Posts Tagged ‘ancient egypt’

Egypt
In Ancient Egypt jewels were an important part of costume; they were worn by men and children as well as by women, and were often used to adorn statues of gods and goddesses. Images of sacred animals such as cats and crocodiles are often given necklaces, bracelets and earrings made of gold. Earrings, introduced from Asia, seem to have appeared later than other types of jewellery and the earliest important example dates from the end of the second intermediary period (circa 1600 BC). This is a pair consisting of several hoops soldered together which would have hung from large holes pierced in the earlobes. Another early type is a simple hoop of gold, glass paste, faience, jasper or other semiprecious stone worn by pulling the earlobe through the open end, something that was possibly done in infancy.
X-ray photographs of mummies in the Cairo Museum show earlobes extremely elongated and deformed by the use of very heavy ear ornaments in childhood. One mummy in the museum of Turin has two earrings worn on the same earlobe. The mummy of Tutankhamen has large holes pierced in the earlobes, proving that earrings were worn by men as well as women.
During the New Kingdom (1559-1085 BC) large earplugs came into fashion and these also caused deformation of the earlobes. They are designed as faience discs and have a groove round the edge which enabled them to fit into an enlarged hole stretched in the earlobes. Other ear ornaments of contemporary date were in the form of mushroom-shaped studs with the stem pushed through such a hole. In both cases these ornaments were worn in the plane of the ear rather than at right angles to it.
By the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty the decoration of earrings was very varied: cascades of drops, flowers and bell-shaped motifs for pendent earrings and rosettes and flowerhead motifs for the large discs.
The Greek World
Around 800 BC contacts between Greece and the East became closer and two centuries of Oriental influence in Greek art followed. Cyprus and Syria — taken in the broad sense to include Phoenicia and the Neo-Hittite North Syria — were the two countries that mainly influenced Greece, the latter acting as a channel for Egyptian and Mesopotamian influence.
The relative abundance of gold artefacts of this period is undoubtedly related to the opening up of the East to the Greek world through colonization, giving access to rich sources of precious metal in Asia Minor, especially to the Lydian gold mines. The preponderance of the ateliers of Eastern Greece throughout the period is evidence of this. Embossing, filigree and granulation grew in popularity and inlaying with stones, amber and glass made its appearance. Gold earrings of flat crescent design, often decorated with granulation and inlays, and suspended with fine chains are well represented, as well as earrings designed as spirals to be thrust through a hole in the lobe. They were either simple gold wire spirals or had a variety of finials decorated with beading and granulation, worn with the ends pointing upwards. Many variations of this type are known, some with more, some with fewer turns of thin and thick gold wire, others splayed out in the form of a letter W with a higher central point. In the late 7th century the W-shaped spiral was sometimes decorated with elaborate finials in the shape of griffins’ heads, pomegranates or rams heads of Oriental inspiration.
The crescent or boat-shaped earring of Eastern tradition, seen in Ur in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, finally reached Greece via Syria and Cyprus about 700 BC and the type was to flourish there and in the Hellenized centres of the Eastern Mediterranean for some four centuries. Greek examples of the 7th century BC are characterized by a rather fat boat-shaped motif, sometimes decorated with granulation, on a thin gold wire going through the pierced earlobe. The hoop with beaded pendant of Cypriot tradition became popular in the 7th and 6th centuries Bc but remained confined to Eastern Greece.
Greek jewellery of the 6th and early 5th centuries is of artistic brilliance but very little has survived. It is, however, amply documented in vase painting and sculpture. Three of the few regions relatively rich in archaic gold jewellery are Sicily, Rhodes and Cyprus, where crescent earrings of the traditional form continued to be produced.
It was not until after the Persian wars that gold became more plentiful in Greece. By the accidents of history, this Greek Classical jewellery is better known from examples found in Southern Russia, Cyprus and Southern Italy than from Greece proper. The forms were extremely varied and among the abundance of diadems, necklaces, bracelets, pendants and finger-rings, earrings were very popular. They came in three main forms: the boat or crescent, the spiral or helix, and the disc with cone or inverted pyramid pendant.
As in the Archaic period, vase painting and sculpture would seem to suggest that earrings were the most popular form of ornament; statues of female figures were frequently adorned with them, sometimes sculpted in marble and sometimes made of precious metal, as can be inferred from the holes pierced in the ears. It is possible that the ornaments created to adorn statues or donated to temples to be worn by images of goddesses in religious processions were more elaborate, rich and complex than those used in ordinary life, which were buried with the dead and have now been recovered from graves. That they were part of ordinary dress is proved by representation on coins, vase paintings and terracotta figures.
As already mentioned, most of these surviving examples came from areas outside mainland Greece, such as Etruria and Southern Italy.
The boat-shaped earring, which, as we have seen, dates back at least to 13th-century Cyprus, was the most popular form of ear ornament in the Classical period. In its simplest form it consisted of a crescent terminating in a wire for insertion into the earlobe, and remained in fashion, virtually without a break, throughout antiquity. In the 5th and 4th centuries BC it was widespread throughout Southern Russia, Thracia, Macedonia and also Sicily where it was depicted on Syracusae coins of 474-450 Bc adorning the head of Artemis-Arethusa.
P 25 The earliest examples from the Classical period are very simple, consisting of a boat-shaped motif decorated with beading, filigree and granulation. Later, in the second half of the 4th century BC, they tend to be more elaborate in design, often with suspended pendants and chains of various types. Among the most complex examples of the boat-shaped earring is one from Tarentum where the boat is completely encrusted with filigree, granulation, leaf and palmetto motifs and is merely a vehicle
P. 27 for the exuberant decoration of rosettes, nikai, doves, chains and pendants. This decorative repertoire of palmettos, rosettes, flowerheads and spirals can also be found, enlarged, on contemporary vase painting and funerary monuments. The Tarentum example perfectly illustrates the general trend of the period towards increasing elaboration of decoration which is common to the whole Hellenic world. The heavy use of filigree floral motifs and stylized palmettos to enliven the flat surface of the basic boat-shape and the curved surface of the rosette petals are deliberately intended to create a complex chiaroscuro effect with light, shade and reflection and give drama and depth to the object; in later periods this effect was often achieved chromatically by the combination of various different gemstones and by the use of multicoloured enamels.
It is interesting to note that even at this stage the craftsmen of Tarentum were also catering for a less prosperous clientele, making gilt terracotta imitations of the type described above, probably cast in moulds taken from the more expensive gold examples — although it is possible that these cheaper, rather fragile ornaments were made specifically as grave goods.
Another very popular form of earring of the second half of the 5th century BC was that in the form of a disc supporting either one or three pendants, the central one invariably being a female head, an inverted pyramid, an amphora or a cone and the two flanking ones articulated chains with links of various types. By the Hellenistic period disc-and-pendant earrings were to become the most popular and widespread form of ear ornament.
Among the earliest examples is a superb pair from Tarentum, each with a disc decorated at the centre with a filigree rosette within a border of corded wire and beaded work and a female head suspended from a central pendant flanked by two chains of conical beads with bell-shaped terminals. The female head pendants are chased in great detail, with the hairstyle typical of the time as seen on terracottas, vase paintings and coins: parted at the centre, divided in two bandeaux and gathered in a large bun worn low on the nape of the neck. The hair being brushed away from the ears leaves ample space for a large pair of earrings consisting of a pyramidal cluster of beads suspended from a rosette. The great popularitiy of earrings throughout antiquity is certainly linked to the fashion for women to wear the hair gathered at the top or the back of the head, or at least brushed away from the temples.
The head-shaped pendants show an interesting feature: at the base there is a small hole into which it is likely that a piece of sponge or cloth soaked in perfumed oil was inserted. Putting perfumed sponges in necklace pendants was common in antiquity, and Etruscan earrings with perfume compartments have been found. Though not common, such earrings with female head pendants have been recovered in Southern Russia, Cyprus and Etruria.
Another highly significant detail on this example is the presence on the disc and chains of small traces of delicately coloured enamel. The introduction of polychrome enamels in jewellery was an important innovation that dramatically transformed the work of Greek goldsmiths, who had until then achieved effects of movement and contrast through the use of filigree and granulation. It is unfortunate that in this and many other examples the major part of the enamel has now worn away, since polychrome enamels defined the different elements of the decoration, and were therefore essential to the overall effect of the piece.
Rather more widely dispersed were disc earrings with an inverted pyramid pendant often between two chains. This type of pendant, already seen in the Archaic and early Classical periods, became very fashionable towards the end of the 5th century, reaching the height of its popularity in the 4th century BC, and continued to be one of the favourite forms of ear ornament of the Hellenistic period: many examples have been found in Cyprus, Southern Russia, Macedonia and Apulia. The type is also represented on coins from Elis, Locri, Metapontum and Tarentum, on the tetra-drachm of Eukleidas from Syracuse, and on 4th-century BC terracotta antefixes from Tarentum, Metapontum and Heraclea.
The earliest examples are characterized by extremely elaborate gold leaf applications, filigree and granulation on both disc and pyramidal pendant. Later examples are simpler and often completely undecorated apart from a gemstone, usually a garnet, set at the centre of the disc. Gemstones, which made their first appearance in jewellery towards the end of the 4th century BC, became more and more prominent from now until Roman times.
