Glass Information and Education

Even farther east, the islamic Empire, which spread from the Arabic Peninsula after 632 AD to encompass North Africa and Spain in the west, and Mesopotamia, Syria and Persia in the east, evolved its own distinct style of glass-making. This style was distinguished by its skilfully cut and engraved products, lustrepainted glass, and spectacular enamelled and gilded glasses which were made in Syrua in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

It was not until the Renaissance that materials and techniques improved sufficientky for objects of great delicacy and finesse to be made from good quality clear metal, especially in Italy. By the mid-fifteenth century Venuce had become the predominant glass-making centre, not only in Europe but throughout the world.