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Glass & Glass-Making 3 of 28
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THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF ART AND SCIENCE
SERIAL NUMBER 177
GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING
By ESTHER SINGLETON

VENETIAN GLASS 17th-18th Centuries
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MENTOR GRAVURES
THE PORTLAND VASE
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THE LUCK OF EDEN HALL
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VENETIAN GLASS
16th and 17th Centuries
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GOBLETS OF BOHEMIAN GLASS
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ENGLISH CUT GLASS BOWL
18th Century
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LANDSCAPE WINDOW
Tiffany Favrile Glass
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VENETIAN GLASS 17th-18th Centuries
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LASS manufacture is a subject that has many
phases, including stained glass, plate glass, optical glass, bottle-glass,
wire glass. Some of the most important of these will be covered in future
issues of The Mentor. This first number of the series discusses Decorative
Glass and its manufacture. It is a remarkable fact that, while the chief
quality of glass is transparency, all the materials that compose it are
opaque. The mysterious agent that produces the change is fire. Glass is
the offspring of fire.
Does it not seem strange that so many objects can
be made from a steaming liquid metal soup blown through a tube to form a
bubble? It is believed that men learned how to manipulate this hot, liquid
bubble at an early period in the world's history.
Composition of Glass
Since the beginning, the two essential elements
required by glass-makers have been silica and an alkali. Glass falls
naturally into two divisions: glass of maritime countries, where the
alkali is soda; and glass of forest countries, where the alkali
is potash.
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