Contemporary with the earring types described above and just as important were
disc earrings with a vase or a cone pendant. They enjoyed a long period of popularity,
P. 26 peaking between the 2nd and i st century BC. Tarentum, Cyprus and Southern Russia
offer the best examples, often set with garnets, coloured glass beads and pearls. This
type is well documented on Syracusae and African coins of the ,3rd and 2nd century
BC.
P. 28, 29 Hellenistic art is cosmopolitan in character, the same forms being found all over the Eastern Mediterranean. Jewellery was no exception-, examples from Apulia are hardly distinguishable from those from Thessaly, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Thrace or Southern Russia.
Particularly popular in the 2nd century BC were disc earrings with bird pendants
made of glass paste. Sirens, peacocks and other winged creatures naturalistically P. 31 modelled in this way were widely popular. The dove was a special favourite because
of its assocation with Aphrodite.
Another variation on the same theme is where the pendant assumes the shape of a miniature Eros. Eros, tutelary god of death and love with his double symbolism, erotic and funerary, is a very common motif in Hellenistic jewellery from the late 4th to the late 2nd century Bc and is represented in various ways. Almost as popular was Nike or Victory, a feminine version of Eros. With time, emphasis on the human figure became so pronounced that the disc disappeared, leaving Eros or Nike simply suspended from the earlobe by means of a hook of gold wire.
Another very popular type of ear ornament from the Classical period is the helix earring, comprising a tubular piece of thin gold leaf twisted into a spiral with various decorative motifs as terminals. This had already existed in the Archaic period and was very well known to the Oriental Greek world as early as the 7th century BC. Many examples have been found in Cyprus, Rhodes, Thrace, Macedonia and Southern Russia, all related to the same prototype, probably of Cypriot origin, descended from the Mycenean spirals of Enkomi. Towards the mid-4th century BC, another form of earring appeared, consisting of an open circle with a small pointed finial on one side and a larger terminal in the shape of a human or animal head on the other. There are similar examples with human or animal heads on both terminals, one larger than the other. These remained popular throughout the Hellenized world until the beginning of the i st century BC. The favourite motif for the terminal was the lion head, but antelopes’, rams’, dogs’ and bulls’ heads are also known, their eyes set with gemstones or coloured glass pastes.
Both helix and animals’ head earrings raise the question of how they were worn. By modern standards they seem too large to be pushed through a hole in the earlobe, but no alternative fitting has ever been found. We must assume, therefore, that in the past women submitted themselves to far greater tortures than we are prepared to suffer today for the sake of fashion.
The conquests of Alexander the Great between 333 and 322 BC transformed the Greek world. Vast territories came within the Greek sphere of influence, while at the same time Greece itself was exposed to influences from Egypt and Asia. The Hellenistic age, as culturally and artistically defined, lasted from about 322 BC until the inauguration of the Roman Empire in 27 BC. Much jewellery has survived from this period. Gold became more widely available through intensive mining in Thrace and the dispersal of captured Persian treasures.
Earrings were designed as simple gold hoops either decorated at the front with a
single motif, such as a bird, a dolphin, a bunch of grapes, or a negro’s head, or hav-
ing a pendant in the form of such a motif. Much use was made of glass paste and gemstones to pick out details and create contrasts of colour, and a new technique known as `dipped enamel’ was introduced to give a multicoloured effect, especially to earring pendants in the shape of birds or other creatures.
Together with these types, which are very typical of their period, many other earrings of older design continued to be produced and amongst these the disc-andpendant model was perhaps the favourite.
Etruscan
The earliest remains of the Etruscans of central Italy are dated about 700 BC, continuing in a recognizable form until about the i st century BC. Their great wealth, attributable largely to the mineral resources of the country, is reflected in the sumptuousness of their tombs. In female graves, vessels of precious metal and silver and gold jewellery such as fibulae, pectorals, bracelets and elaborate earrings reflect not only the important role women had in that society, but also jewellery’s function of `hoard’ and ‘reserve fund’. Although in its earliest manifestations Etruscan art was remarkably free of Greek influences, it did not long remain so, and by the end of the 7th century Be Greek artistic influence was becoming increasingly significant. Etruscan art, however, never lost its identity completely.
The earliest Etruscan earrings, of about 625 BC, in the shape of crescents and hoops, are not dissimilar to those found elsewhere in the Greek world at the same time. The first truly Etruscan form of earring made its appearance just before the
p. 28, 29 mid-6th century. The type is known as a baule, Italian for a bag or a travelling case, and it is perhaps the best known form of Etruscan ornament. Its popularity lasted just over a century. It consists of a strip of gold leaf bent round to form a cylinder, the two ends connected by a gold wire also acting as a suspension hoop. The ends of the cylinder were sometimes closed by a circular gold plate. The decoration, consisting of gold leaf application in the form of stylized flowers and rosettes, embossed leaves or geometrical motifs, filigree and granulation occasionally embellished with polychrome enamels, shows a certain ‘horror vacui’, pressing as many decorative details as possible onto the small gold surface.
Another type of earring of typical Etruscan design, which first appeared in the second half of the 6th century, is the disc richly decorated with concentric bands of
P. 3 I floral and geometrical motifs embossed or made of filigree and granulation, often inlayed with gemstones, amber or glass paste. Earstuds would perhaps be a more appropriate name for this type of ornament, with a hollow tube at the back ending in a loop to be pushed through the earlobe and a safety chain attached to the side of the disc for fixing the loop. The origin of these large ear-ornaments, which in some cases measure as much as 7cms in diameter, is probably Lydia.
In the 5th century BC the most fashionable and widespread form of ornament in the
P 30 Etruscan world was a type of earring consisting of a tubular hoop decorated at one end with the head of a woman, a river-god, a ram or a lion. With slight variations, it remained popular throughout the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.
Among the most characteristic earrings of the 4th and 3rd centuries is the
P 29, 31 horseshoe-shaped plaque type, mounted with a cluster of embossed globules, hollow inside in order to act as containers for perfumed oil. An entirely Etruscan creation, these earrings were very popular throughout the country as can be seen from the many surviving examples and their frequent reproduction on terracotta and vase paintings. Particularly interesting in this respect is a group of votive statues found in Lavinium, depicting female figures bejewelled with necklaces and earrings of this type apparently moulded directly from the gold originals. These cluster earrings remain very frequent in tombs of the 4th century Be and tend to disappear in favour of new models coming from abroad only towards the end of the Classical age.
What we can describe as a ‘Greek Taste’ did not appear in Etruscan jewellery until the last thirty years of the 4th century and must be seen in the context of the general process of Hellenization which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. The typical Etruscan forms gradually disappeared to be replaced by the more international disc-and-pendants, the pendants supporting shapes such as inverted pyramids, birds, bells and amphorae, or by hoops decorated at the front with amber heads of negroes. In some examples local tradition and external influence blend together; e.g., a gold hoop, decorated at the front with a horseshoe-shaped motif typical of the Etruscan taste, supporting a female head pendant of pure Tarentine inspiration.
Rome and Byzantium
Examples of silver and gold jewellery from pre-Republican and Republican Rome are very scarce. From those that survive we can conclude that between 70o and 250 Be Roman jewellery was for all practical purposes Etruscan. Material is even scarcer for the period between 25o and 27 BC, but we may assume that Roman jewellery, as well as Etruscan, was basically the same as Hellenistic.
For many centuries jewellery was a luxury looked upon with official disapproval in the Roman world. The amounts of gold which might be buried with the dead and which a Roman lady might wear were fixed by law. Certain items of personal adornment, moreover, such as finger rings, were strictly reserved to certain social classes and for specific occasions.
By 27 BC, when the Roman empire was established, Rome had finally swallowed up the remnants of the Hellenistic world with the annexation of Egypt in 30 BC. The political changes, however, had very little effect on minor arts, and during the first years of the empire jewellery continued to be produced in Hellenistic forms. The major centres of jewellery manufacture were the old Hellenistic centres of Antioch and Alexandria, followed by Rome itself. Progressively wealth, luxury and ostentation replaced Republican sobriety and jewellery became important in display.
In the eastern part of the empire and in Egypt earrings designed as plain hoops or hoops decorated with human and animal heads of Hellenistic tradition continued to be produced with only minor variations until the 2nd century AD. Other types consisted of long S-shaped hooks with variously designed pendants. A new type appeared suddenly in the i st century AD and lasted for about a hundred years. It consisted of a gold hemisphere with an S-shaped hook fitted at the back, sometimes surmounted by a similar but smaller boss. This was very popular: many examples have been found as far apart as Rome, Cyprus, Siphnos and Palestine, and it is also frequently depicted on mummy portraits. Closely related is a type consisting of a spherical cluster of pearls or beads.
In the course of the 2nd century AD a whole new class of earrings appeared, quite unrelated to Hellenistic shapes. In its simplest form it consisted of a gemstone set in a large bezel holding a drop pendant, secured to the earlobe by means of an S-shaped hook. During the same period earrings were produced in the form of circular gem-set elements supporting horizontal bars with two or three pendants. Gemstones including sapphires, emeralds, aquamarines and topazes were by now freely employed in jewellery.
