Innovation in Glass
by Bob Brooke

Glass, especially functional and decorative glass vessels, was a part of everyday life in the Roman Empire. Artisans experimented with glass-making techniques and applied innovation to take the art of glass-making even further. Glass shifted from a luxury item to everyday object, yet retained its decadence.

Man first made glass by combining silica, or sand quartz, soda ash, and line with fire around 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia. The Phoenicians further developed the craft that eventually spread from the Near East to Egypt and the Mediterranean.

The Egyptians produced decorative glass objects such as vases, bottles, beakers, and beads. During the Hellenistic period, glass was a luxury item and only the wealthy could afford it. The Romans later drew inspiration from Hellenistic glass makers, taking the craft even further following the invention of glassblowing.

Glassblowing Transforms the Process
The Phoenicians invented glassblowing. But it was the Romans who created innovative glass objects using it. They discovered that glassblowing was a more flexible and efficient technique that took less time to produce quality glass objects.

Roman glass workers worked with an array of different colors and patterns. Marbled glass imitated the patterns found in natural stones. Lace, striped and spiral patterns were also popular in glass vessels. Snake thread decoration was the application of trailed glass in a serpentine design. Glass also became more translucent during this time and artisans were able to get more creative with their designs. Glassblowing also led to the mass production of glass objects, making them accessible to all classes of people. Glass jewelry was an inexpensive alternative to precious gemstones.

Luxury Glass Vessels
Glass continued to be a highly valued material despite its affordability during the Roman Empire. Only the very wealthy could afford certain glass objects, such as cameo glass and vasa diatreta or cage cups. Cameo glass was a decorative, multi-layered, carved glass ensemble. Figures of gods and goddesses were popular motifs.

Cage cups, on the other hand, were time-consuming works of art and a staple of lavish Roman banquets. These spectacular glass goblets consist of a glass vessel surrounded by a lattice pattern cage of glass circles.

The Lycurgus Cup was the most impressive example of this type of glass vessel. The glass itself presents a magical transformation of color depending on the angle of the light. It appears a hazy, jade green in ordinary light but when lit from behind, it appears an amber red. The most prized glass of the Roman elite was Alexandrian glass. This was a crystal-clear, colorless glass often used to make windows.

Roman glassmakers created several types of glass objects from everyday dinnerware to unique vessels. Perhaps the most unique were the ”tear bottles” or lachrymatory. These small glass vessels were symbolic and stored the tears of mourners who lost a loved one. The more tears saved proved how deeply someone felt for the lost or deceased. Many of these Roman tear bottles have been discovered in tombs.

Flasks in the shape of animals were another creative design of glass vessels. The ancient Romans revered animal symbolism, and nature inspired many Roman artisans. Fruits also served as inspiration. Head flasks, inspired by mythological figures or the gods, were another popular design.

The Roman Glass Process
Roman glass makers melted down the raw materials to make glass. Once the glass cooled and hardened, they broke it down into pieces to be transported throughout the Mediterranean region. This material was then sent to glass workers who re-melted the glass back to its liquid state to make a variety of glass objects. These glass makers and workers were anonymous laborers who played an important role in the Roman glass industry.

Before glassblowing, the manufacture of glass was a slow and complicated process, and, consequently, glassware was a luxury item available only to the wealthy. With the development of glassblowing, however, production became quicker and easier, costs went down, and a much broader swath of the population could afford to purchase glassworks.

The process of glassblowing consists of placing a glob of molten glass on one end of a long metal tube known as a blowpipe and then blowing through the pipe to inflate the glass. In the method of glassblowing known as mold-blowing, the molten glass is inflated inside a prepared mold, and the glass then takes on the form of that mold, as well as any decoration carved inside the mold.

Though the glassblowing technique made glass vessels less expensive, it didn’t make them all equal. Some glasswares continued to be produced, particularly those displaying the intricate carving of cameo decoration. Other luxury wares included those with mosaic decoration and those that incorporated gold leaf between layers of glass.

Unfortunately, the addition of handles on glass vessels invariably marred them. But some glassmakers were adept at attaching handles to produce some exquisite pieces.

Ancient Roman glassworkers were able to produce wares in an impressive array of hues. They created color in glass by adding metallic oxides to the glass mixture or by controlling the amount of oxygen in the furnace during the glassmaking process. The mismatched colors of the handles and bodies of some Roman glasswares indicated that glassworkers used whatever scraps they had available.

Sometimes, Roman glassmakers produced vessels in a variety of colors that were related to the contents inside, such as the amphoriskos, a small two-handled amphora used to hold perfume. Historians believe that a bottle’s colors indicated its contents. For example, a floral fragrance might have been kept in an amphoriskos of one color, while a different color might have designated a spicy or fruity scent.

Glass was a popular material for all sorts of vessels, including oil lamps, cosmetic and jewelry boxes, storage and transport containers, perfume bottles, ointment pots, and wine jugs and cups. Glass vessels were, in fact, such an integral part of daily life in the Roman Empire that glassmakers produced 100 million of them annually.

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