The Old Old Story

✍ Scribed by Julius Grant

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 168 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0015-7368
• DOI: 10.1016/s0015-7368(75)70993-3

✦ Synopsis

glass, can serve as aids to the dating of glass specimens: a method which frequently proves of value in detecting museum frauds. I t should be made clear that this book does not deal with dating specifically; but the reader can use it to create, or fill in the blanks on, his own time scale.

Of special interest in this connection is the chapter on ancient glass compositions with the beautiful colour illustrations of the famous Lycurgus Cup. There are 12 other plates, but in black and white, illustrating notable glassware, including the Hall of Mirrors a t Versailles.

Other chapters cover the history of the subject from the earliest times (1300 BC) to the early twentieth century, in general terms. Optical glass, refractories and furnaces, flat glass and glass containers are covered separately. The last chapter is entitled "Science and the Glass Industry", dealt with in only 9 pages -which seems inadequate for either the scientist or historian. The authors are a leading authority on glass technology and a librarian-historian from University College of Swansea.

Glassmaking began in western Asia and Egypt in about 1300 BC and spread through the eastern Mediterranean into Italy, and thence to France, Spain and the Low Countries, reaching Britain only in the sixteenth century. I t is interesting to note that papermaking followed much the same route, although it started farther east and rather later-an example of the interesting points that can come to light on reading a book of this nature.

The authors quote a historian discussing historical thinking as follows: "But now we think of things as in a ceaseless flux; and though that makes them much more difficult and complex to grasp, we are a t any rate nearer to understanding them, or at least describing them as they are."

A book to be recommended for pleasure combined with instruction.