Literary sources such as Pliny, Seneca and Petronius have much to say on the subject of inaures andpendentes. Earrings were the favourite manner of displaying wealth for the patrician lady who often turned for advice to the auricolae ornatrices, women whose job was to attend to the problems caused by prolonged wearing of large and heavy earrings. The new extravagance has been referred to by Pliny who tells us that Caligula’s wife Lollia Paulina wore emeralds and pearls on her hair, head, arms and fingers as well as on her ears at everyday functions. Women, he says, liked to wear earrings set with two or three pearl drops that rattled at the slightest movement of the head; hence their name of crotalia.
During the 3rd century AD the Roman empire began to crumble; during the 4th it was divided into an eastern and a western empire; and during the 5th the western half collapsed leaving only the eastern empire, governed from Constantinople (formerly Byzantium). One effect of these changes was that Oriental influences were again powerful in Western art, but as far as jewellery is concerned, Roman techniques and
P. 32, 33 forms continued to be used and earrings with two or three gemset pendent drops remained normal.
Earrings appeared to have fallen from favour during the Byzantine period, with fashionable ladies preferring to wear large and elaborate ornaments on the temple or sides of the face, similar to those worn by the empress Theodora in the mosaic of San Vitale in Ravenna, but they did not completely disappear. The only truly Byzantine form of earring which was popular in the late 6th and 7th centuries consists of a large but light pierced gold crescent decorated with openwork stylized flower and scroll motifs.
In western Europe, jewellery production declined drastically, and only one form of earring stands out as original. This consists of a wire hoop, simple or twisted, decorated with a polyhedral motif, usually inset with garnets. The popularity of this type is confirmed by finds from Ostrogothic, Merovingian and Southern Russian sites dating from the 5th to the 9th century.
The Middle Ages
Although the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are particularly rich periods for jewellery in general, the role of earrings is so minor that one can say that they virtually disappear for the six hundred years between the i i th and i 6th centuries. The reason for this is to be found in hair and dress fashion: elaborate hairstyles, headdresses and high collared costumes left very little scope for earrings.
In the Middle Ages it was customary for a woman, especially married women, to conceal their hair with a coiffe hubet and from the middle of the 12th century with a barbette, which consisted of a stiffened head-band worn with a chin strap concealing the ears. Respectable married women had to keep their heads covered when seen in public, a rule which went back to St Paul: ‘For if the woman be not covered, let her be shorn or shaven: if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven let her be covered.’ The concealment of a woman’s hair was a way of demonstrating dependency on her husband who was the only man with the privilege of seeing it (a woman loosening her barbette in public would be regarded as unladylike and morally lax) and explains why unmarried girls were allowed to wear long and flowing hair. In both cases, however, the scope for earrings was non-existent; with the barbette the chin band covered the ears and the cheeks, not only preventing the use of earrings but also hindering eating and even speaking; on the other hand unmarried girls with their hair flowing over their ears also did not have the opportunity to display earrings. During the 13th century written evidence for earrings occurs only in books like the Roman de la Rose where unusual jewels such as earrings are listed: ‘Et met a ses deux oreilletes. Deus verges d’or pendans greletes’.
Around the middle of the 14th century hair fashions underwent a considerable change, becoming much more elaborate and frequently embellished with precious
head ornaments. One of the typical coiffures, which developed at the end of the 14th P. 37 century and retained its popularity for more than a hundred years, consisted of two thick braids of hair looped over the ears; another consisted of hair puffed out and padded over the ears and kept in shape by a gold net. The changes, however, did not improve the scope for earrings.

19th Century Sideboards, Cellarets, Tambour Secretary, Regency Side Cabinet, Desks, Worktables. New Trends.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS
IN THE EARLY 19TH century, many
different forms of furniture were developed for specific purposes. Previously; furniture was placed against the wall and had to serve multiple functions, but this had gradually changed through the 18th century and, by the early years of the next century, more specialized pieces were made. The same period saw the rise of novel patent furniture. Thomas Morgan and Joseph Sanders of London specialized in the “Patent Sofa-Bed & Chair-Bed”. They also made a celebrated type of armchair that hinged over to form library steps.
Not only were new forms of furniture developed, but old types were revitalized after taking forms derived from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. For example, a cellaret, or wine cooler — an 18th-century invention — might be reconfigured in the form of an ancient sarcophagus.
New types of furniture were made for the dining room. The sideboard was still a relatively new invention. Often of rectangular form with a bowed front, it usually had two compartments separated by a drawer.
These might contain shelves or even a cellaret drawer. They frequently had a brass railing at the back, although they are now usually missing. British
sideboards are generally made of mahogany with brass or ebonized stringing. Side cabinets and chiffoniers, both developments of the commode, were also new. They often had a pair of doors with brass grilles backed with pleated silk.
The cheval mirror, or Psyche glass, was a new piece of bedroom furniture. It consisted of a large single mirror held within a plain frame on a pivot, through which it was attached to the uprights of its stand. This was generally set on splayed legs with casters, so that it could be moved around easily.
Other new types of furniture, such as campaign furniture, reflected the military turbulence of the period. Campaign furniture was specially designed to be portable and easy to dismantle (sec pp.280-81).
In similar vein, the chaise a l’officier (officer’s chair) was made in France. it had arm supports, but lacked elbow rests, to enable a man wearing a sword to sit down with relative ease.

AMERICAN D-SHAPED SIDEBOARD
The rectangular top of this satinwood and figured maple sideboard has a bowed front above a conforming case with an arrangement of drawers and cupboard doors. The reeded legs have ringed cuffs.
1800-05.
Each of the drawers and cupboard doors has banded and satinwood-inlaid borders.

ENGLISH CELLARET
This Sheraton mahogany, arched-top cellaret -as a domed lid above a rectilinear case with central oval panels and geometric inlay, set on ,cpe-twist legs. c.1800.
AMERICAN TAMBOUR SECRETARY
This desk has a rectangular upper section with tambour doors that open to reveal a fitted interior. The lower section has two long drawers raised on square-section legs with tapering feet. c.1795.
ENGLISH REGENCY SIDE CABINET
–e shaped top of this parcel-gilt rosewood side :abinet is outlined with satinwood stringing. The frieze beneath contains five drawers, each
with lion’s-mask ring handles. The cupboards below have front grilles, and there is a centre shelf. The cabinet has gilt-wood lion’s-paw feet. c.1805.
AMERICAN KLISMOS CHAIR
This mahogany chair has a curved, rectangular top rail with scroll carving, and a shaped, carved back rail. The seat is supported on sabre legs. c.1815.

REGENCY WATERFALL BOOKCASES
AMERICAN WORKTABLE
ENGLISH DAVENPORT DESK
Each mahogany bookcase has a three-quarter gallery above four graduated shelves and a single drawer with ivory handles. The cases have brass carrying handles at the sides.
This Classical mahogany astragal-end worktable has various compartments. It sits on a reeded urn pedestal on four splayed, carved legs, which end in brass feet and casters.
The hinged top of this pollard oak desk has a three-quarter spindle gallery enclosing two real and false drawers, flanked by a pen drawer and slides above four side drawers.

EARLY 19TH CENTURY
BRITISH EXOTICISM
A RICH MIX OF BOTH FOREIGN AND HOME-GROWN INFLUENCES AFFECTED THE DESIGN OF BRITISH FURNITURE DURING THE REGENCY PERIOD.
FROM MOGUL DOMES to Islamic arches, Regency designers drew on a wide variety of exotic sources. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in July 1798, his invasion force included not only soldiers, but artists and poets, botanists, zoologists, and cartographers. The ensuing publication of Descriptions de I’Egypt established a vogue in France for all things Egyptian.
ANCIENT EGYPT
The Egyptian craze surfaced in Britain following Nelson’s subsequent defeat of Napoleon in 1798 at the Battle of the Nile. Sphinx heads appeared on the pilasters of bookcases and side cabinets and lotus leaves were carved on chair splats and printed on textiles and wallpaper designs.
Thomas Hope designed furniture based on the engravings of the French Egyptologist, Baron Denon, and Thomas Chippendale the Younger, who had inherited his father’s famous workshop, created a suite of furniture for Stourhead in 1805, resplendent with sphinx masks. These pieces were made in mahogany, but the foreign motifs of the period were often complemented by the use of highly polished, unusual, imported timbers: streaky salamander, dark ebony, or flecked amboyna.
CHINOISERIE REVIVAL
An integral part of the Rococo repertoire in Britain during the mid 18th century, Chinoiserie enjoyed a revival in the early 19th century. The Royal architect,
A DWARF GOTHIC CABINET
This lacquered cabinet has a crenellated
Lipper section with octagonal corner
towers. A deeper base with a pierced
quatrefoil gallery sits above a pair of
tracery panelled doors flanked by
clasping buttresses. The cabinet
stands on a plinth base. Early 19th
century.
REGENCY TORCHERE STAND This stand is made, of bronzed and gilded wood. Below the top is a guilloche moulded frieze and three gilt supports, with lion masks, joined by Cross supports with applied rosettes. The concave base rests on gilt paw feet.
A CHINESE EXPORT BUREAU This bureau has u fall front above three drawers, a shaped apron, and is raised on cabriole legs. All the surfaces are black and gilt lacquered with lake scenery and flowers.
19th century.
Henry Holland. was profoundly influenced by Sir
George Stauntons An Authentic Account of an Embassy
“M the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China n 1797: and interest in the Far East increased after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, when further British envoys ere sent to the new emperor of China, Chia-Ch’ing.
