tour 8 of 21
The art of glass
Glass window pane
This bluish-green window pane is made up of
several pieces. The edges are fairly smooth, so they perhaps form a
complete pane. It is thicker (3mm) than most modern house window
panes, and modern ones are normally of clear glass. This Roman
example is made of the same utilitarian bluish-green glass as an
urn with cremated bones, also in The British
Museum.
Roman glass window
panes were probably formed by casting in open moulds; this is one
of the earliest surviving examples. It must have come from a house
built before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79, which destroyed
the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Window panes of glass seem
to have been unknown in earlier
times.
The Roman author
Pliny the Elder (AD 23/4-79), describes a theatre built in 58 BC:
'The lowest storey of the stage was of marble, and the
middle one of glass, an extravagance unparalleled even in later
times'. According to other literary references the use of
glass in both public and private dwellings was a luxurious form of
internal decoration throughout the Roman era, although available
only to the wealthy. Glass window panes must have fallen into this
category, since few survive, and even fewer are as complete as this
example.