Jewellery Glass
The majority of jewellery in the 6th-7th century made intensive use of flat, cut almandine garnets in gold and garnet cloisonné (or cellwork") but occasionally glass was also cut and inset as gems. The colours used were almost entirely limited to blue and green. Occasionally red glass has been used as a substitute for garnet, for example in some of the Sutton Hoo objects, such as the purse lid and blue glass in the shoulder clasps. Anglo-Saxon enamel was also used in the production of jewellery, with coloured glass melted in separate cells.
Chemical analysis of this glass has revealed that they are a soda-lime-silica glass but with a lower iron and manganese oxide content than the high iron, manganese and titanium glass used to make vessels. The similarity between the composition of the glass inlays and Roman coloured glass is remarkable, so much so that it is likely that the Anglo-Saxon craftworkers were re-using Roman opaque glass, possibly Roman glass tesserae.
Read more about this topic: Anglo-Saxon Glass
Famous quotes containing the word glass:
“Thales claimed that everything was water. He also put wine into water to sterilize it. Did he really believe he was putting water into water to sterilize it? Parmenides, like most Greeks, knew that wine was not water. But while lifting a glass of wine to his lips, he denied that motion was possible. Did he really believe that the glass was not moving when he lifted it?”
—Avrum Stroll (b. 1921)