Furniture was japanned black with gilt to simulate lacquer – as in the late 17th century – while lacquer cabinets (or lacquer panels reused from early screens) were incorporated into British cabinet work. Oriental bamboo was also echoed in the ring turnings on late Regency chairs. Many pieces of furniture were made out of genuine bamboo, while others were turned
and painted to simulate it.
The Prince Regent gave the royal seal of approval to this trend when he furnished several rooms at the Brighton Pavilion with bamboo furniture imported from China. Indeed, this architectural folly became the most famous mixing pot of all the exotic styles of the Regency period.
Western styles of lacquer and bamboo furniture were also imported from Canton. The trade in goods from China to Britain had been established since the early 17th century, but the scale of Chinese imports in the 19th century was unprecedented. As well as imported, Chinoiserie-style furniture, Oriental motifs such as dragons appeared on the crestings of convex mirrors, while latticework and Chinese panelling were applied to chair backs, commode friezes, or brass grills on side cabinets or chiffoniers.
STYLES FROM THE SUBCONTINENT
India, as well as China, influenced the decoration of the Brighton Pavilion. Nash was inspired by William and Thomas Daniell’s book, Oriental Scenery, and included pierced screens, copied from Indian jails (perforated stone screens from Madhya Pradesh), in his designs. The interest in India manifested itself more in the importation of Western-style furniture, than in the application of Indian motifs to British furniture. Exotic ivory-inlaid rosewood furniture and boxes came from Vizagapatam, and ebony chairs of Regency form were shipped from Ceylon.
HISTORICISM
Towards the end of the Regency period, designers and furniture-makers turned away from exoticism and towards their own traditions for inspiration. The Napoleonic wars and their subsequent victories spawned a surge in nationalist feeling. This, along with the historic novels of Walter Scott, inspired designers such as George Bullock and Richard Bridgens to include Elizabethan and Jacobean motifs in furniture for Abbotsford and Aston Hall in the late 1810s and early 1820s. Gothic motifs were always prevalent, particularly as tracery in glazing bars and in panels for cabinet doors. Pointed arches appeared as early as 1807 in the backs of hall chairs published by George Smith. This furniture, often commissioned by a new breed of antiquarian collectors such as William Beckford, was usually made in oak or other native timbers.

NAPOLEON CROWNED HIMSELF Emperor
in 1804. From this date until his abdication in 1814, and final defeat by Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, he dominated the European scene. Moreover, his taste, and the Empire style that he cultivated, became omnipresent in Europe.
Already emerging before 1804, this austere style sought to associate Napoleon’s Empire with the glories of ancient Egypt and ancient Rome. This aim manifested itself in an almost archaeological interest in Classical motifs, promoted by Perrier and Fontaine, whose Recueil was
The frieze is decorated with
a central gilt-bronze rosette,
flanked by palmettes.
The protruding columns
have gilt-bronze
capitals and bases.
republished in 1812. The light style of furniture that prevailed before the turn of the century was now transformed into a truly imperial idiom in keeping with Napoleon’s despotic tendencies.
EMPIRE MOUNTS
Neoclassical influences are evident in the ubiquitous bronze dore mounts on Empire furniture: griffons, lions, and sphinxes abound. Martial motifs were especially popular, such as trophies or crossed swords. Some of the best-quality mounts were produced in the
workshop of Pierre Thomire. His mounts appear on furniture by Beneman and Weisweiler. Other Beneman pieces are known to have similar, high-quality applique details made by Antoine-Andre Ravario.
EMPIRE MAKERS
The dissolution of the Guild of Joiners and Cabinet-Makers in 1791 meant that craftsmen could now establish workshops comprising several trades in a single location. The workshops of the ancien regime were quick to
re-open after the Revolution, seeking a wider, often middle-class, clientele, who were sometimes less demanding. Some feared that this might lead to a decline in quality French furniture. However, the finest pieces, made for the Emperor and his circle, reveal the same technical brilliance as items produced in the previous century. Many of the great ebenistes had previously worked for Louis XVI, including Bellanger, Benenian, Georges Jacob, Molitor, and Weisweiler. It was also a period of great productivity between 1810 and 1811, as much as 17,000 francs was spent on furniture for Imperial residences, and half a million francs went to Georges Jacob Desmalter alone for furniture made for the Palais des Tuileries. There
were 10,000 workers involved with furniture production in Paris during the first decade of the 19th century, making pieces for both the local and export markets. Jacob-Desmalter
employed at least 88 workers, some at his Porte Saint-Denis workshop.
Upholstery and drapery sometimes overpowered the Empire room. Ceilings could be tented in strong, usually striped, colours (blues, reds,
The Empire style was born from a merger of art and political aspirations in a heady, post-Revolution atmosphere upheaval. It was
greens, and yellows) to echo tented military accommodation. The embroidered patterns on chair upholstery were both large and bold.
NOVEL FORMS
Several novel forms also appeared. The lit en bateau was very fashionable, often with scrolled ends, raised on a dais, and draped in fabric. It was similar in form to the recamier, or day bed, and the meridienne, a type of sofa with scrolled ends, one higher than the other. For middle-class homes, the less expensive lit droit was popular; it had a headboard under a triangular pediment. For the first time,
bedrooms were furnished with a Psyche mirror, or Cheval glass. The small, round gueridon, or candlestand, served a variety of functions, and sometimes had metal legs, patinated green to simulate ancient metals, possibly set with a porphyry top.
The commode slowly became more functional and occasionally the drawers were set behind doors. Chairs were often supported by Grecian sabre back legs, and had either rectangular or over-scrolled backs. Usually the
arms were supported on human or swan forms. Empress Josephine’s dressing room at Fontainebleau probably houses the most famous Empire chairs – those with a curved back en gondole.
Finally, there were various furniture forms for writing, from the box-like secretaire d abattant (and its relative the secretaire de compiegne) to the bureau plat, which assumed grand and monumental proportions under the Empire.
ARMCHAIRS “AUX TETES DE LION”
are made of mahogany. Each has
rectilinear back, an upholstered seat
and armrests, upholstered seats are
on sabre legs, with those at the front
terminating in lion’s-paw feet. The chairs are attributed to the maker Jean-Baptiste Demay of Paris. Although lion’s masks appear frequently on British furniture of the period, they are a
relatively unusual feature on French Empire pieces. 1805
This fine-quality flame-veneered tric trac, or games, table has a removable writing table top with inset brass corners and a baize playing-card surface on the reverse. Each side has one false drawer and one drawer for playing pieces. The table stands on square, tapering legs terminating in brass casters. c.1810.

Antique Mid 19th Century American Furniture.

A RENEWED RUSH of immigration from
northern Europe swelled America’s population in the mid-19th century. After the Civil War (1861-65), the victorious North was imbued with new vigour and wealth as the tide of industrialization swept across the states.
The Gothic style also remained popular during the second half of the 19th century. Examples of solid dark wood furniture crowned by cathedral-style trefoils and quatrefoils could be found in many middle-class homes.
UNITED STATES
APPROPRIATIONS FROM EUROPE The American Empire style reached its zenith around 1840, when the tide of fashion turned in favour of plain surfaces. Heavy furniture in mahogany and rosewood veneers dominated the later American Empire period.
The Empire manner was gradually ousted from its central position in American taste by an influx of European craftsmen, who helped to disseminate the Rococo-revival style. The Classical motifs of Empire furniture gave way to emblems drawn from the natural world, and rounded Rococo forms replaced the earlier architectural structures. The development of laminate veneers greatly aided the practitioners of the Rococo revival, led by German-born New Yorker J.H. Belter (see pp.296-97). Some American designers, such as Alexander Roux, eschewed the use of laminated bentwood in favour of a more authentic Rococo look. Roux was a French immigrant whose elaborately carved pieces featured decorative motifs drawn from hunting, such as grouse, dogs, and deer.
HOMEGROWN INGENUITY George Hunzinger, a German who arrived in the United States in 1855, devised ingenious space-saving, mechanical furniture. He amassed more then 20 patents during his career, for furniture that folded, extended, collapsed, or converted. William Wooton, a native of Indiana, secured a patent for an equally clever, but altogether more immutable form in the 1870s. The Wooton Patent Secretary was a large desk that concealed innumerable small drawers and compartments for the storage of documents and chattels.
A NEW AMERICAN RENAISSANCE Renaissance forms were rediscovered after the Civil War and incorporated into a new, distinctly American look. The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial
Exhibition was a statement of the nation’s confidence and marked the culmination of the Renaissance revival. Luminaries of the Gilded Age, such as j.P. Morgan, commissioned grand houses designed in the Renaissance style. The Centennial also spawned an interest in a revival of American colonial furniture forms.
The American people had long been fascinated with Egyptology, and a number of exhibitions of ancient Egyptian artefacts drew vast crowds during the latter half of the 19th century. It is therefore no surprise that Egyptian motifs found their way on to furniture of the period. Actual Egyptian forms were rarely used. Instead, lotus, sphinx, and other emblems were applied to Renaissance-revival furniture.
CHIPPENDALE-STYLE CHAIR
This mahogany side chair with an upholstered drop-in seat has an openwork splat, shaped top rail, and scrolled ears. Elegant cabriole legs terminate in claw-and-ball feet. It is one of a set of six chairs. c.1900.
