Gold-band glass is the most elaborate and unusual variety of ribbon glass. Strips of gold foil were laminated between ribbons of colorless glass. Precisely how these vessels were formed is still uncertain. Perhaps groups of ribbons were fused in sinuous patterns, after which the fused elements were laid side by side in a mold, fused again, and shaped by tooling. We do know that, after annealing, the vessels were finished by grinding away irregularities. The most common types, miniature bottles and cylindrical boxes with lids, were produced in Italy during the first century A.D.