Corning Museum of Glass

(from French, “new art”) An international late 19th- and early 20th-century decorative style characterized by organic foliate forms, sinuous lines, and non-geometric, “whiplash” curves. Art Nouveau originated in Europe in the late 1880s, and reached the peak of its popularity around 1900. In America, it inspired, among others, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). The name is derived from La Maison de l’Art Nouveau, a gallery for interior design that opened in Paris in 1896. The German term for Art Nouveau is Jugendstil.

From French, Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, an exhibition in Paris in 1925. A style of design that originated in the 1920s and was popular in western Europe and the United States in the 1930s. Art Deco is distinguished by simple, streamlined shapes and frequently by nonrepresentational motifs.

A form used for shaping and/ or decorating molten glass. Some molds (e.g., dip molds) impart a pattern to the parison, which is then withdrawn, and blown and tooled to the desired shape and size; other molds (sometimes known as full-size molds) are used to give the object its final form, with or without decoration. Dip molds consist of a single part and are usually shaped like beakers. Full-size molds usually have two or more parts and can be opened to extract the object. Nowadays, most molds are made of metal, but stone, wood, plaster, and earthenware molds were used in the past and are still occasionally employed today.

The reservoir for oil in a lamp.