The glass of Antiquity is one of the least known branches of art. Yet, as the illustrations to this book so amply show, it was one in which great richness of colour, form and decoration were achieved. Comparatively little has been written on the subject, and some of the methods used by ancient glass-makers are still only partly understood, although others undoubtedly form the basis of modern manufacturing techniques.

The author traces the history of glass-making from its origins in Egypt before 2000 B.c. through successive developments that were brought about in Syria, by the Jews in Palestine, and in the Roman and Byzantine Empires -from the latter of which the glassmakers of Venice inherited much of their lore and skill.

Frederic Neuburg covers the development of colour, the techniques involved in the making of glass beads and of millefiori, glass thread, mosaic and other types of decoration, and the developments in the methods of making glass-particularly the discovery of glass-blowing--which radically affected the shapes of vessels. The question of forgery of ancient glass is discussed.
The illustrations (there are 12 in colour and 76 black and white plates) display the most perfect examples of their kind, and are drawn from a large number of museums and collections. The frontispiece illustration of the diatreton, excavated at Cologne in 1960, deserves special mention, since this is its first appearance in a book.

Frederic Neuburg is one of the foremost collectors of glass of our time. Already in 1900 his collection of European glass at Leitmeritz, Northern Bohemia, was one of the finest then in existence. When the Sudetenland was us sied by the Nazis in 1938 he emigrated to Palestined was able to take with him only a naction of his collection. He is the author of Glass in Antiquity, published in 1949 and long unavail-able, and some of the valuable material in that book is embodied in the present volume.

19.8cm x 25.6cm, 110 pages text, 76 pages illustration, Hardcover, 1962 (Condition: Very Good)

Condition Definition:
As New / Fine = New or almost without defect
Very Good = Showing signs of wear
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