Crown glass

“ Their workmanship is very fine, and they tell their parables with great distinctness. Proceeding eastward to Becket’s Crown, we shall be afforded an edifying opportunity to observe how much more brilliant and generally delightful are the old mosaic medallions than even the best modern copies. The oldest window dates from the middle of the thirteenth century, and it takes but a glance to betray those of its companions which are modern. The improvements of centuries in glass manufacture fail utterly to yield us an equivalent for the brilliancy of the crudely constructed panels of that time. ”

“ The proportion of gold should be very small, and the heat very great, to produce a good effect. The glass must contain either the oxide of lead, bismuth, zinc, or antimony; for crown glass will take no colour from gold. Glass combined with this metal, when removed from the crucible is generally of a pale rose-colour; nay, sometimes is as colourless as water, and does not assume its ruby colour till it has been exposed to a low red heat, either under a muffle or at the lamp. ”

“ I discovered a difference, far beyond my hopes, in the refractive qualities of different kinds of glass, with respect to their divergency of colours. the yellow or straw-coloured foreign sort, commonly called Venice glass, and the English crown glass, are very near alike in that respect, tho’ in general the crown glass seems to diverge the light rather the least of the two. The common plate glass made in England diverges more ”

“ It must be of such a size that if a half-crown be dropped into the glass, it shall, lying flat, nearly or quite fill the bottom space. The conjuror must be provided also with a glass disc, of the thickness of a half-crown, and in diameter exactly corresponding with the bottom space of the glass. This, when about to perform the trick, he holds concealed in his right hand, after the manner of A in Fig. 3. Filling the glass about three-quarters full, as shown in Fig. 2, he hands it to a spectator to hold. He then asks the loan of a half-crown, and a lady’s pocket-handkerchief. ”

“ In quality, tint, feel, and ring the plain blown glass was a beautiful product, and when it was cut or engraved the decoration was done by fine craftsmen and often with excellent taste. Old glass has its own peculiar charm; the dark beauty of the crystal metal, the variety of form, the bell-like ring when flipped, the satiny feeling of the surface, the sparkle of the cut facets, and the combination of gracefulness and usefulness attract a collector: in cabinets it shines, gleams, glows, and sparkles in a reticent, well-bred way. ”

“ It conveniently filled the head of the light, and its upright lines and pinnacles repeated those of the surrounding architecture and made the window part of it; but the imitation of a stone niche in glass is hard to justify on abstract grounds, and it is difficult now to 216 understand the enthusiasm which, as soon as it was introduced, made its adoption so universal that, with few exceptions, the artists of the day seemed unable to conceive of a single figure or a set of subject panels otherwise than surmounted by a bewildering mass of crockets and pinnacles. ”

“ The smallness of the panels only increases one's sense of the size of the window and gives the glass a jewel-like quality. It is all a twinkle of beautiful colour. Neither have the repairs effected by the eighteenth century 233 glaziers hurt it much—pieces of clear coloured glass put in to fill up holes, and on which the glazier has usually scratched his name and the date with his diamond. ”

“ A certain exaggeration there is, no doubt, about the action of these earliest figures, a certain brutality of rendering, as there is also a certain barbaric quality in the ornament, and, indeed, in the whole effect; but of its superlative richness there is no manner of doubt. One is even led to speculate, when one compares it with later work, whether a certain barbaric character of design does not go to that unrivalled brilliancy. In the absolute glory of rich colour the very earliest glass has never been equalled. ”

“ If I trespass beyond my limits to give this rapid summary of what is known of the colours of mediæval window-glass, it is because much of it will be found applicable to the contemporary Oriental enamelled ware and to the later Venetian glass.
In view of the high technical skill thus shown in the colouring and working of the material, nothing is more remarkable than the almost total absence from our collections of any glass, using that word in the narrower sense, that we can classify as Gothic. We know, indeed, that during these centuries much glass was made in France, 134 Germany, and Italy. ”

“ This is mixed with oil or gum and water in order to apply it, and then the glass is placed in a kiln and "fired" till the enamel is fused on and, if well fired, becomes part of the glass itself. This is the only "painting" involved in the production of a stained-glass window, and its effect, in the hand of an artist, besides enabling him to express more than could be done merely with glass and lead, is to decorate and enrich what would otherwise be somewhat crude and papery in effect. ”

“ Perhaps the earliest type of English glass is one with a waisted bowl, engraved with a full-blown rose, and supported on a rib-twisted stem; but those on stems loosely air-twisted may sometimes be as old.
There is a glass in the British Museum with a bell-shaped bowl engraved with a rose, a pink, and a third flower of undetermined species; this we may take as a good type of the earlier drinking-glass. The bowl is divided from the air-twisted stem by a hollow bulb containing a sixpence of Charles II. dated 1679. ”

“ It must not be thought that stained glass loses in beauty by the presence of these black lines of lead and iron. On the contrary it gains enormously. 8 Large pieces of unrelieved colour in windows are thin in effect and trying to the eye, which needs the continual contrast of the solid black of the lead all over the window to enable it to appreciate the colour and brilliance of the glass. The painting when rightly used is directed to the same end, for it may be said that the smaller and more divided the spaces of clear glass, the more brilliant and jewel-like is the effect. ”

“ In these the stem is often faceted, the facets sometimes extending some considerable distance up the glass. The modern champagne glass, with a wide saucer-like bowl and a hollow stem, seems to be a sort of combination of the two. The wine being a rarity, the glasses are scarce, and the collector who unearths a genuine specimen of an early eighteenth-century champagne glass may esteem himself fortunate. ”

“ EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GLASS THE eighteenth century is the “Golden Age” of the collector of English glass. At the beginning of the century glass manufacture was already a flourishing industry. Vessels of all kinds for ornament, keepsakes, and for domestic use were being produced in great quantities, and there was a strong and growing competition between the native craftsmen and the glass-workers of Venice, Bohemia, Germany, and the Low Countries, a competition which, thanks to the superiority of the new English “flint” glass, was steadily trending in favour of the English product. ”

“ HUNTING GOBLET, DOME FOOT
If you place near each other, upon a white damask cloth, a glass of Charles II date, a William and Mary glass, a George III glass, and a Victorian glass, you will notice a darkening and then a whitening in tint (though not a brightening) as your eye travels from the oldest glass to [16] the most modern. By “tint” or “tinge” I do not mean “colour,” in the sense of red or green or blue; I will deal with coloured glass later on. By “tint” or “tinge” I mean the shade of leaden, darkish hue in the metal from which the glass article was blown or moulded. ”

“ The ensuing centuries are the most barren in the whole history of glass. We know that in France the 114 glass-workers returned to the woods to manufacture in large quantities the verre à fougère—common glass for domestic use, which does not seem to have come into any close relation with the artistic movements of the time. Here before long all interest was centred in the manufacture of stained glass for the windows of the churches, and this art became of supreme importance with the rapid development of the new architecture in the twelfth century. ”

“ As to the character of the glasses themselves, shape alone is no criterion of age. Apart from the possibility of deliberate imitation, it does not follow that because a piece is ponderous, clumsy in appearance and, to a modern eye, unduly capacious, that it is necessarily an early piece. Right from the beginning of glass manufacture in England, two qualities, at least, were undoubtedly manufactured ”

“ The fullness and richness of coloring of the glass leaves really nothing to be desired. It is as brilliant, as jewel-like, and at the same time as free from opacity and heaviness, as the best ancient glass; and it is mainly in these respects that it so far excels the productions of other makers of painted glass. The landscape is treated with a pellucid delicacy and accuracy of truth which I have seen very rarely equaled in ancient windows. ”

“ The clear white glass, somewhat thick and heavy compared with later examples, is often ornamented with appliqué bosses of coloured glass; such glass is sparingly decorated with opaque enamels, and this decoration takes the form of little beads or studs, at times combined with an imbricated pattern in gold. We sometimes meet with large bowls on low feet (a form of drageoir or sweetmeat dish) which are so decorated. There is, however, no finer example of this style of ornament than the standing beaker with cover in the British Museum (Slade, 362) . ”

“ As for the four surviving sisters, they are certainly open to the severest censure in that they sent abroad for stained glass during the reign of Henry IV., because there was then the highest development of the art in England, and its product could not be approached by that of any foreign contemporaries. Close inspection discloses the design of the leads to be that of a graceful adjustment of the foliage of the benet plant. At the bottom of the central light is observable a panel of highly coloured mosaic glass. ”

“ Points to be considered are the colour of the metal, the perfection of the twist, its opacity, and the character of the foot. The colour and weight of the glass are probably the best criteria. The forgeries are generally light, and the beautiful mellow tone of the real old English glass is replaced by a cold white tint or even a tinge of green. The twist is often more translucent than in the genuine pieces, and is frequently imperfectly produced, becoming looser as it descends, the loosening being particularly pronounced just before its junction with the foot. ”

“ It is indeed noticeable that both in Germany and in England, in the case of the more expensive table-glass that we now see in the shop windows, the decoration, such as it is, has continued to be sought rather in processes of cutting and engraving on the old lines.
Various fantastic methods of surface decoration have indeed found favour at times. An artificial iridescence has been given to the surface by certain chemical agencies—perhaps the most elaborate instance of such decoration may be found in the ‘favrile’ glass of Messrs. ”

“ In England the{88} dawning of a new taste in artistic decoration became evident about the year 1770 in the work of the silversmiths and goldsmiths, and shortly afterwards in the productions of the porcelain factories of Bow, Chelsea, and elsewhere. In glass a noticeable feature of the change was the increasing use of faceting. Flat facets, divided by sharp angles, are to be found on both stems and shoulders of the glasses, and oftentimes extended half-way up the body itself. ”

“ In the Glass Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and at the British Museum, there are very fine specimens. At the former there is a drinking glass specially worthy of note. It is of tumbler shape, 31⁄2 inches by 23⁄4 inches, and is formed of two layers of glass, one of which is etched in gold leaf, with a group of St. George and the Dragon, foliated scrolls, festoons, and arabesques. The bottom is coloured red and etched in gold, with the sacred monogram I.H.S., and the legend, “Benedictine sit nomen Domini.” The outside is cut in facets. ”

“ The strong refractive powers of the new glass made it specially suitable for cutting, which brought out a wonderful fire and sparkle that even the finest art of Bohemia and Venice had not been able to attain. At first, of course, the English craftsmen were far inferior in artistic merit—both as regards design and execution—to those of Bohemia; but the superior brilliancy of the metal atoned to a great extent for the deficiencies of the workmen, and Early English cut wine glasses and punch glasses are by no means to be despised. ”

“ The first glass made was of a coarse type, crude in shape, and of greenish coloring, with sand and bubbles showing on its surface, detracting from its finish. Examples of this type are very scarce to-day, bringing prices wholly at variance with their attractiveness. Up to the eighteenth century, all [Pg 195] glass was very expensive, making it prohibitive to all but the wealthy classes, but since that time its cost has been greatly reduced, and beautiful specimens, of exquisite design, can now be purchased at prices within the means of almost every one. ”