the 8th century (SP I and II:1).
ISBN: 978-8779343092 No in situ workshop floors or furnaces have been
£46 preserved, but the waste material indicates that glass beads
were made from imported soda glass, blocks of raw glass,
In this third volume deriving from the excavations of the tesserae and semi-manufactured rods. A limited number
Viking town of Kaupang of 2000-2003, a range of of window-fragments, archaic vessel material and some
artefacts is presented along with a discussion of the untypical working waste suggest that imported scrap
town’s inhabitants: their origins, activities and trading glass could also have been utilised, although this remains
connections. The main categories of artefact are metal unproven. The products consisted mainly of translucent
Glass News 35 January 2014 14
blue, green and opaque white annular beads, made in a The earliest buildings provided rather fragmentary
winding technique similar to that seen on other (nearly) remains but are dated to the 14th or 15th centuries by
contemporary Scandinavian sites. It seems likely that the associated pottery. These buildings are assumed to be
manufacture was carried out by itinerant artisans who related to historically-known stewhouses which were
brought their own raw materials. Although the preserved taverns and brothels. These had originally been
deposits in the MRE area represent a short time-span, the established (by royal ordinance in the 12th century) and
general scatter of production waste across the site were let by the bishops of Winchester free or at a token
suggests that beadworking may have continued in other rent to favoured retainers. The stewhouses were officially
areas or returned to the excavated riots in a later closed in 1546 and the area began to provide
settlement phase. ‘entertainment’ in the form of animal baiting. Several
animal baiting rings were built, including one for bulls
With regard to vessel glass, Kaupang was primarily a and one bears, and the excavation recovered remains of
consumption site. While the North Sea trade network one of the dog kennels – as well as numerous horse and
provided direct access to a supply of glassware, there is dog bones (the former being the staple diet of the latter)
no positive evidence for the re-exportation of material and some bear bones. The discovery of two angled and
from Kaupang to its rural hinterland. It is argued that most parallel sections of brick wall indicated the presence of a
of the glass was probably related to the consumption of polygonal building (possibly with ten sides) with an
wine. The use of glass and ceramic tableware was part of overall diameter of 20m. The walls were encountered in
a material culture that distinguished traders and artisans the south-east corner of the Riverside House excavation
in coastal market towns from the surrounding rural and are tentatively linked to the Hope, which was built in
population. 1614 as a combined bear garden and playhouse (possibly
built as a replacement to the Globe, which had burnt
Appendix 9.1 includes full analytical data for 112 of the down the year before).
glass finds, carried out by Julian Henderson (EPMA) and
David Dungworth (EDX). In addition a few lead, The Southwark playhouses were closed in 1642 and the
neodymium and strontium isotope analyses have been Hope playhouse/bear garden was demolished shortly
made. A preliminary discussion of this data is given. after and the area given over to the manufacture of glass
and pottery. A glasshouse is known to have been in place
The Hope Playhouse, Animal Baiting and on the site in 1671 but the date of construction is
Later Industrial Activity at Bear Gardens unknown. John Bowles is recorded as the owner of the
on Bankside: Excavations at Riverside Bear Garden glasshouse in 1684 where bottles and some
House and New Globe Walk, Southwark, window glass were produced until 1691. Glassworking
1999–2000 seems to have come to an end on this site in 1748.
Unfortunately any contemporary maps of London are not
Anthony Mackinder (with Lyn Blackmore, Julian sufficiently detailed to allow a precise location of the
Bosher and Christopher Phillpotts) glasshouses.
Museum of London Archaeology 2013. Archaeology The report links a range of features and structures to the
Studies Series 25 historically-attested glass industry but this linkage relies
Paperback 94pp on the historical evidence and the presence of dumps of
ISBN: 978-1907586200 glassworking waste. The illustrated structures include one
£12 that is labelled as a glass furnace but this does not closely
This volume reports recent developer-led archaeological 15
excavation and recording just to the west of the south end
of Southwark Bridge Road on two sites: Riverside House
and New Globe Walk. The volume also makes extensive
use of historical evidence to interpret and contextualise
some of the archaeological evidence. The layout, format
and conventions of the volume will be familiar to anyone
who has made use of Museum of London Archaeology
reports. These are invariably well structured and provide
excellent summaries – in French and German as well as
English.
Glass News 35 January 2014
resemble other excavated glass-melting furnaces of this building works are routinely preceded by archaeological
period. Contemporary furnaces at Vauxhall (Tyler and recording. The report reviewed here is a fruit of this
Willmott 2005, figs 30-35) and Haughton Green (Vose system; without which it is conceivable that the site
1994) all comprised a central fire trench 0.4-1.0m wide would be redeveloped, the archaeology destroyed and no
and 2.5-4.0m long. record made of what was there. Nevertheless, the
requirement to record archaeology extends only to the
The putative glass furnace (Riverside House, Building 8) threatened development. This can lead to a rather
is a brick-built structure comprising a low vault with two disjointed investigation, especially in urban contexts. The
vertical vents through which hot air passed (figures 26- Bear Garden is not the only London glasshouse to suffer
28). The faces of these vents were partially vitrified while from piecemeal and ultimately less than satisfactory
the remaining parts of the structure were oxidised when excavation and analysis.
fired to an orange-buff colour (figure 27). The vents are
rather small: approximately 0.6m long and 0.1m wide. Mackinder, A and Blatherwick, S, 2000 Bankside:
The vault underneath is almost 2m wide but at its highest Excavations at Benbow House, Southwark, London SE1,
appears to be little more than 0.2m high (figure 28). This London, Museum of London Archaeology Service,
is reconstructed as a glass-melting furnace with four Studies Series 3
crucibles above the two vents (figure 26) and the fuel
burnt in a fire box 5m from the crucible. It is the opinion Tyler, K and Willmott, H, 2005 John Baker’s late 17th-
of this reviewer that such a furnace would not be capable century glasshouse at Vauxhall, London, Museum of
of transferring sufficient heat such a distance. The limited London Archaeology Service, Monograph Series 28
vitrification of this structure is not consistent with
melting glass (c.1300°C) using coal as a fuel. It is Vose, RH, 1994 Excavations at the 17th-century
possible that this structure was used as a furnace/oven for glasshouse at Haughton Green, Denton, near Manchester,
fritting, annealing or pot setting (and may have used Post-Medieval Archaeology 28, 1-71
waste gas from an adjacent coal-fired glass-melting
furnace). David Dungworth
Parts of two buildings (6 and 7) were recorded which Please send your contributions:
included rooms with distinctive diagonal brick walls Finds • Research • Ideas • Enquiries
which may have supported floors and allowed the Publications • Conferences • News
passage of hot air beneath. The central room in Building
7 incorporated a large flat stone which is interpreted as a for Glass News 36
marvering stone. Unfortunately only the northernmost by
part of Building 7 was accessible for archaeological
investigation. One structure (Building 3/5) had a floor 2nd June 2014
surface which included large quantities of glass-melting
crucible. The walls of the disused Hope theatre were . to either of the editors:
vaulted to form a possible flue and stairs added, however,
the area available for examination did not include any Andrew Meek
associated furnace. Department of Conservation and Scientific
The archaeological excavation recovered 190kg of Research
crucible and 14.6kg of glassworking waste, the latter The British Museum
mostly green but with some colourless and some blue Great Russell Street
glass. Relatively few examples of vessels survived which
could be used to suggest the range of forms that were London
produced. The report includes some line drawings and WC1B 3DG
photographs of glassworking waste including moils, [email protected]
offcuts and trails of glass bearing pincer impressions.
Although the report mentions the likely lead content of or
some of the waste, it is regrettable that no systematic
attempt was made to determine the chemical nature of the Rachel Tyson
glass or related waste. [email protected]
This report displays some of the strengths and 16
weaknesses of archaeology in contemporary Britain.
Current legislation and supporting guidance ensures that
Glass News 35 January 2014
Glass News
July 2014 Published by The Association for the History of Glass Ltd ISSN 1362-5195
www.historyofglass.org.uk
Number 36
The autumn 2014 meeting of the AHG is being co-
organised with the Early Glass Technology Research
Network (EGTRN) and will be held at the Wallace
Collection and University College London on the 28th
and 29th of November. The main theme of this
conference is glass production and trade around the
Mediterranean in the first millennium AD. For more
details please see page 2.
Many thanks to everyone who has sent in contributions
for this issue! We could not produce this publication
without your wonderful texts.
FACEBOOK
The Association has a Facebook page! To keep up-to-
date on news and current research on the history of
glass visit:
facebook.com/TheAssociationForTheHistoryOfGlass
Click ‘Like’ and please share.
REMINDER
MEMBERS AND SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. Would
you like to enjoy all the wonderful Glass News
pictures in colour? If so, please email one of the
editors (see back page) and we will also email future
issues of Glass News to you as a full colour PDF!
Glass from Tell el-‘Ajjul, Palestine, collected by Flinders THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE
Petrie © Courtesy of the UCL Institute of Archaeology HISTORY OF GLASS
Collections
Registered charity 275236
Welcome to Glass News Issue 36!
Board of Management
This issue of Glass News is filled to the brim with great
features! President: Justine Bayley
Hon Secretary: Denise Allen
Hopefully there is something for everybody. If you feel Hon Treasurer: Angela Wardle
that your particular areas of interest are not represented in
this issue, why not send us a piece for the next issue? We Members of the Board
are always on the lookout for information on interesting
finds, new research, ideas, queries, new books and Colin Brain Suzanne Higgott Martine Newby
reviews, and any other glass-related news or meetings. John Clark Caroline Jackson Jennifer Price
The editors’ details are given on the final page. We look Sally Cottam David Martlew John Shepherd
forward to receiving your contributions for issue 37! David Crossley Andrew Meek Rachel Tyson
Glass News 36 July 2014 1
AHG MEETINGS The conference fee is £30 for AHG members, £40 for
non-members and £10 for students.
Things that travelled – Mediterranean
Glass in the First Millennium AD For further information please visit:
www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/directory/glass-
28-29 November 2014 technology-network/conferences
Wallace Collection, University College London and To register please visit:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/things-that-travelled-
The British Museum mediterranean-glass-in-the-first-millennium-ad-
registration-11823260691
This meeting is being organised by the Early Glass
Technology Research Network (see page 4) in co- OTHER MEETINGS
operation with the Association for the History of Glass
and the British Museum. It will take place at the Wallace Glass Science in Art and Conservation
Collection and UCL Institute of Archaeology. A pre- and
conference visit to the British Museum (Thursday 27th of
November) providing the opportunity to have a look at Society for Glass Technology Conference
Late Roman and Byzantine glass will be available for “Living Glass”
registered participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Durham - 10-12 September 2014
In his book Origins of the European Economy, Michael York - 13 September 2014
McCormack more than ten years ago expressed the hope
that archaeologists would continue to shed light on the This conference, like previous conferences in the
movement of glass, one of the “things that travelled”. GLASSAC series, is dedicated to breaking down barriers,
Thanks to archaeological and scientific evidence we building bridges, and allowing us to share our glassy
know today that during Roman, Byzantine and Early passions with experts from other strands. For once, let’s
Islamic times glass was made on a large scale in the meet one another in mutual respect and talk to one
Eastern Mediterranean, particularly Egypt and the another in plain language, so that together we may learn.
Levant, and much of the glass reaching Northern Africa,
the Western Mediterranean and Northern Europe The scope of GLASSAC14 embraces all strands of glass
originated there. However, there are big questions knowledge, celebrating those occasions when one area of
surrounding the possibilities of independent manufacture glass expertise has collaborated with and been of help to
in Western Europe, the role of recycling and the effect of another different area. Authors were invited to contribute
Roman decline in the West on the trade in glass. posters and exhibitions from the growing points of their
Furthermore, glass compositions underwent marked particular strand of glass passion. Don’t wait for your
shifts with time, suggesting major changes in production endeavours to become stale and old - bring work-in-
location, yet our understanding of these changes remains progress as well as finished achievements, experiences
vague and their dating is imprecise. which raise questions as well as those which provide
answers.
This conference will address key issues on the production
and distribution of glass in this period and provide an The programme gives each paper or presentation a 20
international forum to exchange relevant archaeological minute time slot, (40 minutes for Keynote Lectures) and
and analytical data. The aim of the meeting is to provide we ask presenters to allow time for active discussion and
a forum to discuss key questions including the location debate within the slot. Each paper can be a catalyst,
and change of primary production centres, production fomenting creative engagement across the diversity of
methods, regional supply patterns, recycling, chronology glass interest. The organisers fervently hope that out of
and the impact of political, social and economic change this will come a cascade of new thinking and creative
on glass production and distribution throughout the first new friendships.
millennium AD. It will present the results of current
research from across the region of interest and speakers All the presentation time slots have now been allocated,
who have agreed to attend include Patrick Degryse so no more abstracts can be considered for oral
(Leuven), Yael Gorin-Rosen (Jerusalem), Marie- presentation. However the organisers would be glad to
Dominique Nenna (Lyon), Thilo Rehren (Doha) and Ian consider submission of ePosters.
Freestone (London).
