Corning Museum of Glass

A colorless glass containing chalk, developed in Bohemia in the late 17th century. Vessels of thick chalk glass were often elaborately engraved.

The process of cutting into the surface of an annealed glass object either by holding it against a rotating copper wheel fed with an abrasive or by scratching it, usually with a diamond.

A drinking vessel with a bell-shaped body, a foot, and two handles. Kantharos (from Greek), cantharus (from Latin)

A drinking vessel with a bell-shaped body, a foot, and two handles. Kantharos (from Greek), cantharus (from Latin)

A concavity in the base of a vessel, usually made by depressing the base with a tool. The provision of a kick strengthens the bottom of the vessel and reduces the vessel’s capacity.

Any instrument used by glassworkers to develop and shape an object. Glassworkers’ tools include the blowpipe, pontil, gathering iron, jacks, shears, clapper, pallet, block, pincers, battledore, lipper, and crimper.

The process of fusing or shaping glass (usually in or over a mold) by heating it in a kiln.

The process of reheating a blank until it becomes soft and gradually flows under its own weight over or into a former mold and eventually assumes the shape of the mold. Soda-lime glass becomes soft at about 1110°F (600°C). Slumping is also known as sagging.

A vitreous substance made of finely powdered glass colored with metallic oxide and suspended in an oily medium for ease of application with a brush. The medium burns away during firing in a low-temperature muffle kiln (about 965°-1300°F or 500°-700°C). Sometimes, several firings are required to fuse the different colors of an elaborately enameled object.

An oven used to process a substance by burning, drying, or heating. In contemporary glassworking, kilns are used to fuse enamel and for kiln-forming processes such as slumping.

(1) The process of founding or melting the batch; (2) heating pieces of glass in a kiln or furnace until they bond (see Casting and Kiln forming); (3) heating enameled glasses until the enamel bonds with the surface of the object.

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 Some molds (e.g., dip molds) impart a pattern to the parison, which is then withdrawn, and blown and tooled to the desired shape and size; other molds (sometimes known as full-size molds) are used to give the object its final form, with or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.

A substance, usually clay with a high silica content, capable of resisting high temperatures. Furnaces and pots are made from refractory materials.

In glassworking, (1) a lathe shaft with a hollow end, designed to receive spindles; (2) a metal rod around which beads and other small objects can be formed.

An ornamental knob.

The narrow part of a goblet or tazza that separates the bowl and the foot.

The technique of forming a vessel by winding or gathering molten glass around a core supported by a rod. After forming, the object is removed from the rod and annealed. After annealing, the core is removed by scraping.

(1) A rounded, hollow vessel; (2) the uppermost part of a goblet, tazza, or wineglass.

A blob of glass applied to a glass object primarily as decoration, but also to afford a firm grip in the absence of a handle.

A drinking vessel for wine or beer. It has an ovoid mouth, a cylindrical body, and a conical foot. The body is usually decorated with prunts.

Deep red glass colored by the addition of gold chloride to the batch. The method of making gold ruby glass was perfected by Johann Kunckel (1637-1703) in Potsdam shortly before 1679.

The mixture of raw materials (often silica, soda or potash, and lime) that is melted in a pot or tank to make glass. Cullet, as well as minor ingredients such as colorants, can be added to the batch to help the melting process.

(German, “beaker”) A large cylindrical beaker, usually with enameled decoration, made in Germany, Bohemia, and Silesia between the 16th and 18th centuries, and used mainly for drinking beer.

(French, “manner, or style, of Venice”) Glass made in imitation of Venetian products, at centers other than Venice itself. Façon de Venise glass was popular in many parts of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

(German) A flask with the neck divided into two or more tubes. The Kuttrolf, which has Roman antecedents, was produced by German glassworkers in the later Middle Ages; it is also found among Venetian and façon de Venise glasses of the 16th and 17th centuries.