Antique Glass
Posted by Gill Jones on 07/08/2013
Glass and light, light and glass and all the colours they create and all the corners they light up. What isn’t to love about glass, ornate glass, coloured glass especially, when it’s combined with lights and you can see in it a million different colours and shapes. Antique glass is especially beautiful for many different reasons and for surviving through centuries of change and keeping its fragile self-whole.
I want to talk about glass, antique glass. It is loved and used for many different reasons. For those lovers of all things Victorian; whose sole intention is to interiorly decorate a room or a whole house in the style of gothic or Victorian style, will especially love antique glass. If you’re looking to add a final touch to a theme you’ve been developing in a room, then lighting is crucial and the addition of a Victorian lamp almost mandatory. You may just be looking for a little Victorian touch in your house rather than going the whole hog. If so, a Victorian light can make such a different and antique glass lamps are still extremely popular despite more modern and technologically innovative lighting.
If you have a healthy interest in classical décor then you may have a passion for antique glass lamps, many are still functional and can add a unique and elegant touch to any room. They can be extraordinarily ornate with globular shaping and come in many different styles.
On www.antiques.co.uk we have a mid-Victorian Glass and Brass Oil Lamp with a glass funnel and shade, for those traditionalists amongst you it comes with the original glass and cup reservoir, with a fluted glass column and base which is all one piece. It’s in perfect condition from the Victorian period and it’s a beauty. Completely exquisite from top to bottom, it’s unusual in that even the column is glass; it has an almost ethereal quality and would catch the natural light beautifully, as well as producing an artificial light of its own.
Glass may be your poison, but perhaps lamps are not. Glass can be shaped into many things and there is nothing more exquisitely beautiful than crystal cut glass. There is a French liqueur St Louis crystal cabinet on www.antiques.co.uk that takes ones breath away. It’s made by the famous St Louis Crystal of France. St Louis Crystal dates back to 16th century, King Louis XV renamed it Verrerie Royale de Saint-Louis and later the formula for making crystal glass was discovered and it was renamed again as Cristalllerie Royale de Saint-Louis. They still produce glass today. This one comes with four decanters and sixteen liqueur glasses with no chips or cracks. For me its beauty is enhanced only by the rather wonderful fully working lock and tasselled key.
And finally for a last look of antique glass we have the French ormolu mounted ouraline crystal casket. The ormolu comes from the English 18th term for applying finely ground high carat gold in a mercury amalgam to a bronze object. The ouraline comes from baccarat and the different colours are created due to the oxide of uranium, which was discovered by the German chemist Martin Heinrich Kaproth in the late 18th century. Ouraline was used for various glass objects and was manufactured right through the 19th century and up until the mid-20th century. The shades of green are beautiful to behold, it looks fresh and new, but it’s antique. It is an exquisite piece.
These are rare finds and may not be to your taste or budget but it gives you an idea of the beauty of glass and how it’s been worked down the ages from the 16th century to the present day. If you have a penchant for antique glass then there is bound to be something out there that is to your tastes.