For further details please see: www.glassac14.sgt.org
Glass News 36 July 2014
2
3rd International Archaeological MEETING REVIEW
Colloquium:
40th International Symposium on
Roman Ceramic and Glass Manufactures; Archaeometry
Production and Trade in the Adriatic
region 19-23 May 2014
Crikvenica, Croatia The 40th International Symposium on Archaeometry
4-5 November 2014 (ISA) was held on the 19th to 23rd of May 2014 in Los
Angeles, California. Hosted by the Getty Conservation
The 3rd International Archaeological Colloquium will be Institute and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, it was
held at Crikvenica on the 4th and 5th of November 2014, held at the majestic Getty Villa and the California
organised by the Institute of Archaeology, the Crikvenica NanoSystems Institute, situated in the impressive
Town Museum and the City of Crikvenica. Co-organiser surroundings of the University of California Los Angeles
of the colloquium is the Museum of Ancient glass, Zadar. (UCLA). The conference, attended by 370 delegates, is
The theme of the colloquium is Roman Ceramic and the premier conference on the application of the physical
Glass Manufactures; Production and Trade in the Adriatic sciences to archaeology. This year featured stimulating
region. sessions on a broad spectrum of topics and enjoyable
social events at both the Getty Villa and the UCLA
Subthemes campus. Various inorganic material sessions included
Pottery workshops in the ancient economy. those on stone, plaster, pigments, metallurgy, ceramics,
Regional fine wares production: particularities and glass, glaze and other vitreous materials. Other
and distribution. disciplines included sessions on forensic archaeology,
Pannonische Glanztonware and its distribution in biological archaeology, and remote sensing. Furthermore,
the Adriatic area. a fascinating special session was held on the Bronze Age
Directions of influences on glass production and – Iron Age transition.
distribution: Adriatic – Danubian area.
During the colloquium there will also be a discussion
dedicated to the theme: Northern Liburnia from the Raša
river (Arsia flumen) to Karlobag (Vegium), new findings.
The official colloquium languages are: Croatian, Italian
and English.
Abstract submission deadline is 1st of September 2014.
For more information visit the Institute of Archaeology
website at: www.iarh.hr
53rd Annual Seminar on Glass: The Getty Villa © Matt Phelps
René Lalique: Enchanted by Glass
The subject of glass and vitreous materials was well
Corning Museum of Glass, NY, USA represented with 13 oral presentations spanning three
17-18 October 2014 sessions and 25 poster presentations. As usual, a
perpetual theme was provenance, however, issues
This year’s Annual Seminar on Glass will focus on the relating to technology and production played an active or
life, works, and legacy of the master French artist and central role in many presentations, such as the excellent
designer, René Lalique, through lectures and live oral presentations “Technological Change and
demonstrations. Presentations will be focused around the Provenance of Glass in Early Islamic Palestine” (M.
topics represented in the Museum's 2014 major Phelps et al.), where compositional analysis was used to
exhibitions, René Lalique: Enchanted by Glass, and identify diachronic technological change in the Islamic
Designing for a New Century: Works on Paper by
Lalique and his Contemporaries. Seminarians will have 3
the opportunity to press their own glass medallion
(included in the price of Seminar).
Glass News 36 July 2014
glass industry, and “Technology and Indigeneity in During the conference a theme emerged on the need to go
Mughal Glazed Tile-Work” (M.S. Gill et al.) comparing beyond simply identifying compositional groups and
two different tile production technologies from India. provenance. This idea was well encapsulated in the
engaging and enjoyable keynote by Prof. Ian Freestone
A wide range of time periods, geographical locations and from University College London, whose talk “Small
techniques were featured. A fascinating talk “An isotopic compositional groups, production events and the
trip through the first Millennium BC glass history” was organization of production” used three case studies
professionally delivered by A. Bloome, who indicated the (metal, glass, ceramic) to highlight how compositional
effectiveness of using neodymium isotopes as a analysis, when linked to sufficient contextual
discriminator in glass provenance studies, showing that a information, can identify choices and organisation in
glass trade from the Levant to Carthage operated as early production. One case study, using data from stained glass
as the 6-5th centuries BC. Isotopes proved to be a popular from York Minster collected by L. Ware, found that
technique with presentations by V. Devulder “Boron compositional data was able to show production steps in
isotope composition of Roman natron glasses to a single glass panel and discovering that glass workers
provenance the flux raw material” who successfully used had specialisms; some worked on figures, others borders
boron isotopes to match the natron in Greco-Roman and some backgrounds.
vessels to sources in the Wadi Natrun, Egypt; and L.
Dussubiuex “Iron Age Glass from Myanmar: Addressing Overall, it was very encouraging to see the glass research
Provenance with Trace element and isotopic encompassing new themes, regions and techniques.
compositions” who used Sr, Nd and Pb isotopes to Particularly satisfying was the shift in focus from
investigate the origins of glass production. Trace provenance to production, with trade no longer being
elemental techniques were used to good effect in S. considered simply as a result of technological change, but
Conte’s paper, “First Archaeometrical data of glass from instead actively serving as a driver for it. Enthusiastic
Sarno Necropolic (9–6th century BC).” Trace and rare congratulations goes to the ISA Standing Committee for
earth elements (REE) were used to characterize the raw their choice of research presentations and to the ISA
materials, matching the cobalt colourant to Egyptian Local Organizing Committee for an enjoyable and
sources in the Western Desert. smoothly-run conference. It is the hope of this reviewer
that a continued presence by glass researchers at events
The Friday session finished with three methodological such as ISA will lead this field of research in embracing
papers; the first, well delivered by J. Lankton “Glass new ideas and techniques, while maintaining the
chemical analysis: assessing the new heterachy” discernment required to produce quality results and to
presented results comparing LA-ICP-MS and EPMA, keep building the reputation of the discipline.
showing the techniques to be commensurable but each
with benefits, concluding that your method should Laura A. Conger
support your aim. Of particular interest to those working
with complete objects was “Non-invasive techniques EXHIBITION
applied to the characterization of art nouveau glasses”
(C. Fornacelli et al.) showing that archaeologically useful “Made by Ennion”: Master of Roman
information can be gained using non-invasive techniques. Glass
Lastly, “Glass and diagrams: a Review (Roman and
Medieval glasses from the Mediterranean area)” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
(E.Gliozzo) used a database of 6819 glass vessels to 9 December 2014 - 13 April 2015
illustrate how graphical methods are used to present data
and the effects that colourants and recycling has on bi- The invention of glassblowing in the late first century BC
plots. was one of the most momentous technological advances
of the ancient world, stimulating the growth of a glass
The poster session similarly showed the breadth of industry throughout the Roman Empire. It also provided
current research, notable posters included; D. Brems et the impetus for the flowering of glassworking as an
al. “Characterization of Byzantine Primary Glass artistic endeavor, allowing craftsmen much greater
Furnaces”; A. Ceglia et al. “Shedding light on the glass flexibility in the shapes of vessels they could create and
industry in late antique Cyprus”; J. Dunster et al. the types of decoration they could employ. Mold-
“Assessing the use of elemental compositional data for blowing, which developed around the turn of the
provenancing and dating British soft-paste porcelain millennium, played an important part in this
from 1740-1820”; and L. Posadas “Local production and phenomenon. Glass vessels signed by Ennion are the
long-distance trade: Chemical analysis of Medieval glass most outstanding examples of Roman mold-blown glass
beads from Imperial Mali”.
4
Glass News 36 July 2014
production in the first century AD. His work displays a East, other time periods and regions (China, Africa,
creativity, elegance, and innovation that are unsurpassed. Medieval glass etc.) will also be incorporated in the
This special exhibition will be the first devoted to ancient future.
glass ever to be held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
All members of the network are involved in current glass
www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/press- research, many of them combining archaeological
room/exhibitions/2014/ennion approaches, such as chrono-typological studies, and
scientific analyses, such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF),
NEWS electron probe micro analysis (EPMA) and trace element
and isotopic studies, applied in order to determine the
Early Glass Technology chemical composition of a glass object. The network
Research Network seeks to address crucial questions about raw glass
ingredients, their places of origin and production,
A new research network, Early Glass Technology, has technology and possible patterns of early glass
recently been founded at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology, distribution and trade, thus contributing to the larger
aiming at bringing together researchers based in and discussion concerning economic, cultural, social and
around London who undertake research on ancient glass. historical aspects of past cultures. It will serve as a forum
Current network members are Ian Freestone (UCL for the discussion of new analytical techniques such as
Institute of Archaeology), Justine Bayley (Honorary, Nd isotope analysis and laser ablation ICP-MS or the
UCL Institute of Archaeology and Association for the application and interpretation of the data.
History of Glass), Andrew Meek (British Museum and
Association for the History of Glass), Thilo Rehren The EGTRN will organise conferences, seminars and
(UCL-Qatar), St John Simpson (British Museum), events at UCL or elsewhere in London in co-operation
Daniela Rosenow (UCL Institute of Archaeology), Matt with our network partners, the Association for the History
Phelps (UCL Institute of Archaeology), Harriet White, of Glass and the British Museum, in order to share
Anastasya Cholakova (UCL Institute of Archaeology), knowledge, techniques and data to further research into
Rose Broadley (UCL Institute of Archaeology) and this field.
Nadine Schibille (Alumna and Honorary Research
Associate, UCL Institute of Archaeology, based in For further information, please visit our website:
Sussex Art History). Our network partners are the
Association for the History of Glass and the British http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/directory/glas
Museum. Although initially our research network will s-technology-network
focus on studies of glass dating to the first millennium
AD in western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Near or contact Daniela Rosenow at: [email protected]
AHG Grant Report
All-Glass Hybrids: Damaged glasses repaired with other glasses
Juanita Navarro ACR, FIIC
Conservator of ceramics, glass and enamels and external conservator of
glass and enamels at The Wallace Collection.
[email protected]
Introduction being fashioned into highly decorative features such as
Glass objects break and have been repaired throughout handles, knops and stems.
the history of glass. Different materials, such as metal,
wood and various opaque fillers, have been used to A glass ‘marriage’ denotes a situation where two
replace missing parts or to make up losses. Glass tends to components in good condition are joined up although
be transparent and, until the development of clear epoxy they do not originally belong together, for instance a
and acrylic resins, the materials used were visible. Metal goblet and cover. This is interesting but not the central
in particular was used to replace missing areas, often theme of this research, which is all-glass hybrids:
individual glasses created to salvage damaged
Glass News 36 July 2014
5
originals by assembling parts from two or more The complexity of the repairs varies from a simple
glasses, including newly manufactured parts. Non- horizontal bond to complex arrangements of multiple
glass materials were used for structural or other reasons components. The cruet in Figure 1 has four added
(e.g. dowels or fillers) but the main components used are components (spout, mask prunt, blue ring, foot) plus
glass. The quality of the repairs ranges from crude to opaque filler with golden paint (now degraded) inside the
nearly invisible…and suspiciously sophisticated. Glasses hollow knop. Evidence has been found to indicate that
repaired in this way may appear complete even to the new glass parts were being manufactured for particular
trained eye. The all-glass hybrid research aims to collate repairs, e.g. a 19th-century foot replacement for a 16th-
as much information as possible about how the repairs century goblet.
were carried out and to disseminate this knowledge in
order to detect them. The interest in this research continues to grow as well as
The grant provided by the AHG contributed greatly its scope, which now includes the historical aspects of
towards meeting the costs of travelling to Paris and collecting, provenance and distribution, with an emphasis
Écouen to identify all-glass hybrid vessels in the on Venetian and façon de Venise glass. This side of the
collections at the Musée du Louvre and the Musée de la research is being carried out by Suzanne Higgott. The
Renaissance, Chateau d’Écouen. My collaborator historical aspect considers the provenance of the glasses,
Suzanne Higgott (The Wallace Collection) and I are and whether some of the repairs were produced by later
grateful to curators Françoise Barbe (Louvre) and Aurélie 19th-century dealers, to clarify the intentions of the
Gerbier (Écouen) for their interest and generous help people who commissioned them and to investigate
with this research, and to Paris dealer Sylvie Lhermite- whether the fact that a glass was a hybrid was of concern
King who kindly allowed us to visit her after hours and to the collector.
showed us around her important exhibition, “Verres de la
Renaissance: Origines & Influences”, which enabled us The results of the search for all-glass hybrids in Écouen
to see many glasses from French private collections. and Paris are as follows:
Figure 1: Cruet, Venice, late 17th-18th century, Écouen: 16th-century enamelled hanging lamp made
The Wallace Collection (inv. C559) © by kind into a goblet by the addition of three glass
components (E.CL.2538). One marriage of a vase
permission of the Trustees of the and cover (E.CL.1192). We were also able to
Wallace Collection. ascertain that a suspected goblet was not a hybrid
(E.CL.14523).
Glass News 36 July 2014 Louvre: two goblets (OAP38 and R94), a 19th-
century glass stem and foot made for a 17th-century
Limoges enamelled bowl (MR2445) and two
marriages (OA1131 and OA1098). We were alerted
to the existence of two footed tazze with modern
bases in another museum.
Exhibition “Verres de la Renaissance: Origines &
Influences”: one kuttrolf and a couple of interesting
modern repairs.
The results of the research undertaken in Paris will be
included in a presentation at the AIHV Congress in
Switzerland in 2015 and will be published in the
Congress ‘Annales’. Suzanne Higgott will present and
publish the historical aspects of the research at the same
Congress.
This new information is added to examination of all-glass
hybrids in The British Museum, Victoria and Albert
Museum, The Wallace Collection, The Courtauld Gallery
and Museum of London. We are grateful to the
individuals who have alerted us to all-glass hybrids in the
UK and abroad and hope that more information leading
to the examination of other all-glass hybrids will continue
to be forthcoming.