GOTHIC-REVIVAL ARMCHAIR
This walnut armchair has a carved and pierced crest. The back is flanked by spiral spindles and stiles. The ring-turned arms terminate in ball-turned hand-holds, and the seat is raised on spiral-turned legs.
CHEST-ON-CHEST
This Colonial-revival chest-on-chest is made from mahogany. The upper section of the chest consists of an outset gadroon-carved top, two moulded frieze drawers, and three graduated drawers. The lower section has two
long drawers positioned above a gadroon-carved base and the piece is supported on claw-andball feet. The overall form is based on a mid 18th-century original. The legs are inspired by a mid 18th-century form, while the moulded top drawer is 19th century in style. Mid 19th century.
This tea table or card table, is an exact copy of a late 18th-century piece, with a top that opens out to provide a larger surface. Made from mahogany, the table is inlaid with boxwood. The frieze is inlaid with an urn motif, and the table is raised on square, tapering legs. Mid 19th century.
This Renaissance-revival, laminated walnut, triple-arch sofa is influenced by Louis XV style. It has a pierced foliate, scroll-and-grape clustered frame, centred by a carved mask crest. The tufted back of the sofa is in three sections above a padded serpentine seat with a floral-carved apron on cabriole legs.
The pediment has a central domed crest.
WOOTON DESK
Panel doors are lined with shelves and divisions.
This imposing variation of the fall-front desk has an elaborate, domed pediment. Two lockable, hinged front panels open to reveal an extensive, complex arrangement of interior drawers and divisions. The writing surface, also hinged, lifts from horizontal to vertical so the panel doors can close. The doors are also fitted with shelves and divisions. Late 19th century.
The wooden knobs are in a darker wood than the drawers.

Glass is distinguished from other materials by its transparency.
People like glass because of its shine and the way drinker.
glass refracts the light that passes through it. Glass is also extremely practical. It does not allow liquids to permeate it and is a poor conductor of heat. On the other side of course is glass’s only disadvantage — its fragility. Glass today is something modern humankind takes for granted. There is an involved process before glass objects reach the consumer.
Glass is formed by heating various metal oxides and quartz. In addition to the raw materials of glass (quartz and borax), there are also alkaline substances (potassium or sodium oxide). These make the silicates indissoluble.
The right composition of substances for glass is the result of centuries of experience. Glass was probably first made about 4,000 years ago — perhaps discovered in ancient Egypt by chance.
The production of glass was then a relatively straightforward process. The glass-makers first smelted glass in earthenware vessels over an open fire. The glowing pieces of glass adhered together and were then plunged into cold water where they splintered.
These shards of glass-like material were known as frit. The frit was then ground between millstones under powdered when it was smelted once more to achieve the desired result.
This principle was in use until some time after 1500. Old illustrations often show two glass furnaces: one is for the initial smelting of the raw materials and the second for melting the powdered frit.
The production of glass was changed in the eighteenth century in Britain. Coal replaced wood for the glass furnace but this turned the glass yellow from the sulphur dioxide that is released. This meant that glass had to be smelted in a sealed kiln.
This also made it more difficult to keep an eye on the smelting process. A solution was found by producing softer glass mixtures.
Means of decoration
Glass can be decorated in a number of ways. The most direct method is to apply layers of other glass or to mark the surface during the glassblowing process while the glass is soft. Such results depend on the skill and artistry of the glassblower. Glass has been blown since early times and had reached a state of high art in Roman times.
There are various waysin which glass can be decorated during blowing. One way is to add small pieces of glass or `prunts’. Another way is to spin the glass of the same or contrasting colour so that it forms a spiral on the glass surface. Many of the varying techniques are based upon centuries old traditions.
An entirely different way of decorating glass is to enamel or paint it.
This technique does not rely on the artistry of the glassblower. This is done with either ‘cold’ or fired enamel. Glass can also be gilded with precious metals such as silver or gold. Further ways of decorating glass are by cutting or engraving it. Glass is engraved with a diamond which ‘draws’ a design on its surface and it can also be stippled (a Dutch invention) with either a diamond or softer stylus.
Different effects can be created by making either open or dense stipple marks.
Glass has been cut since early times but etching was discovered by the Swede Sheele who notice that the acidic gases of hydrogen fluoride ate in to glass. Glass can also be ‘etched’ by sand-blasting. Encapsulation is done by placing objects in glass while it is still soft that then become fixed in the solid glass. This method was especially popular in Europe between 1800 and 1850.
Glass production from east to west
The production of glass spread to other countries from Egypt around 1000 BC. The techniques were extensively improved between the sixth and second centuries before Christ.
A very important discovery was made at Sidon in Syria in the first century before Christ – the glassblower’s ‘blowing iron’.
This enabled objects to be made of thin glass. It was a technique that spread throughout the Roman empire to Italy and Spain to the west but also to Gaul (France), Britain, and Germany in the north. The major glassblowing centres were established along the Rhine and in Gaul (France).
Production in the east
In common with many other techniques, glass-making was also largely forgotten following the fall of the Roman empire but this was not true in the east. The most important glass-producing region was Byzantium where new techniques were also developed that can be seen in cut and engraved goblets, bottles, ewers, and mosaics of the era.
Arabs were extremely fond of glass embellished with gilt or enamel and major Arab glass centres were Damascus and Aleppo in Syria.
Very fine coloured glass goblets, bottles, ewers, lamps, and dishes were made in these towns between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. These were often decorated with bright painting.
Persian glass-making took over the leading position in the fifteenth century and Persian glass even influenced Spanish glass. Surviving Persian glass from this era consists mainly of bottles of green or blue glass.
Medieval European glass
Glass production in the former western Roman empire after its fall only survived in Gaul (France), Germany, Flanders, and Britain.
In the early Middle Ages the preference was for decoration with grooves, flattening, and decoration with ‘threads’
of glass. Several new types of object appeared such as `trunked’ and ’studded’ beakers. Otherwise just simple medicine bottles were made from green glass that was far from perfect.
Glass production even went into decline in the ninth century and many in Christian countries regarded glass as a heathen product. After all the heathens used bottles for their ‘pagan’ burials. Pope Leo IV even banned the liturgical use of glass. Not everyone was of the same opinion.
Bishop Isidorus of Seville in Spain wrote a treatise about glass based on Naturalis Historiae, written by the Roman Plinius. The monk Theophilus wrote an extremely important work about glass —probably during the late tenth or early eleventh century, somewhere along the Rhine.
In a piece about the art of glass he described the constituents of Roman and Asian glass, wrote down many legends, and described the process of glassblowing in great detail.
Venice
Sometime around the birth of Christ, glass was produced in northern Italy. The technique was maintained by cloistered orders and spread from these during the Middle Ages throughout Europe. It was in this region that the one of the most famous glass-making centres was established.
Benedictine monks in Venice specialised in making bottles by the year 1000. Following the conquest and pillage of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, many Byzantine glassblowers sought to escape to the powerful trading city of Venice.
They strengthened Venetian glass-making with techniques such as glass mosaics. The first thin and hollow glass-ware and first glass jewellery were made in Venice in about 1250. Soon afterwards the production of glass became a monopoly of the Venetian state. The glassblowing works though were forced to move outside the city. With their extensive use of fire they threatened the safety of the city and hence were moved to the island of Murano.
The first reports of exports of glass from Venice are also recorded around 1250. They also made optical glass for spectacles and window glass.
A great deal of glass incorporating soda from burnt seaweed was made in the fourteenth century. The Venetians also began to make latticinio glass with thin white threads around 1400. The Venetians were also known to make golden coloured glass by chemical means and other colours too with copper and cobalt.
They also decorated their glass by `burning’ colours into it. This is very characteristic of fifteenth century Venetian glass. In the sixteenth century the Venetians mainly decorated their glass with patterns of opaque white threads. Vegetal and abstract designs were also created on the thin-walled soda glass.
In addition to clear cristallo glass, Venice also made opaque white lattimo glass that was translucent but not transparent, millefiori containing tiny rods of coloured glass, and frosted glass with a cracked surface. The glassblowers also produced all manner of decorative forms with glass. The chemical composition of Venetian glass was a secret with severe penalties for anyone who revealed the procedures to make it. Despite this, many Venetian glassblowers left for other parts in the early sixteenth century and became involved abroad in the production of imitations of Venetian glass. Excellent copies of glass d la facon de Venice were made in Spain, France, and the Low Countries. These are so good that it is very difficult to determine whether a piece is made in Venice or elsewhere. The main differentiation is that the metal (body of the glass) of the imitations is not so clear, fine, and thin as that produced on the Venetian island of Murano.
Developments elsewhere in Europe
In Bohemia and Germany they also tried to join in Venice’s success. The glass works there only flourished after the Middle Ages. Many attempts were made in France employing Italian immigrants to make totally transparent and clear glass. Dutch glass makers began to make diamond engraved fluted glasses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and it was the Low Countries too that made glasses with a characteristic ‘winged foot’. It was also quite common for glass made in one place to be decorated elsewhere.
BOHEMIAN AND GERMAN FOREST GLASS
The extensive forests of Bavaria were home to many glass works. The production area lay within an area bordered by the Thuringia and Bavarian forests, and the Alps and Fichtel mountains. Because of iron and potash in the raw materials the glass produced was mainly green.
New types of glassware were created that were primarily functional with the main output being glass beakers but ink pots and alchemists’ and apothecaries’ jars were also made.
