DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1398#0026
PLATE 107.
SPECIMENS 0E CUT GLASS,
BY ME. ALDERMAN COPELAND, LONDON.
A PRIZE MEDAL was awarded to Mr. Copeland for his contribution of works in glass,
accompanied by the following remarks of the Jury, which we feel great pleasure in quoting.
Mr. Copeland " exhibits various articles of the finest quality, characterized by ingenuity and novelty
in design and cutting. A cut dessert service especially presents original features." (A portion of
this we have illustrated.) " Many of the engraved designs are of great excellence of ornamentation,
the forms of the subjects well adapted to the artistic work on them."
An idea of the size and importance of the cut glass dessert service may be formed from the
fact of the etagere being over two feet in height. The entire service, including the large candelabrum
of eight lights, elaborately cut with facets, consisted of one hundred pieces, and was valued at
750 guineas.
The idea of the design was to present the appearance of diamonds cut in facets. The crystal
knops forming the body of the ware were produced by a solid band of glass, cast on the blown
shape, which was then first cut away into small square blocks, and then again worked into facets
by the glasscutter. This fine set presented a remarkably solid and brilliant appearance, the light
sparkling in all directions on the various facets, presenting an effect of diamond-like brightness.
Mr. Copeland exhibited another smaller service in the same style, which was called by him the
Koh-i-noor set, and which was characterized by a similar sparkling effect.
Although the art of cutting glass by means of a lapidary's wheel would appear certainly to have
been practised by the ancients, the process had been lost during the Dark and Middle Ages, when
the principal system of ornamentation consisted in gilding and colouring. The Venetians in a
measure revived the process, by cutting and engraving glass with a diamond point, and with points
of hardened steel and emery-powder. The method of cutting glass in the manner now practised
is said to have been invented by Caspar Lehmann, originally a worker in metal, who in 1609 was
constituted lapidary and glasscutter to the court by the Emperor Rudolplms II., and who obtained
a patent forbidding any one else to exercise the same craft. He worked at Prague, and was
assisted by Zacharias Belzer, George Schwanhard, and others. Of all the pupils of Lehmann,
C Schwanhard, a son of that Hans Schwanhard, the celebrated joiner, who introduced the
undulating and zigzag mouldings in cabinet-work, was the most distinguished: he became a
pupil of Lehmann at the age of eighteen, and on his master's death in 1622 he obtained a
continuation of Lehmann's patent from the emperor for himself. Schwanhard removed to
Nuremberg, where he was constantly at work. He died in 1667, leaving behind him two sons,
who, with their assistants and pupils, formed a regular school of giasscutters, by whom the work
was carried on to a great extent, and brought to a great degree of perfection, the tools and
methods of their application having been much simplified and improved.
Glasscutting is done almost universally by steam-power at the present day, and consists in
cutting or grinding away the glass by means of small wheels made of iron, stone, wood, or other
substances, a great number of which, of various sizes, are employed, according to the nature of
the work. Each wheel revolves rapidly on an horizontal axis, cutting the glass away with-its edge.
The iron wheels, wetted with sand and water, are used for grinding away the substance of the
glass; the stone wheels, with clear water, for smoothing away the roughness and scratches caused
by the iron wheels; and the wood wheels, with emery, rotten-stone, or putty-powder, for polishing.
The workman sits in front of the wheel and applies the glass to the cutter, a process which requires
great steadiness of hand and correctness of eye. In conducting so delicate a process, great care is
demanded to avoid undue pressure, so as not to break so brittle a material; on this account
the best and strongest description of glass is generally used. Drops for chandeliers are cut in the
same manner.
SSI
SPECIMENS 0E CUT GLASS,
BY ME. ALDERMAN COPELAND, LONDON.
A PRIZE MEDAL was awarded to Mr. Copeland for his contribution of works in glass,
accompanied by the following remarks of the Jury, which we feel great pleasure in quoting.
Mr. Copeland " exhibits various articles of the finest quality, characterized by ingenuity and novelty
in design and cutting. A cut dessert service especially presents original features." (A portion of
this we have illustrated.) " Many of the engraved designs are of great excellence of ornamentation,
the forms of the subjects well adapted to the artistic work on them."
An idea of the size and importance of the cut glass dessert service may be formed from the
fact of the etagere being over two feet in height. The entire service, including the large candelabrum
of eight lights, elaborately cut with facets, consisted of one hundred pieces, and was valued at
750 guineas.
The idea of the design was to present the appearance of diamonds cut in facets. The crystal
knops forming the body of the ware were produced by a solid band of glass, cast on the blown
shape, which was then first cut away into small square blocks, and then again worked into facets
by the glasscutter. This fine set presented a remarkably solid and brilliant appearance, the light
sparkling in all directions on the various facets, presenting an effect of diamond-like brightness.
Mr. Copeland exhibited another smaller service in the same style, which was called by him the
Koh-i-noor set, and which was characterized by a similar sparkling effect.
Although the art of cutting glass by means of a lapidary's wheel would appear certainly to have
been practised by the ancients, the process had been lost during the Dark and Middle Ages, when
the principal system of ornamentation consisted in gilding and colouring. The Venetians in a
measure revived the process, by cutting and engraving glass with a diamond point, and with points
of hardened steel and emery-powder. The method of cutting glass in the manner now practised
is said to have been invented by Caspar Lehmann, originally a worker in metal, who in 1609 was
constituted lapidary and glasscutter to the court by the Emperor Rudolplms II., and who obtained
a patent forbidding any one else to exercise the same craft. He worked at Prague, and was
assisted by Zacharias Belzer, George Schwanhard, and others. Of all the pupils of Lehmann,
C Schwanhard, a son of that Hans Schwanhard, the celebrated joiner, who introduced the
undulating and zigzag mouldings in cabinet-work, was the most distinguished: he became a
pupil of Lehmann at the age of eighteen, and on his master's death in 1622 he obtained a
continuation of Lehmann's patent from the emperor for himself. Schwanhard removed to
Nuremberg, where he was constantly at work. He died in 1667, leaving behind him two sons,
who, with their assistants and pupils, formed a regular school of giasscutters, by whom the work
was carried on to a great extent, and brought to a great degree of perfection, the tools and
methods of their application having been much simplified and improved.
Glasscutting is done almost universally by steam-power at the present day, and consists in
cutting or grinding away the glass by means of small wheels made of iron, stone, wood, or other
substances, a great number of which, of various sizes, are employed, according to the nature of
the work. Each wheel revolves rapidly on an horizontal axis, cutting the glass away with-its edge.
The iron wheels, wetted with sand and water, are used for grinding away the substance of the
glass; the stone wheels, with clear water, for smoothing away the roughness and scratches caused
by the iron wheels; and the wood wheels, with emery, rotten-stone, or putty-powder, for polishing.
The workman sits in front of the wheel and applies the glass to the cutter, a process which requires
great steadiness of hand and correctness of eye. In conducting so delicate a process, great care is
demanded to avoid undue pressure, so as not to break so brittle a material; on this account
the best and strongest description of glass is generally used. Drops for chandeliers are cut in the
same manner.
SSI