All About Glass
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This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Librarian at our Rakow Research Library.
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A first-century A.D. Roman mold-blown drinking vessel inscribed in Greek with words meaning “Take the victory.”
(German, “wart beaker”) A heavy glass tumbler made of forest glass and decorated with prunts. It was produced in Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries.
A defective object discarded during manufacture. Wasters are routinely recycled as cullet.
Changes on the surface of glass caused by chemical reaction with the environment. Weathering usually involves the leaching of alkali from the glass by water, leaving behind siliceous weathering products that are often laminar.
A process of decorating the surface of glass by the grinding action of a wheel, using disks of various sizes and materials (usually copper, but sometimes stone), and an abrasive in a grease or slurry applied to a wheel, as the engraver holds the object against the underside of the rotating wheel.
A late 17th- and 18th-century English drinking vessel engraved with a toast, a symbol (an orange tree, for example), or a motto supporting William of Orange (King William III, r. 1689-1702), or with his portrait. William III was a Protestant, and his political opponents were the Roman Catholic
A decanter with matching wineglasses, sometimes with a matching tray.
A type of goblet with the stem in the form of vertical, winglike flanges composed of trails arranged in a complex design that may include dragons, sea horses, and other creatures. The German term for a winged goblet is Flügelglas.
A glass globe intended to be hung in a prominent place to ward off the evil eye.