6
More Roman glass from Hungate, York
Hilary Cool
Barbican Associates
[email protected]
In Glass News 30 at the request of the editors, I wrote a Figure 1: The inscribed colourless cup from Hungate as both
short note about some glass from a grave York reconstruction and with fragments unrolled © Hilary Cool
Archaeological Trust had dug as part of their Hungate
excavations. Last winter whilst writing up all the finds The Hungate vessel clearly does not belong to the fish
from the cemetery, I encountered other interesting pieces, frieze cups. Other figured cups of this sort are much
and the Trust have very kindly allowed me to present this rarer. There is blue/green one decorated with scenes of
note in advance of full publication. the arena from St Matthias, Trier (Goethert-Polaschek
1977, 48, no. 150, taf. 37). It has the drinking motto
They consist of four fragments of a colourless cylindrical BIBAMUS below the rim and then three scenes of
cup of the type in use during the later second to mid third gladiators below, in two cases labelled with their names.
century (Price and Cottam 1998, 101) which have a The only other figurative one known to me is a large
currently unique inscribed decoration. The vessel is very fragment found at Bishophill, York (Charlesworth in
large with a rim diameter of c.115mm, whereas normally MacGregor 1978, 55, no. 169). This again has some form
such cups have rim diameters of about 80mm. It has a of motto running around the upper body below the rim
very slightly outbent, fire-rounded rim with a narrow with a scene below consisting of a column and part of a
horizontal trail on the upper body. Below this, the figure with a tambourine. The motto includes the letters
inscription occupies the central part of the wall of the LVMP, possibly from the name Olympus, and the cup is
vessel and is formed of abraded letters. These were thought to depict the Apollo and Marsyas legend. The
carefully formed, probably by using a wheel given the cutting of the letters on both of these, the fish frieze cups
very straight edges to the seriphs. Two joined pieces read and the Hungate vessel are identical.
LISS, and then the back of a letter that will have been
either C O or Q. The surface is clouded but no At present the Hungate vessel appears unique in having a
convincing stops can be seen between any of these motto running around the centre of the wall interspersed
letters. Another fragment has the letter S, and the bent in at least one point with a figured scene. Research is
and raised arm of a human who may possibly have held continuing on what the motto might mean.
something in their right hand. The fourth fragment retains
only a tiny amount of abrasion with a slightly curved The fact that such a large part of this vessel has been
upper edge. A fifth (body) fragment might be attributed preserved does open up questions of what this unusual
to this vessel with more caution. On one broken edge vessel was doing at Hungate. What may be noted is that
there are four lines that might have come from a figured this 3rd-century cemetery has a truly disproportionate
abraded design. These fragments were found in different number of contemporary glass drinking cups
contexts, and are not grave goods as they come from incorporated in ditches, grave fills and other contexts
ditch and grave fills. where they are clearly not grave goods. It could be
suggested that what we have are the remains of the
Examples of colourless cylindrical cups with inscriptions ceremonies that surrounded both the interments and the
are rare. The commonest type belongs to the classic form remembrance ceremonies. Work on the pottery is
of cylindrical cup with vertical rim and without a trail. It currently ongoing. It will be interesting to see if that too,
has a frieze of swimming fish above an inscription zone. reflects any unusual focus suggesting drinking in the
Allen (in Wheeler 1986, 268-9) knew of ten examples graveyard.
from Britain, including both ones with just letters and just
fish parts, and to my knowledge only three more may be 7
added. These come from Wellington Row, York
(unpublished Acc No. 1989.24.20929), from 1, Poultry,
London (Hill and Rowsome 2011, figure 172) and from
Nettleton, Lincs (Willis forthcoming). The last-
mentioned I had seen just before looking at the Hungate
finds. You wait forever for an inscribed colourless cup
and then…..
Glass News 36 July 2014
References Price, J. and Cottam, S. 1998. Romano-British Glass Vessels: A
Goethert-Polaschek, K. 1977. Katalog der römischen Gläser Handbook, CBA Practical Handbook in Archaeology 14
des Rheinischen Landesmuseum Trier, (Mainz am Rhein). (York).
Hill, J. and Rowsome, P. 2011. Roman London and the Wheeler, H. 1986. ‘The Racecourse cemetery’, Derbyshire
Walbrook stream Crossing. Excavations at 1 Poultry and Archaeological Journal 105, 222-80.
Vicinity, City of London. MoLAS Monograph 37 (London).
Willis, S. forthcoming. The Roman Roadside Settlement and
MacGregor, A. 1978. Roman Finds from Skeldergate and Multi-Period Ritual Complex at Nettleton and Rothwell,
Bishophill, Archaeology of York 17/2 (Leeds). Lincolnshire.
Overview of the Roman glass from excavations
at St Algar’s Farm, Somerset, 2010-2013
Rachel Tyson and Ceri Lambdin
[email protected]
Background Taylor and David Hill). Approximately 25 small lumps of
Excavations at a Roman villa site at St Algar’s Farm, ‘glass-covered waste’ were excavated. Thirty-five thin
south of Frome, Somerset, were conducted over four threads were identified, and at least 13 fragments of
seasons between 2010 and 2013 by the St Algar’s Project tooled waste.
Group (Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society),
directed by Ceri Lambdin and Robin Holley. The site Figure 1: Angular glass waste ‘chunks’ © Rachel Tyson
includes a structure interpreted as a winged corridor villa
surrounded by a linear enclosure, dating evidence from Heat-distorted and fused fragments provided some
the 1st to 4th centuries, and industrial activity including evidence that glass fragments were being re-melted. Most
glass and silver-lead working. A total of 1646 glass significant were four cobalt blue fragments fused one
fragments were found: c.560 were waste fragments from above another, and a heat-distorted blue fragment with a
glass-working, over 1000 were vessel and window small fragment fused to its cordon. These blue fragments
fragments, and 29 came from glass objects. Other are likely to date to the 1st century, suggesting that their
evidence of glass-working at the site was provided by context was as cullet collected for recycling. Chemical
large numbers of ceramic glass-melting crucible analysis of one strongly coloured blue vessel fragment by
fragments (Wessex Archaeology 2011), as well as Caroline Jackson supported a 1st-century type (Jackson
fragments of probable furnace structure. No furnace site 2014).
was located.
The evidence above shows that glass was being melted
Glass-working waste and worked; the fragments that demonstrate that glass
Approximately 560 glass fragments provided irrefutable was being blown are moils, the waste cylinder of glass
evidence that glass-working was taking place. They left on the blowing iron when vessels are cut off. The lid
comprised several different types of the typical waste moil is the wider waste part directly next to where the
found on pre-industrial glass-working sites (Paynter and vessel rim is cut. Although these are hard to identify, one
Dungworth 2011, 19-21). The majority were pale yellow- definite and two probable lid moils were recognised at St
green or green glass. Algar’s. Approximately 17 fragmentary moil ends were
identified, some with iron stains on the inner surface or
Over 70 detached glass layers from glass-melting crizzle spots on the edge, all in pale shades of green.
crucibles were found, up to 18mm deep. Amongst the
other 276 fragments of molten waste were ‘chunks’ 8
comprising angular broken pieces (Figure 1), the largest
being 47mm long. Their significance is discussed below.
Amorphous ‘lumps’ up to 66mm long had rounded,
rough or pitted surfaces, probably waste glass that fell
into the furnace area. Related to these were c.15 ‘peas’,
small rounded lumps that shot out of the crucible into the
ash when the glass was heated up (pers. comm. Mark
Glass News 36 July 2014
Glass products made at St Algar’s shallow bowls. They were made from colourless and
The question of what products were being made at St greenish-colourless glass. One showed a facet-cut limb,
Algar’s is problematic. A large number of the vessel probably a leg, with spiky lines around the top
fragments found were the same pale shades of green as representing clothing, and a straight line across the
the waste, and it is likely that these were products of the fragment possibly from a spear (Figure 2). Facet-cut
site. However, if contemporary broken glass cullet was decoration was not common in Britain, but a 4th-century
being collected for re-melting this would make shallow bowl with facet-cut Bacchic scenes has been
distinguishing new products from old much more found at Chilgrove, West Sussex (Price 2000, 14). Other
difficult. linear-cut fragments from St Algar’s were decorated with
incised lines with short lines aligned along one side; two
Vessels fragments each had a letter (‘V’ and ‘E’) inscribed in a
very similar style to the ‘Wint Hill’ bowl, a 4th-century
Figure 2: Facet-cut glass fragment © Rachel Tyson shallow bowl depicting a hunting scene (Price and
Cottam 1998, 124-6, figure 51a).
The majority of the vessel fragments came from 4th-
century types. These included nearly 130 fragments from About 25 fragments with optic-blown decoration were
conical beakers, cups or bowls with curved cracked-off excavated, and nearly 20 fragments were found with
rims and slightly pushed-in concave bases of pale blue- different numbers and widths of trails. These are found
green, pale yellow-green and greenish-colourless glass. over a long period and small fragments cannot be dated
Many had lightly abraded horizontal bands just below the very precisely. A type likely to date to the late 4th - early
rim and further down the gently tapering body walls. 5th century is an olive green fragment with very faint
Beaker and cup fragments, with a rim diameter of up to optic-blown honeycomb decoration, with mould-blown
c.90mm, were most numerous, unsurprising since these cup parallels from York and Fishbourne beach (Price
types were the most common vessel form in 4th-century 2000, 6-7, figure 3.7).
Roman Britain (Price 2000, 5). Seven fragments of
yellow-green glass were much thicker than the other A few fragments could be dated earlier than the 4th
fragments, with a wider concave base suggesting a late century. Most notable were several fragments with richly
4th-century cup or small bowl form (ibid., 6). One much coloured shades such as cobalt blue, some of which were
larger pale yellow-green curved rim is probably from a fused or partially melted, which are very likely to have
mid to late 4th-century shallow convex bowl with come from vessels of the 1st or early 2nd centuries (Price
abraded bands (ibid., 12-14). A further 18 fragments in and Cottam 1998, 15). Two fragments of trailed greenish-
pale shades of green came from indented vessels, mainly colourless glass had a profile suggesting they came from
S-shaped fragments from either beakers or bowls of a discoid jug, in use in the 2nd and 3rd centuries (ibid.,
equivalent form and date to those above. Two pale green 159-60), and a pale yellow-green body spout probably
or blue-green fragments of funnel mouths each with a came from a more practical utilitarian glass type, such as
thick trail below the rim are also late 4th-century types. jug to feed a baby or pour oil; a rare example of which
has been found in a 2nd- or 3rd-century British context
Perhaps the most impressive fragments excavated had (Allen 1998, 41 & 45, fig. 29.5).
linear- and facet-cut decoration, and were probably from
Objects
Glass News 36 July 2014 About 30 fragments of glass objects were excavated.
These included intaglios, beads, stirring rods and gaming
counters. One of the two oval intaglios was cobalt blue
depicting a standing figure with a shield on one side and
one knee bent (Figure 3). The other imitates blue onyx,
and shows Victory standing on a globe holding a wreath
and shouldering a palm. Martin Henig identifies them as
coming from a group of crude Romano-British imitations
of the 3rd century (Henig 1974, 77-79, pl. XVII-XVIII,
nos 564-6; ibid., 45, pl. x, nos 306-310). Twelve blue and
green globular, segmented, cylinder and annular beads
with a wide date range were found. A yellow/amber
annular bead not common in Roman contexts was also
recovered.
9
Figure 3: Cobalt blue glass intaglio © Rachel Tyson glass (HIMT 1, 2 and 1/2), supporting a date of the mid-
4th century or later. Two waste fragments had a
Five gaming counters included an opaque white counter Levantine composition, found in Britain from the mid-4th
decorated with red and blue spots on the upper surface, a century, but usually as finished vessels rather than waste
type also found at Lullingstone villa in Kent, and glass. Both waste glass, including chunks and moils, and
Cirencester. The remaining examples were undecorated vessels were represented in HIMT glass. Although not
pale green and blue/green counters, common finds conclusive proof, this makes it possible that those HIMT
throughout the Roman period. At least three fragments of vessel types analysed (conical beakers) were being made
stirring rods, used for mixing cosmetics and medicines, at St Algar’s. Recycling of glass was evident in most of
were found. Most were pale shades of green, twisted the compositions, which is usual in HIMT glass from
along their length and undecorated, but one was unusual Britain (Jackson 2014).
being pale blue-green with a purple blob on the rounded
end. The blue heat-distorted and fused fragments excavated at
St Algar’s suggest that some glass cullet may have been
Discussion re-melted. It is possible that this was special to coloured
The excavations have provided irrefutable evidence to glass as it was more difficult or expensive to acquire.
show that glass-working, including melting and blowing,
was being carried out at St Algar’s. The vessel fragments St Algar’s is a highly significant site in the context of
found can be dated by style to the 4th century. Recent Roman Britain not only for the presence and quantity of
research into the late Roman glass industry has shown glass-working evidence, but because it is the only
that primary glass production took place in large tanks in identifiable example of Roman glass-working in the
the eastern Mediterranean. This glass was made in large south west; the nearest published sites are at Caerleon in
tanks in Egypt or the Levant, and then broken into blocks south Wales, and Silchester in Berkshire (Price 2002, 86,
that were exported to other parts of the Empire to be re- fig. 5). St Algar’s is also the first rural Roman glass-
melted and worked into products. In Roman Britain it working site to be excavated, supporting Price’s
was the usual practice either to reheat blocks or chunks of suggestion that ‘much of the late Roman glass production
imported glass, or to recycle broken glass fragments was rurally based’ (Price 2000, 22).
