English glassmakers have always been interested in what went on abroad, even if for a verylong time they put most of their energies stubbornly into making a special glass of lead, heavily cut, which beat some of the Continental people in their own markets. But in the same way, the imposing flashed and cased Bohemian glass sent here in 1851, was most respectfully copied by Stourbridge, as were some of the Venetian styles.

Plenty of this German glass turns up at the auctions, so it may be worth while drawing attention to a few types. We have already mentioned the marbled “Hyalith” and “Lythyalin” under Slagware. There is also a great deal of enamelled opaque glass of the same kind as Bristol though with very different decoration, under the name milchglass. The green Rhenish glass is famous, and is often found as roemers (first cousins to our rummers), and used for the white wines of the Rhineland. The long stems usually have what the Germans called nuppen, but the English glassmakers call “prunts,” or little raspberries of glass stuck all the way up the stems, presumably to give the drinker a better grip on the glass.

Another old German glass occasionally seen is the Kuttrolf, or angster, which has several intertwined tubular necks which meet in the wide mouth. Apparently it is used in the same sort of way as the Spanish biberon, to pour out a little at a time. Then there are all the tall cups and goblets. The passglass was one with levels shown on the decoration to indicate how much you were expected to drink before passing it on, while a tall cylindrical beaker was called a stangenglass (pole-glass) often covered over with points, when it became an Igel (hedgehog) glass. This developed into the family of humpen or tall beer glasses, among them the Willkomm—(welcome) humpen and the Reichsadler (imperial eagle) humpen.

Antique Collector MagazineAn interesting form of decoration was that known as schwartzlot, a method of painting in black with touches of red and there are some very fine landscapes, figures and hunting scenes. Still another term heard in the salerooms is Zwischengoldglass, a literal rendering of how a gold decoration is entrapped between two skins of glass, both at the sides and the bottom. It is to be remembered, however, that a good deal of German glass was made a la façon de Venice, that is to say, after the fashion of Venice—Germans, Austrians, Bohemians and Dutchman all being strongly influenced not only by the glass coming out of Venice but by the renegade Venetian glassmakers coming out of there, too.

While on Venice one might draw attention to the Stour- bridge ewer illustration on the front cover. This bears a strong resemblance to a Venetian ewer in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and well illustrates the fact that where Germany and Bohemia tended to be solid, heavy and immensely expert in decoration, Venetian glass, both in substance and treatment, was light, graceful and airy. Specialities of the Venetian style are the white or coloured threads of latticinio, mentioned under “Nailsea”; and the millefiori used famously in paperweights in France and Stourbridge. More intricate patterns are called vetro de trim, or lace glass. Another favourite Venetian production was ice-glass, whereby the surface of the glass was frosted or crazed by sudden immersion in water and reheating. Outstanding productions of Venice are tazza, or stands on stems rather like our cakestands, but with the most elaborate and delicate arrangement of foliage, animals, birds and other extravagances.

French glass often seen in England includes what was known here as “art glass.” Once upon a time we frowned upon the work of Emile Galle, with its cloudy effects of light and colour, its wonderful naturalism in flowers and plant life, making most ingenious use of almost every process mentioned and several others as well. His clair de lune, or moonlight glass, is famous, as is his verre double, in which the effects were obtained by repeated flashings. Rene Lalique’s glass has been popular in this country ever since it started to come here at the beginning of the century. His most effective work depends upon a beautiful glass, a fine mat surface and bold modelling. French work in paperweights has been mentioned and it might be remembered that the “crystallo-cramie,” or sulphides, made by Apsley Pellat showing cameo portraits enclosed in crystal glass, originated in France.

Sometimes extravagant examples of Spanish glass turn up, and sometimes Persian and Syrian items, bearing the patina of the years. But one of these days, when I have the money, I am going to buy myself a small collection of those delightful glass phials and bottles, in shapes that must have been inspired by the pixies, which the English or Romano- British glassmakers turned out in hundreds, then carefully allowed to lie in the earth for hundreds of years and acquired a unique greeny silvery sheen which is almost as wonderful as their shapes.

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