This was often decorated with prunts and molten threads of glass. Glass was also decorated with bizarre relief forms. All these products were small icrean size in the fourteenth and fifteenth century. Larger pieces were noss bt made until the sixteenth century.
The most widespread of these are so maigelein: shallow beakers of blown gas
A 17th century Dutch green Romer glass. This type first appeared in the 15th century.
of which the bottom is pressed inwards. There were also much larger Pasglas measured glasses, beakers in the form of cabbage stalk, beakers with finger grips, and vertically ribbed cylindrical beakers. The classical slim and tall beakers of Bohemian glass were made in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their small stems are externally decorated with prunts of molten glass. The Romer glass was first made in the fifteenth century. These wine glasses were extraordinarily popular in the Rhineland. A bellied glass, shaped like an onion with a curved neck consisting of several plaited tubes of glass also appeared in Bohemia in the late Middle Ages.
ENAMELLING
Every glass works outside Italy strived to improve on Italian glass with their local products but the shape of their glassware is clearly different from that of Renaissance Italy. This is because of different local drinking customs. Wine was drunk in Italy but north of the Alps people mainly drank beer. This caused different demands of glasses. The Humpen beer glasses were made from the middle of the sixteenth century.
At first these were conical in form but later only cylindrical Humpen were made. This latter type had a low sole and sometimes also had a hinged lid. The style of painting was intended to give the impression of an Italian product and this also helped to mask the imperfections in the glass.
Enamelling was commonplace on sixteenth century central European glass. The best period for this form of decoration was reached in the earlier seventeenth century. The quality of glass was then improved through the addition of chemicals.
Another category of glassware was the beakers that bore the owner’s crest of arms.
These were also monogrammed and dated. Others, known as ’state eagle’ Humpen were decorated with the German state arms. Quite separate from these glasses though were the Fichtel mountain ox-head glasses that were painted with pictures of the wooded hills from which the Eger, Main, Naa, and Saale rivers rise. Old and New Testament references, fables, and allegories were also common painted decorations in both the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
Although enamelled glass originally came from Venice it gradually became the speciality of central Europe. This method of decoration was used for more than 250 years.
Spun stem Dutch glass. Spinning a thread of glass of the same or contrasting colour around a glass core is one method of decoration.
Enamel became less expensive in the later seventeenth century so that ‘ordinary’ citizens were able to buy it. Finally it became a product for the masses and when applied to milchglass became a cheap alternative to porcelain.
Finding out the origins of a piece is no easy matter. There are countless different types with regional and local characteristics but these became less pronounced as glassblowers moved to work at different places.
PAINTED TRANSPARENT GLASS
A new manner of decorating hollow glass objects was introduced in the later eighteenth century using transparent enamels instead of opaque ones. The porcelain artist Samuel Mohn of Dresden was the first to use this technique.
His ‘friendship’ glasses are painted with portraits, landscapes, allegories, and verses. He customarily signed his work with Mohn fecit. His son, Gottlob Mohn, established himself in Vienna in 1811 and signed himself G. Mohn in Wien. His first work was the painting of town views.
The Viennese porcelain and glass artist Hothgasser took up this popular subject, working mainly on bell-shaped glasses on long branched stems. He mainly signed his work with his monogram between the ‘teeth’ of the branched stem.
Sometimes though he used his full signature on his glasses. These were given as a present or friendship’s token, or served as souvenir. Kothgasser’s glasses with playing cards were very popular around 1875. Kothgasser’s work was in great demand and hence widely copied but reproductions are easily spotted by the naive compositions and lack of technique.
BOHEMIAN ENGRAVED GLASS
The process of engraving was already known during Roman times but the ancient technique was re-invigorated during the sixteenth century in southern German with fresh demand for this style of decoration. This arose because of exports of engraved crystal from Milan. The so-called ‘mountain’ crystal was rare and hence expensive. This led to people in southern Germany deciding to apply the decorative technique used with crystal on glass. Lehmann One of the most famous engravers is
Kasper Lehmann, engraver to the court at Prague. Until recently he was even deemed to have been the ‘inventor’ or glass engraving.
Engraved ginger glass, circa 1700. Although known since Roman times, it was not re-introduced until the 16th century, in southern Germany. Engraved glass became very popular in the north of the Low
Countries.
He established himself in Prague around 1600 and in 1609 he gained a monopoly from the king for the engraving of glass. Lehmann had a number of students, including Georg Schwanhardt, the most important of them, who returned to his home town of Nuremberg following Lehmann’s death. There were many engravers working in this town but each had his own area of speciality.
Schwanhardt mainly worked with Venetian-type goblets, although Venetian glass itself is not suitable for engraving because it is too fragile. Glass with lime added was used for engraving. This sparkling glass was clear and pure with strong refractory properties. It became known as Bohemian crystal.
Bohemian ‘crystal’ was discovered between 1670 and 1680 more or less simultaneously in three glashutten in southern and northern Bohemia. Knowledge of the process spread quickly throughout Bohemia.
Painting with enamel was depressed here by engraved Bohemian ‘crystal’. The first decorations were copies of motifs used in Venice. Because of the high quality of the new material it quickly became a formidable competitor for Venetian glass. Traders not only succeeded in selling Bohemian glass throughout Europe, it was also shipped to other parts of the world.
When the engraving switched to the Baroque style Bohemian glass was even more successful.
SILESIAN ENGRAVED GLASS
The successful formula of Bohemian glass works was also followed in Silesia. The works of Count Schaffgotsch were very important to this region. The glashut in Hermesdorf in particular produced some fine pieces. This was due to the engraver Friedrich Winter who engraved a series of friendship goblets and beakers there after 1690.
The engraved glass from the works at Lobkowitz in Wiesau and Warmbrunn were also of exceptionally high quality. Silesian glass is characterised by the narrowing at the bottom of the drinking vessel. Although Bohemian glass itself was of higher quality, the exceptional Silesian engraving was better than that of Bohemia.
Glass production was advanced following Prussia’s capture of Silesia from Austria in 1742. Glass production in Silesia and Bohemia began to become less significant in the mid eighteenth century due to a number of factors. These included a smaller market through European wars that had caused economic collapse and also a reduction in the size of the market through the development of porcelain and lead crystal. Superb glass goblets made way for simple beakers. Both form and decoration were simplified and more suited to the new circumstances.
The Bohemian glass industry searched for a way to emerge from the crisis.
One of their developments was milchglas that was supposed to compete with the rapidly growing market for porcelain. Entire sets of tableware and drinking services were produced from 1760 to the mid nineteenth century by works at Harrachov in Bohemia.
The opaque ‘milk glass’ was much cheaper than porcelain but could emulate it in both form an enamelled decoration.
GERMAN DEVELOPMENTS
The discovery of the addition of lime to forest or potash glass in Bohemia was also important for the German glashutten.
This was especially true of those works of the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg which bordered Bohemia. Silesian experience in both glass making and engraving was utilised at Brandenburg works at Potsdam, Berlin, and later also at Zechlin. Potsdam attracted Martin Winter, brother of the highly regarded Helmdorf engraver.
The glass specialist and alchemist Johann Kunckel was given the task of researching the best composition for glass. He is credited with discovery of Zwischengoldglas or ‘gold-ruby’ glass. Other gifted engravers also worked for Brandeburg glass makers in addition to Winter.
Glass from this time is solid and heavy. The foot or stem, drinking vessel, and lid were decorated with leaf motifs. Pieces were lighter after 1720 under the influence of the engraver Elias Rosbach. Zechlin glass though (which had gilt medallions melted into its surface) remained fairly robust.
Knowledge of how to produce Bohemian glass spread via Nuremberg northwards. Important centres were established at Brunswick and Hesse, while the glashutten of Thuringia were also important parts of the German glass industry. Just as with porcelain, the electors of Saxony also initiated establishment of glassworks in their domain.
The Saxon works copied Bohemia so precisely that their glassware closely resembles Bohemian glass. Saxon glass though uses slightly different forms, such as horizontal, diagonal, and faceted rims on the stem and underbelly of the bowl. There is a difference too in the gilded relief and gilded engraving
‘RUBY GOLD’ GLASS
In addition to engraved glass, Bohemian glass works also produced ‘ruby gold’ glass or Zwischengoldglas during the prime era for Baroque style. This type of glass had been known in Roman times but forgotten. Following its rediscovery by Johann Kunckel in Brandenburg, Bohemian glass makers also started to make it. The same type of decoration was employed as was used for Bohemian `crystal’.
This consisted of engraving, silver gilt or gilt leaf motifs placed between two layers of glass. Only a few pieces were double layered at that time.
English lead crystal and Dutch glass
Around 1750, glass that was stabilised with lead became important in Europe. The heavy lead ‘crystal’ was well adapted to practically-shaped pieces following
Painted glass box, circa 1850. This type of movingly painted glass boxes were made in Friesland in the Low Countries Classical lines. Lead crystal has unique properties.
It is absolutely clear and is decorated in an entirely different way. By use of a diamond cutting disc a large number of facets can be created that cause light refraction — acting as a series of prisms. Dutch glass was extensively engraved with diamond cutters and lead crystal became extremely popular there. After 1750, some exceptional Dutch pieces were made by stippling the glass with a diamond.
The solid goblets used for this purpose were partly imported from Britain.
