Bowl of a wine glass in typical cut glass styleCut glass chandelier in Edinburgh
Cut glass or cut-glass is a technique and a style of decorating glass. For some time the style has often been produced by other techniques such as the use of moulding, but the original technique of cutting glass on an abrasive wheel is still used in luxury products. On glassware vessels, the style typically consists of furrowed faces at angles to each other in complicated patterns, while for lighting fixtures, the style consists of flat or curved facets on small hanging pieces, often all over. Historically, cut glass was shaped using "coldwork" techniques of grinding or drilling, applied as a secondary stage to a piece of glass made by conventional processes such as glassblowing.[1]
Today, the glass is often mostly or entirely shaped in the initial process by using a mould (pressed glass), or imitated in clear plastic. Traditional hand-cutting continues, but gives a much more expensive product. Lead glass has long been misleadingly called "crystal" by the industry, evoking the glamour and expense of rock crystal, or carved transparent quartz, and most manufacturers now describe their product as cut crystal glass.
There are two main types of object made using cut glass: firstly drinking glasses and their accompanying decanters and jugs, and secondly chandeliers and other light fittings. Both began to be made using the cut glass style in England around 1730, following the development there of a reliable process for making very clear lead glass with a high refractive index.[2] Cut glass requires relatively thick glass, as the cutting removes much of the depth, and earlier clear glass would mostly have appeared rather cloudy if made thick enough to cut. For both types of object, some pieces are still made in traditional styles, broadly similar to those of the 18th century, but other glassmakers have applied modern design styles.
Expensive drinking glasses had previously mostly concentrated on elegant shapes of extreme thinness. If there was decoration it was mostly either internal, with hollow bubble or coloured spirals within the stem ("twists"),[3] or surface decoration in enamelled glass or glass engraving. Outside Venice and Spain,[4] lighting fittings had not previously made much use of glass in Europe; the enamelled mosque lamp of Islamic art was a different matter.[5] But cut glass "drops", faceted in a style derived from gem cutting in jewellery, refracted and spread the light in way that was new, and were enthusiastically embraced by makers and their customers. The main skeleton of the chandelier was very often metal, but this was often all but hidden by a profusion of faceted glass pieces, held in place by metal wire.
^The best contemporary sources mostly use "cut glass" (especially British ones) as a noun, but often "cut-glass" as an adjective. In the 19th century "cut-glass" as a noun was perhaps more common, as in the first use cited in the OED, from 1845. But Ruskin used "cut glass".
Cutglass or cut-glass is a technique and a style of decorating glass. For some time the style has often been produced by other techniques such as the...
fashioned. The true old fashioned glass is decorated in the cutglass style, although most modern examples are pressed glass, made using a mold. The design...
Lead glass, commonly called crystal, is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically...
other glass tableware Dimpled glass beer pint jug lead crystal cutglass A glass decanter and stopper The inert and impermeable nature of glass makes...
Waterford Crystal is a manufacturer of lead glass or "crystal", especially in cutglass, named after the city of Waterford, Ireland. In January 2009,...
Period" style, which relied on deeply cutglass, continued to be made until about 1915, and sometimes thereafter. Glass is sometimes combined with other materials...
techniques such as glass etching which uses acidic, caustic, or abrasive substances to achieve artistic effects, and cutglass, which is cut with an abrasive...
Warsaw CutGlass Company is a historic factory building located at Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Indiana making cutglass. It is a two-story, plus basement...
as aurora glass, dope glass, rainbow glass, taffeta glass, and disparagingly as 'poor man's Tiffany'. The name Carnival glass was adopted by collectors...
surface of the glass which encourages the glass to break along the score. This is not to be confused with the tools used to make cutglass objects. Regular...
then be cut into panes. Domestic glass vessels in late medieval Northern Europe are known as forest glass.[citation needed] Anglo-Saxon glass has been...
largest cutglass firm then operating in Corning. Carder was an Englishman (born September 18, 1863) who had many years' experience designing glass for Stevens...
19th century glass categories in the United States include types of glass and decoration methods for glass. A simplified category version appropriate...
Edinburgh Crystal was a cutglass manufactured in Scotland from c. 1820s to 2006, and was also the name of the manufacturing company. In addition to drinking...
and pressed glass objects in a variety of colors, which had engraved, cut, etched, and gilded decorations. The firm was one of the first glass companies...
always made of cutglass. Glass, although not crystalline in structure, continued to be called crystal, after much clearer cutglass that resembled crystal...
traditional style of whisky glass is a cutglass crystal (also known as an "old fashioned glass", "rocks glass" or "lowball glass" in the United States),...
in the medium's early days. On November 2, 1950, she starred in "The CutGlass Bowl" on The Nash Airflyte Theater, followed by several guest appearances...
Venetian glass (Italian: vetro veneziano) is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with...
similar terms are used in glassmaking for the equivalents; for example cutglass is made by "cold work", cutting or grinding a formed object. Cold forming...
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th...
making artisan-created cutglass items such as vases, glasses and objets-d'art. The famous replica of the Roman Portland Vase was cut in Wordsley. One of...
panel display glass are also produced using the float glass process. Until the 16th century, window glass or other flat glass was generally cut from large...
production, working with artists including Blossoms, She Drew The Gun, CutGlass Kings (previously The Circles), and The Sundowners. Love Undercover (June...
Satsuma kiriko (薩摩切子) is a style of cutglass, now a traditional Japanese craft. It was manufactured by the Satsuma clan from the final years of the Edo...
Global Information
