All About Glass
All About Glass
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 Glass Question at our Rakow Research Library.
Discover the history of Roman cameo glass, and lean how it is made, with experts at The Corning Museum of Glass. This video was featured in the exhibit Reflecting Antiquity at The Corning Museum of Glass, February 15 through May 27, 2008.
Watch experts at The Corning Museum of Glass recreate one of the stranger glass pieces made in Roman times — a jug inside of another, larger jug! This video was featured in the exhibit Reflecting Antiquity at The Corning Museum of Glass, February 15 through May 27, 2008.
Learn about ancient iridized glass and a method for creating iridized glass surfaces. This video was featured in the exhibit Reflecting Antiquity at The Corning Museum of Glass, February 15 through May 27, 2008. Note: the method portrayed uses stannous chloride fumes, which can be highly toxic. Do
Learn about Gold Glass from Ancient Rome, and also, how to make gold glass today. This video was featured in the exhibit Reflecting Antiquity at The Corning Museum of Glass, February 15- May 27, 2008.
Cage cups were made by Roman glasscutters in the fourth century AD. The entire vessel was cut from a thick-walled glass hemisphere. The metal attachments show that the object was a hanging lamp. Imagine the shadows the "cage" would have cast as the lamplight flickered.
Listen as curator David Whitehouse describes a Roman cage cup. Cage cups are the most exclusive luxury glasses made in the later Roman Empire. They date from about AD 250 to the mid-fourth century. Cutting and grinding a single thick-walled blank was a laborious and risky process. If just one mesh