Blown plate is one of many types of hand-blown glass. It is made from broad sheet glass by laboriously hand grinding and polishing both surfaces. Blown plate is of a sufficient quality and size for mirrors and coach glasses.
Other methods for making hand-blown glass included: broad sheet, crown glass, polished plate and cylinder blown sheet. These methods of manufacture lasted at least until the end of the 19th century. The early 20th century marked the move away from hand-blown to machine manufactured glass such as rolled plate, machine drawn cylinder sheet, flat drawn sheet, single and twin ground polished plate and float glass.
There is a record of blown plate being produced in London in 1620.
Famous quotes containing the words blown, plate and/or glass:
“The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket; a very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Say “Yessum” to the ladies, an’ “Yessur” to the men,
And when they’s company, don’t pass yer plate for pie again;
But, thinkin’ of the things yer’d like to see upon that tree,
Jes ‘fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!”
—Eugene Field (1850–1895)
“They are, as it were, train-bearers in the pageant of life, and hold a glass up to humanity, frailer than itself. We see ourselves at second-hand in them: they show us all that we are, all that we wish to be, and all that we dread to be.... What brings the resemblance nearer is, that, as they imitate us, we, in our turn, imitate them.... There is no class of society whom so many persons regard with affection as actors.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)