Cumbria Crystal's The History of Glass | Roman Glass

Glass blowing as a technique quickly spread through the Roman Empire from the eastern Mediterranean to the west. By the 1st century AD, the Roman glass industry grew exponentially, due to a period of advanced technical growth. A range of decorative finishing techniques were developed such as gilding, enamelling and painting. Techniques were developed during this era that enabled exceptionally high-quality cut and engraved products to be produced. Cage cups, such as the Lycurgus Cup (see Figure 2), were made and are a true feat of glass-cutting technology, where a thick blown glass vessel is painstakingly cut away to create a design which is connected to the wall of the vessel by small bridges hidden behind the decoration. A truly amazing example of this is the Lycurgus Cup which depicts an ill-fated king who is seen being strangled by vines after taunting Dionysos, the ancient Greek God of wine. What is particularly of note about this cup is that it is made from dichroic glass, where small nano-particles of gold and silver are mixed into the glass so that it changes from a green colour when lit from in front, to red, when lit from inside or behind the cup.

Around the turn of the 1st century BC/AD cameo cut glass vessels were introduced, the most famous example of this style being the Portland vase, which is housed in the British Museum, London (see Figure 4). This vase is an excellent example of Roman cameo glass, a hot glass bubble of one colour glass was encased in an outer layer of another colour. Once cooled the outer layers were cut away to create a design in relief. The most common colour scheme of Roman cameo glass was opaque white over transparent dark blue.