CHAPTER I

ROMAN GLASS IN ENGLAND

A BIOGRAPHER examines the ancestry of the man whose life he
records in order to trace the development of peculiar traits and
talents. Similarly, in order to understand the technique of a craft its

Fig. I. Square jug, made in mould, with strongly fixed handle. British Museum.

ancestry must be investigated. The technique of English glass-blowers
can be traced back to the glass-blowers of Imperial Rome and to the
Roman provinces of Syria, Egypt and Gaul.

It does not appear that during the Roman occupation glass-working,
except the making of beads and, possibly, of small cups and bottles,
was carried on in any part of the British Isles. It is claimed that at
Wilderspool, near Warrington, the foundation of a Roman glass-furnace,
together with fragments of glass and a piece of a crucible; have been dis-
covered. The remains, however, are so insignificant that the glass-factory

Fig.2. Roman jug with strongly fixed handle; threaded decoration. Found at Barnwell, Cambridge. British Museum.

Fig.3. Roman jug, with glass impressed seal. Surface ribbed by moulding. Found near Sittingbourne. British Museum.

must have been of small extent. But even if Roman glass-works did not
flourish in Britain, the vessels and fragments of vessels scattered broad-
cast through the land prove by their technique how much modern glass-
workers owe to their Roman predecessors. The similarity in form, and
in chemical composition of Roman glass vessels, whether found in
England, on the Continent, in Syria or Egypt, makes it probable that there
were only a few centres of glass manufacture, and that the vessels were
distributed from these centres through the whole empire.
At Silchester and on the sites of other Roman settlements fragments
have been found of window glass, both sheet and plate, differing but
slightly in composition from that of modern glass. The moulds used for

Fig.4. Roman cut crystal-glass cup, height 5 3/8". Found at Barnwell, Cambridge. British Museum.

shaping vessels and for impressing patterns on their surface were as per-
fect for the purposes for which they were intended as those of the present
day. The handles of the Roman jugs and jars were perfectly constructed
and scientifically attached (Figs. I and 2), the strain of leverage being
amply allowed for. Spouts were formed as they are formed now, and
seals or "prunts" of glass and coils and loops of glass-thread (Figs. 6
and 7) were added as forms of decoration. Pliny describes how patterns
were cut by pressing the surface of vessels against revolving wheels of
hard stone. At Wilderspool fragments of Roman glass, cut with patterns
(Fig. 5), have been found ,and also a small stone cutting-wheel. In the
British Museum is an almost colourless Roman glass cup (Fig. 4), cut
with hexagonal hollows, which was found at Barnwell, near Cambridge.

Fig.5. Fragment of Roman glass, found, with a small cutting wheel, at Wilderspool. Warrington Museum.

Roman cutting consists of patterns composed of lines and shallow concave
hollows, circular, hexagonal or octagonal in shape. This shallow-cut

Fig.6. Roman vases with decoration of loops and trailed lines of glass.

decoration sufficiently brings out the brilliancy of the material without
distorting the outline of the vessel to which it is applied, and in this
respect is superior to most modern cut decoration, in which grace of
outline is too often sacrificed in order to secure brilliancy by deep cutting.
Glass-making in England is therefore in debt to Imperial Rome for much
of its technique and for the chemical composition of at least one of the
many kinds of glass which are now made.

Fig.7. Vase with handles; coil of thread as decoration; found in Colchester. Colchester Museum.

BLUE TINTED ROMAN GLASS

The composition of the blue-tinted glass, of which so many of the
larger Roman jugs and cinerary jars are formed, throws an interesting
light on Pliny's account of the discovery of glass. His attribution of the
discovery to certain Phoenician merchants shipwrecked on the coast of
Syria, near the mouth of the river Belus, may be inaccurate, but the
development of a durable glass from the deliquescent silicate of soda,
which the merchants found mixed with the ashes of their camp fires, is
precisely and scientifically traced. If, as Pliny states, the cooking pots
were supported on blocks of natron (impure carbonate of soda) the heat
of the fire would bring about the combination of soda with the seashore
sand, and the glass-like substance, silicate of soda, would be formed.
Experience must soon have shown that sand and soda, alone, could not
produce a stable, workable glass, and Pliny, in the chapter which follows
the description of the wreck, states that "after a time a material called
Magnes lapis began to be added." In a subsequent chapter five different
kinds of Magnes lapis are described: "the fifth is white, resembles
pumice powder, does not attract iron and is found in Magnesia." This
undoubtedly is magnesian limestone, and no better material could have
been introduced into the mixture of sand and soda in order to make a
durable glass. Analysis shows that these are the materials from which
the blue-tinted Roman vessels were made, and the preservation of the
glass is sufficient proof of its durability.

"ANGLO-SAXON" GLASSES

In the Museum of Saint Germain is a curious Roman glass vessel
(Fig. 8 B), which is cup-shaped and has eight hollow excrescences or

lobes, made like small spouts, but with the ends turned downwards and
fused to the side of the cup. This little vase, for it is difficult to imagine
that it had any domestic use except as an ornament, forms an important

Fig. 9

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Fig.9. Threaded mouth and base; hollow lobes. Found near Sittingbourne. British Museum.
Fig.10. Threaded mouth and loops of thread. Alfriston, Sussex. Photo by Mr J. C. Stenning.
Fig.11. A, Threaded mouth. B, Strap decoration. Found at King's Field, Faversham.

Fig. 14

Fig.12. Threaded mouth, notched lines. King's Field, Faversham. British Museum
Fig.13. Found at King's Field, Faversham. British Museum.
Fig.14. A, Found at Coombe, near Sandwich. B, Found at Bishopsbourne, Kent.

link between Roman glasses and the so-Galled "Anglo-Saxon" glasses
which have been found in Anglo-Saxon graves of the sixth anti seventh
centuries of our era. There are several varieties of these glasses but the
most important are from six to nine inches in height, have small bases,
threaded mouths, and a number of hollow spout-like lobes, formed like
the lobes on the Roman cup in the Saint Germain's Museum. (Fig. 9.)
Similar vessels are found in graves of the same period in France and
Germany. Roman technique survived in certain parts of Germany,
notably in the Cologne district, and from this centre the vessels may have
found their way to England as well as throughout the rest of Europe.
In England the largest number of Anglo-Saxon glasses have been
found in Kent, which provided the most convenient landing-places for
imports from abroad, but specimens have also been found near Cam-
bridge and Oxford as well as in Northamptonshire, Suffolk and Sussex.
Associated with the "lobed" glasses are various forms of drinking
vessels. There are simple bowl-shaped cups, similar to some depicted in
the Bayeux tapestry; conical and trumpet-shaped tumblers, ornamented
with long loops of glass-thread (Fig. 10), and spindle-shaped vessels with
threaded mouths and notched strings or tears of glass running nearly
their full length (Fig. 12). The notched strings or "tears," as well as the
hollow lobes and the threaded necks, are survivals of Roman technique.
Some of the simple bowl-shaped cups may have been of local manu-
facture.

Fig.15. Rib-moulded cup. Found at Alfriston, Sussex