A "Brief" History of Glass

Glass has been around for thousands of years, yet it has never ceased to fascinate.  Glass has had many uses and taken many forms throughout its history, but some things have remained very constant.  There are so many dimensions to historical and contemporary glass that a focus on the progression of techniques and trends throughout the ages will be explored here.

Batches of glass have been composed of sand, soda, and lime since antiquity.  Sand (silica) makes up 60 to 70 per cent of the batch, with soda (sodium carbonate) composing another 15 to 20 per cent, and lime the remaining (Polak, 11).  Sand is difficult to melt, and once it is melted, too viscous to easily work with.  Soda is added to lower the melting point of the mixture and make it more fluid.  The problem with a simple sand soda composition is that it easily dissolves in water, and that is why lime is added to stabilize the mixture (Kolb, 11).

Though it seems quite solid, glass is actually a super-cooled liquid. Unlike crystal, whose molecules are arranged in a precisely defined crystalline structure, when glass cools there is only one amorphous molecule giving it shape (Cooke, 8).  These properties give glass its versatility and fluidity, as well as cause its reflective and refractive qualities.

There have been numerous tales of how glass was first invented, such as the myth made popular by Elder Pliny during the late first century AD.  According to this Roman author, "a ship belonging to some traders in nitrum put in here [the coast of modern Lebanon] and that they scattered along the shore to prepare a meal.  Since, however, no stones for supporting their cauldrons were forthcoming, they rested them on lumps of nitrum from their cargo."  When these became heated and were completely mingled with the sand on the beach a strange liquid flowed in streams and this, it is said, was the origin of glass (Tait, 21).  This story seems as if it could hold some truth since nitrum (or natron) would have acted as the soda, but it is doubtful that a fire would have provided a consistent and high enough (at least 1140° C) temperature to melt and fuse the various components, and thus it is nothing more than a fanciful tale (Cooke, 8).

History has come to show that the first glass was actually made in Mesopotamia around 3,000 BC (Battie, 22).  Glass was most likely first used as a glaze for earthenware vessels, and then discovered that it could be used as a medium on its own. 

Techniques first used to make glass vessels were core-forming and casting.  Core-forming is exactly what it sounds like, a sand core would be made, and molten glass would be gathered around it and shaped, as to leave the center hollow.  The technique of casting consisted of taking mosaic glass and fusing pieces together under heat while placed over a shaped mould so the glass would take its form. 

Many other techniques, such as the use of moulds and lost-wax casting, were used to make vessels out of glass before the use of a blowpipe.  The first use of a blowpipe is thought to have been in Jerusalem around 40 BC  (Whitehouse, 26). Regardless of when or where it happened exactly, the practice of using a blowpipe spread rapidly because of the vast territory of the Roman Empire.  Blowing vessels rather than using the previous techniques was faster, so production increased, and it was no longer just an item for royalty or the wealthy, and so it became available to a wider range of people.

One of the first methods of decorating the outside of blown glass was to roll the molten gob of glass in frit.  Frit is a mixture of sand and fluxes of differing colors in a pebble-like form that is laid on a flat surface in order to be picked up by the molten glass (Tait, 244). 

Colored glass was commonplace in the ancient world, but not necessarily because that was the desired effect.  Because of natural impurities in sand, ancient glass usually had a green or amber tint (Whitehouse, 30).  To produce clear glass, various chemicals can be added to the glass batch.  The process of purposefully making colored glass was also known in ancient times.  Adding cobalt or copper produced blue, chromium made a green, and manganese brought a violet hue to glass (Kolb, 31).

“Within 20 or 30 years of [the invention of glassblowing] all the requisite tools and techniques for the new process had been developed.  For the most part they have remained unaltered to the present day" (Battie, 30).  The process of blowing used in ancient times is exactly as it is today, "the gaffer [skilled workmen] first gathers a gob of molten glass from a pot in the furnace on the end of a blowpipe and after slightly inflating the gob he manipulates it into the desired shape by blowing and swinging it, rolling it on a flat surface (the marver) or shaping it with tools, The partially blown piece may be reheated and blown repeatedly to modify its shape.  It is then removed from the blowpipe and attached to a pontil rod (punty) with a seal of glass so that the vessel's neck and rim can be finished. It is placed in the annealing oven to be cooled very gradually and evenly throughout its thickness over a day" (Battie, 30).

Different areas of the European continent all had their specific contributions to style, but none were as influential as Italy.  In 1204 the "Latin Empire of Constantinople" was formed after the Sack of Constantinople.  Venice acquired “almost half of all the territory that was redistributed," and during this process they also received the glasshouses in the territory (Tait, 148).  With the subsequent skills, knowledge, and wealth they acquired, it gave them advantage over all other glass producers.

Another reason why Venice had a very successful glass industry is because it was strictly regulated.  In 1292 the Grand Council of Venice set standards for the production of glass, such as what types of wood to use for the furnace fires, how many glory holes to have in the shop, and the number of months per year people could work (Polak, 53).  It was really an early form of a glassblowers union.  The Council also forbade importing any glass into Venice, and no one from outside of Venice was allowed to blow glass there. 

Glass production was eventually moved to the island of Murano, about an hours boat trip from Venice (Tait, 149).  This was to reduce the risk of fire from the glass furnaces, but also to keep the craft fiercely guarded.  By 1300, most Venetian glass houses had been moved to Murano.  The regulations set in 1292 lasted for over five hundred years and were revised from time to time after, but always retained the very high standards.

During the Renaissance, Italy was the hub of most artistic activity, and Venice was the foremost producer of impeccable glass.  Cristallo is a pure, thin, colorless glass that was formulated on Murano between 1450 and 1460 (Polak, 58).  It has been possibly the most significant creation to come from the Venetian glass industry.  No other glass was ever as refined until its invention.  There were many other types of glass, and new techniques the Venetians contributed.  Lattimo glass is a milky white glass, whose name was derived from the Italian word for milk (latte), and its production imitated the costly Chinese porcelain that was imported and highly prized by royalty in the fifteenth century (Battie, 63).  Calcedonio looked like banded stone, and different formulae were used to mimic stones such as onyx, malachite, and opal (Tait, 165).  Glassmakers of earlier times had used colored glass to replace precious stones, but never had it been done with such skill and comparable results.
(vase by Andy Thompson)
Thread decorating had also been used in the past, but a very distinct Venetian decoration, vetro a filigrana, was developed that surpassed them all. Different forms of vetro a filigrana are produced by picking up canes, usually white, into a molten glass gather, and they can either be kept separate, twisted, or criss-crossed to create many patterns (Tait, 168). These techniques are still used in a lot of contemporary glass art.

With the arrival of Europeans on the North American Continent also came the glass industry.  In 1608, the newly established English colony of Jamestown became the first center of glass in America (The Toledo Museum of Art, 83).  American glass was not very successful because of the harsh new living conditions and the need to focus on agriculture, but once more and more glass houses popped up along the frontiers, persistence paid off.  The United States did not have any real role in affecting the overall world of glass in the early years, but the establishment of glass industry set the framework for future endeavors.

Harvey Littleton, who was a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was the initiator of the "studio movement."  He ran the first glass program in the United States in 1962, and moved production out of the factory, into the individual artist's hands once again (Warmus, 20).  Along with the help of Dominick Labino, who was the vice-president of Johns-Manville Fiber Glass Corporation, they created a small glass furnace that enabled them to work on a smaller scale (Miller, 9).  Their example inspired others, and soon studios popped up all over the country, but nowhere else was there as much of a concentration as in the Pacific Northwest.  The weather was ideal for glassblowing because it didn't have many hot or cold extremes, and there were already some prominent glass artists in the area (including Dale Chihuly). 

The only problem with giving so much freedom to the individual artist was that the craft that was traditionally handed down from gaffer to apprentice was lost.  If individuals did not travel abroad, such as to Murano, to watch masters, they had to learn on their own.  Artists had to use heavy experimentation to figure out how to perform techniques, and how to build furnaces and annealing ovens, but much innovation came out of the experiments (Miller, 11). 

The Studio Glass Movement has helped more and more people to be exposed to and have the opportunity to blow glass.  It is no longer an art whose secrets of production are kept secret on an exclusive island, but something that anyone can have access to.  It's incredible that now you don't have to possess any prior knowledge of glassblowing; you can simply come to studios like Foci Glass, Minnesota Center for Glass Arts and have the chance to work with glass right away!

Glass is explored for all that it holds artistically and then used for simple items that are commonplace and hold little to no aesthetic value.  It is in our everyday lives more than we can acknowledge, and it still captivates artists of our time.  Even though there is much art produced in glass today, "resistance to glass persists.  It is too shiny, too hard.  Usually not noticed is that glass, unlike more acceptable sculpture materials, can be entered visually, can be looked into.  Glass thus offers a fourth dimension-that of the inside" (Perreault, 45).
 
"In essence, glassblowing is simple, but it demands the greatest skill and dexterity" (Battie, 30).  If you've been working with glass for years or have only begun, you must learn to take control of the molten mass otherwise it will tell you what the final form will be.  There is a delicate balance between art and craft and you have to focus.  In doing so, the glass' natural properties are manipulated into beautiful pieces that exhibit the unique qualities that the medium holds.  Glass is an amazingly versatile, enchanting substance and as history and current trends in glass have revealed, "what we can do with it is limited only by our imagination" (Kolb, 53).

Information compiled by, Sofia Lorraine

(If there is any information you disagree with, please let me know!)

References

Battie, David, & Cottle, Simon (Eds.). (1991). Sotheby Concise Encyclopedia of Glass.
London: Conran Octopus Limited.

Byrd, Joan Falconer (2004, June/July). Mark Peiser: Looking Within. American Craft,
64(3), 32-35.

Cooke, Frederick (1986). Glass: Twentieth Century Design. New York: E.P. Dutton.

Kolb, Kenneth & Doris (1988). Glass: Many Facets. Hillside, Enslow Publishers,
Inc.

Miller, Bonnie (1991). Out of the Fire: Contemporary Glass Artists and Their Work.
San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Perreault, John (2005, June/July). Karen Lamonte: Reflections on Glass. American
Craft, 65(3), 42-45.

Polak, Ada (1975). Glass: Its tradition and its makers. New York: Putnam.

Schmid, Edward (1998).  Beginning Glassblowing.  Bellingham: Glass Mountain Press.

Shearing, G. (2006, April/May). Well Hung: Chandeliers Revealed. American Craft,
66(2), 40-43.

Tait, Hugh (Ed.). (2004). Five Thousand Years of Glass.  Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.

The Toledo Museum of Arts (1969).  Art in Glass.

Warmus, William (2000). The Essential Dale Chihuly. New York: The Wonderland
Press.

Whitehouse, David (1988).  Glass of the Roman Empire. Corning: The Corning
Museum of Glass.