Glass

The fifty-six glasses illustrated in this book have been drawn from every department of the Ashmolean Museum. Together, these fragile and attractive pieces trace the history and development of this versatile, man-made material from the very first vessels produced in Mesopotamia in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, right up to the modern era with a bowl stipple-engraved by the British artists, Laurence and Simon Whistler. The other rare and important examples included demonstrate the inventiveness and craftsmanship of ancient and Islamic glass-makers, the artistry of Venetian Renaissance glass in the 15th and 16th centuries, the skill of Continental wheel-engravers and enamellers, and the dominance of lead-glass in 18th-century England.