Nineteenth century glass
Bohemian crystal found a strong competitor with English lead crystal cut glass. This was because the lead crystal was ideally suited to the forms of the fashion for Classicism. The Bohemian glass makers reacted by adopting the English cut-glass technique but Bohemian glass was not suitable for cutting. The consequences were therefore limited and the technique was restricted so that cutting remained solely an extension to engraving. The subjects for engraving were determined by the current fashion and this can be seen by the motifs used.
Count Georg Buquoy of Neugrdtzen in southern Bohemia became very taken with Wedgwood’s ‘Egyptian Black’. In common with Friedrich Egermann in Haida, Neugrdtzen began making black Hyalith glass that was mainly decorated in a golden chinoiserie style.
The wares included carafes, coffee services, dishes, and vases. Egermann created Lithyalin, a different form of opaque glass that resembled jasper and agate. Like these stones it could be facet cut. Egermann’s glass works also used a golden yellow glass paint that he invented. This was used on goblets and beakers from 1820. Egermann’s greatest achievement though was his contribution to the enriching of glass.
With the help of copper he was able to create cheap imitations of expensive
golden-coloured ruby glass. Glass makers sought an ever greater range of colours and forms for their wares. On the one hand they attempted to improve the process of applying coloured glass to a clear glass base while on the other they sought to develop new methods.
This led to a new technique in which several layers of coloured glass were applied to a base. It was a process that had originated in China. By cutting away parts of the different coloured layers, all manner of colour effects could be created. The use of several layers of milchglas was particularly popular. With this, when a pattern had been cut out it was further decorated with enamel.
Bohemian glass companies exported lots of this type of ware in the 1850’s. Around 1820 the Bohemian glassworks also made glass that was smelted with embedded plaster or porcelain with portraits of famous persons. From 1830 onwards the glass market changed radically because of the major changes in how glass was made. Until that time each piece was individually crafted by a glassblower. During the nineteenth century factories began to press mould glass. This process made it possible to mass produce glass making.
The artistic level of the output dropped of course but commercial considerations were generally more important than aesthetic ones. Very few managed to avoid this trend. One who did was the Viennese artist Ludwig Lobmeyr, who owned a quality glass making works in Steinsch6nau. He was one of a group of artists who opposed the levelling down and increasing lack of taste of the mass produced wares.
This group studied ancient and exotic forms of glass and this led to their works making new types of glassware with simple and functional shapes. Before this trend gained wider acceptance though it was consumed in an even more radical movement that swept Europe under the Art Nouveau and Jugendstil names. The artists A. Daum and E. GaI16 gave glass-making back its individual power of expression and returned to the old traditions. In the United States Louis Comfort Tiffany was inspired by oriental and classical glass. His work was widely admired and echoed in Europe.
One glass works that copied his lead was the Liitz works at Klostermiihle in Bohemia.
Glass and jewellery
Glass paste and beads were used for jewellery back in the age of the ancient Egyptians. Alexandria supplied the then known world with glass beads during the
ancient Greek civilisation and during the Roman empire. The strings of beads made with them were of different colours. The glass was decorated with wavy melted threads of lighter-coloured glass. The production of beads spread through Constantinople and the other towns of the Roman empire to Europe.
Venice was an important production centre for glass beads in the eleventh century. Imitation gem stones had been made in Bohemia as early as the fourteenth century. In the eighteenth century
Louis XIV style mirror of the 19th century.
They also started to make glass beads. Production of glass beads had started in the German Nuremberg in the sixteenth century followed by the Fichtel mountains area of Bavaria in the seventeenth century, and soon afterwards by Potsdam and Thuringia.
Bead production of importance got under way in France in the seventeenth century.

Coloured glass
Coloured glass is made by adding metallic oxides to the glass batch. This technique was widely practised in ancient Egypt and Rome, where brightly coloured glass was often favoured over clear glass. In the 15th century opaque white glass, slightly translucent glass, and glass in imitation of hardstones were produced in Venice; in Bohemia glass in bold colours of blue and
ruby-red was widely produced before 1800. In the 19th century, with advanced technical and mass production methods production was much more widespread with notable firm operating not only in Italy and Bohemia but also in Britain France, and the USA. Experimention with new staining any overlay techniques produced a wide array of coloured designs.
EARLY GLASS
The Egyptians experimented with coloured glass, exploiting their extensive trade routes to acquire the necessary materials. Ancient Egyptian glass comes in a myriad of bright, pure colours. One of the most common was bright turquoise blue, coloured by adding copper oxide to the batch. Antimony and tin oxide, imported from Assyria, were used to colour glass an opaque white, while pure opaque yellow was trailed over dark blue core-formed objects, with white or pale blue, and
combed into festoons or feathery patterns and zigzags. Fine alabastra (bottles or flasks) known as “gold-band” incorporate stripes of real gold.
The Romans continued to experiment with coloured glass, producing most famously dark blue glass overlaid with opaque white and cut with cameo decoration. Mosaic glass was made from brilliantly coloured canes of glass cut into tiny slices and fused together in a mould. Most coloured glass was blue, although purple and amber pieces are also found. Much excavated Roman glass will have an iridescent surface; this is the result of a chemical reaction with the metal oxides in the earth after the glass was buried. Roman wares include bowls, bottles, flasks, and cups.
VENETIAN GLASS
From the mid-15th century the sophisticated know-how of Venetian glassmakers gave rise to many different types and effective combinations of coloured glass. In the late 15th century a “milky” opaque-white glass made by adding tin oxide to the batch was developed. This glass (known as lattimo in Italy) resembled porcelain, and it became particularly popular in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when imported Chinese porcelain was in vogue. From the late 15th century a fine marbled glass known as “chalcedony” ” or “agate” glass was created by mixing together coloured opaque metals to resemble hardstones. Opaline glass, which was slightly translucent and less dense than opaque-white glass, was probably first made in Venice in the 17th century by the addition of oxides and the ashes of calcified
bones to the batch; when held to the light it can be distinguished from opaque-white glass by a red or yellow tint, which is known as the “fire’
BOHEMIAN GLASS
In the 16th century a distinctive dark-blue glass was produced in Bohemia by the addition of cobalt oxide. The clear vivid body colour was a perfect canvas for the brightly coloured naive enamelling popular at that time. At the end of the 17th century a deep pink glass was invented by by Johann Kunckel (c.1630-1703), a chemist and director at the Potsdam Glasshouse (est. 1679). The colour was produced by adding gold chloride to the batch. This “gold-ruby” glass (known as “Kunckel red” or, in German, Rubinglas or Goldrubinglas) was also produced in Nuremberg and other glasshouses in southern Germany. Gold-ruby glass was decorated with engraving, cutting, or gilding, and was considered a luxury product.
• MAIN AREAS OF PRODUCTION ancient coloured glass was made in Egypt and Rome; it was produced from c.1450 in Venice and from the 16th century in Bohemia
• TYPES blue glass; porcelain-like “milk” glass; coloured glass in imitation of hardstones; opaline glass; gold-
ruby glass
• FORMS densely coloured pieces may appear heavy bodied
• COLOURS ancient glass: many pieces have dark blue bodies sometimes with yellow and white decoration
• COLLECTING ancient Egyptian glass is very rare and valuable; generally colour will not play an important part in its value; gold-ruby glass is rare and valuable
Bohemia
The 19th century was an age of experimentation in glass technology. Glassmakers, some of whom were also skilled chemists, developed new colours, new ways of applying colour, and innovative techniques to produce glass
The most celebrated types of Bohemian glass from this period are “Lithyalin”, “Hyalith”, stained, and flashed glass.
LITHYALIN AND HYALITH GLASS
Count Georg Franz August Langueval von Buquoy 1811-1851), the owner of a number of glasshouses in southern Bohemia, produced an opaque black glass c.1817, which was inspired by the black basalt wares produced from the end of the 18th century at the Wedgwood factory (est. 1769) in England. In 1819 lie produced another dense opaque glass, known as -Hyalith”, usually in sealing-wax
red or jet-black. Hyalith was usually decorated with gilding.
Von Buquoy’s experiments may have inspired Friedrich Egermann (1777-1864), who in 1829 at his factory in Haida, northern Bohemia, patented “Lithyalin” glass, a polished opaque glass that resembled hardstones, which he continued to produce until 1840. The surface of the glass was brushed with metal oxides to resemble veining and marbling. Strong colours are typical, especially red; more unusual are dark-green, blue, and purple. Wares were usually cut and polished and occasionally gilded or enamelled. Lithyalin glass was used mainly
~, vases,
for purely decorative items, notabl
and scent bottles. Lithyalin glass was also produced at the Harrach Glassworks (est. 1`14) in Neuwelt (now Novy Svet in the Czech Republic), and by Hautin & Co. in France. Although these copies are difficult to distinguish from pieces by Egermann, they are usually slightly lighter in colour.
STAINED, FLASHED, AND OVERLAY GLASS Egermann also invented an effective and inexpensive method of colouring glass with a
thin stain of colour, which was called flashing. This involved painting a clear object with a stain and firing it at a low temperature to fix the colour. This gave a solid, even, pale colour. Egermann is particularly noted for his yellow coloured stain, developed in 1818 using silver chloride, and his ruby-red stain, perfected in 1832, using gold
chloride and copper oxide. Wares were often cut through to the thin colour to reveal the clear glass beneath.
