Historical Pink Glass

                                                        The 4th-century Lycurgus Cup, a 4th-century Roman glass cage cup made of a dichroic glass

I had a project to complete and the brief for the project was "Historical Glass Beads, "Valentine's Day" theme. My immediate thoughts were "pink" and "love hearts". Neither of these have much evidence across the pre 16th century world, so I decided on "red" and "white", and a couple of love heart shapes on the beads on the premise that feathering and odd shapes do ocasionally turn up. 

I thought I might collate any evidence of pink glass here. Any questions or additional sources, please feel free to add. 

Wikipedia: Cranberry Glass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry_glass 

The origins of cranberry glass making are unknown, but many historians believe a form of this glass was first made in the late Roman Empire. This is evidenced by the British Museum's collection Lycurgus Cup, a 4th-century Roman glass cage cup made of a dichroic glass, which shows a different colour depending on whether light is passing through it or reflecting from it; red (gold salts) when lit from behind and green (silver salts) when lit from in front.^[2][3] Kitab al-Asrar, an Arabic work attributed to Abu Bakr al-Razi contains one of the earliest modern descriptions of the preparation of gold ruby glass.^[4][5]

Rock Tumblers and Glass Beads

 

So for a while now, whilst studying extant museum glass pieces and recreating them, some things haven’t sat quite right.

The shape and the style can be recreated almost perfectly ( warts and all) but the historical glass look and feel is almost clay like. Almost to the point where sometimes it doesn’t look like glass at all.

This is generally explained by weathering and different glass composition and manufacturing tools and furnaces.

But knowing something and seeing it in action are two very different things.

My sibling got us a rock tumbler for Christmas. The tumbler mimics the ocean or natural wear and tear over centuries.

0.03 seconds after setting the tumbler on, I had to see what would happen if I stuck some glass beads in there.

So I grabbed a bunch of broken glass, and some random examples that I had previously made and popped them in there with the other rocks that were tumbling away.

Some of the glass ( mostly any of the clear glass) came out as gorgeous sea glass style. But the opaque glass and the Phoenician/ Chinese ones came out EXACTLY like the worn thousand year old clay like glass which was freaking cool to see. They’ve only been in there for 4 days or so, so I’ve chucked them back in to see how it continues to tumble. And it feels so smooth and rounded.

I was asked some interesting follow up questions. Tom asked if I thought the orginal beads were tumbled or equivalent in period or if this was just replicating the act of aging?

I answered with the following:

"I haven’t seen evidence to say it was done initially and on purpose, nor any equipment that says it would have been possible. Based on this I would hesitate to say they were tumbled on purpose.

I have seen evidence where some necklaces were found with hundreds of years of age variations on the one necklace, and wear and tear on beads in ways that suggested constant rubbing and deterioration over time caused by potentially one lifetime.

I would definitely say that this effectively replicates ageing over time based on the very similar look and feel, not only on a surface level but looking more carefully at the details of the deterioration of softer colours ( such as the white)"

Any other questions, please ask :)