VITRUM ANTIQUORUM: ANCIENT GLASS FROM BOUDOIR, BATH AND BOARD ON DISPLAY AT HURST GALLERY

Ancient glass to be featured May 7th to Aug. 2nd, 2003

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., April 18, 2003 - Harvard Square's Hurst Gallery presents Vitrum Antiquorum: Ancient Glass from Boudoir, Bath and Board, a collection of over 75 pieces of ancient glass spanning three millennia, from circa the 5th century BC to the 12th century AD, originating from areas in Western Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The exhibit will take place from Wednesday, May 7 to Saturday, June 28.

The collection of glass contains examples of a range of manufacturing techniques, including core-formed, cast blown, mold-cut and carved. Free-blown and mold-blown examples predominate in the collection. Works of spectacular size include a platter over 14 inches in diameter and a cylindrical jug that is 18 inches in height. Among the smaller pieces are those blown into molds with delicately preserved figural details, including a very rare bottle, less than 3 inches tall, with an erotic scene in raised relief.

The raw materials for producing glass occur worldwide and are most commonly worked from sand. Only a few sites of this glass production in ancient times have been located. It is believed that comparatively few refineries or glass factories produced ingots or blocks of unworked glass, which was traded and shipped across the Roman Empire. The blowing of the actual vessels or containers was an activity that was practiced more widely and was probably at one time a commonplace activity used to produce containers for manufactured goods, mostly liquids.

As glassmakers of the ancient world became more efficient, their products became preferred over pottery for serving food and holding liquids. Cups, plates, pitchers for service of food and drink were produced in large quantities. Containers for unguents, oils, and medicines were packed, shipped, and sold in their glass containers 2,000 years ago, as they are today. Objects with functions as diverse as inkwells, lamp fillers, and cinerary urns were also made by innovative glass blowers throughout the Roman period.

Techniques for glass production evolved very slowly during the 1st millennium BC and were largely limited to melting and bending rods. The innovation of free-blowing glass during the 1st century BC gave artisans the ability to work on the glass while it was molten and flexible, giving virtually unlimited potential for form and design. Pieces from this collection were made with a range of techniques, including core-formed, cast blown, mold-cut and carved.

The earliest free-blown forms were simple bulb or tube shapes with everted rims. Once cooled and hardened, vessels could be ground against a wheel, producing banding and, in some cases, ground or rounded rim contours. An early innovation in glass blowing was the use of a "marver," a tool to smooth the still-molten glass, usually on a folded rim. He base or shoulder of a vessel could also be altered or finished in this way.

In the 2nd century AD artisans began to construct composite glass forms with applied handles, based rings, or decorative winding. These added features were often produced in glass of contrasting color. The shapes of the vessels themselves could be manipulated, distorted and modified in creative ways. The collection in this exhibit contains one "bird" flask with an ovoid body that terminates in a pointed "tail." Many flasks of this type were found north of Italy, in what is now Switzerland. There are several multiple tube vessels, one with a complex of high arching handles over 14 inches in height.

Some of the most exuberant examples of composite construction date approximately to the Byzantine era, which began in the late 5th century when Constantine's Roman empire fell. In the 9th century, Islamic artisans from the same region used secondary cutting, grinding and enameling to embellish glass containers.

Although fancier productions were made in colored-even contrasting-colored-glass, most was a monochromatic, pale greenish color, not unlike today's picture or window glass. The often-spectacular iridescent surfaces, for which ancient glass is highly prized today, was not intended or produced by ancient artisans. The iridescence is the result of chemical reactions from ground water, impurities in the glass itself, or, in rare cases, reaction with contents sealed within before burial many centuries ago.

The American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany was inspired by the iridescence of ancient glass to produce his own variegated and lustrous windows, lampshades and glassware over 100 years ago. Finds of ancient glass in the ruins of Pompeii in the mid-18th century were revelations to Europeans of the period, who began to form collections eagerly. Still today, well-preserved, ancient glass vessels are keenly sought internationally. They are also to be found in nearly every museum exhibition of ancient Roman arts.

This exhibit gives specialized collectors, museums, and indeed anyone with a taste for antiquity and beauty an opportunity to acquire examples over a wide spectrum of rarity and value. Prices start at a very few hundred dollars and range into the low five figures for forms of extreme rarity, scale, or quality.

Norman Hurst began dealing in ancient glass at Hurst Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1982 with several hundred examples that a New England historical society collected in Jerusalem around 1900. Since then, Hurst has continued to buy, sell, and appraise ancient glass for museums and individuals. The glass in the present exhibit has come from two private American collections formed in the 1930s in Syria and Lebanon and the early 1970s in California.

For images and further information, please contact the gallery.