(Price 2002). It is not clear which was taking place here,
but the raw imported blocks found at sites such as Acknowledgements
Basinghall Street in London (Shepherd and Wardle 2009, A number of bodies assisted with funding this research
34-5) were significantly larger than the chunks excavated including the Association for the History of Glass, the
here. Chemical research by archaeological scientists has Roman Research Trust and the Maltwood Fund of the
identified a glass type emerging in the 4th century known Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society. The
as HIMT (high iron, manganese and titanium oxide authors would also like to thank the Roman Glassmakers,
glass), characteristically yellow-green in colour, which Martin Henig, Jenny Price, Caroline Jackson and Marek
shows an Egyptian provenance (Foster and Jackson Lewcun for their comments and assistance.
2009).
Separate reports on the glass were written for each season
Caroline Jackson has chemically analysed 26 fragments by Rachel Tyson. The glass was catalogued in an Excel
of waste and vessel glass from St Algar’s using a database. Selected vessels have been drawn by Nick
scanning electron microscope with an attached energy Griffiths. These and the glass will be deposited in the
dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS)(Jackson 2014). The Museum of Somerset, Taunton.
results showed that 20 of the 26 fragments were HIMT
References
Glass News 36 July 2014 Allen, D, 1998 Roman Glass in Britain, Shire Archaeology 76.
Foster, H and Jackson, C, 2009 The composition of 'naturally
coloured' late Roman vessel glass from Britain and the
implications for models of glass production and supply,
Journal of Archaeological Science 36(2), 189-204.
Henig, M, 1974 A Corpus of Roman Engraved Gemstones
from British Sites, Part ii: Catalogue and Plates, British
Archaeological Reports 8 (ii).
Jackson, C, 2014 St Algar’s Farm, Somerset: Chemical
analysis of glass-working waste and glass found at the site
10
(seasons 2010 and 2011), unpublished report, Department of and J Price, Aspects of Industry in Roman Yorkshire and the
Archaeology, University of Sheffield. North, Oxbow Books, 81-93.
Paynter, S and Dungworth, D 2011 Archaeological Evidence Price, J and Cottam, S, 1998 Romano-British Glass Vessels: A
for Glassworking, English Heritage. Handbook, Practical Handbook in Archaeology 14, Council for
British Archaeology.
Price, J, 2000 Late Roman Glass Vessels in Britain and Ireland
from AD 350 to 410 and Beyond, in Price J (ed.) Glass in Shepherd, J and Wardle, A, 2009 The Glass Workers of Roman
Britain and Ireland AD 350-1100, British Museum Occasional London, Museum of London Archaeology.
Paper No. 127, British Museum, 1-31.
Wessex Archaeology, 2011 (March) St Algar's Farm,
Price, J, 2002 Broken bottles and quartz-sand: Glass production Somerset: Glass-melting pots, unpublished report ref. 74330.11
in Yorkshire and the North in the Roman period, in P Wilson (and others in subsequent years).
East Lenham – The story of its Tudor Glass
Lesley Feakes
[email protected]
Background lists a house with 14 hearths and it is drawn on a map of
To fill in the background…East Lenham, Kent, (now a 1660!
farm) is listed in the Domes Day Book; it was part of
Calehill Hundred and owned by the Archbishop. Its
western boundary is the dividing line of East and West
Kent. West Lenham Manor is Lenham Court, on the
western side of Lenham, given by Queen Elizabeth I to
William Cecil. Queen Ediva in 961 AD gave ‘Lenham’ to
the Archbishop of Canterbury and that must have been
East Lenham (see Archaeologia Cantiana 1923 Vol 36.).
Figure 1: East Lenham house. As it was drawn on Thomas Figure 2: The excavated Garderobe :-note
Boycote’s Map of 1660. It is coloured in here to show the lake the reddish stain on the top chalk blocks © Lesley Feakes
© Kent History & Library Centre, Maidstone Any trace of the demolished building(s) was lost beneath
a 19th-20th-century stockyard of crushed brick, chalk and
If Archbishop Lanfranc owned East Lenham manor tons of flint. This flint layer, some 60cm thick in places,
where was the original house, if there was one? Was is a great problem in excavations. No clues suggested that
there a Medieval or a Tudor house on the same site? it is flint from house construction (very few were
knapped) but it would appear to have been dumped from
The present farmhouse dates from the early 18th century nearby field collection, possibly a Roman road. Only the
and stands NE of a horseshoe-shaped moat but not within ground resist plan and a ground radar investigation gave
it. Strangely the moated site had missed the records insistence that a large rectangular building once lay
completely until Lenham Archaeological Society (LAS) beneath this deep blanket of added flint and demolition
recorded findings this century. Yet the 1664 Hearth Tax rubble.
Glass News 36 July 2014 LAS took part in the ‘Time Team, 2003 Big Dig’, with no
luck in finding any of the house footings, but the LAS
trench was shown on TV! Had the garderobe been
located just 2 metres away the glass would have hit the
headlines!
11
retrieved (as shown in the photograph) and the edge of
the glass was neatly rolled inwards.
Figure 3: Looking down into the sludge with one Figure 4: Painted glass window © Lesley Feakes
of the tazzas showing clearly © Lesley Feakes
Figure 5: The first tazza © Lesley Feakes
The garderobe lay at the rear of the house in the south The second tazza (Figure 6)
east corner (only discernable in retrospect from the The second tazza found was slightly different and its
ground radar scan). Only its base, of neatly cut chalk stem was present; an elaborate twisted design of fine
blocks with a trace of red brick facing to the south, was strands of white glass (vetro a retorti). The stem was
found in 2008. It would have extended up the (four?) caught in just below the cup base by a strand of grey (or
floors of the house and would have been cleared out from clear) glass and caught in a second time just 1cm below
near its base. Evidence suggests the section found was that.
below the mucking out hole. The chasm was just 60cm The base of the cup has radiating trails of white glass laid
deep with no break in the chalk blocks and with no drain on the lower surface (they are raised). The cup itself was
hole into the lake. But the base was level with the water not present. It was possibly lost in sludge that had been
table and kept filling up. The constant presence of water demolished above it, being not so heavy as the base it had
might explain why only the top three layers of chalk not sunk so deeply, or had been smashed into many
blocks retain staining from excrement (not to be confused pieces?
with any brick work). Within the 60cm of fill were the The lattice design of the stem and foot has wider strands
remains of two Venetian tazze, a piece of window glass of white glass separated by bands of clear glass but
with painting of a bishop or archbishop, four 16th- within this clear glass are at least four threads of white
century wine glasses and a handled decanter. glass the whole system convoluted down the stem and
Considerable numbers of small animal bones were
distributed amongst the glass: rabbits, pigeon, bantam, 12
fish and three lower jaws of mole. Moles were possibly
not the remains of Tudor feasts, but had burrowed down
for worms, then later drowned as they frantically tried to
escape a rise in water level in their chalk block prison!
Details of Finds
Painted window glass with an archbishop (Figure 4)
The curve around the face to the left is the halo. The
crozier is on the right resting on the archbishop’s left
shoulder. The design on the mitre is identical to the
depiction of a 15th-century archbishop in Canterbury
Cathedral.
The first tazza (Figure 5)
The cup had two bands of white glass both consisting of
two narrow bands separated in each case by diagonal
thinner strands of white glass (vetro a retorti).
The base has concentric raised wheels of glass. No pieces
of stem were present but one piece of the foot was
Glass News 36 July 2014
then flared out on the foot. The foot base then had the
glass folded, rolled inwards, to form a neat edge. The
craftsmanship is superb.
Figure 6: The second tazza © Lesley Feakes Figure 8: Glass decanter © Lesley Feakes
Figure 7: The wine bottles © Lesley Feakes Dating of the Site and its Glassware
The wine bottles (Figure 7) The Venetian tazze would appear to be late 16th century
None of the LAS group had ever seen any like these but and indeed the second one matches one on the ITV
apparently these writhen-necked bottles are ubiquitous, programme Britain’s Secret Homes led by Bethany
being made in the glasshouses of the Surrey Weald (see Hughes in which a very similar tazza was dated at 1545
Kenyon, 1967, 90) dating from the mid-15th century (Henry VIII). Various similar examples, also dated to the
(possibly earlier) to the mid-17th century. second half of the 16th century are mentioned in Tait
Those ones found in the garderobe are of greenish-brown (1979, 67-78). The writhen wine bottles would also fit
weathered glass and extremely thin; only the necks and that date. The window glass could have been earlier.
bases have survived.
Glass decanter (Figure 8) If anyone wishes to lead a dig to discover a second
This is a more yellowish-brown weathered glass (not its garderobe of the house (GPR indicates there could be
original colour) and has a handle. The neck has vertical one) then contact the author, or Mr and Mrs Barr of East
fluting The type is rarer and dates to the late 16th or early Lenham Farm. Glassware will also be held by them to
17th century (see Willmott, 2002, 77). view.
Glass News 36 July 2014 References
Britain’s Secret Homes, ‘Acton Court’, ITV1, 14 June 2013,
21:00.
Kenyon, G.H. 1967 The Glass Industry of the Weald, Leicester
University Press.
Tait, H. 1979 The Golden Age of Venetian Glass, British
Museum Publications.
Willmott, H. 2002, Early post-medieval vessel glass in
England c. 1500-1670, Council for British Archaeology.
QUERY
The writer is an elderly (67) Masters Candidate in
History at the University of Northern British Columbia in
Prince George, British Columbia. My thesis topic is “The
Windows of Barkerville”. Barkerville was our Gold Rush
Town of 1858, the establishment of which led to the
union of the colonies of Vancouver Island and British
Columbia which led to British Columbia joining
Canadian Confederation.
13
I have traced the route taken by shipments of window and craft of stained glass. It promotes the trade,
glass from Europe (Great Britain, Germany, and France) encourages high standards in the art and craft of glass
and the northeast of the United States to San Francisco. painting and staining, and acts as a locus for the exchange
The cargos of two ships carrying glass have been found. of information and ideas within the craft, as well as
What is needed now is to determine (1858-1885): helping to preserve the stained glass heritage of Britain.’
The Society’s web page gives more details:
1. The sale price of window glass in England, the typical www.bsmgp.org.uk
size of glass cargos, special handling, and and other
details and any information relative to the shipping of For glass originating in the USA I would ask Corning
glass from England to San Francisco or the west coast of Museum of Glass: www.cmog.org. They may also have
the Americas. general information about trade in window glass and its
2. The purchase and sale price of window glass in San price in North America.
Francisco or other American Ports on the West Coast.
3. The purchase and sale price of window glass in Justine Bayley
Victoria, B.C.
4. The purchase and sale price of window glass in Response
Barkerville, B.C. Theo Barker's book The Glassmakers covers the English
flat glass scene in the period of interest, including a
In addition, I would like to obtain the freight rates for discussion of imports to the UK from Belgium, the
steamers, clippers, and other freight ships that may have effects of the American Civil War, and the export trade to
carried from the manufacturers in the East to Sand the United States. There are some tables of price
Francisco, then up to Victoria or any other details information, but whether the detail is full enough. I'm not
concerning the shipment of window glass to ports on the certain.
west coast of North America.
The book was published in 1977 and the ISBN number
Glass not being then mass-produced and with no is: 0 297 76909 X
transcontinental railway, It must have been more
expensive with each step along the way. My objective is It can be purchased from the Society of Glass
to find out how much the price increased and of that, how Technology (www.sgt.org)
much was directly attributed to the costs incurred in
freight. David Martlew
Much of the window glass in present-day Barkerville BOOK REVIEWS
(now an historic site) is of modern manufacture but I
have been successful in finding many examples of crown Transparent Beauty: Glass
and Cylinder Glass in situ. Given B.C.’s status as a from Croatian Museums,
colony at that time, it is assumed that much of the early from Prehistory to the
glass to Victoria came from the UK. Middle Ages
Might you be able to assist with this quest? Do you Lada Ratkovi Bukov an and
happen to have a member – amateur or professional – Zoran Gregl
who is interested in glass, specifically window glass – to Zagreb: Archaeological Museum
whom you may refer me? Please forward this e-mail to in Zagreb, 2013
any of your members who may have interest in early 120 Pages
window glass. ISBN 978 953 6789 74 0
£10.00
Regards, Available from: www.amz.hr
Willow Arune
[email protected] This is the first in a series of three catalogues published
to accompany the large eponymous exhibition of glass
Response objects co-authored by Lada Ratkovi Bukov an and
This extract comes from Wikipedia Zoran Gregl, which was held simultaneously in three
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Society_of_Master_ museums in Zagreb, Croatia: the Zagreb Archaeological
Glass_Painters : Museum, the Museum of Arts and Crafts, and the
‘The British Society of Master Glass Painters (BSMGP), 14
founded in 1921, is a British trade association for the art
Glass News 36 July 2014
Mimara Museum. The exhibition, organised as part of the There is some essential reading here, with several unique
celebrations accompanying Croatia’s accession to the contributions which are unlikely to be published
European Union in July 2013, displayed around 600 glass elsewhere. Tucked away towards the end of the volume,
artefacts gathered from 33 Croatian museums. The other James and colleagues present the preliminary finding of
two catalogues feature glass artefacts dating from the survey of Byzantine mosaics undertaken as part of the
fifteenth to the twentieth century and glass in Leverhulme project. A series of maps and histograms
contemporary Croatian sculpture. The catalogues were illustrates the distribution of newly made mosaics century
published in both Croatian and English editions. by century. I suspect this will be something of an eye-
opener for many of us, and the authors draw attention, for
The catalogue covers the period from 2000 BC to the example, to the more-or-less continuous production of
14th century AD. A short introductory text on the history mosaics in Italy from 4th-14th centuries and the
of glass, dealing mostly with Roman glass production possibility of a continuous Italian tradition throughout
techniques, is followed by a lavishly produced full-colour this period. Entwistle and Corby-Finney review
catalogue of 180 glass artefacts, organized according to Byzantine glass pendants, a category of artefact rarely
periods (prehistoric, classical, medieval and Islamic). The considered in any detail, with a fully illustrated catalogue
largest number of items represented in the catalogue is of the British Museum collection. Robin Cormack argues
from the classical period. The material, ranging from persuasively that consideration should be given to the
jewellery and urns to beakers and fondo d’oro vessels, is possibility that the mosaics of Daphne, Hosios Loukas
mostly of Croatian origin, but there are also examples of and Torcello are the products of a single workshop. A
imports from Greece, Egypt, Syria, Italy, and Serbia. All number of papers focus upon chemical composition of
entries contain complete descriptions of the artefacts, individual mosaics or groups of objects and one of the
including date, site of recovery and production technique, encouraging signs throughout the volume is that the
along with information on previous publications of the findings from technical studies are finding their way into
material and its analogies. the more humanistic contributions, suggesting that the
network succeeded in its aim of interdisciplinary
This is an informative and aesthetically pleasing communication.
