Glass of Germany and Holland

The quality of the paintings of the glass made theand mid-nineteenth century, and cut in the manner
Germans' noteworthy. The Germany craftsmenof 150 years earlier. It was exported and proved
were able to successfully engrave naturalhighly popular in England; much of it was of clear
rock-crystal adapt that to their skill to glassglass 'flashed' with a thin coating of red cut
setting a new standard of glass-making. Andthrough with scenes of stag hunting and views of
Netherland made the Venetian type of glass inGerman spas.
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. TheyHolland
excelled in glass decorations.Glass of Venetian type was made in the
GermanyNetherlands in the seventeenth and eighteenth
The hold of the Venetians on the markets ofcenturies, but it was in the decoration of glass
Europe was a strong one, and continual effortsthat the Dutch excelled. Like the Germans, they
were made to break it in all the countriesornamented much of their output with cutting on
concerned. The Germans were skilled atthe wheel, but a specialty was engraving with a
enameling their glass, but it was of Venetian typediamond which was often done so finely that the
and only the quality of the painting makes itdecoration can be seen only when the light falls
noteworthy.across it.
Late in the seventeenth century they managedThere are specimens of diamond engraving in the
to develop a heavy type of crystal glass to whichRijksmuseum, Amsterdam, dated 1600 and 1604,
they applied cutting on the wheel; a revolving fineand similar work was done throughout the
grindstone against which the article was held forseventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The names
pattern -malting.of Frans Greenwood (a Dutchman in spite of his
This was a method first used in ancient times byEnglish surname) and David Wolff are the best
lapidaries in the forming of gemstones, but hadknown of those who did this delicate work. Some
been employed also by the Roman glassmakersof the surviving examples are signed and dated,
notably, as mentioned above, in the Portland Vase.but many bear no indication of artist or of when
The German craftsmen had already achievedthey were executed. Some of the late
success in engraving natural rock crystal, whicheighteenth-century engravings were on English
was then mounted elaborately in gold set withglasses of the period, which were then being
gems, and it was not a difficult step to adaptimported into Holland.
their skill to glass. The most famous of theseAt the end of the eighteenth century an artist
engraving establishments were in Berlin,named Zeuner, of whom remarkably little is
Petersdorf in Silesia (now Poland), and Cassel.known in the way of personal details, executed a
Their successors, but the glasswares of Silesianumber of paintings on glass. These were done in
and Bohemia continued to be made throughoutan unusual manner, with gold and silver leaf laid on
the eighteenth century did not equal the finethe back of the glass which was then scratched
workmanship of the earlier craftsmen.through and filled with black paint.
A milky-white glass, often decorated in enamelThe skies in outdoor scenes were painted in
colors, was very popular and much of this hasnatural colors, and the effect is striking and
survived. It can be confused with the rare whitedecorative. Some of his surviving works are of
Bristol product by the inexperienced, but is seenviews in Amsterdam, and a small pane! in the
to be commonplace when compared closely.Victoria and Albert Museum shows a view of the
A deep red, or ruby, glass was made in the earlySadler's Wells Theatre, London, in about 1780.