There's nothing quite
like the play of candelight dancing on a cut-glass
goblet to create an atmosphere of
elegance.
The art of glassblowing
goes back to the time of the birth of Christ, and
takes us around the world from the Far East to
Egypt and Rome, Venice and urano in Italy, Bohemia
and England.
Glassmaking probably
originated in Asia. The oldest archaeological finds
- glass beads dyed with impure raw materials - date
back to between 3, 000 and 4, 000 B. C., though
naturally-produced glass resulting from volcanic
eruptions had been used as blades for weapons a
good deal earlier. The major obstacle faced by
early glassmakers was the construction of
sufficiently powerful melting equipment. To begin
with, the glass mass may well have been melted in
open clay vessels heated over large outdoor
fires.
Early glass articles
were painted, like pottery. When the art of
glassmaking spread from the Far East to Egypt and
Rome, Roman legionnaires took glassware with them
to the far comers of the Roman Empire - Cologne,
Paris and Vienna.
Despite the havoc of
the Dark Ages, glassmaking continued in the
Byzantine Empire, and particularly in
Constantinople, fostered by the Orthodox Church and
its great religious interest in glass. Venice
became the principal port of entry for Byzantine
glass, with Europe's first large glass center
developing around Venice and the nearby island of
urano. By the sixteenth century, there was a
colony of forty glassworks and 30, 000 inhabitants
on urano. A craftsman has mastered the technique
of making clear - colorless - glass and glassmakers
enjoyed exalted social rank, equal to that of
nobles.
The art continued to
spread, with Bohemia (the western part of what we
call Czechoslovakia today) becoming Europe's second
glass center by the seventeenth century. Potash
glass was invented in Bohemia, and the arts of
polishing and engraving were
developed.
Britain also became a
glass center with the invention of the mass or mix
for crystal glass, a soft lead-based glass that was
easy to polish. By the start of the eighteenth
century, the art of glassmaking was known
throughout Europe. The industrial revolution
brought cheap raw materials, new fuels and improved
melting equipment. With mechanization, production
was speeded up, and glass ceased to be a luxury,
but classic-molding techniques held their own
alongside the newly mechanized production of
simplified styles.
Glass was extremely
rare in Scandinavia until the modem era, although
the oldest glass article found in Finland, a
drinking horn made in the Rhineland, dates back to
around 200 BC The first Finnish glassworks began
operations in 168 1. It burned down four years
later, and it took another sixty years for the
second works to be built.
Glass is an inorganic
substance produced by melting together a mixture of
quartz sand, soda or potash, lime and other
materials, which becomes hard and brittle as it
cools to room temperature. Slight variations and
tiny imperfections in glassware pieces are a
reflection of craftsmanship and individual
artistry. Absolute, flawless perfection is not
really desirable, as it can be achieved only under
the most mechanized assembly-line circumstances.
Glass is extremely tricky to work with. (Even the
finest diamond, examined under a jeweler's loupe,
rarely reveals absolute perfection.) If you took
closely at a piece of glassware, you may see a
"seed" or bubble. This is not a flaw - the bubble
is formed by gases when chemicals are united in the
fusing or melting of the raw ingredients. It does
not affect the quality or beauty of the glass. In
fact, a "chain store" tumbler mass-produced of
low-grade glass almost never has any
bubbles.
Another "imperfection"
is called a cord. This is an almost invisible
difference in density in the glass, which occurs
during the fusing of the molten glass. It is
visible only because it reflects light, but when a
goblet with a cord in it is filled with water, no
light is reflected and the cord becomes
invisible.
A "shear mark" is a
slight puckering of the glass caused when the
artisan snips off excess molten glass while shaping
the piece - for example, at the end of a pitcher
handle. It is not a flaw.
Think of cords, seeds
and shear marks as the signature of the craftsman,
and appreciate the love and skill that went into
making your wine glassware. But don't lock your
crystal away and save it for company - enjoy it
every day.
Caring
for crystal
Like fine china, your
crystal deserves careful handling. Wash it
carefully, one piece at a time, in warm soapy
water, never hot. Use mild soap flakes. To reach
the inaccessible interior of a decanter or vase,
pour in rice with warm soapy water, and swirl the
mixture around. Dry immediately. Certain kinds of
water may leave a lime deposit, which can be
removed by applying vinegar on a
cloth.
Rinse your crystal in
clean warm water, dry it with one cloth and polish
with another. Polishing cloths should be non
-fluffy and lint-free, to avoid bits of cloth
clogging their facets of the cut
glass.
Rims and stems of
glasses need special care, as they're the weakest
part of stemware. Don't drain your glasses upside
down on the draining board, or store them that way.
Carelessly knocking two rims together can cause
cracks. Don't hold a glass by the stem when you're
washing or drying the bowl; it causes undue
pressure. Washing crystal in a dishwasher is not
recommended. Too many factors can harm your
crystal; the scalding water, harsh detergent
orglasses knocking against one another. Take the
time to treat your crystal with care, and it will
reward you, glowing red with port, pale gold with
sherry, frosting long, tall summer drinks... giving
you pleasure every day of the year.