catalogue, very useful as an overall introductory guide to
the scope and diversity of the Croatian archaeological Several papers focus on technique. In two important
glass collections, both for the scholarly and general papers, Dan Howells discusses the technique of gold
public. glass, while Lisa Pilosi and David Whitehouse address
the use of silver stain. Francesca dell’Acqua discusses the
Ana Franjic unique enamelling on the frame of the enigmatic
Mandylion of Genoa. There are many excellent papers on
New Light on Old Glass: individual mosaic schemes and buildings, for example
Recent Research on Byzantine the Umayyad mosque of Damascus, and the coverage
Mosaics and Glass extends forward in time to address fakes and the
Victorian mosaics of Westminster Abbey.
Edited by Chris Entwistle and Liz
James In an extension of her earlier publications, Rosemarie
London: British Museum Press Lierke considers the manufacture of diatreta or cage cups.
2013 Over the past decade or so, Lierke has drawn attention to
250 Pages some interesting features on a number of categories of
ISBN 978 0 8615 9179 4 ancient glass, arguing that these are at variance with the
RRP £45.00 conventionally accepted models of manufacture. While
there may be an apparent contradiction in some cases, in
The 30 papers in this volume arose from a conference my view it by no means necessitates the overturn of
held in the BM in 2010, under the auspices of the accepted models in all of them. In normal scientific
Leverhulme Trust funded network on the Composition of investigation, one seeks a solution for anomalies within
Byzantine Mosaic Glass Tesserae. They cover a wide the current paradigm, rather than immediately jumping to
range of material, bringing together research on the use a new one. Furthermore, the fact that there may be a
of glass in mosaics and other specialised types, including question mark over one model of fabrication does not
cage cups, windows, enamels, gold glass and pendants, prove, or even suggest, that the model that is proposed in
and from perspectives ranging from art history to its place is correct, yet the two arguments have frequently
chemistry. On the other hand, there is limited coverage of been conflated in Lierke’s publications.
common glass vessels and profile illustrations are almost
absent. In the case of the cage cups, Lierke has in the past
dismissed production from a thick-walled blank and has
Glass News 36 July 2014
15
favoured a double-walled blank, produced by forcing including the Lycurgus Cup, could be cut. However,
glass through holes in a plaster mould. This has been stresses in cooling glass are not simply a matter of
advocated by her in a number of publications, although thickness but also of shape. Rounded shapes typically
the use of a plaster mould has no supporting generate less stresses than sharply angled ones, for
archaeological evidence and the idea of squishing hot example (think about the preference for rounded bases in
glass through a plaster colander in the fourth century pottery cooking pots). It is very possible therefore, that
itself raises many problematic issues. Firstly, plaster was damage from thermal stress is more likely in a double
not widely used for three-dimensional objects in the walled blank, where the two walls are linked by
Roman world. The objects with which I am familiar are numerous thin bridges essentially perpendicular to the
funeral masks from Graeco-Roman Egypt and these do walls, than in a single thick-walled blank. In spite of her
not appear to have been very robust. There are a few perceived problem with the use of a thick-walled blank to
mirrors from Egypt and the Levant where the glass mirror make cage cups, Lierke is finally obliged in the present
fragment is set in a gypsum plaster base but these appear paper to acknowledge the evidence for the use of a thick-
to be an extension of the idea of wall plaster, rather than walled blank in the manufacture of a recently excavated
models in the round. While it is not entirely clear to me if cup from Grenoble. This has led her to propose a range of
the purported cage cup moulds are thought to have been different techniques for the manufacture of this very
made from lime or gypsum plaster, they are unlikely in limited class of vessels, which she suggests might have
any case to have been robust enough to withstand the evolved chronologically. It is to be hoped that this
high temperatures and heavy handling needed to produce tentative chronology, now published, is not presented as a
double-walled blanks connected by glass bridges. These “fact” in her next paper on the subject.
moulds would have been very thin, a matter of
millimetres. Could they really have withstood the Overall, this is a well-edited, well-produced and
pressure needed to force though a viscous silica-rich (c. extremely well-illustrated volume which is likely to
70% SiO2) glass? What temperature would have been become an important point of reference for researchers
needed to maintain the fluidity of the glass? How would into Byzantine glass and particularly mosaics. The range
the glass have been kept hot enough to flow freely? of papers makes this an ideal reader. The level of
These technical questions have not been addressed. What scholarship is for the most part very high indeed, and I
are the thermal properties of plaster? Would not the loss recommend the great majority of its contents. The
of water and/or carbon dioxide at high temperatures have production and use of colour images throughout make it
caused it to disintegrate? The moulds needed to produce a good value for money.
double walled blank are likely to have been held at higher
temperatures for considerably longer periods than those Ian Freestone
used in mould-blowing vessels and, as noted by van den
Dries (2007, J Glass Studies 49, p. 34) plaster was Please send your contributions:
“rarely, if ever used as a mold material” by Roman Finds • Research • Ideas • Enquiries
glassmakers. Publications • Conferences • News
Individual technologies do not occur in isolation but in a for Glass News 37
complex web of related technologies and materials which by
occur in space and time. Unfortunately Lierke’s
explanations invariably involve a technique which she 28th November 2014
suggests was used for a short period with no clear
contemporary linkages, and no precedents or antecedents. to either of the editors:
Examples of similarly isolated technologies with which
she has been associated include the shaping of hot glass Rachel Tyson
on a potters’ wheel and the use of clay pipes to blow [email protected]
glass. These are equally improbable, not simply because
there is no archaeological evidence in the form of or
residues from workshops, but because the materials
proposed would not be suitable (blowpipes made of Andrew Meek
Roman pottery clay would) or because no one has since The British Museum
found it practicable to shape glass bowls on a spinning Great Russell Street
wheel, rather than slumping, for reasons which surely London WC1B 3DG
seem obvious. [email protected]
Lierke has made much of the difficulty in cooling a 16
“thick-walled blank” from which the various diatreta,
Glass News 36 July 2014
Glass News
Published by The Association for the History of Glass Ltd
www.historyofglass.org.uk
January 2015 Number 37 ISSN 1362-5195
Phelps, Andrew Meek, Martina Bertini and Ian Freestone
for organising such a memorable event. It took place too
late for an account to be prepared for this issue of Glass
News, but a taste of it can be found in the Grant Report
from Anastassios Antonaras. A future publication of the
papers is planned by the organisers.
The November AGM saw some changes to the Board of
Management. We thank Justine Bayley who stands down
as President; she was elected in 2011 and has steered the
Association through a varied programme of events and
publications; she remains on the Board. We welcome
Colin Brain as the new President, a long-standing
member of the Board who has helped organise events
such as Interpreting Finds from Glasshouse Excavations
in 2009, and The Evidence for British Crystal Glass in
2013 (with his wife Sue), and is a frequent contributor to
Glass News. We say farewell to David Martlew who has
stood down after 15 years, and thank him for his
dedicated contribution, which included the organisation
of Glass in Science and Medicine in 2011. We welcome
three new members to the Board: Simon Cottle, Chloe
Duckworth and Daniela Rosenow.
Frontispiece: A large English case bottle perforated by We are delighted that Glass of the Roman World, will
a gunshot, excavated in Buenos Aires (scale in cm). © shortly be published; see page 14 for details. Do not miss
Patricia Frazzi. See Daniel Schavelzon’s grant report
Oxbow Books’ pre-publication offer, valid until July.
on pg 12 for details of further glass finds from the city. AHG members/subscribers are also offered a generous
discount on Dominic Ingemark’s book Glass, Alcohol
and Power in Roman Iron Age Scotland (see page 14).
Welcome to Glass News 37! This issue is packed with a The editors would like to thank this issue’s contributors
wide-ranging assortment of glass history, including for their material; please keep it coming for future issues!
reports on projects assisted by AHG grants on ancient We would welcome long or short pieces about your glass
Egyptian glass working, Roman glass from Aquileia in research and discoveries, meeting or exhibition reviews,
Italy, early Christian glass gems from Greece, luxury information about glass-related events or books, and your
17th-century glass from Portugal, and 17th- and 18th- queries. See the back page for contact details.
century Spanish and English glass excavated in Buenos
Aires. There are details of a variety of exhibitions and Subscriptions for 2015-2016 are due in April, and a
meetings planned for 2015 and new books. This includes form is enclosed to send with your payment to John
a joint AHG study day on Glass for Eating, Drinking and Clark.
Making Merry in June (see page 2).
FACEBOOK PAGE
Our recent meeting Things that Travelled held with the
Early Glass Network in London was a great success and The AHG is on Facebook!
well-attended, including participants that travelled from To keep up-to-date on news and current research on
the Mediterranean, northern Europe, the USA, Japan and the history of glass visit:
Australia. Many thanks to Daniela Rosenow, Matt facebook.com/TheAssociationForTheHistoryOfGlass
Click ‘Like’ and please share.
Glass News 37 January 2015 1
AHG SPRING STUDY DAY AHG GRANTS
Glass for Eating, Drinking Grants are available from the Association for the History
and Making Merry of Glass, for educational or research activities consistent
with the Association’s charitable aims. These could
15th June 2015 10.00 – 17.00 include, for example, attendance at a conference to
The Wallace Collection, London W1U 3BN present a lecture or poster, a study visit, fieldwork, or
publication of scholarly works. There are no restrictions
This study day on the use of table glass of all periods is on who may apply or on the topics of applications, which
being planned in conjunction with the Glass Association will be judged on merit. Multiple applications in different
(GA) and the Glass Circle (GC). Glass has always been years will be considered with individual awards up to
made because people wanted to buy and use it. Without £500.
customers who wanted to use glass, there would have
been no glass industries. Yet much more work has been Recent recipients of awards include Daniel Schavelzon
done on production than use. Why did people choose towards the publishing and exhibiting English and
glass instead of ceramics or pewter? Was the table glass Spanish 17th- and 18th-century glass found in Buenos
used in homes, inns and taverns the same, or different? Aires (pg 12), Anastassios Antonaras, Monica Ganio and
What difference was there between city and country; Sarah Maltoni towards attending conferences to give
upstairs and downstairs? Such questions are often asked, papers (pgs 7–10), Matt Phelps towards research on glass
but less frequently answered so it is hoped to use this production in late Byzantine-Islamic Israel, and Martina
opportunity to study how, why, where and when table Bertini for a study on Iron Age toggle beads in Scotland.
glass was used in different eras.
An application form may be downloaded from the
The cost of the day will be £12 (€15) for students, £24 website, or can be obtained from the Honorary Secretary,
(€30) for members of the AHG, GA, GC or Friends of the Denise Allen at 8 St Catherine’s Road, Southampton
Wallace Collection and £34 (€45) for non-members. SO18 1LJ. Email: [email protected].
Lunch is not provided, but is available locally.
CONFERENCES
If you would like to contribute a paper please write to the
Secretary, Denise Allen (see back page), or email 20th Congress of the International
[email protected]. Since the programme has yet Association for the History of Glass
to be finalised, please see the website
www.historyofglass.co.uk for the latest information, or 7th – 11th September 2015
write to the Secretary and ask her to send you details Fribourg – Romont / Switzerland
when they are available.
The 20th Congress of the International Association for
THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE the History of Glass will take place in Fribourg and in
HISTORY OF GLASS Romont, Switzerland, from Monday 7th September to
Friday 11th September 2015. It will be organised by the
Registered charity 275236 Vitrocentre and Vitromusée Romont in cooperation with
the University of Fribourg.
Board of Management
Three parallel sessions of lectures are planned, along with
President: Colin Brain poster presentations. The programme leaves time for
Hon Secretary: Denise Allen sightseeing, and participants will also have the
Hon Treasurer: Angela Wardle opportunity of visiting exhibitions specially organised for
the congress, in museums in Fribourg and in Romont.
