Glass Information and Education

Seventeenth Century Glass 1 2 3

When it came to enameled and engraved glass in the 17th century Germany and Holland were the powerhouses of exploration. However, Venetian glasshouses had experimented with enamelled decoration on glass. They had also employed diamond point to engrave designs on glass but were not as big in exploratory work as Holland and Germany. Diamond-point engraving was vastly extended in this century.Also during the seventeenth century wheel engraving along with diamond-point was developed by the professional and amateurs

The Holy Roman Empire

In the sphere of enamelling, the glasshouses of the Holy Roman Empire (which encompassed almost the whole of central Europe at that time-the Low Countries, Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Silesia) were to apply coloured decoration to plain glass forms for subjects ranging from the simple to the most sophisticated. This type of glassware, hearty and robust and enamelled in bold colours, has sometimes been dismissed as not much more than peasant art, a view which is not, however, supported by a serious examination. (Glass Information from The History of Glass by Dan Klein and Ward LLoyd )