Notes:
An excerpt from the 30 minute film, this is the version projected in the galleries of The Corning Museum of Glass from the 1980s through the 1990s.
For complete video, see "Glassmakers of Herat (Bib no. 62042)
Filmed in Herat, Afghanistan, in the fall of 1977.
In 1968, a one room working glass factory with a mud-brick furnace was discovered in Western Afghanistan. This factory is owned by cousins, Saifullah and Saidullah. Glassmaking has been a family tradition for over 200 years, and continues to be done in the same manner as described in seventh-century Assyrian cuneiform tablets. This method uses white quartz stones and ishgar (plant ash), which are combined in a wood-burning furnace to produce hand-blown glass. In the fall of 1977, Robert H. Brill, Frederick R. Matson, Latif Abdul Majoob, and Abdul Satar Popal led an expedition to Herat to witness the glassmaking activities.
VHS.
DVD.
Source of this copy unknown.
Poor quality; color has deteriorated. See also: The Corning Museum of Glass. Video disc no. 1 (Bib no. 103530) which includes a better quality of this video.
CMGL has a 1" master of this.
Jan. 2002: 16mm copy in freezer.
Event Notes:
Filmed in Herat, Afghanistan, in the fall of 1977.