Members of Board The visit of Wednesday 9th September 2015 to the
Justine Bayley Chloe Duckworth Martine Newby exhibition in the Vitromusée Romont of Venetian
and façon de Venise Renaissance glass from Swiss
John Clark Suzanne Higgott Jennifer Price
2
Sally Cottam Caroline Jackson Daniela Rosenow
Simon Cottle Andrew Meek John Shepherd
David Crossley Rachel Tyson
Glass News 37 January 2015
collections will include a demonstration by Bill EXHIBITIONS
Gudenrath from the Corning Museum of Glass (NY,
USA). He will show glass blowing techniques used in the Ennion: Master of Roman Glass
creation of some of the pieces on display. Two one-day
post-conference tours are proposed. 9th December 2014 – 13th April 2015
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Registration is available at a reduced ‘early’ rate before
30 June 2015. For further details see 16th May 2015 – 19th October 2015
http://www.aihv2015.ch/ or contact: Congress Office, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York
AIHV 2015, Vitrocentre Romont, Au Château, case
postale 225, CH-1680, Romont, Switzerland. Telephone and
+41 (0)26 652 18 34; email: [email protected].
Ennion and His Legacy: Mould-Blown
The Sixth International Festival of Glass, Glass from Ancient Rome
Stourbridge
16th May 2015 – 4th January 2016
25th – 31st May 2015 Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York
This year celebrates 400 years of glassmaking in Among the earliest glass workshops to design and create
Stourbridge and 50 years of Studio Glass, so there is a mould-blown glass was one in which a man named
full programme of activities planned (see Ennion worked. Ennion was the first glassmaker to sign
http://www.ifg.org.uk/). Of particular interest to AHG his glass objects by incorporating his name into the
members may be the planned exhibition of finds from the inscriptions that formed part of the mould’s design, and
recent excavations of Coalbourne Hill and Coalbourne thus he stands among a small group of glassworkers
Brook glasshouses. Both of these cones were on the site whose names have come down to us from antiquity.
that is now Ruskin Mill, one of the festival hubs. The
finds help chart the site’s unbroken glassmaking tradition Ennion: Master of Roman Glass, focuses on works made
stretching back over 320 years, including the period when by Ennion. Organised by The Metropolitan Museum of
it was the home of the well-known concern of Webb Art, it will be on view first at the Metropolitan Museum,
Corbett. then until October 19 2015 at the Corning Museum of
Glass. The show is composed of loans from a number of
Society of Glass Technology international institutions and private collections, bringing
Annual Conference together many of the known examples of Ennion’s wares.
Of the 37 complete or fragmentary vessels in the
Glass Reflections, exhibition, 24 are by Ennion, including the Metropolitan
‘Glass in the Year of Light’ Museum’s three signed pieces. Examples by other named
glassworkers of the period – including one of only two
Cambridge, 7th – 9th September 2015 intact works by Ennion’s closest rival, Aristeas, as well
as examples of beakers signed by Jason, Neikais, and
Come to the Society of Glass Technology Annual Meges – will also be presented. A selection of unsigned
Meeting in Cambridge 2015 where we will celebrate the blown glass that illustrates Ennion’s profound influence
fundamental interactions of glass with light – from novel on the nascent Roman glass industry will also be on view.
glass telecommunication fibres and technologies through A catalogue suitable for non-specialists will accompany
windows and artistic applications to the use of high the exhibition. Published by The Metropolitan Museum
intensity light to probe the very structure of glass. The of Art and distributed by Yale University Press, the
Society of Glass Technology has been a shining beacon catalogue will be available in the Museum’s book shops
in the study of glass for 99 years – this conference will be (paperback, $24.95).
your opportunity to meet with a unique community of
people all focussed on understanding and producing that This remarkable group of objects is complemented
most important of materials in our modern life – glass. by Ennion and His Legacy, on view at the Corning
We look forward to welcoming you in Cambridge. Museum of Glass from May 16 through to January 4,
2016. Ennion and His Legacy is composed of mould-
For more information please write to Society of Glass blown master works by other Roman glassmakers that are
Technology, 9 Churchill Way, Chapeltown, Sheffield drawn from the Corning Museum’s collection of Roman
S35 2PY or click the link below: glass, one of the finest in the world.
www.glassreflections.sgt.org.
3
Glass News 37 January 2015
Maurice Marinot: A Passion for Glass MEETING REVIEW
20th December 2014 – 7th June 2015 GlassAC14
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Maurice Marinot (1882–1960) was a pioneer in the 10th – 13th September 2014
development of glass as a studio art form. Born in Durham and York
Troyes, France, Marinot began his career as a painter,
studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and associated with The 2014 international conference on Glass Science in
the Fauvist movement.
In 1911, a visit to the glassworks of the Viard brothers at Art and Conservation was held at Durham and York from
Bar-sur-Seine was the catalyst for an all-encompassing
passion for glass that would endure for twenty-six years. 10th to 13th September 2014. It was in conjunction with
Drawing initially on his skill as a painter, Marinot
decorated glass with striking, brightly coloured enamels. the Society of Glass Technology’s (SGT) annual meeting
Around 1920, he began to create his own highly
experimental glass forms that he considered as sculpture. ‘Living Glass’. There were parallel science and
A combination of failing health and the closure of the
Viard’s works in 1937 caused Marinot to stop making art/historical tracks with delegates being positively
glass and he returned to painting and drawing.
encouraged to move between lecture theatres. One result
© Dr Pierre Mérat
This free exhibition will bring together forty-four pieces of this was that difficult choices had to be made on which
of glass from the collections of the National Museum of
Wales, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Leicester talks to miss. With around eighty presentations in two
Arts and Museums Service, reuniting them for the first
time since they left the Marinot family in the 1960s and and a half days of lectures (see
1970s.
A free lunchtime lecture, An introduction to Maurice http://www.glassac14.sgt.org/Programme.htm), the
Marinot, will be given by Andrew Renton, Head of
Applied Art, on January 9th and March 6th at 1.05pm. organisers clearly had to strike a balance between the
REMINDER range of topics covered and the time allocated to each.
Would you like to see the photos in this issue in This meant that there many topics about which one would
colour?
We can send a colour PDF version of this issue of have liked to hear more, but the remedy for this was
Glass News on request TO MEMBERS AND
SUBSCRIBERS (in addition to your paper copy). simple – find the presenter and talk to them!
Please email one of the editors (see back page) if
you would like a PDF copy. With so many presentations it is impossible to review
anything in detail, so the following are just some personal
Glass News 37 January 2015 impressions of the fraction of the conference I attended.
This is the first multi-threaded glass conference I have
attended where the art/historical theme was the dominant
one, with the largest lecture theatre and consistently
drawing the largest audiences, even when the University
staff wanted to lock up on the Friday evening! It is also
the first time for a glass science-thread where the purpose
of the analyses consistently dominated over methods and
equipment. For example, at least two papers linked their
analyses to the available period glassmaking texts and
comprehensive studies of the raw materials, whilst
another reported a full analysis – experimental replication
– analysis cycle. Since many of the glasses concerned
were coloured, traditional atomic spectroscopy methods
such as XRF were largely taken for granted as being
necessary, but not sufficient, with many speakers
discussing the challenges of identifying glass molecular
structure and co-ordination levels using techniques such
as UV/vis/IR, Raman and X-ray absorption. Here having
‘experts’ on hand to explain in simple terms the finer
points of REDOX (reduction/oxidation balance), optical
basicity, etc. was a definite bonus. In my experience the
multi-facetted conferences organised by the SGT always
produce some emergent themes. One of these for me this
time was “glass is difficult”, but very much in the sense
of Piet Hein’s ‘Grook’: “Problems worthy of attack prove
their worth by hitting back”. Perhaps this is a sign of the
extended glass analysis community’s coming of age and
starting to feel confident enough to confront some of the
more challenging glass art/historical problems.
4
The science, art and conservation facets were at their papers, but this was balanced by a generic concern for
most convergent in the field of stained glass where there conservation which pervaded most glass historical
were many excellent and varied papers. However the papers. There was however, one point of contention that
glass art presentations, particularly those from members briefly surfaced - to coat or not to coat – concerning the
of the Glass and Ceramics Department at near-by value of protective coatings in conserving fragile glass
University of Sunderland, covered a much wider scope surfaces. I suspect that this one has considerable mileage
than this. One theme emerging was the relationship left in it!
between the ‘artist’ who ‘owns’ the overall conception
and the ‘technician’ who implements the glass-based A declared objective of the GlassAC series of
components of this conception. This could easily become conferences is to break down barriers between different
a rather divisive topic and unless more is done to train specialisations. Hearing analysts discuss the finer points
future ‘technicians’ it will also become a sterile one! of when to gather ferns to produce the best glassmaking
However, a more productive angle was the question of ashes and the elemental signatures of different historical
how we can foster better communication between all sources of cobalt, there can be little doubt that this
those involved in the customer-supplier chains that conference has delivered.
deliver value in all the fields to do with glass.
Colin Brain
It is perhaps a sign of the maturity of glass conservation
that there were relatively few overt glass conservation
AHG GRANT REPORTS
The excavation of a glass- and glazing workshop at Tell el-Amarna site
M50.14-16, Egypt (Amarna period, c.1347-1332 BC)
Dr Anna K. Hodgkinson
[email protected]
This report outlines the work undertaken in the Main Figure 1: The original plan of the site (after Peet and
City South at Tell el-Amarna between October 18th and Woolley 1923). The diagonal lines are the actual
November 13th 2014, which was partially funded by a gridlines as revised, running N-S. The shaded squares
generous grant from the Association for the History of are those excavated in 2014.
Glass. The team of archaeologists consisted of the
following members: Dr Anna K. Hodgkinson (field wall of the main house, M50.16 and some of the
director, formerly University of Liverpool), Susan Kelly, adjacent walls, which do not appear on the original plan
M.A. (formerly University of Liverpool), Ashley Bryant and have not been previously excavated.
M.A., M.Sc. (formerly University College London) and
Kimberley Watt, M.Phil. (formerly University of The building complex, as originally published,
Cambridge) and our inspector from the Ministry of State encompasses a domestic house, M50.16, a secondary
for Antiquities, Mohamed Khalil. building to the east of this house, M50.15 and the
The work focussed on the area of a building complex 5
denominated M50.14-16 by C.L. Woolley, who initially
excavated these buildings in 1922 on behalf of the Egypt
Exploration Fund (Peet and Woolley 1923). The
publication describes the ‘remains of a glaze kiln: pit cut
in sand 1.00m diam. by 0.50m deep, full of burnt brick,
glass and glaze slag, and fragments of the pots used in
the kiln for standing the vessels on: the bottoms and
sides of these are covered with tricklings of glaze’ (ibid.,
19). The area around this feature, marked with an ‘X’ on
the originally published site plan, formed the
easternmost extent of the excavation, while the
westernmost edge encompasses the western boundary
Glass News 37 January 2015
surrounding courtyard, which describes the overall area Approximately 60m of the main house, M50.16, were
of the building complex, M50.14. While the focus of the excavated, the preservation of the walls being poor. In
work lay on M50.14, the courtyard to the south of the the south-eastern part of the house, which was initially
main building, house M50.16 was also excavated. This published as a small, open courtyard, a round oven with
was done in order to establish the connection between ceramic lining has been excavated. This oven was most
the courtyard and the domestic complex, and to likely used for the preparation of food, indicated by the
understand the spatial relationship between the presence of animal bones together with a concentration
industries taking place in the courtyard and the of discarded pottery. An adjacent box oven mentioned in
inhabitants of the house. House M50.15 was left largely the original publication has not been located. A mud-
unexcavated and remains to be studied. brick casing in the centre of the house indicates the
presence of a staircase, leading to an upper storey that
We have been able to revise the location of the house partially covered the house.
within the overall plan of Amarna. As the plan of the
house was quickly revealed during excavation it became The southern courtyard yielded much evidence of
apparent that the location and orientation of the house industrial activity, including glass-working, faience
were offset according to the 1922 plan, placing the manufacture, chalcedony or agate working, alongside
house c.10m further east and re-orientating it east-west. some tools. Overall, the finds are indicative of a bead
workshop, although there is evidence of the decorating
Figure 2: An overview across the site, looking east, of glass vessels taking place in this area as well.
showing the interior of the main house and the
southern courtyard. © A. Hodgkinson Three hundred and twenty-nine fragments of glass have
been excavated, most of which are chippings of glass
The modern surface of the southern courtyard of the ingots, indicating that the processing of glass took place
house was found covered with vitrified material, i.e. at this site. In addition to these fragments, we have
molten mud-brick and sandstone. This was interpreted as found 116 glass-rods, bars and strips, together with
evidence of high-temperature technologies, in particular multiple fragments of cylindrical vessels, used as
glass, since this phenomenon is known from other glass- moulds for glass ingots and for the re-melting of glass.
working kilns in ancient Egypt, most notably from In order to produce beads, glass-rods would have been
Amarna itself: site O45.1 in the Main City North, which wound around copper-alloy rods, of which 15 were
was excavated in the 1990s by Paul Nicholson, contains found.
a series of kilns used for glass-working and faience
manufacture, which all display a high level of Figure 3: A selection of glass-, faience- and metal
vitrification (Nicholson 2007). Unfortunately, we did not finds from our excavations: Beads, a vessel fragment,
locate such a structure, neither in the southern central copper-alloy rods and tools, amulets and pendants. ©
portion of the courtyard, nor in its eastern sections, at A. Hodgkinson
aforementioned point ‘X’. However, the concentration More than 400 faience and glass beads of a variety of
of dumped vitrified material indicates that firing took types have also been found, and this includes
place in cave-like structures or small pits that had been manufacturing errors, where beads have fused together
destroyed or cleaned out: The pieces of vitrified, sub- and were thus discarded. Glass beads were found
angular sandstone fragments were frequently found showing trails of glass yet to be polished off. A
glued together in a matrix, suggesting that they were concentration of unpolished glass beads was found in the
heaped into the small kilns around the cylindrical vessels south-east outer courtyard and adjacent to a series of
containing the glass, possibly for stabilisation and small fireplaces, indicating a working area. Two
insulation. Some of the pieces of vitrified mud-brick undecorated, cobalt blue glass vessel fragments were
have a double lining of vitrification, indicating multiple
firings. Drops of vitrified material sloping off the brick 6
indicate that a cave-like structure was used for firing.