In casing – a technique reinvented by Egermann –the glass vessel is covered in a differently coloured glass and then fired; as the glass cools, the two layers fuse together. Some pieces were “double-cased”, i.e. dipped into two differently coloured batches of glass to give a multicoloured effect. The flashing technique is sometimes confused with casing as the terms were used interchangeably by some glassworks; however, in casing the layers of glass are much thicker. If there is a sharp line between the two colours, this suggests flashing, whereas shading or thinning between two colours suggests overlay. Flashing and staining are characteristic of 19th-century Bohemian glassmakers as they are inexpensive methods of colouring glass and thus well suited to the mass-produced wares made during the 19th century.
OTHER COLOURED GLASS
During the 1820s and 1830s a series of
industrial exhibitions held in Prague gave rise to the development of other types of coloured glass, including violet, pink, green, and blue. Further experimentation with colour in the early
I 9th century sparked the discovery in Bohemia of other ways to colour glass. Of particular note is the work of Josef Riedel (active 1830-48), who in the 1830s used uranium to produce a vivid fluorescent greenish-yellow (Annagriin) and yellowish-green (Annagelb) glass, both named after his wife Anna. However, this glass was mildly radioactive, and the process was later abandoned.
Lithyalin and Hyalith glass
• CONDITION ceramic restoration techniques are often used, so repairs can be difficult to spot
• COLLECTING display vessels such as vases and bowls arc most common; display cups and saucers and pieces with gilt oriental and chinoiserie decoration are rarer; lithyalin overlaid on dark-green hyalith is valuable
Flashed, stained, and overlay glass
• CONDITION check pieces carefully, as damage is often hard to detect on coloured glass; good condition is vital
• COLLECTING the condition and depth of the colour determine the value; beware when collecting blue stained glass as it fades easily and can lose value
Other Bohemian coloured glassTYPES
• vivid green Annagriin and Annagelb glass
Britain, France, and the United States after 1800
Coloured glass was widely produced during the 19th century in Britain, France, and the USA. In Britain two important events gave a new impetus to the manufacture of coloured glass in the middle of the century. The first was the removal of excise tax on glass in 1845, which encouraged makers to experiment with new techniques and styles, among them coloured glass. The second was the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851 at which glassmakers from Europe and the USA were keen to show their new skills and techniques. In France glassmakers at all the major factories manufactured coloured glass in a range of styles and forms, and in the USA firms experimented widely with colour, producing an extensive range of designs, most characteristically in delicate pastel shades with subtle
BRITAIN
All blue, green, and amethyst glass produced in Britain from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century is generically described as “Bristol” glass. The most characteristic colour is a brilliant royal blue, produced by adding cobalt oxide to the batch; such glass is frequently embellished with cold gilding. Drinking glasses were generally green, ranging from grass green to a turquoise green. Amethyst glasses are rare, but when found the colour is true and clear, with no sign of red, unlike the plum tone found on later Victorian glass.
In the mid-19th century the influence of coloured glass manufactured by well-established glass companies in Bohemia became increasingly visible in the products of British factories. Not only did important Bohemian factories such as the Harrach Glassworks (est. 1714) in Neuwelt (now Novy Svet in the Czech Republic) exhibit quantities of coloured glass at the Great Exhibition, but Bohemian glassworkers were also employed by British factories where, freed from the constraint of having to produce wares in traditional styles, they were able to manufacture very exciting wares in an outstanding range of new colours.
In the late I 870s a type of
type
opalescent glass, known as
“Vaseline” glass due to its greasy,
vaseline-like appearance, was developed
in Britain and designed to resemble 15th-
and 16th-century Venetian glass. The opalescent colour was produced by using tiny amounts of uranium together with other metal oxides to create shades of yellow, green, blue, and, more rarely, red. Stevens & Williams Ltd (est. 1847), of Brierley Hill, near Stourbridge, was one of the leading innovators in the field of patent colours and colour combinations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company’s rare double-cased “Rockingham” ware is particularly sought after, as are the Bohemian-style
pieces with alternating panels of engraved colour-flashed and clear glass produced by WIT.,
B. & J. Richardson (est. c.1836), also near Stourbridge. Amber was the most commonly used colour for the vases, decanters, and claret jugs in this style, although some pieces were also produced in purple, green, and red.
Gold and uranium oxides combined with sodium nitrate were used to manufacture the “Queen’s Burmese” range of glass by Thomas Webb & Sons (est. 1837), near Stourbridge, patented in 1886. Queen’s Burmese was inspired by the “Burmese” glassware patented in 1885
by the Mount Washington Glass Co. (est. 1837), in South Boston, Massachusetts, and favoured by Queen Victoria who ordered a set – hence the name. It had a body colour that shaded from a pale lemon-yellow (sometimes light green) at the bottom through to salmon-pink at the top. Some pieces feature enamelled and gilded designs. Although Queen’s Burmese ware was made by other British companies – including WIL, B. & J. Richardson –pieces by Webb are the most desirable. Typical wares include vases, posy bowls, and lampshades. Another type of glass introduced by Webb was “Peach” glass, a type of cased glass that shaded from pink through to a deep red.
A Tazza
The tazza is a distinctive Venetian form of serving dish. The revival of 15th- and 16th-century Venetian glass forms and styles of decoration was started in Venice during the mid-19th century and gradually spread throughout Europe. In Britain the Revival was supported by William Morris, who disapproved of the heavily cut glass prevalent at the time. One of the leading British manufacturers of Venetian Revival glass was James Powell & Sons (est. 1834), which produced “Vaseline” glass wares similar to the example shown above, and in delicately tinted glass from the 1870s.
FRANCE
In France, the Baccarat Glassworks (est. 1764 as the Sainte-Anne Glassworks) in Baccarat, near Luneville, Lorraine, produced glass c.1880 in a distinctive, delicate shade of pink known as “tinted-rose”.Many
wares feature acid-etched Classical decoration. Another fashionable trend was the production of coloured opaline glass, a semi-opaque white glass, opacified by the addition of the ash of calcined bones and coloured with metallic oxides. The Venetians had been the first to introduce this translucent glass, which was later made in Bohemia and Britain, but the French opaline glass first produced c.1823 at Baccarat was more translucent. The finest French opaline was made at Baccarat, at the Saint-Louis Glassworks est. 1767) near Bitche, in the Munzthal, Lorraine, and at the Choisy-le-Roi Glassworks (est. 1821) in Paris. Wares were made in delicate pastel shades such
as turquoise, pink, and pale green, and include pairs Of vases with enamelled decoration, and vases, jugs, and dishes of inventive forms, often with coloured cane rims. Saint-Louis Glassworks made many pieces IT soft pink or blue, with latticinio decoration and glass cane rims.
THE UNITED STATES
Throughout the 19th century American glass manufacturers launched and developed a range of innovative coloured glass. One of the most popular and now widely collected colours is the transparent “Cranberry” glass, which has a distinctive raspberry pink tint, first produced in the glassmaking region of Stourbridge in England. Huge quantities of useful and ornamental wares were made, most notably at the Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. (1826-88) in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
However, it was only during the 1880s, when there was a move away from cut and pressed glass by the leading glass manufacturers, that they began to experiment in earnest with a more sophisticated range of coloured art glass. One of the leading companies at this time was the Mount Washington
Glass Co., which launched the widely copied and enormously popular “Burmese” glass in 1885. Most Burmese glass has a satin finish, although some has a glossy surface, and is characterized by subtle gradations of shading from a light lemon at the bottom of the piece to a delicate pink at the top. In 1883 the firm of Hobbs, Brockunier & Co. (est. 1863) in Wheeling, West Virginia, developed “Peachblow” glass and incorporated it into its range of coloured wares. This cased glass is a warm buttery yellow at the base shading through to a purplish-red at the top and is lined in a white opal glass. Peachblow was made at other companies, including the New England Glass Co. (1818-90), originally in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, which called it “Wild Rose”. New England was also notable for its “Amberina” range of glass, which it produced as “Pressed Amberina”. Both Wild Rose and Pressed Amberina were developed by Joseph Locke (1846-1936), an English glassworker, who emigrated to the USA in 1882. Patented in 1883, Amberina glass contained small amounts of gold, and graduated from pale amber at the base through to a rich fuschia at the top. It was made until 1900. Hobbs, Brockunier & Co. also made Pressed Amberina under licence from the New England Glass Co.
France
• MAJOR FACTORIES Baccarat, Saint-Louis, Choisy-le-Roi
• TYPES pastel-coloured opaline glass and wares with decoration are most notable
• COLLECTING wares by Baccarat are sought after
Marks
Saint-Louis: this mark was used from 1870 to the present day; some pieces marked “Argental” or Munzthal the German for Argental, often with a tiny cross of Lorraine
The United States
• COLLECTING Cranberry glass: very popular with
collectors; later Cranberry tends to have a less warm hue and a bluey tinge when held to the light
Marks
Mount Washington Glass Co.: mark used on Burmese ware from the 1880s
New England Glass Co.: Amberina ware; mark used from 1880s
Britain
• TYPES Bristol glass, overlay glass, Vaseline glass, decorated opaque and opaline glass
• BEWARE there are many early 20th-century copies of Bristol glass: beware of glasses that are larger than usual (more than c. I Ocin/4in high) and thin glass
Marks
Thomas Webb & Son