History of the glass

History of glass

The first blown glass can be dated to the first century AD. and originated in the eastern Mediterranean area. The art of blowing glass then spread quickly across Europe, mainly in the Roman Empire where it experienced a blossoming with many still unrevealed masterpieces. An early glass blowing center was around the Rhine valley in present Germany and eastern France. From this area, there was an extensive trade in glass, and many archeological finds from the 500s through the Viking Age until the early Middle Ages derived from this area.

After the disintegration of the Roman Empire there was a decline in the glass area. Many glass huts were lost while new emerged in other places but the quality of both glass and craft rarely reached up to the previous level.

During the Middle Ages a new golden age of the glass began. Glassworks occurred in many places around Europe, often in wooded areas where they had access to fuel for glass furnaces. For this reason, the glass from this period is often called waldglas-forest glass. Because of the not quite perfect raw material, the glass was usually a different color in greenish hues. The medieval glasses are often ornamented with knobs, glass filaments and other decorations made directly into the hut. even if painted glass existed early, it is only after the Middle Ages that other decorations became popular. The forms became simpler while engraving, grinding and painting on glass began to increase.

The first glass huts came to Sweden in the 1500s but it was not until the 1700s that we began to produce glass on a significant scale.