Glass News 37 January 2015
registered, demonstrating that the decoration of such area of the Main City South at Amarna was somewhat
vessels took place at the site. The colour of the glass specialised in this activity. Overall, it can be stated that
ranges from dark cobalt blue and turquoise blue/green, the excavated complex represents a typical Amarna
the two most common colours for ancient Egyptian household, encompassing a main, domestic building,
glass, over purple, yellow, translucent, almost colourless some secondary buildings and some outside working
glass to opaque white glass. areas. The general layout of this complex fits well into
the greater picture of Amarna, in particular that of the
Five faience moulds have been found, representing a Main City, where it is believed that areas of small,
variety of amulet shapes, indicating that faience amulet industrial houses developed amongst the larger, elite
production took place at the site; we found over 100 houses, to which they reported.
faience amulets, tiles and other fragments.
References
A large quantity of red-banded pebbles, known as
chalcedony or agate, were discovered within the Kemp, Barry J and Stevens A, 2010 Busy Lives at
courtyard. We came across a large amount of debitage Amarna: Excavations in the Main City (Grid 12 and the
from working of this material, i.e. flakes and chips. A House of Ranefer, N49.18), Egypt Exploration Society
carved amulet, one finished and one unfinished Excavation Memoir 90, London
chalcedony bead highlight the fact that this material was
worked into small beads and pendants at the site. Nicholson, Paul T, 2007 Brilliant Things for Akhenaten:
The Production of Glass, Vitreous Materials and Pottery
We can infer from the large numbers of glass and the at Amarna Site O45.1, Egypt Exploration Society
numerous cylindrical vessels found at the site that the Excavation Memoir 80, London
excavated workshop must have processed relatively
large quantities of glass. These finds are similar to those Peet, Thomas E and Woolley, C I, 1923 The City of
discovered during the recent excavations in the early Akhenaten. Part I: excavations of 1921 and 1922 at el-
2000s at the nearby house of Ranefer (Kemp and Amarna, Egypt Exploration Society Memoirs 38,
Stevens 2010), and concur to the hypothesis that this London
Glass-working or glassmaking?
New evidence from the site of ‘Fondi ex Cossar’ in Aquileia (Italy)
Sarah Maltoni
University of Padova (Italy)
[email protected]; [email protected]
The present contribution is the first of two papers Cossar’, recently dubbed ‘Domus of Tito Macro’. The
reporting the scientific results presented at the 40th excavation of the domus, conducted by the University of
International Symposium on Archaeometry in 2014 with Padova between 2009 and 2014, brought to light a wide
thanks to the support of an AHG grant. range of materials dated from the pre-Roman to the
modern ages, demonstrating the complex stratigraphy of
The city of Aquileia lies in the north east of Italy, at the the site.
extreme north of the Adriatic Sea. The city was founded
in the 2nd century BC as a Roman colony. During the Glass finds are, as expected, very abundant: about 900
Roman period and Late Antiquity it hosted one of the glass objects, mainly tableware dated to the 3rd–8th
main commercial harbours of the western centuries AD. After a detailed archaeological study 78
Mediterranean, connected by land and maritime trade samples were selected for archaeometric analyses,
routes to the Levant and the Transalpine region. The including the most frequent vessel types (Fig.1) and all
strategic geographical position of the city, in connection the working debris found on the site.
to the Middle East, where glass primary production has
been proved, and the relative abundance of glass The presence of raw chunks and debris provides a very
working wastes and chunks excavated in the past important opportunity to investigate the composition of
decades, opened the way to questions about the the glass that was traded and worked in the area. The
provenance of the glass circulating in Aquileia and the majority of the samples are made of transparent glass
northern Adriatic Italy during Roman and Late Roman that is unintentionally coloured in various shades of
times. green and blue; only a few samples are completely
colourless, while some others are intentionally coloured
The present study, part of a wider PhD project, focuses in deep blue or yellow-amber.
on the glass finds excavated in the Domus of ‘Fondi ex
Glass News 37 January 2015 7
Figure 1: Selected types and relative dating. The abbreviation “Is” indicates archaeological types classified under
Isings 1957. Images from: Isings 1957 (Isings 1/18); Mandruzzato and Marcante 2005 (Isings 3, 42, 96, 104, 106,
109, 116, 117, 118); drawings by A. Marcante: Isings 85, 111, Crowfoot-Harden group A.
The chemical analyses, conducted by XRF and EPMA, assemblage, and the practice of recycling cullet can in
show that all the samples are silica soda-lime glass, some case be inferred from other evidence: some
produced with coastal sand rich in mollusc shells and examples of late types are made with glass of Roman
natron as a flux, which is in keeping with Roman and composition, the practice of recycling early glass in
Late Roman traditions. Late-Antique times, probably with the aim of obtaining
colourless (or nearly colourless) objects.
On the basis of the chemical analysis, the glass can be
divided in two main groups, referred respectively to The Levantine 1 composition is less well represented
classical Roman and Late Antique compositions, with a and, when present, limited to vessels; this evidence
predominance of Late Antique composition. suggests the possibility that for some reason of taste, i.e.
colour, price, technological reason (working ranges and
Samples with ‘Roman’ composition (30 in number) viscosity), market availability or other unknown reasons,
comprise manganese decoloured and antimony HIMT and Série 3.2 were preferred to Levantine 1.
decoloured, and the more common blue-green glasses. Furthermore, the working evidence identified here refers
The majority of samples (48) have Late Antique to the Late Antiquity and not to Early Roman times.
compositions, and can be related to those reported in the
literature as Levantine 1 (Freestone et al. 2000), HIMT The provenance of the glass finds was investigated with
(Freestone 1994) and Série 3.2 (Foy et al. 2003), with a isotopic analysis of strontium and neodymium
majority of HIMT glasses and a scarcity of Levantine 1. conducted on a selection of samples, chosen on the basis
Some compositional peculiarities reported in the of their chemical composition favouring the Sb-
Aquileia assemblage can be indicative of the sand of colourless, HIMT, Levantine 1 and Série 3.2 glass.
origin: HIMT glass from Aquileia is surprisingly rich in
iron, alumina and titania; in addition, some of the Isotopic analyses suggest a Middle-Eastern provenance
Levantine 1 samples are peculiarly rich in potash. for all the analysed samples; neodymium in particular
indicates a neat distinction between HIMT, of probable
The examination of the glass working indicators Egyptian provenance, and Levantine 1 and Série 3.2, of
provided interesting results: the two raw glass chunks probable Syro-Palestinian origin. Furthermore the
analysed here are composed of blue HIMT and Série 3.2 isotopic signature of Série 3.2 glasses is very close to the
glass respectively, while no working debris has a one of the Sb(antimony)-colourless samples, and
Levantine 1 composition. distinguished from Levantine 1. On the basis of
chemical and geochemical evidence, the exploitation of
All of the samples analysed show very low or negligible western Mediterranean sands for the production of any
recycling indicators (mainly Cu, Co, Pb, Zn, Sn). The of the analysed samples can be rejected.
extent of recycling can be considered very limited in this
8
Glass News 37 January 2015
Thanks to the results of this study, the role of the city in Actes du colloque international de l’AFAV, Montagnac:
Late Antiquity is thus more clearly delineated: raw glass Monique Mergoil, 41–85
was imported from the Middle East and Egypt, and
worked locally; a parallel import of vessels is also a Freestone, I C, 1994 Chemical analysis of ‘raw’ glass
reasonable assumption. The assemblage, as often fragments, in H R Hurst (ed.), Excavations at Carthage
reported in the literature for western sites, is dominated II, The Circular Harbour, North Side. The Site and
by HIMT, followed by Série 3.2; such compositions Finds Other than Pottery, British Academy Monographs
were locally worked, as testified by the occurrence of in Archaeology 4, Oxford University Press, 290
raw chunks of these compositions. No evidence of
working was identified for the less well represented Freestone, I C, Gorin-Rosen Y, Hughes M J, 2000
Levantine 1 composition. Recycling of glass cullet, was Primary Glass from Israel and the Production of Glass in
very limited, maybe as a consequence of the huge Late Antiquity and the Early Islamic Period, in M -D
quantity of fresh glass available on the market. Nenna (ed.), La route du verre. Ateliers primaires et
secondaires du second millénaire av. J-C au Moyen-
References Âge, Lyon: Maison de l’Orient Méditerranéen 33, 65–83
Foy, D, Vichy, M, Thirion-Merle, V, 2003 Isings, C, 1957 Roman Glass from Dated Finds,
Caractérisation des verres de la fin de l’Antiquité en Groningen/Djakarta
Méditerranée occidentale: l’émergence de nouveaux
courants commerciaux, in D Foy and M-D Nenna (eds), Mandruzzato, L and Marcante, A (eds), 2005 Vetri
Échanges et commerce du verre dans le monde antique, Antichi del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia.
Il Vasellame da Mensa, Corpus delle Collezione del
Vetro nel Fruili Venezia Guilia, II, Venice
A Special Group of Early Christian Glass ‘Gems’ from Greece
Anastassios Ch. Antonaras
Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki, Greece
[email protected]
Semiprecious stones are often depicted in Roman and Glass gems from glass workshop in Thessaloniki, late
Early Christian artworks, like mosaics, paintings, and 6th century. © Anastassios Antonaras
textiles. They are presented either as part of the jewelled
frame of the depiction, or within it decorating buildings, gradually sloping towards the sides, which are also
architectural elements like columns, or other objects e.g. mildly curved and not totally straight. On most of the
thrones, wreaths, shields, tables, crosses, book bindings gems no tooling marks are visible, although this might
etc. They usually appear green, blue and red in colour, simply indicate that the craftsman’s handling was subtle
mostly oblong and oval in shape. The prototypes of enough not to leave any traces on the finished product.
these gems, or rather the glass rendering of them is the
theme of the present work. 9
A group of newly found, over-sized emerald green glass
‘gems’, hitherto unpublished and otherwise unknown
from elsewhere, are under discussion. Oblong
(c.7x3x1.8cm, weighing c.26g), square (3x2x1.2cm),
triangular (4.3x1.8–0.8x1cm) and discoid examples
(2.8x0.8cm weighing 6.1g) have been recorded. The
gems were made by firing up glass, thus creating a
discoid object which would in turn get the desired final
shape by further tooling. The undersurface of the gems
is rough, with many bumps and small cavities, probably
representing the relief of the surface on which firing
took place, or possibly is the result of the uneven change
in temperature/cooling off of the mass of glass. In some
of the specimens one or more oblong, relatively
anomalous ridges are visible along the centre of the
undersurface. The upper surface is mildly concave,
Glass News 37 January 2015
For instance on one of the oblong items, from Pieria, a Acknowledgements
scar is visible along its long sides, which are particularly
straight, compared to the usually only partly flat sides. Thanks to Dr M. O’Hea, who will publish the glass finds
Furthermore, along the long sides of the triangular find, from Petra, for confirming the resemblance of the
from Fourka, tooling marks are clearly visible. It seems Jordanian finds to the Macedonian ones.
that the originally discoid gem was squeezed probably
by pinchers, the jaws of which left a scar along the sides. References
Four oblong examples were discovered in the debris of a Antonaras, A, 2014a An Early Christian Glass
late 6th-century glass workshop in Thessaloniki, giving Workshop at 45, Vasileos Irakleiou Street in the Centre
a date and a production site for the entire group of Thessaloniki, in D Keller, J Price and C Jackson
(Antonaras 2014a, 111, fig. 12.32). Several more (eds), Neighbours and Successors of Rome: Traditions
examples have been found in the excavations of four of Glass Production and Use in Europe and the Middle
Early Christian sites in northern Greece, all of them East in the Later First Millennium AD, Oxford, Oxbow
destroyed around the 7th century. So it appears, for the Books, 95–113
time being, that four Early Christian basilicas contained
objects decorated with gems of this type. Three of them Antonaras, A, 2014b The Glass Finds from a Provincial
were situated in Chalkidiki, the peninsula east of Early Christian Balkan Basilica, The Solinos Basilica in
Thessaloniki: in Kalithea (Antonaras 2014b, 106–107, Chalkidiki Greece, Nova Antička Duklja V, Podgorica,
fig. 14), Fourka and Ierissos, and one of them in 97–110
Louloudies in Pieria at the southwest of Thessaloniki at
the foothill of Mount Olympus. All sites are situated Davidson, G R, 1952 Corinth vol. XII. The Minor
within the political boundaries of the province of Objects, Princeton, The American School of Classical
Macedonia, at a distance of between 50 to 130km from Studies in Athens
the capital Thessaloniki, but all of them on the coast and
thus relatively easily accessible by sea, apparently Fiema, Z T, 2007 Storing in the Church: Artefacts in
representing its commercial hinterland, and in a way Room I of the Petra Church, in L Lavan, E Swift and T
defining the range of the regional trade. Similar finds Putzeys (eds), Objects in Context, Objects in Use,
have been reported in a basilica in Petra, Jordan (Fiema Material Spatiality in Late Antiquity, Leiden, Brill, 607–
2007, 617) and a similar, large but dark blue oval gem 624
dated to the Roman period was unearthed in Corinth
(Davidson 1952, 226, no. 791, pl. 101). Marki, E, 2002 Locating Productive and Workshop
Activities in the Episcopal Complex at Louloudies,
The new Macedonian finds for the first time now offer Pieria, in 22nd Symposium of Byzantine and Post-
clear archaeological evidence of the use of glass gems in Byzantine Archaeology and Art, Program and abstracts,
rendering the sizable decoration on ecclesiastical Athens, May 17, 18 and 19 2002, 65–66 (in Greek)
objects, otherwise known only through the idealized(?)
representations on mosaics, textiles, book illustrations Papangelos, I and Doukas K, 2011 The Early Christian
and textual descriptions. It offers a new tool to gain Basilica of Ierissos, Kyttaro Ierissou, politismiko
insight into this aspect of art history and perceive these periodiko entypo 6, 14–15 (in Greek)
depictions as actual realia of Late Antique art.
