Ancient and Modern Glass

The gap between ancient and modern glassworking techniques is smaller than one may think. While the earliest glass vessels were made in a process known as core-forming, glassblowing would become the dominant form of production beginning in the first century BCE. The techniques pioneered in Roman times are, in many cases, still used today

Early Roman Imperial period glassworkers started to use iron tools such as blow pipes, tweezers, jacks, and shears— now produced in steel and stainless steel—for faster and higher quality production. These tools are still part of modern glass workshops. Shears accurately snip molten glass, and tweezers are used to pull and shape necks and rims, just as in antiquity. Artisans use jacks to shape and roll a piece on the marver, and wooden blocks and paddles to shape the bottoms of vessels. Other glassworking materials such as dichroic glass seen on Richard Ritter's blown glass piece, Black Vase, were unknown to ancient glassworkers. Ancient glassworking techniques are demonstrated in the videos in the "To Learn More" section of the website.

After a glass vessel has cooled, artisans can continue to refine its appearance through cold-working techniques. Wheel-cutting (or -engraving) uses a rotating wheel to decorate the surface of glass objects. The rotating wheel uses a disc covered with abrasive materials such as diamond or topaz that is continually lubricated with an agent such as pumice in grease to grind down the glass. Modern machinery enables precise movement of the glass object for exact cutting. In contrast, the medieval Islamic molar flask in the exhibition lacks uniformity in its decoration. The equipment used for the molar flask would have been a wheel manually operated by a bow, with the artisan holding the object in one hand while the other controls the bow. This technique makes precision work difficult, leading to irregularity in appearance.