Not only in museums. Archaeological evidence of luxury glass in Portugal
Teresa Medici
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
[email protected]
The study of some rich 17th-century Portuguese Besides the quantity of glass related to everyday life,
archaeological glass assemblages, in the framework of a some evidence of other types of objects came to light,
PhD dissertation, offered a wide outlook on several rarely documented in archaeological contexts, and until
categories of glass vessels in use during the 17th now not even recorded in Portugal, suggesting that glass
century, from tableware to medical instruments,
allowing recognition of a range of shapes and models, a as a luxury item was an important presence in 17th-
few of them peculiar to the country (Ferreira 2004; century Portuguese society. Examples include a
Medici et al. 2009; Ferreira and Medici 2010). fragment of a Venetian enamelled bowl, a mould-blown
figurative vase, a gilded flask, and several specimens of
millefiori glass (Figs 1–3).
Glass News 37 January 2015 10
Most interesting is the case of the glass found at the
Clarissan monastery of Sta. Clara-a-Velha, at Coimbra, a
convent of nuns of the Order of St Clare, the ‘Poor
Clares’ or ‘Minoresses’. According to the rules, a
restricted range of objects and furniture were allowed in
convents, with many objects considered inappropriate
for the sacred space of the cloister, such as mirrors,
jewels, and similar objects. Coloured material, evoking
the idea of pleasure, should also be rejected (Evangelisti
2007, 28–9).
Figure 1: Gilded millefiori glass fragment from the Figure 2: Millefiori glass phial from the monastery
monastery of Sta. Clara-a-Velha, 17th century. of Sta. Clara-a-Velha, 17th century. V68 © Teresa
SCV398 © Teresa Medici Medici
Some chemical analyses have been carried out on a
Nevertheless, at the monastery of Sta. Clara-a-Velha not group of fragments of millefiori and speckled glass
only glass, but other classes of valuable commodities, found at Sta. Clara-a-Velha (Lima et al. 2012).
such as Chinese porcelain, are abundant. Among others, Comparing the Portuguese specimens with other known
it is worth noting a remarkable assemblage of Venetian- glass compositions, most of the fragments appear to be
type millefiori glass fragments, some of them also gilded quite different, mainly because of the high alumina
(Figs 1–3). content. Only a few fragments are of genuine Venetian
production. The surprising news is that, on two of the
It is evident that in upper-class convents nuns enjoyed analysed fragments, the body and the decoration show
all sorts of valuable goods as furnishings in their dissimilar compositions, only the decoration being
personal cells. Recent studies have underlined how the comparable with Venetian production. It is therefore
convents became strongly involved in the domestic and possible that some of the studied objects have been
social spheres of the nuns, due to the influence of their locally produced and decorated with imported coloured
families and acquaintances, providing many of their glass.
belongings (Evangelisti 2007, 53–4). Consequently, we
can argue that the selection of objects found in the cells Figure 3: Millefiori glass fragment from the
– including many items received as gifts from families monastery of Sta. Clara-a-Velha, 17th century. V108
and friends – reflected the taste not only of the nuns but © M. Munõz
also of the social groups associated with the convent.
11
This is also the case for the glass finds related to the
monastery of Sta. Clara-a-Velha, which can give us an
insight into the luxury glass in use at that time in
wealthy Portuguese society.
For instance, the millefiori glass seems to correlate to a
wide use of small bottles, or vials, possibly used as scent
bottles. We know that the use of perfume was common
in Portuguese high society of that time, and, in several
texts, glass containers are mentioned. It is not surprising
that the use of perfume was a widespread custom
relating to monastic sites as well, as pointed out by some
biographical texts left by the nuns (Belo 1993, 143).
Glass News 37 January 2015
These results lead to the intriguing conclusion that de Coimbra: resultados preliminares, Revista Portuguesa
luxury glass was not only imported from Venice, but de Arqueologia 7.2, 541–83
some local elaboration of Venetian and façon de Venise
patterns and techniques also took place, in order to Ferreira, M and Medici, T, 2010 Mould-blown
satisfy the specific tastes and needs of local customers. decorative patterns on medieval and post-medieval glass
Where this production occurred is a question without an beakers found in Portugal (14th-18th century), in C
answer yet, but we are confident of the results of our Fontaine (ed.), D'Ennion au Val Saint-Lambert. Le verre
investigation. It is evident that – also for modern periods soufflé-moulé. Actes des 23e Rencontres de l'Association
– archaeological data can supply valid information, française pour l'Archéologie du Verre, Brussels: Institut
integrating what we know from documents and museum royal du Patrimoine artistique, 401–409
collections.
Medici, T, Lopes, F M, Lima, A M, Larsson, M A and
References Pires de Matos, A, 2009 Glass bottles and jugs from the
Monastery of Sta. Clara-a-Velha, Coimbra, Portugal, in
Belo, F, 1993 Rellaçaõ da vida e morte da serva de deos Annales du XVII Congrés de l´Association
a veneravel madre Elenna Da Crus, por Sóror Maria do Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre (Antwerp 2006),
Céu, Lisbon: Filomena Belo and Quimera Editores Antwerp: Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du
Verre, 391–400
Evangelisti, S, 2007 Nuns. A history of Convent Life
1450 – 1700, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Lima, A, Medici, T, Pires de Matos, A and Verità, M,
Press 2012 Chemical analysis of 17th century millefiori
glasses excavated in the Monastery of Sta. Clara-a-
Ferreira, M A, 2004 Espólio vítreo proveniente da Velha, Portugal: comparison with Venetian and façon-
estação arqueológica do Mosteiro de Sta. Clara-a-Velha de-Venise production, Journal of Archaeological
Science 39(5), 1238–48
Large Assemblage of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century British and
Spanish Glass from Buenos Aires, Argentina
Daniel Schavelzon
University of Buenos Aires, Centre for Urban Archaeology
[email protected]
Two archaeological excavations made in Buenos Aires, Figures 1–2: Fine wine glasses, 17th century, probably
Argentina, between 2007 and 2013, have made it possible
for the first time to recover significant groups of English. © Patricia Frazzi
European glass fragments (English, Spanish, Dutch and
Italian) dating to the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries of Buenos Aires’ history. Records from that
centuries. The two groups of glass objects were found at period hardly mention glass objects or, if they do, the
two archaeological excavations corresponding to two references do not allow them to be identified accurately.
separate dwellings located just over a hundred feet apart Glass was a very valuable material in the early days of
within the same block, at 375 Bolivar Street and 460 the town, signalling the social prestige and economic
Venezuela Street under the direction of the author and power of its owner, and it is a rare find today.
Flavia Zorzi, in an area in the centre of the city where
excavations have been going on for over twenty years,
and where only isolated fragments of glass from those
dates had been recorded.
Buenos Aires in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
was a small town founded by Spanish settlers in 1580,
and as such its material culture was scarce and modest, a
situation which only changed when it became the seat of
a Vice-Royalty in 1776. Until then, Buenos Aires held an
isolated and marginal position in the international trade
map. This explains why only isolated fragments and a
few bottles have previously been found from the two first
Glass News 37 January 2015 12
The town, as part of a Spanish colony in America, was
under a system of monopoly of trade in the hands of the
Spanish government. But this did not stop smugglers,
who account for the appearance in early houses in
Buenos Aires of objects manufactured in different
countries of the Mediterranean and elsewhere in Europe.
Figure 3: A Buenos Aires lady. European glass was a Figure 4: Bulbous Spanish glass vessel.
symbol of wealth, and to contrast the national flag was © Patricia Frazzi
painted on the bookmark and the fan. Portrait by Fernando The glass vessels, at present undergoing restoration and
García del Molino, c. 1850 or before (Museo Fernández studies with the generous support of a grant from the
Blanco, Buenos Aires). Association for the History of Glass, have allowed
specialists to understand previous finds of whole or
The growth of the town into a city in the 1770s is fragmentary bottles and to gather information for a future
explained by its new status as seat of the Vice-Royalty of publication of all the discovered glass objects. Thus,
the Rio de la Plata as well as by the relaxation of the Argentina has a collection of glass from the first two
trade prohibitions, by the growth of a slave market in centuries of the colony, the second such collection in
which slaves were smuggled into Buenos Aires and then Latin America, after Mexico.
sold to Potosí (in present-day Bolivia) and all over South
America, and by the wealth generated from the illegal Figure 5: Large bulbous decanter from Spain during the
export of silver mined in Potosí. This new wealth caused restoration process. © Patricia Frazzi
a change in the daily life of the town, heightened by its
new status as seat of the Vice-Royalty, with its attending © Patricia Frazzi 13
court and authorities.
The assemblage is made up of a group of large case
bottles (see Frontispiece) – mostly dark green although
others range from turquoise to clear blue – together with
decanters, medicine vials, wine glasses (Figs 1–2),
tumblers with ground romantic motifs, flasks and
complex Spanish blown glass bottles (Figs 4–5), made of
thin and transparent glass, which served a decorative
rather than a functional purpose. The restoration of these
two groups of glass vessels, under the direction of
Patricia Frazzi, has posed a challenge in Latin America as
there have not been enough finds to create a body of
experts in glass restoration. At present work is also being
carried out on several pieces found in previous
excavations, but which, because of the lack of
comparable material, could not at the time be ascribed to
either a period or a place of origin.
Glass News 37 January 2015
NEW DISCOVERIES Glass of the Roman World illustrates the arrival of new
cultural systems, mechanisms of trade and an expanded
Vetro a retorti fragment from economic base in the early 1st millennium AD which, in
Wookey, Somerset combination, allowed the further development of the
existing glass industry. Glass became something which
Amongst glass recently excavated at the site of the encompassed more than simply a novel and highly
Bishop and Bath and Wells’ palace at Wookey in decorative material. Glass production grew and its
Somerset by Context One Archaeology, was a fragment consumption increased until it was assimilated into all
of 16th-century vetro a retorti Venetian or façon de levels of society, used for display and luxury items but
Venise glass. It is an everted rim fragment of conical equally for utilitarian containers, windows and even
profile from the drinking bowl of a pedestal goblet or tools.
beaker, with a rim diameter of 130-140mm. Other
excavated glass included a window fragment painted with These 18 papers by renowned international scholars
a Tudor-style rose, although in a very fragile condition. include studies of glass from Europe and the Near East.
Further 16th- and 17th-century glass fragments found by The authors write on a variety of topics where their work
the owner of the present house come from a colourless is at the forefront of new approaches to the subject. They
wine glass, and pale green glass beaker, jug, urinal and both extend and consolidate aspects of our understanding
case bottle. A report has been prepared by Rachel Tyson. of how glass was produced, traded and used throughout
the Empire and the wider world drawing on chronology,
©Rachel Tyson typology, patterns of distribution, and other
methodologies, including the incorporation of new
NEW PUBLICATIONS scientific methods. Though focusing on a single material
the papers are firmly based in its archaeological context
Glass of the Roman World in the wider economy of the Roman world, and consider
glass as part of a complex material culture controlled by
Edited by Justine Bayley, Ian Freestone and the expansion and contraction of the Empire. The volume
Caroline Jackson is presented in honour of Jenny Price, a foremost scholar
of Roman glass.
AHG members’ and subscribers’ offer until
July 2015: Glass, Alcohol and Power in Roman Iron
Age Scotland
Regular Price: £40.00
Special Price: £30.00 Dominic Ingemark
Please contact the AHG Secretary for the Publisher: National Museums Scotland Enterprises Ltd
discount code (see back page) 2014
ISBN: 978-1905267811
Publisher: Oxbow Books. Due 2015 Paperback, 300 pages, 153 b/w maps, diagrams and
ISBN: 978-1782977742 illustrations
Hardback, 272 pages, H280 x W216 (mm), b/w and 17 colour photographs
colour illustrations Usually £35 (see below for offer details)
Available from www.oxbowbooks.com; 01865 241249
Glass News 37 January 2015 14
The words you are searching are inside this book. To get more targeted content, please make full-text search by clicking here.
Newsletters of The Association For The History Of Glass Limited.
January 2003 (12) to July 2016 (40)
Discover the best professional documents and content resources in AnyFlip Document Base.
Search
GLASS NEWS
- 1 - 50
- 51 - 100
- 101 - 150
- 151 - 200
- 201 - 250
- 251 - 300
- 301 - 350
- 351 - 400
- 401 - 450
- 451 - 452
Pages: