Glass Bibliography

Rev. 2003-01-01; 01-07, -11, -03-07, -06-29, -08-12, -11-27
2004-01-24, -02-23, -02-26, 2005-08-19, -11-28, 2006-08-23, -12-28, 2007-03-14,
2008-03-30 (format), -05-11, -08-15, 2009-01-25 (edits), 2010-08-29, -11-21, -12-16
[Search on date pattern to find latest changes, more than one may be found.]

Short list of only Furnace Glass making
Books, Videos
Fiction in Glass World
Links Center
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This list is sort of organized at the start (see topics below) and a lot less later on.

Glass blowing Cataloging
Library of Congress TT298 Making; TP859 History/collecting
Dewey Decimal numbers 666.1 Industrial/Material, 748 History/Collecting, 730 Sculpture, 621 Neon,
Glass Craft, Glass Blowing and Working, Glassware
Warmus Studio Glass Bibliography and Chronology claims to have the best bibliography on the art glass movement and I can hardly challenge that. Arranged chronologically with interspersed historical event notes.  Also includes artist reference data for some artists. Last updated in 2003.
NOTE: Many of these books were found in the Dallas Public Library and where so the cataloging information is given. These books may be available for interlibrary loan on request through your library. 
CFA"> is Central Library Fine Arts.  CBT is Central Library Business & Technology
Bxx is branch, where xx is replaced with initials BLW is Lakewood.

Topics (search for ----------- to jump through text )
Furnace Glassblowing
Equipment Building
Molds, Kilns, Pots & Ceramics
Coffee Table Books
Videos & Internet Online Videos
Furnace Glassblowing History
Glass & Glassware History
(Books with pages of their own)
Cold Working Glass
Glass Technology
Lampworking & Beads
Neon
General Glass Info
Warm Glass
Paperweights
Collecting
Other Techniques
(Engraving, Electroplating, Kaleidoscope)
Stained Glass
Periodicals
Other Books I Like
Internet

--------------------- Furnace Glassblowing                                                                Top

BEGINNING GLASSBLOWING (Previously called Ed's Big Handbook of Glassblowing)
Glass Mountain Press, 927 Yew Street, Bellingham, WA 98226
$32.95 + $4 for priority mail, Also available from http://whitehouse-books.com in Corning NY

The book is a spiral bound, 88 page, 8 1/2 by 11, delight. It is hand lettered with drawings on every page and with a very light attitude. This is not about building equipment; pages 6 thru 9 describe and show tools and stuff, then page 10 is The Process. The steps are detailed, expanded upon and illustrated well. Ed is very much into drawing for glass artists saying it in several places including page 21 "The Top Ten Reasons Why Glass Students Must Draw", number 5 of which is "It's way cheaper to produce a zillion pieces."
The book is so full of information it is hard to limit a review; pages 70-72 have 7 different punty forms! Appendix B describes how to cook with glass making equipment!!
At the end of the Handbook he asks for input and suggestions and the last page has a puffy announcement that may not be fully serious for coming books including Advanced Glassblowing Techniques, Grinding & Polishing Made Tolerable, and Glass Casting Like the Pros.
Any negatives? One of the reasons people have spent hundreds of years working on typography is that some fonts are easier to read than others and the width of line and spacing of letters affects reading quality. Some portions of the book, which is all done in single line width hand printing, are easier to read than others. 5/31/94 [Advanced Techniques due Spring 95. 11/24/94]

ADVANCED GLASSWORKING TECHNIQUES
Edward T. Schmid
Glass Mountain Press, 927 Yew Street, Bellingham, WA 98226
$32.95 + $4 for priority mail, 320 pages, ISBN 0-9638728-1-8 Also available from http://whitehouse-books.com in Corning NY

This book by Edward T. Schmid is a dangerous book. I got my copy yesterday and read about 30 pages of the 320 pages of material and the blowing time for the things I want to do has passed the 1,000 hour mark.
While this book does not replace Ed's Big Handbook of Glassblowing as an introduction to techniques and attitudes of getting involved in glass, it is not as fearsome as the title might reflect. If I were teaching classes and felt I had a sure set of exercises and skills to bring students up from beginner, I would encourage purchase of this book because the essentials of working glass at the advanced beginner and low intermediate level are there at the beginning of the book.
Ed's books are hand written and hand drawn with a number of drawings per page that might make it an economic disaster if the drawings were processed separately. The beginning of this book is a series of drawings of glass objects with explicit statements of the techniques needed for making them, which reference sections of the book.
Ed gives alternative methods of doing many things (such as punties) and makes his attitude of "If it works, do it." clear and specific.
This is a book to drive moderately experienced glassblowers crazy. 15 Apr 1998

How Glass Is Made
Alan J. Paterson
Facts on File Publications, 1986
Dal.Pub.Lib. Oaklawn, 666.1 P296H
One of the best books as an introduction to blown glass, if only because it has very good pictures on the cover and inside of all the steps and the equipment used in blowing glass. I found two errors: the temperature given for glass in the furnace is much too high (3020 F) apparently due to a bad translation of the Centigrade temp - 1500) and the drawings do not include jacking the piece down to get it off the pipe. A good youth oriented book with good pictures and information 3/26/97

The Making of Fine Glass
Sidney Waugh
Dodd, Mead & Company 1947
Dal.Pub.L 666.1 W354M
8/29/93 Made copies 11/7/94 of complex bowl. Steuben, Corning
This book has marvelous shaded drawings of glass blowing tools and the process of creating two pieces, with some photos of pieces and the engraving process. The production pictures do not show people and totally fail to make clear the process of returning to the heat. It also contains the following statement: "It must be emphasized that glass blowing, as described in these pages, is not within the scope of the amateur or of even the most talented artist or craftsman working alone. ... Due to its high temperature in the working state, glass can be manipulated only for a very short time and, as the several parts must be joined at precisely the right moment and at just the proper heat, it is physically impossible for a man working alone to produce and object of any but the simplest character." Which is ironic due both to the art glass movement's early insistence on the artist working the glass alone and the marked simplicity of design of much Steuben crystal.

Glassblowing, A Search for Formib.CBT BLW
Harvey K. Littleton
Van Nostrand Reinhold
450 West 33rd St.
New York NY 10001
1971
LC 73-153458
Dal.Pub.Lib..-Fretz Park 748.2 L781G
8/6/91 9/7/93 2001-02-02
Glassblowing, A Search for Form, Harvey K. Littleton, 1971 ISBN 0-442-24341-3 (paperback 1980) Exploration of the beginnings of Studio Movement glassblowing.
Personal views and involvement in early contemporary glassblowing
Good pictures and personal discussions of author's own work and his experiences with Labino and Eisch and start of Toledo show. Excellent basics on tools and building furnaces and equipment. Close-up photos of glass being worked.
Covers some of the early years (1959+) of modern glassblowing, explorations of batch, and many essentials of blowing, with good pictures if you want to share with people.
9/7/93 Formulas and efforts with glass. No use of newspaper; little mention, no use of jacks.
Having seen Littleton's work in Toledo, the black and white pictures really fail to show the delicacy of his work (and on historical pieces.)

Glassblowing
Frank Kulasiewicz
Watson-Gubtell
One Astor Plaza
New York NY 10036
1974
0-8230-2120-3
Junction, SMU Hamon Library 5/7/92
Somewhat old fashioned but good essentials, including how to empty to furnace and how to build one.
8/6/91

25-Apr-95 00:36:53 Sb: #30016-More on Glass Fm: James E. Kervin 76455,1167 To: Kent Kantowski 74762,3361 (X)
If you are really looking for a good book on lampworking I would suggest Bandhu Scott Dunham's New book "Contemporary Lampworking" due to be released in a month or so. He is selling prepublication copies for $24.95. I read earlier versions and highly recommend it. He can be reached at Salusa Glassworks, P.O. Box 2354, Prescott, AZ 86302, (520)445-5445. ISBN 0-934252-56-4
If you are looking for a good book on beadmaking, I would suggest mine, "More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Glass Beadmaking." It is available from Frantz Beads, Wale, or Hoy's.

---------------------Equipment Building                                                                             Top

Dudley Giberson
Joppa Glassworks, Inc.,
Box 202, Joppa Rd
Warner NH 03278
1-603-456-3569 FAX: 603-456-2138
His catalog and encyclopedia of knowledge, which contains a lot of bits and pieces of information. Dudley sells burner heads and elements for annealers. My note on burner construction is essentially a step by step set of directions for one the the burners in his notes.

A GLASSBLOWER'S COMPANION - Dudley Giberson [Joppa Glassworks, Inc., P.O.Box 202, Warner NH 03278 603-456-3569 FAX 603-456-2138, e-mail joppaglass@conknet.com] announces via post card his completion of A Glassbower's Companion, ready to ship in mid-December, 136 pages 300 illustrations, $39 including shipping.

Having gotten my copy, I am impressed by the book. This book is primarily an equipment book with excursions into the history of working glass and how it might have been done down through the centuries. If I had to position it with respect to Henry Halem's book, Glass Notes, I would say that while Henry has a bias toward big expensive equipment and offers a lot of casting information, Dudley has a bias toward buildable equipment and offers many hints on bead making. For a person starting to build equipment, I would say that Dudley's book is more useful. The content of the book includes 5 glory holes, 10 glass melting furnaces, 5 annealers and 5 accessories involving heating. Each of the first three groups includes items that are more useful for theory, philosophy or history than for construction. There are a lot of well done computer assisted drawings.

Dudley offers a lot of detail and specifics on gas burner systems, given prices and part numbers, as would seem likely for a person who sells burner heads. There are many strong opinions and references, charts and formulas to serve as a starting point for many tasks. Information ranges from cutting a mold to using 3 phase power. It is obvious the man has built a lot of equipment and learned from failures and half-successes.

This book has leaped onto my list of must own books for furnace workers. Henry talks more about coloring and using glass, but for exposure to the range of work involved in furnace glass working, I will recommend one of Ed Schmid's books and this one. 12/27/98

The card says "this book is about Giberson's views on glass technology. It is a collection of designs, essays, and glass making ideas which focus on the underlying philosophy of hot glass. [It] will be of interest to anybody who works with glass whether he/she is a glassblower, a pate de verre caster, or modern beadmaker. Archaeologists will be especially interested in the ancient glass explanations, as Giberson focuses on simple ideas that actually work."

That paragraph matches what I would expect from Dudley, who has provided burner heads, heating elements and advice to glassblowers for years and has talked about his interest in ancient glass techniques at G.A.S. Conferences. Dudley developed, patented, and sells a ceramic burner head that has set the standard for furnace glass workers - quiet and steady while giving good heat. His handwritten catalog has provided basic information about choices for melting and annealing glass for years. In the past, he designed an automated glassblowing bench that put a gear on each pipe or punty to turn them at an even rate - as I saw demonstrated in North Carolina. I look forward to reading the book. 12/15/98

Glass Notes, A Reference
Henry Halem
This is a terrific book. $30 per book plus $4 s&h for the first book, $2 for each additional. Make checks to Franklin Mills Press [P.O.Box 906, Kent OH 44240, 330-673-8632, FAX 330-677-2488, hhalem@glassnotes.com] and MasterCard or Visa may be used. 11/20/96
Also available from Whitehouse Books, Corning NY
HENRY HALEM'S GLASS NOTES, 3RD EDITION has just come out and it is terrific. If you saw the first edition, which was reported to me as basically a reprint of the notes given students, or the second, which added some information about furnaces and annealers, the difference in the third will astound you. #11; In the first place, it is organized, so that related information is together. Second, it has complete information on building the equipment a small studio needs (while the first had, for example, only information on building a big tank furnace, while this one repeats that information and adds both invested pot and free standing pot furnaces.) While the first edition had specifics on things that Halem had experienced, this edition has tons of specifics extending details in many needed areas. For example, there are three pages of adhesives with sources, advantages, disadvantages and applications. This opens a section that includes decals, enamels, paints, sandblast resist, mold separator, photo emulsion, silver nitrate use, and copper electroforming. There are 12 sections covering formulas, annealing, casting, pot furnaces, tank furnaces, blowing benches and people, annealers and electric elements, glory holes, burners and reference lists. Lots drawings to support the text. Like the first edition, this book does not discuss studio layout or techniques of glass blowing.

HOT GLASS INFORMATION EXCHANGE
copyright 1979, John Brigham, available from Whitehouse Books, Corning NY, $25

This is a legendary compendium of information made at a pivotal time in studio hot glass work, when enough experience had been built up to provide reliable information, yet information needed to be shared for further progress to be made. I would have loved to have a copy in the early 90's when I was beginning, but other newsletters were available to help me. The soft cover bound copy is available for those who want it. There is a lot of common sense information in the book.

On the other hand, it is getting out of date, and the books above will duplicate most of the information.

Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces, & Kilns
Michael Porter
Skipjack Ress, Ocean Pines MD 2004
ISBN 1-879535203
Review copy  2004-02-25

-------------------- Molds, Kilns, Pots & Ceramics                                                        Top

Mold Making for Ceramics
Frith, Donald E.
Mold Making for Ceramics
TP809.5 F75 Brookhaven Library
1985
6/17/92
Recommended by Trinity Ceramics. Excellent book showing more aspects of mold making than I imagined existed. all kinds of molds & history of same. Book (purchased) has Plaster Batch Calculator, missing from library copy

Kilns, Design, Construction, and Operation
Daniel Rhodes
Chilton Book Co., Radnor PA, 1968
Brookhaven TP 841 R48
Apparently THE reference for Kilns, referred to in Gregory several times and reprinted repeatedly (this copy 1977). Covers history and international use, then goes into design, materials, construction and use, with many photos and drawings. No suppliers list, but many details of technology. 10/28/92

Kiln Building
Ian Gregory
Ceramic Skillbooks, Pitman/Watson Guptill 1977
Div.of Billboard Publications, One Astor Plaza NY 10036
Brookhaven TT924 G73
Covers pottery kilns in a straight forward manner, wood, oil, a bit of gas. Some good basic technical info and many good trade off points. 10/28/92

 

-------------------- Coffee Table Books
Furnace Glass blowing (lots of great pictures, maybe some info)   Others (below)                 Top

FIRE into ICE, Adventures in Glass Making
James Houston
Tundra Books, Toronto, 1998
Dal.Pub.Lib.BOC  748.29147 H843F 1998
Houston is an artist who lived for 12 years with the Inuit, learning their carving art and teaching printing.  He was asked to come to Steuben in 1959 and came 3 years later and the book discusses the animal sculptures and etching designs he created in glass, silver and gold, with lovely pictures from Steuben.  2010-08-29

500 Glass Objects, a celebration of functional and sculptural glass
Susan Kieffer, Editor
Lark Books, 2006
ISBN  1-57990-693-1  Dal.Lib. Dntn 748 F565 2006
Lark has done some remarkable books on glass and this is amazing.  It is exactly what the title says - 500 hundred modern glass objects on 384 pages, most with one large picture, some with a detail, [and some photos showing 2 or more objects] in a convenient size of square format (8"x8") - almost all of the pieces made within a few years of publication and minimal text giving artist, piece name and date, size in metric and American measure, materials and photo credit. The pieces represent the best artists in glass of our time and some have 2-3 pieces. 2008-05-11

Dante Marioni, Blown Glass
Tina Oldknow
Hudson Hills Press, NYC, 2000
1133 Broadway Suite 1301
ISBN 1-55595-204-6 Dal.Pub.Lib. 748.092 M341YO 2000
This is a neater than average coffee table book because there are good essays comparing Marioni to other modern workers and placing his work in context, Dante talks about the steps in his development of glass design and he is shown in 36 pictures making one of his pieces that makes it clear that he is using much the same technique as the Aussie Rollups of recent times, which someone asked about, with much faster heating in the gloryhole rather than kiln fusing. The photos include some impressive details.
For those who do not know, Dante Marioni blows classic vase forms in brilliant colors in very large pieces. The first pieces he did of his own work (he worked in a production operation) are Whopper Vases which are 28" tall. More recent work is 39, 44, and 45 inches tall. Marioni is a classic glassblower - that is he works with a team - vital since almost all of his pieces involve two, three or more sections, with color changes in each section.

Chihuly, Color, Glass and Form
Dale Chihuly
Kodansha International, Tokyo, NYC, SF 1986
ISBN 0-87011-780-7  Dal.Pub.Lib. CFA 730.924 C534YC 1986
What makes this book somewhat advanced beyond the usual coffee table book is extended commentary by Dale on his early years. As of the date of this review, this book falls about half way through Dale's career. What found interesting is how little time he spent on the well known key locations of his early years about a year with Littleton, at RISD, and in Venice. In a section on working with the team, he is shown without eye patch. He covers his painting and use of color.

Other Uses of Glass

Glass Houses
Alejandro Bahamon, Editor
Harper Collins Publishers NY 2006
ISBN 978-0-6-089339-2  Dal.Pub.Lib. Lakewood 721.004496 G549 2006
Reviewed in Hot Glass Bits 50 (link) this is a book of houses made with glass walls showing via many excellent photos buildings from around the world, most built in the years just prior to publication, but also touching on history of glass houses.  Each of the twenty houses is shown in ten or more photos, plus floor plans and elevations and some detail drawings of the glass mounting method.  Most are big and obviously expensive, but the pictures do a great job of showing how the houses feel when visited and unlike some design magazines, people are shown in ways that reveal scale. 2008-08-15

Everyday Things: Glass
Suzanne Slesin, Daniel Rozensztrich, Stafford Cliff Photographs by Marie-Pierre Morel
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York, www.abramsbooks.com 2001
ISBN 0-8109-0620-1 Dal.Pub.Lib. Cur.Coll. 748.2-S632E
This is a frustrating book to me. Being part of the Everyday Things series probably justifies not including ANY art glass, but referring to "collectable gems ... found in dusty antique shops and flea market stalls" should include more than "the simple containers" that falls in the "..." of the last quote. Almost all the glass is clear or colored clear through - no carnival glass or tableware made colored. That being said, the glassware is beautifully photographed, usually in natural (if posed -carefully laid out) settings, and descriptive paragraphs usually make clear the original and adaptive use of the objects - lidded rectangular glass containers originally sold for early refrigerators that now display food on the counter. Almost all the photos were taken in France so objects and narrative treat American objects as mildly exotic imports. Most of the objects are blown in and for the European market.

-------------------- Videos Furnace Glassblowing  & Internet Online Videos                         Top

Moved to Videos page videos.htm

-------------------- Furnace Glassblowing History                                                       Top

Glass Throughout Time, History and Technique of Glassmaking from the Ancient World to the Present
Rosa Barovier Mentasti, et.al. Editors
Skira Editore S.p.A, Milan, Italy 2003
ISBN 88-8491-345-4  Dal.Pub.Lib. Dntn. 748.5 G549G 2003
This book is entirely in English even though the editors, publishers, and almost all the glass are from Italy and was published for the exhibition "Glassway, Le stanze del vetro" in Acosta, Italy.  It is very good because it goes from very old glass through 2002, the year before publication.  The book also has an interesting arrangement as a series of "Rooms" which contain glass in topics; the rooms being Nature, Water, Body, Orient, Sacred, Fantastic, Everyday, Play, Geometry, Fragment.  The two hundred pages of rooms have 2-4 images on each page with descriptive text about artists' interests and intentions.  Each room begins with a page of notes on Ancient Glass, Creations of Glass - the techniques of the times -, and Contemporary Art and the older pieces of glass tend to have longer descriptions, a couple of hundred words.  Additional sections of the book three ten page essays on history of glass and 12 pages of biographies of the artists.  To the irritation of some, I am sure, the introduction of blowing from a pipe 50BC to 50AD gets referred to as "innovation ... in the Middle Eastern Environment" and "also came about in the Syro-Palestinian environment" without the slightest mention that this area was Israel at this time.

Revolution in Glassmaking
Entrepreneurship and Technological Change in the American Industry 1880-1920
Warren C. Scoville
Harvard University Press, 1948
666.1 S Dallas CBT
Very detailed information on all the business features and interactions of Libby and Toledo, etc. A minor proportion of the book is technical details, especially of mechanical blowing. According to the book, as late as 1915, all window glass was being blown from cylinders, with mechanical assistance. (p.168) A continuous tank successfully melted window glass in 1888. (p.76) In 1880 there was only one continuous tank furnace in an American glasshouse. (p.76) Glass making moved out of Massachusetts when unions unified and struck to have same wages and lower production in Mass. to match Penn. which had a lower fuel cost advantage.

"Paste-molds avoided seams. Paste-molds were simply metal ones coated with carbon and then sprinkled with water or oil before each blowing. Because of the resulting lubrication, the blower could slowly turn the bottle in the mold as he blew and hence avoid all seams on his finished product. [only symmetrical]" (p.16) MF-Libby uses a smoky acetylene flame to lube their molds. "Some time between 1850 and 1860 the pontil was replaced by a snap case which fitted around the body of the bottle and thereby left no disfiguration at its base." (p.17)

 

The Collectors Encyclopedia of American Art Glass
John A. Shuman III
Collector Books, Div. Schroeder Pub. 1988
ISBN 0-89145-355-5- Dal.Pub.Lib. 748.2913 S562C 1988 (acquired 2007)
What puts this book firmly in History rather than Table Top is the first 48 pages with an alphabetical listing of glass types and glass making companies and pages 188 to 335 which contain a miscellany of old catalogs, terms and tools, more marks, maps, time lines, bibliography and price guide. In between are pages of color photos - 1 to 4 objects per page with identification, size, value, and source.  The author holds with "antique" meaning a century old with only a few lamps advancing beyond 1888.  The initial pages include brief technique descriptions of making the pieces being described. 2008-05-14

20th Century Factory Glass
Leslie Jackson
Rizzouli International Publications, NY, 2000
Distributed by St. Martin's Press.
ISBN (missing title page) Dal.Pub.Lib .Fine Arts 748.29 J13T 2000
This seems to be a superb work, with a good descriptions/histories of perhaps a hundred factories producing glass during the 20th century and terrific photographs. Unfortunately, this copy has about 1/3 of the pages missing due to someone with a razor blade.

Glass, Victoria & Albert Museum
Edited by Reino Liefkes
Written by various curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum
V&A Publications, London, 1997
ISBN 1851771972
A book in seven sections taking glass in chronological order from The Ancient World to studio glass, illustrated by very good photographs of very good pieces in the V&A Museum holdings. For me, the detailed knowledge applied to each section by a different author revealed several things about glass history that I had missed before including the ebb and flow of Islamic glass and Medieval glass. I felt some comments showed naiveté about blowing glass, but history and images seem very good.

Antiques
Edited by Elizabeth Drury
Doubleday & Co. Garden City, New York, 1986 [Roxby Art Publishing London]
ISBN 0-385-23128-8  Dal.Pub.Lib. BLW 745 A633 1986
'Traditional techniques of the master craftsmen furniture, glass, ceramics, gold, silver and much more"  This book does a very good job of describing the basic skills used by craftsmen in making antiques, dividing them in four categories - Woodwork, Glass, Ceramics, and Metalwork.  Woodwork includes painting, gilding, and veneering.  Metalwork ranges from wire designs to armor to silver tableware.  Ceramics covers the full history including vessels and statuary.  Glass will be commented below.  All of the articles are supported with photographs of antique pieces, drawings outlining processes, and images from old contemporary reports.  Everything I know about seems complete and accurate.
 The coverage of glass seems extraordinary to me.  In a few sentences on each topic, David Watts, manages to provide a condensed picture of the key aspects of progress in glass development, the tools used, etc.

Contemporary Glass: a world survey from the Corning Museum of Glass
Susanne K. Frantz
Harry K. Adams, 1989 copyright 1989 The Corning Museum of Glass,
ISBN 0-87290-120-3 (pbk) Dal.Pub.Lib., FAD, 730.0904 F836C 1989 (dtd 3/31/97 which accounts for note below)
Large format catalog for the exhibition that reviews the history of art glass and the studio glass movement and presents the glass of the movement. My copy of the book was found in the library area which is history of sculpture; when I was looking for something else.

Title: Contemporary Glass Auth: Susanne K Frantz, "1990 president of G.A.S. and curator of 20th century glass at Corning Museum" Pub. Harry N. Abrams, 1989
See above
[Ironically, Out of the Fire footnotes the quote I just gave with a reference to Thomas Buechner's forward of Frantz's Contemporary Glass (1989) crediting Parisian Jean Sala with having a small furnace in his garage in the 1950's. HB#30] 2/18/96
Henry Halem
Dear Mike,
I think this book will give you a good overview of contemporary glass. It also has some excellent photos of glass. It's a bit pricey but belongs in your library along with Glass Notes.

The Illustrated Guide to Collecting Bottles
by Cecil Munsey
Hawthorn Books, Inc., 70 Fifth Ave., New York, 1970
Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria LA MF 2001-11-12
This book is most useful for me because it includes a lot of pictures of tools and equipment used to make bottles, including threading tools and a lot of different kinds of molds.  [2006-10-17  Following an e-mail, I looked and found it on Amazon.com.]

The Judaic Origins of Venetian Glass, Part I explores and justifies the claim that originators and carriers of the "Roman" glass tradition and even before then were the Jewish craftsmen who had the secret of making glass. Text of a book on the topic. 2003-03-07

New England Glass & Glassmaking
Kenneth M. Wilson, Thomas Y.Crowell, NY 1972
ISBN 0-690-58075-4  Dal.Pub.Lib. Dntn 748.2914 W749r
Lists dozens of glass factories with more or less history as known for each. Especially the first half of the book has a lot of details relating to blowing glass and the costs involved. It doesn't seem that anyone learned to build factories with fire separation in mind. The latter half is more pressed and cut glass and races through a lot of places while mostly giving collectors' data.
3/13/95

The Glass Gaffers of New Jersey
and their creations from 1789 to the present
Adeline Pepper
Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1971
ISBN 684-10459-8 LC#70-123831 748 P424g Dallas Pub.Lib. Downtown
A history of the plants and people who did glassblowing in NJ from colonial days, being sometimes tedious recitals of names and other times remarkable descriptions of events and techniques drawn from research. Lots of pictures, including of people working. One page has two pitchers I liked so much I even blew 99c for a color copy.
3/13/95 I like this book enough that I took it out again to reread and scan some images and collect some data. A reference page exists and data is included in history.

Iowa City Glass
Miriam Righter
55 p. Economy Advertising Co, Iowa City
Dal.Pub.Lib.CFA 748 R5711 1963
Self published (apparently) slim book built around collectors who had the glass and didn't have information. The company existed for only a short time, incorporated as Iowa City Flint Glass Manufacturing Company on April 30, 1880, buying land north and east of the intersection of Maiden Lane and Kirkwood, south of downtown. The plant was closed down by mid-1882. The book includes a number of good pictures. [I lived in Iowa City for several years while going to school and serving in the army - actually lived in limits for about 9 months over the 3 years I was supposedly a resident (wife lived there.)]

Traditional Glassworking Techniques
Paul N. Nash, Ed.
Corning Museum of Glass/Dover, 1988, reprint of 1899 Glass Working by Heat and by Abrasion
Dal.Pub.Lib.CBT 666.1 G549T 1988
This book is almost entirely scientific lampworking rather than furnace work.  It includes a few pictures related to tubing, etc., and has sections on grinding lenses and melting glass batch with formulas.

A Day in the Life of a Colonial Glassblower
J.L.Branse
Rosen Publishing Group PowerKids Press, New York 2002
Dal.Pub.Lib.BTG   748.250282 B821D 2002
A thin book with large type for young kids, it tells a story based on a family of German glassblowers that come to Pennsylvania in 1740.  Most of the images are actually from Dederots Encyclopedia and one is definitely wrong where the image of a lehr being unloaded is said to be adding materials through a hole in the wall. 2010-08-29
 

-------------------- Glass & Glassware History                                                                 Top

Glass 5,000 Years
Edited by Hugh Tait
Harry N. Abrams, New York 1991, 243 pages
ISBN 0-8109-3361-6 Dal.Pub.Lib.* 748.29 G549 1991
This book, heavier than the next one, replaces it as the best survey.  Although published earlier than Sotheby's its *accession date for this copy is 2005-09-28.  The six main chapters of this book are each by a separate person by the historical time range from before the invention of blowing to 1940. Done by specialists in each area, much of the descriptions involves where and when pieces were likely made and where found.  A brief two page entry brings the coverage into the Modern Art Glass movement.  Among the great features of the book are the high quality pictures of the early glass and the very informative 30 pages of demonstrations of glass techniques by Bill Gudenrath at the back of the book.  The techniques range from core formed glass and mosaic bowls to beads and murrini to one of Gudenrath's signature goblets to mold blown to various historical designs like nipt diamond, cane work, and prunts.  2005-11-28

Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Glass
David Battie, Simon Cottle General Editors
Conran Octopus Ltd, 1991, 1995, 1997
 ISBN 1 85029 654 5 Dal.Pub.Lib. Fine Arts 740.29 S767 1991
This is, I think, the best survey of glass I have found, with good color pictures and a reasonable size - 191 pages + glossary.  I can not judge the overall accuracy although it seems in line with what I have read elsewhere.  It unfortunately repeats the bad old story about glass sagging in cathedral windows, so I hope it does a better job, as it seems to, with relationships and development of glass.  There is a reasonably good section on post WWII glass through Labino, Littleton and Chihuly, with images of work of the first two. 2002-01-11 Extensive Glossary and Listing of Glasshouses and mini-biographies of glass makers. 2004-01

Glass
William S. Ellis
Avon Books, NY, 1988
ISBN 0-380-97464-9 Dal.Pub.Lib. Fretz Park, 666.1 E47G 1999
An excellent small book with few pictures, but with extremely well written reports on the history, many uses and forms of glass, particularly picking up interesting aspects.  Beginning to be a bit dated, for example in forecasting light control glass, but most of the modern glass artists are included and quoted, accurately as far as I can tell, while covering science and technology of glass in considerable detail.  An early indicator of the tone and detail is relating the old tale of glass being discovered by Phoenician sailors melting sand with natron they were hauling - not to debunk or doubt it, but by having a professor from Alford University try it - with some difficulty.  2008-08-09

American Glass
George S and Helen McKearin
Crown Publishers, NY, 1941, 1948 (twelfth printing 1956)
2000 photographs, 1000 drawings, 634 pages
748 M154A 1948 CFA
History (219 pages) Blown three mold glass, Early pressed glass, Pressed Tableware, paperweights, flasks.

Two Hundred Years of American Blown Glass
Helen and George S. McKearin
Bonanza Books, div. of Crown Publishers, 194950
New York
Collection of George, all glass is very old
Large, thick, 105 full page plates, 10 color
748.2913 M154T 195 Dallas Fretz Park
All pieces are from McKearin collection, pictures often show four or five nearly identical pieces. Writing is apparently mostly done by Helen. The two hundred years ends in 1880.
Virtually all pictures are crisp black and white.
9/8/93
Heavily referred to in American Glass from the pages of Antique Magazine, see below

Glass, The Connoisseur Illustrated Guides
Ruth Hurst Vose, Drawings by C.R.Evans
The Connoisseur, London,  1975
ISBN 0 90030 509 6Dal.Pub.Lib. CFA  748.2 V965G
This is an amazing small book with only 32 color images, but over 350 drawings, each above a paragraph of information, two per page for 200 pages.  Most interesting is the organization, not by pure chronology, but in these groupings: Techniques before Blowing,  Blowing and Moulding, Coloured Glass, Clear Colourless Glass, Adding: The Glass-Maker's Skill, Adding: The Skill of the Decorator, The Techniques of Taking Away, Later Techniques.  Since most of the drawings are line, not shaded, in some cases references in the text to "color in the vase above" are not very informative, but each glass piece is captioned so could be located.  There are enough color images to illustrate the techniques where color or tone is critical.  The most useful aspect of the book, to me, is the detail given on techniques and relationships within techniques as they developed in history. And it does go up to modern glass of the time of the book. 2004-07-16

Glass, Victoria and Albert Museum
Edited by Reino Liefkes
V&A Publications, London, 1997
ISBN 1851771972, Dal.Pub.Lib. Dntn. 748.29 G5491
A book in seven sections covering the history of glass down to the studio movement with images of the glass holdings of the Victoria and Albert Museum, with the sections authored by Curators of the museum. Excellent pictures of very good glass pieces, with a few important points to be made (like glass in the "Dark Ages") and with few visible errors. 2002-06-06

A NEW SERIES
Popular '50s and '60s Glass, Color Along the River ISBN 0-88740-829-X, 1995 DPL* 748.2917 P645
Blenko Glass, 1962-1972 Catalogs , ISBN 0-7643-1026-7, DPL 748.29154075
Tiffin Modern, Mid-Century Art Glass, ISBN 0-7643-0320-1, DPL 748.29171 H489T 1997
*DPL - Dal.Pub.Lib.
A Schiffer Book for Collectors, 3 books of a series, Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 4880 Lower Valley Rd, Atglen PA 19310
These three books are nicely printed (in Hong Kong/China), identical format - square page - 220 page books with price lists, clearly intended for collectors, but offering excellent color pictures of mid-century colored production glass that I was not familiar with. The "River" is the Ohio and the firms are Blenko, Pilgrim, Kanawha, Rainbow, Bischoff, Fostoria, Viking, Morgantown, and others.

Glass, George Savage
Octopus Books, 59 Grosvenor Street, London W.1, 1972, 1965
ISBN 7064 0038 0  Dal.Pub.Lib. 748.29 S263GL Preston Royal
History of glass and glass industry. Includes Chinese glass Averages one picture per page, many in color. Good pictures. Many historical anecdotes. Part of a series - Shells, Firearms, Early Cars, etc.
1/15/92 MF

Glass of the World
George Savage, Galahad Books, NY, 1975
Dal.Pub.Lib.748.2 Sav, Farmers Branch Lib.
No modern glass, 225 pictures, many color. 1/26/92

Glass and Glassware
George Savage
Octopus Books, London, Dist in US Crescent,div.of Crown 1973
59 Grosvenor St., London W1; 419 Park Ave.S, NY 10016
Large format, lots of color, not too thick. 225 ill.
ISBN: 0-7064-0143-3 Dal.Pub.Lib. Fretz Park Branch Oak Lawn Branch 748.29 S263g
Superb color and crisp b&w pictures of glass items, down through the years, most color plates are full page, which are large format. Steuben is included. Almost everything is vessels. Begins with intro to technique and history of glass. Photos of models of historical glass working facilities. No modern glass, a 50's Steuben piece is referred to as designed for Corning Glass. Pictures and comments are good for techniques. 9/8/93, 1/18/97

The Book of Glass
Gustav Weiss
Translated by Janet Seligman
Praeger Publishers
111 Fourth Avenue
New York NY 10003
1971 English, 1966 German
Lib of Con 78-107151
Dal.Pub.Lib.,Preston Royal 748 W429b
Very wordy history of glass, with line drawings and pictures in specific sections. More examples of German and mid-20th century glass than is common. More detailed stories of technical developments.
1/15/92 MF

Glass, Art Nouveau to Art Deco,
Victor Arwas
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, NY, 1987
ISBN 0-8109-1028-4, Dal.Pub.Lib. CFA 748.29048 A796G 1987
Alphabetical narrative with pictures for most, of Designers and Makers of the glass in the title. Nice in details, frustrating in that some of the most interesting descriptions have no pictures and that no good attempt is made to map the relationships or the time lines. Every article that refers to another person listed in the book has their name in caps at the mention. 11/6/99

Glass, The Smithsonian Illustrated Library of Antiques
Paul Vickers Gardner
Cooper Union Museum, Smithsonian
1979
748.2 Gar, Farmers Branch Lib., Dal.Pub.Lib. CFA 748.29 G228G 1979
Mostly photographs of pieces with history and a bit of technique.  Good reproductions of prints of old glassworks. Color images are brilliant, black and white less well defined - edges lost in background  Nice line drawings of working a piece and work space layout.  Brief glossary.
1/26/92, 2004-01-24

Lalique Glass
Dawes, Nicholas M.
1986 Crown Publishers
ISBN 0-517-55835-1 Dal.Pub.Lib. BPR 748.294 D269L X1950169 1 also downtown
History and study of jeweler and then glass designer, Rene Jules Lalique, in France (1860-1950), mostly castings, company still in business. Began casting figures and faces to include in goblets. Blew glass into copper, silver & bronze metal frames, allowing glass to bulge somewhat through openings. (8.5" tall chalice) Later (1905-1915), created many glass casting techniques, including blowing into molds. A number of nice shapes. 6/6/92 Many good pictures, mostly smaller pieces. 4/28/96

Phaidon Guide to Glass
Felice Mehlman
Prentice Hall 1983 Phaidon Press 1982
Walnut Hill Branch, Dallas 748.2 M498P
Many excellent pictures of glass down through history, with short essays.

Glass Animals, 3,500 years of artistry and design
Albane Dolez
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York 1988
ISBN:0-8109-1034-9  Dal.Pub.Lib .Oak Lawn Branch,748.8 D663g  BrookhavenNK5440.A55D65
This is a marvelous book constructed by a writer, with research by several other named people, simply to produce a nice book on a topic she loves. Because the focus is on animals portrayed on, in, or with glass, virtually every technique of working with glass is shown in very fine examples with very good color and good black and white pictures. An indication of the generous proportions of the book is that in a 223 page book it takes 40 pages to get past 1,000 AD and 1900 occurs almost exactly in the center of the book. Unlike other books I have reviewed, this one is generous with the years just before publication. Most of the glass is blown or hot formed with some stained. Many of the animals are engraved on crystal. Techniques include fused, cast, pate de verre, lampworked, Graal, and many variations of furnace blown. Certainly, a book worth looking at for exposure to the many techniques. 1/18/97

Glass by Galle'
Alastair Duncan & Georges de Bartha
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 100 Fifth Ave New York 10011 1984
ISBN 0-8109-0986-3 748.294 84-385 Brookhaven Library NK5198.G27D86
A couple of hundred pictures and moderate amounts of unrelated text on the production of glass by Emile Galle and the company he founded, which continued after his death in in 1904, finally shutting down in 1931. Pictures range in quality from excellent color to good black and white to muddled photo reproductions of aged catalog drawings. None of the objects shown are identified as to location or holder at the time they were photographed (as catalog art is.) The variety of the man's work is immense, much of it thoroughly in the Victorian clutter category, but some marvelous shapes. He seems to have used almost every technique that can be applied to blown glass, with a stress on engraving multilayered pieces. Techniques mentioned and shown include engraved, acid etched, enameled, applied pieces, intercalaire, marquetry, patina, mould blowing,
1/16/93 Hot Glass Bits 10

GAWH
Glass, A World History,
Fritz Kampfer and Klaus G. Beyer, translated by Dr.Edmund Launert,
New York Graphic Society, 1966
Dal.Pub.Lib. CFA 748 K1536
A book of superb large photos of samples of glass ware down through the centuries, color and B&W originally produced in German. Most pictures show enough detail to understand how the piece is built.  The text varies a lot in detail.  What is present seems very good and each picture is supported by an entry at the back of the book giving the usual art information such as size along with location information of the piece or source if the image comes from a book, but for many of the photos that info is all there is on the piece. 2005-09-01

The Story of Glass
Freda Diamond
Harcourt, Brace & Co., NY 1953
Good broad introduction to glass down through the centuries without getting lost in the details and with some insights I had missed in other places. Two of these are that mosaic lost its glitter after the "artistic" quality improved because the mosaic was laid smooth and artfully instead of being pushed in cubes, etc., and that stained glass lost its early vigor when, instead of using small pieces of intensely colored glass thicker at one end than the other, large smooth sheets of glass became available and were painted upon.
She also states that cylinder glass was blown with additional gathers of glass being added from time to time and that the end was blown out by heating in the furnace. Both of these bother me a bit, since adding gathers is tricky (going into the furnace from the top) compared to blowing from a massive gather, and reheating to blow out is unnecessary if a gather is used to heat the end of the glass.
2/25/97

Diderot's Encyclopédie http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/ARTFL/projects/encyc/ [in French]
The Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une Société de Gens de lettres was published under the direction of Diderot, with 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates between 1751 and 1772. Contributors included the most prominent philosophies: Voltaire, Rousseau, d’Alembert, Marmontel, d’Holbach and Turgot, to name only a few. These great minds (and some lesser ones) collaborated in the goal of assembling and disseminating in clear, accessible prose the fruits of accumulated knowledge and learning. Containing 72,000 articles written by more than 140 contributors, the Encyclopédie was a massive reference work for the arts and sciences, as well as a machine de guerre which served to propagate Enlightened ideas.

Diderots Encyclopedie, Vol 10
Superb prints of c.1800 glass working facilities.
"In addition to the operations of a factory, frequently shown in glass books, there are several complete floor plans, showing ducting for air, plans for building the furnace, including showing the shapes for molding the bricks in wedges, etc., techniques for making the pots and placing them and successive pictures of gaffers at the bench and using other techniques for making goblets, bottles, tubing, and window glass roundels." HB#24
In rare books, discussed, not seen, leather bound "flakey". Large page, dims not known.
034.1 1966 is a full reprint, with plates in one set and text in another
Examined plates in V.10, and made copies of about half on library machine. Pages are 9 x 5+ and foldouts are 9x12 with wide margins. Book is limited access. According to Francis it would be possible to sign out a special reference loan of 3 or 4 hours for better copying or photography.

Prints of old glass workers
Worker at bench stemmed vessel, from Encyclopedie des Arts et Metiers, Paris 1772, p20, Glass and glassmakers by Ada Polak
Bohemian glass-house, Sir John Manedville's Travels, 1425-1450 worker with floor marver, Picture in British Museum, p16, Glass and glassmakers by Ada Polak and color full page p.23 of Antique Glass and Glass Collecting by Frank Davis
The interior of a typical glass-house of the eighteenth century, Diderot's Encyclopedia, Vol.X, double page end papers of Antique Glass and Glass Collecting by Frank Davis
Many single and double page fold outs in Volume 10 of Diderot's Encyclopedia showing floor plans, construction, tools, and workers of glass. 1967 full reprint and rare book in Dallas Public Library. 3/13/95

-------------------- Lampworking                                                           Top

Contemporary Lampworking by Bandu Scott Dunham [Salusa Glassworks, P.O.Box 2354, Prescott AZ 86302 $35.95 (add $2 only if want Priority Mail shipping). 272 pages, ISBN 0-934252-56-4] as being recommended on CompuServe. As a result I have received a review copy and a great deal of pleasure. This book is first of all a great pleasure just to handle and look at. It is in landscape (horizontal) format with a glossy hard cover and soft sheathed wire bound binding with several color pictures. Virtually every page has pictures and drawings. Photos include work by a wide variety of artists. The instructional drawings are precise and contain only enough lines to give detailed information. 10/26/95 HB #28

Making Glass Beads
Cindy Jenkins
Lark Books, Ashville, Random House, NY 1997
ISBN 1-887374-16-7 Dal.Pub.Lib. CFA 748.85 J52M 1997
This is the first bead book I have encountered and seems very, very good. Besides averaging about 4 high quality pictures per page showing the work of many artists even I know the name of, there are detailed pictures of equipment and of the steps involved in doing the various techniques she is discussing. The examples seem to cover most of the possible techniques although I don't have the skills to know what is missing. Beadmaking occurs on a scale that I don't like - too small - like most lampworking, but the directions for millefiori and letter cane were very helpful, which is one reason I got the book. 2002-07-23

Glassblowing, An Intro.to Artistic & Scientific Flameworking
Edward Carberry
1989
0-9601682-5-7
Books in Print/Book Stop
8/6/91
see title
Spiral 29.95 Greetings:
First of all, we wish to thank you for listing previous glassblowing book. You have a great website, and we thank you for your work.
With this letter, we are excited to announce an entirely new THIRD EDITION of GLASSBLOWING: AN INTRODUCTION TO ARTISTIC AND SCIENTIFIC FLAMEWORKING by Edward Carberry.
This book is not only updated and much larger, but also contains over 550 high quality digital photographs, with over 440 being in fine color.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2001117300
Black and White Spiral Bound ISBN 1-888833-08-4 $84.95  [MF Yumpin' Yimminie, we're not in Kansas any more!$]
Black and White Cloth Bound ISBN 1-888833-04-1 $114.95
Color Spiral Bound ISBN 1-888833-09-2 $129.95
Color Cloth Bound ISBN 1-888833-10-6 $159.95
We would be very grateful if you would be able to remove our old listing from your glass bibliography list and add the titles mentioned above. And, if possible, mention the release of these new books elsewhere on you site.
More details about the book are summarized on the attached PDF new release announcement. Please also visit our website www.mgls.com/glassbook  and don't hesitate to call if you have any questions regarding our new release.

Thanks for your help!
Ed
Edward Carberry
carberry@mgls.com
M G L S I n c . 700 South First Street Marshall, MN 56258 Phone: (507) 532-4311 Fax: (507) 532-4313 E-mail: mail@mgls.com or carberry@mgls.com Web page: www.mgls.com

Glassblowing, An Intro.to Solid & Blown Glass Sculpture
Homer L. Hoyt
Crafts & Arts Publications
1990
0-9624404-0-X
Books in Print/Book Stop
8/6/91
see title
$29.95
Glass Blowing: An Introduction to Solid and Blown Glass Sculpturing
Homer Hoyt
Arts & Crafts Publishing $29.95
ISBN 0-9624404-0-X LC 89-85934 Books in Print 12/11/92

Creative Glass Blowing, Scientific and Ornamental
James E.Hammesfahr & Clair L.Strong
W.H.Freeman and Co., San Francisco
1968
ISBN 0-7167-0088-3 TT298.H37 748.2
MF owns paperback has clear step by step drawings, but of very simple pieces lots of technical details

Glass, Philosophy & Method
John Burton
Chilton 1967
LC 67-28894
Longview Lib 748.2 B95g
By a flameworker but with many photos of other techniques, including blowing and paperweights.
Worth a better look
7/26/93 Fine Arts
This book does a good job of providing a survey of glass history and working, well beyond the interests of the author, who is a flameworker. Fully half of the book is text, photos and drawings of Burton's work and for a person interested in flameworking seems to me to be far more useful and creative than the more widely available Creative Glass Blowing, The first part of the Burton book is a historical survey with good pictures. This is followed with visits to famous glasshouses, including Kosta and Orrefors and museums. There are (somewhat blurred) pictures of blower Kenneth Wainwright making an air stem goblet and millefiori paperweight. Nothing too exciting but a bit of variety if the book is available. (Dallas does interlibrary loan, Longview apparently does not.) Hot Glass Bits #15 7/30/93

-------------------- Neon                                                                                                                    Top
This may be the most totally useless book in the world for all I know about neon, but the attitude and topic titles suggest it fits with other good glass books. http://www.neonengineers.com/  2003-11-27

Neon Engineers Notebook cover image

 

  The Neon Engineers Notebook

Here is a practical guide to optimizing your work place.
This book presents ideas and methods to tweak your machinery
as well as yourself to produce your best work.

The chapters pertaining to glasswork illustrate techniques for success
to improve the bending skills of novices and seasoned professionals alike.

First Edition / First Printing 2003 ISBN 0-9716530-1-1
9" x 7" $37.95 Available from Lightwriters Neon Bookstore

Tweaks
Bombarding Equipment
Gauges
Pumping Methods
Pumping Problems
A Burning in Question
Tube Life
Diffusion Pumps
Manifolds
Multiple Bombarding.
Tube Processing Experiments
Clear Pink Tubes
 
1
5
9
21
31
35
39
45
49
53
59
65
Uncoated Ruby
Alternative Oven Pumping
Tipping Off Tips
Ship of Tools
A Fire Box93
Eye Protection97
Glass Work for Neon
Improving Tube Bending
Repair Techniques
Jig & Form Bending
Hot Rod Crossfires
100,000 Formulas for Glass
 
73
77
83
89
93
97
101
113
123
129
133
139
 
Borosilicate Glass
Making Neon with a Twist
Let’s Get Small
Your Mark on Neon
Transformer Loading
Time for Fun &
Chillin’ Out
Electronic Timers
Flying Solo
Home Sweet Home
Index
141
147
151
155
159
165
169
173
177
181
185

The New Let There Be Neon
Rudi Stern
Enlarged & Updated,
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
100 Fifth Avenue
New York 10011
1979, 1988
621.3275, S839N 198 Lakewood branch
color pictures, new uses, narrative & history, technique, schools list

The Magic of Neon
Michael Webb
Gibbs M.Smith,Inc
Pregrine Smith Books
Salt Lake City, UT, 1983
Dal.Pub.Lib. 621.3275 W651M
lots of color pictures with some narrative, no technique, lists of workshops, etc.
abbreviation, Neon, MON
MF 8/23/91

NEON TECHNIQUES & HANDLING
Samuel C. Miller, Ed. Edwards R. Samuels
Signs of the Times Publications
Cincinnati OH
3rd Edition 1977, Reprinted 1984,85,87
Appendix I Photos, Appendix II Neon Tomorrow by Rudi Stern (1977).
Apparently THE book on neon, very good detail.
Dal.Pub.Lib. 621.3275 M651N 1987 CBT
Books in print, 8/27/91 $24.95 + ca.$4 shipping, 2-4 weeks, paid in advance.
Bookstop Mesquite 613-1597
Taylor Technical books 239-8324

07-Dec-94 18:38:41 Sb: Neon Fm: Mark Gottesman [NC] 73030,3437 To: Jim Quinlan 71573,3601
Jim,
As a person who has loved neon for many years let me tip you off to my two favorite Neon sources.
Sign of the Times: ST publications inc/ 407 Gilbert Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45202-2285 (513) 421 2050 $36.00/ year 13 issues Magazine to the sign trade. Covers neon in both the technical and artistic areas. ads for schools, used equipment and jobs. This is a small part of the magazine so check it out at a sign shop before ordering.
Neon News: All neon newsletter that comes from Ted Pirsig in Hawaii. No ads so they pretty much give you the straight skinny. Neon News, PO Box 668, Hawaii 96785 USA (808) 967-7648 $20.00/ year 4 issues / back issues available.
Enjoy and tell them I sent you. Mark D "Glassblower"

-------------------- Glass Technology                                                                 Top

Schott Guide to Glass
Heinz G. Pfaender (Rev.& Expanded by Hubert Schroeder)
Van Sostrand Reinhold Co. 1983
Dal.Pub.Lib. CBT R666.1 P5235
Excellent, straight forward technical guide to glass, including major sections on flat and molded glassware. Schott is from German company involved the creation excellent optical glass around the turn of century. Also is an optical producer in Pennsylvania, per a recent CIS message. 7/1/92 And has a web page. SCHOTT GLAS - Schott Glass Technologies - Homepage 2002-06-06 Cited in discussion of viscosity

Modern Glass Practice
Samuel R. Scholes
1935-1975, Cahners Publishing
7th Ed. Edited & Revised by Chareles H. Greene
Downtown, only copy in system, R666.12 S368m7
ISBN 0-8436-0617-6
Available per Bookstop from 1-703-352-0001, Tech Books, Virginia, $60
A strongly recommended book that I should probably have read long ago, and thought I had, probably confusing it with Schott which is briefer and more tedious. Book is well written and covers color with formulas, off-hand glass p.230 '"It is important that the head of the pipe be swung down upon the glass and not thrust into it since the latter motion will force glass into the bore of the pipe" where it will chill and block the pipe, requiring great heating to get it clear.' Gold Ruby glass p321. " 0.004% in gold ruby plate, 0.02% in lead glass by analysis. Sand 100, Potash 34, Red lead 110, salt peter 10, manganese dioxide 5, gold 0.6 makes .26% gold and so strong in color it can only be used for casing." 4/28/96

The Constitution of Glasses
A Dynamic Interpretation
Woldemar A. Weyl & Evelyn Chostner Marboe
Interscience Publishers, div.of John Wiley 1962
666.1 W548c

Volume I, Fundamentals of the Structure of Inorganic Liquids and Solids
Volume II, Constitution of representative types of glasses

Got Vol.I, not much use, as glasses included are anything with an amorphous structure and much reflection on turbulence during years before original publication (1942-44)
Dallas Library does not have Vol.II.

-------------------- General Glass Info                                                                           Top

Glass, An Artist's Medium,
Lucartha Kohler
 Krause Publications,
 700 E. State St.,
 Iola WI 54990-0001, orders 1-800-258-0929, 715-445-2214;
Dallas Public Lib. CFA 748.2 K79g
ISBN:0-87431-604-x,
My new (2000-03-06) nominee for best book on all aspects of glass working is the 1998 book by glass artist Lucartha Kohler, Glass, An Artist's Medium, [ISBN:0-87431-604-x, Krause Publications, 700 E. State St., Iola WI 54990-0001, orders 1-800-258-0929, 715-445-2214; Dallas Public Lib. CFA 748.2 K79g]. Because Kohler has worked in many of the variations of glass that she is writing about, she gives excellent coverage of almost every aspect of glass working (except furnace glass where casting gets more coverage than blowing and that not much.) More importantly, she seems to give enough information about doing stuff, like glass painting or kiln working or cold working that a person can understand how to do it. This is not an elementary exercise book and it is not a complete coverage of all aspects of glass; it is a good coverage of some aspects of many ways of working with glass with particular attention to kiln worked and cast glass which she has done a lot of. A good list of sources, a glossary, and notes on Safety.

The Encyclopedia of Working with Glass
Milton K. Berlye
Everest House, NY 1968, 83
Dallas CBT 666.1 B515E 1983 R 4/28/96
Literally everything, sheet to fiber to risks of painting windows. Includes sections on fiberglass manikins, for example. 7/1/92 On the whole, not very readable.

Glass Factory Directory for North America
National Glass Budget, Box 7138, Pittsburgh PA 15213, 412-362-5136 <10/15/96
Dallas CBT, directory reserve Glass, R666.1 G549
Produced for years, gradually expanded to include all of North America. Mostly commercial, but does include a few art glass studios. A small thick booklet, apparently free. 7/1/92   http://www.glassfactorydir.com/  2007-03-14

Encyclopedia Of Glass
Phoebe Phillips, Ed.
Crescent Book
NY
1987
"Probably the worst glass book I have ever read," Murray Bloom. "I agree," David Gruenig Independent Glassworker #14 p.9.
Dallas Public Library, Park Forest

The Complete Book of Creative Glass Art
Polly Rothenberg
1974 (2/5/92 Bookstop says not in print)
Crown Publishers
419 Park Avenue South
New York NY 10016
TT298 R66 Brookhaven College Library
500 Photographs
Apparently superb introduction to most aspects of doing things with glass; the parts I know are dead accurate. Includes photos, sample projects with all steps.
Leaded stained glass, Bonded glass (epoxy), Fired glass, Painting glass, Glass jewelry, Blown Glass, Glass Sculpture & Architectural Art.

A Short History of Glass
Chloe Zerwick
Corning Museum, Harry N. Adams Co. 1990,1980
LC 666.109 Z58s ISBN 0-8109-3801-4 (pbk 0-87290-121-1 Corning Museum)
Apparently originally published on the opening of the new Corning Museum building. Provides a concise history of glass with excellent pictures including a good sample of modern pieces (Labino, Hilton, Orrefors, Steuben, Lalique, etc.)
2/1/93

Steuben, 70 years of American Glassmaking
Perrot, Gardner, Plaut
1974, Praeger Publishers 111 Fourth Ave NY 10003
1-212-555-1212 no number listed for name or publisher at address
ISBN 0-275-44320-5
Descriptions of pieces include techniques of construction.
Good photos. Worth getting, interlibrary or own, to read carefully.
Longview 748.2914783 P42s
Potassium nitrate for bubbles
Crackle from inside by spraying/hosing with pipe/hose (not pouring)
7/26/93 Fine Arts
Sharply divided between the colored glass of the early (1903-32) Carder years and the clear crystal of the Houghton years (33-73), one of the really nice features of the book is the descriptions include comments on how the pieces were blown and in the case of colored pieces, what chemicals were used. I grew up with Steuben crystal on the shelves and table of my parents' home and still have several pieces. It also, of course, influences what I consider desirable in blown glass. I find a piece with the same handgrip feeling I put in one of my pieces last summer (and expect to put in many more.) I would like to own this book. Hot Bits #15 [Did buy later.]

------------------- Warm Glass (Kiln Sagged and Fused Glass)                    Top

Contemporary Warm Glass
Brad Walker
web site http://warmglass.com/
This book is receiving a lot of good comment from those who have bought it.
2000-10-29

Glass Fusing, Boyce Lundstrom
These are the foundation books of modern warm glass, they set the standard when very few people were doing fusing.
Kiln Firing Glass (Glass Fusing Book I) .. Advanced Fusing Techniques (Book II) .. Glass Casting and Moldmaking (Book III) $30 $40 $40, $99 together from Craft Books   In many libraries.

Higgins, Adventures in Glass
Donald-Brian Johnson & Leslie Pina
A Schiffer Book for Collectors, Atglen PA 1997
ISBN 0-7643-0021-0 Dallas Pub.Lib Fine Arts 748.29 H636YJ 1997
The Higgins were warm glass artists in the 40's and 50's and were involved in manufacturing of their designs, with the result that there are collectable quantities of their stuff. This book shows many catalog pages and fine pictures of their work, including details. Glass was fused window glass mostly with colored enamels and solid additions, fused into molds as plates, trays, bowls and more. After the commercial production with Dearborn glass ended, the couple kept working in their own studio, doing art glass projects and still in operation at the time of book publication. Michael has since died, according to their web site. Higgins Glass Studio In her foreword to the book, Susanne K. Frantz points to their encouragement of Littleton in the 50's, their meeting with Labino and their presence at the first workshop at the Toledo Museum.

Kiln-Fired Glass
Harriette Anderson
Chilton Book Co., Phil, New York, London, 1970
748 A546K Dallas Casa View
ISBN 0-80195540-8 LC 77-116917
Mrs. Anderson was fabric designer and potter who changed to glass in 1961. The book is a straight forward discussion of the methods of kiln fired glass. It is the first I have seen that gives specific measurements for blanks to fit (sagging to fit.) Unfortunately, the examples used as projects are singularly blah with a shakiness of execution and lack of inspiration in design. I think many readers would react by saying, "I can do better than that." The book is filled out with the basics of stained glass work without tying it to kiln work and examples of glass work from other countries with a clear statement that none of it uses kiln work. One chapter is devoted to molds, the best point being the use of wax for intermediate molds.
1/22/93

Glassforming, Glassmaking for the Craftsman
Frederick and Lilli Schuler
Chilton 1970
ISBN 0-8019-5558-0 LC 71-135056
666.12 S386G Dallas Downtown
Specifically aimed at the individual artist, therefore slights blowing, classifying it as a team effort rather than finding solitary solutions. Does cover flame, casting, solid and millefiori fusing and gives technical details of mold making and materials. Historical summary and considerable appendix on temperature cycles. Shows techniques of cutting intrusive shapes. Covers epoxy, enameling, mold casting and mold fusing. Relatively short coverage of materials. Much is dated because of the changes in the last twenty years. 2/1/93

The Fused Glass Handbook
Gil Reynolds
Hidden Valley Books $18.95
LC89-25114 Books in Print ISBN 0-915807-02-5 12/11/92
In his online messages, Gil seems close to illiterate. Hope his book is better.

-------------------- Stained Glass                                                                                               Top
Hi Karyl,
Welcome to this section of the HandCrafts Forum!
For beginner's, I usually suggest "The Stained Glass Primer", by Peter Mollica. It's fairly inexpensive (under $5 typically), and is widely available from most stained glass supply houses. If you want to try the library, it's ISBN 0-9601306-6-7. Originally published in 1971, it's well over 200,000 copies now, and still growing. Should you not be able to locate a copy locally, you can always contact the publisher at:
Mollica Stained Glass Press
1579 E. 38th Street
Oakland CA 94602
Phone: (510) 655-5736. Books, "Stained Glass Primer," publisher and distributor.
It's not a difficult book, but it does a better job of covering the basics than any of the several hundred books I've looked at over the years. It covers cutting technique, and the basics of assembly and design. It's an easy read, and is fairly easy to follow, and it has my recommendation.
There are many, many other books available about glass and glass art, you can find a link to them at the IGGA website
 ( www.igga.org ).
Welcome to the new adventure that is glass. With any luck, it'll be a lifelong discovery.
Peace -Gerry

-------------------- Cold working glass                                                                              Top

How to Work in Beveled Glass: Forming, Designing, and Fabricating
Anita & Seymour Isenberg
Our Price $16.95, Dover Books 2002 [Chilton Books 1982]
ISBN: 0486420620
Page Count: 240
"Easy to use and profusely illustrated, this volume reveals the secrets behind transforming ordinary plate glass into sparkling prismatic shapes. A pair of preeminent glassworkers demonstrate their techniques for grozzing, roughing, mitering, smoothing, and polishing."  I came across the 1982 edition in the Dallas Public Library, 748.2028 I78H, and discovered that this is the book I have been asking about for years.  Under the label Forming, it gives complete detailed information about grinding, smoothing and polishing glass with lots of warnings, cautions, and variations.  I have not seen the newest book, but the older one includes a history of Denver Glass Machinery (which is used throughout the book) and notes from ten artists about working with glass along with several projects using beveled glass. 2003-06-29

Engraving Glass, A Beginners Guide
Boyd Graham
Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY, 1982, ISBN 0-442-23852-5
Dallas Public Library CFA 748.6 G738E
This small book provides a lot of information about diamond burr engraving of glass and along the way provides enough information to be useful about stone and copper wheel engraving, diamond stipple engraving and just plain cold working of glass: cutting, grinding and polishing with details as to hardware, grit rating and appearance while working. Good details about handling grit. 2002-07-23

-------------------- Periodicals                                                                                          Top

GLASS Quarterly, Andrew Page, Editor; UrbanGlass, 647 Fulton Street, third floor, Brooklyn, NY 11217; office: 718 625-3685, cell: 646 824-9321, fax: 718 625-3889, email: editor@glassquarterly.com, website: www.glassquarterly.com  $28 yr for 4 issues, glossy art style magazine. Shows a lot of glass in ads, notices of shows, no techniques in articles.

GLASS ART, The Magazine for Stained and Decorative Glass, (P.O. Box 260377, Highlands Ranch CO 80126-0377, (303) 791-8998, fax 303-791-7739, a new address by the way. $24/yr, $38/2 yr, $48/3 yr.) http://www.glassartmagazine.com  It is a bimonthly magazine, 44 pages in this issue. From the title it is obvious that blown glass is not a major feature, although the method of blowing glass beads is described in detail in one article. Other articles include an interview and one on Restoration with columns on Sandblasting and Fusing problems and a fairly extensive letters column. There are a great many ads. 3/31/93 Upgraded comments in HB#23 more hot glass 1/23/95
Keeping in Touch from HotBits #11

This Side Up!... new in vision and layout, internationally orientated with even more information about glass art and glass artists! GONE comes out of Holland. 2000-01-09
This Side Up! writes about glass education, new books, architecture, all glass techniques, storming talent, glass artists, galleries and museums and the connection with the fine arts.
This Side Up! has welcomed subscribers from Boston to Barcelona, from Mechelen to Marseilles, from Tokyo to Tallinn, from Seattle to Singapore and from Amsterdam to the smallest village in the Alps and everywhere in between.
This Side Up! really connects the glass world: the glass schools and art education departments, the students, the artists, the ateliers and studios, the institutions and museums, the galleries, the suppliers and glass factories...

Independent Glass Blower, GONE, % Gruenig Glass Works, Main St., W.Barnet, VT 05821, $25 yr for 4 issues, technically oriented newsletter.

AMERICAN CRAFT
American Craft Association
Box 3000, Denville NJ 07834
membership $90, student $45, bi-monthly
(formerly Craft Horizons)
Brookhaven College Library
a slick looking journal with a fair amount of hot glass in the issue (Oct/Nov 91, Vol.51 #5) I found in the local community college library.
Editorial content suggests recent changes reflecting creation of the craft association, membership run, within the American Craft Council.
Ads include galleries and Glass '92, a competition in Japan. Gallery ads show glass and a section recapping recent gallery shows with pictures has portion just for glass.
Articles include profiles with a long one of Marvin Lipofsky, who blows into wooden molds to create undulating forms. He has blown at 25 different schools and factories and edited the Glass Art Society mag before 1980.
Future shows are announced in a text only section, state by state.
Photo quality seems excellent. 10/24/91

DALE CHIHULY HAS TURNED ART GLASS INTO A RED-HOT ITEM
Magazine: Smithsonian, February, 1992
Complete article with captions is on disk GLASS I, downloaded at Longview Letourneau University. Includes a fair amount of history. Good reference.

Chihuly catalog? Seattle show NK5198.C45A4 1982 Mountain View College DCCCD

Glass (Film) 1958 McGraw Hill TT298.G5 Mountain View Media Richland Media-Restricted

InfoTrac Magazine index 1990-Aug 1993

Dale Chihuly: Venetians, Persians, and Niijima floats
Margaret Moorman
v92 ARTnews April '93 p110
DCCCD Brookhaven has Journal

National Geographic Magazine, Dec. 1993, cover article on glass, with mostly art glass and less scientific. $2.65 from 800-638-4077 number. 12/15/93

Supporting Yourself as an Artist
Deborah A. Hoover
Oxford University Press 1989 Second Edition
700.68 H789s 1989 Dallas Downtown Urban Info
Author was MIT funding and grants specialist for arts oriented people there and gave classes. Book shows a variety of examples and general discussions of attitudes. Not so well defined is "artist" as to who can expect funding. Many of the examples are based on following up on local contacts and daisy chaining among them.
12/27/93

Money for Visual Artists
Douglas Oxenhorn, Researched by
ACA Books, American Council for the Arts, 1993
707.973 M742 1993 Forest Green Branch
Good listing, most local to a state, NJ Glass Center included.

Free Money, For People in the Arts
Laurie Blum
700.7973 B658F 1991 Urban Info. Downtown Dallas
Collier Books, Macmillan
One of series, Free Money, For ...
In this case: Actors, Artists, Choreographers ....
Fairly sparse

Glass, its tradition and its makers
Ada Polak
G.P.Putnam's Sons, New York 1973
748.29 P762G Preston Royal Dallas
ISBN 399-11523-4 LC 74-25236
Good book on the people and individual contributions to glass industry but stops at Tiffany, specifically 1870. I found it especially good at spread and patterns of growth of glass working and people. Fairly sparse on pictures of work but enough to show examples (101) Many chapters: 22 for 209 pages
Note to Gerry CIS 1/12/94

On Board
Robert W. Crawford
Western State Arts Federation, 1991
236 Montezuma Ave, Santa Fe NM 87501
Description of what boards should do for non-profit, extracted/adapted in AACT Spotlight. 1/6/94

Boards from Hell
Susan Scribner
cited in AACT June-July issue 1/6/94

above added when should be in database? make decision.

The Technique of Glass Forming
Keith Cummings
B.T.Batsford Ltd 1980
4 Fitzhardinge Street, London W1H 0AH
0 7134 1612 2
748.2028 C971T 198 Dallas Lib. Pleasant Grove Br.
Very good book on almost anything that can be done with glass in a kiln. Lots of detail, pictures. Includes fusing sagging, melting glass in crucibles and pouring it, melting glass in containers and letting it run onto molds. Includes all techniques I have seen with enamels and pigments
for fusing, etc.
Shows only incidence I have seen of doing glass with segments (cast in one case) coming together when fused.
High temperature casting formula. Steel plates for sagging.
Includes commercial sagging (curved glass panels.)
9/8/93

Glass, Art Nouveau to Art Deco
Victor Arwas
Harry N.Abrams, Inc. 1987
New York
Incredibly complete of limited time frame
475 illustrations, 338 in color, thick, heavy, large
0-8109-1028-4
748.29048 A796G 198 Dallas Fretz Park
Starts with good description of several techniques and comments on repairs, fakes and forgeries.
Most of the book is alphabetical by maker and designer.
many color pictures of moderate size, mostly good but not excellent quality.
9/8/93

Glass Craft
Kay Kinney
Chilton Book Company, 1962
Philadelphia
Excellent (somewhat dated) coverage of fusing with good projects
Hardbound, 8 1/2 x 11, many B&W pictures, a few color plates
0-8019-0624-5
LC 61-14025 748 K55G
Very well organized coverage of fusing and sagging. Lots of details but the book is before current compatibility solutions and doesn't spend much time on the problem.
She does a number of nice things with bottles and window glass.
10/7/93 Starts by saying we can't melt glass for blowing as hobbyists 10/5/96

Tiffany Glassware
Norman Potter & Douglas Jackson (Porter on cover)
Crown Publishers, NY, 1988
LC # 88-47888, 748.2913 T565yp
Excellent color pictures of work and influencing pieces, well matched with type descriptions. Book is flawed in that the authors clearly know nothing about glass techniques: copper foil isn't mentioned even when pieces clearly were made with it ("leading 'woven' around [glass pieces]" and a blow pipe description that doesn't match anything I have ever seen (1/2" pipe with disk on end.) Has picture of glass blown in framework (p.47, "rarest") and clear examples of all kinds of Tiffany Glass. Page 47 has "Reticulated Glass" a green patina framework with green glass blown inside, described as "rarest". Page 63 has a stunning candlestick ("not usually sold in pairs") that should stimulate glass and metal workers. 2/8/94

Antique Glass and Glass Collecting
Frank Davis
Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd, London NY Sydney Toronto
1973
ISBN 0 600 33909 2
748.29 D261A Preston Royal Branch Dallas Public Lib. 3/10/95

Carved & Decorated European Art Glass
Ray & Lee Grover
Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. Rutland VT & Tokyo 1970
424 plates all in full color
748.2994 G883C Preston Royal Branch Dallas Public Lib.
ESPN 8048-0707-8 LC # 71-94025
This has by far the best collection of good color photos of glass. The transparency and depth of color of the glass objects show in the photos and many have a strong 3D form. 3/11/95

Nineteenth Century Glass
Albert Christian Revi, Dallas
Galahad Books, NY, 1967
748.2904 R454N 1967, Preston Royal Branch Dallas Public Lib
ISBN 0-88365-127-0, LC# 73-88483
is a totally deceptive title of an astonishing collection of techniques for making glass with explanations for each one. Almost 50 different items are discussed, from Pearl Satinglass to Paperweight Patents. Patents are reprinted. I have not read the entire book, but the pages on Burmese gives an exact formula and after describing how to get the gold into the glass makes it clear that a trivial amount of gold and uranium oxide are used. 3/10/95

Snowdomes
Nancy McMichael
Newsletter and Book
Box 53262, Washington DC 20009, 1-202-234-7484. She is also listed in Maloney's as an expert. 1/9/96
and is the author of a book 1990, 95 pages, Abbeville Press, Lakewood Library & downtown business & Tech 688.726 M167S 1990, Called - get answering machine with subscription information.1/9/96 ISBN 1-55859-035-6, Our library system has two copies and a snagged one. Book has a cute cover with a flat plastic pod filled with liquid and snow. Inside are snowdomes from the author's collection. If this book were all my contact with snowdomes, I would wonder what was the interest as what is shown demonstrates that virtually nothing artistic and almost nothing that is even interesting has been done with snowdomes. Of course, the book can not show the dynamics of snowdomes and not one was photographed after being shaken, but surely my memory is not flawed in remembering some cute and interesting snowballs. If you care, almost everything that might float has been used for snow and the current two makers keep their snow a deep secret. 1/24/96 HB#29

-------------
BELOW is copy from BIBIOLOG.WDB 10/9/94

Article
Rac
Racine Prairie School: a touch of glass
Richard Doornek
v91 School Arts March 92 p32
School is Nursery - 12 and has glass studio.

Revolution
Paste-molds avoided seams. Paste-molds were simply metal ones coated with carbon and then sprinkled with water or oil before each blowing. Because of the resulting lubrication ,"the blower could slowly turn the bottle in the mold as " he blew and hence avoid all seams on his finished product. [only symmetrical]" (p.16) MF-Libby uses a smoky acetylene flame to lube their molds. "Some time between 1850 and 1860 the pontil was replaced by a snap case which fitted around the body of the bottle and thereby left no disfiguration at its base." (p.17)
1948

MF 10/9/94
American Glass
Ed.Marvin D.Schwartz and Robert E.DiBartolomeo
articles from the Magazine, Antiques, ca 1922-72
1974 Weathervane Press.
Half the book is blown and molded and half pressed and cut.
748.2913 S399a 1974 Dallas Preston Royal
see HB 22

-------------------- Paperweights                                                                            Top

A Garland of Weights
Frank J. Manheim
Dallas Public Library, Fine Arts, 748.8 M2776
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1967, limited edition of 1000, Taylor Publishing
Text and color plates, which are good in quality, without much depth.
Very much in the "this is my collection and this is why I collect" gee whiz attitude. Little information on making even though he derides another book for not giving details. 1/21/96

Flora in Glass, Paperweights by Paul J. Stankard
Dallas Public Library, Fine Arts, 748.8 S786F 1981
Catalog for a show in London, Spink & Son Ltd. 1981
limited edition 2000 copies, #51, signed by Pat McCawley
Weights are shown in pairs in stunning photos (by Crawley, Wilkinson Associates, Ltd.), best I have ever seen for depth, apparently set on glass several inches above colored backgrounds with gauzed lights that produce a visible window-like (square with mullions) highlight. These two lights are not very far away, from the different angles in the two weights and are apparently located just above the waist of the weight and at about 45° above horizontal on the same line.
The book shows early Stankard, with only one of the columnar weights of his later work. 1/21/96

American Glass Paperweights and Their Makers
Jean S. Melvin
Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1967
Dallas Public Library, Fine Arts, 748.8 M531A
This book covers the end of the period when the last of the old time factory workers who made weights in their after hours or after they retired and just the start of the modern art movement. In fact, Harvey K. Littleton is included with a mention his students including Marvin Lipofsky and Dominick Labino. Most of the pictures are in black and white, with a set of color plates, and most are better than just good. For a current worker in glass, the best parts of the book are the series of photos showing a weight being made, another series showing each step in making an air trap lily weight (p.92), and the various pictures of pattern molds. In some ways the book is quaint because it is looking back at very old workers, some dead, with few clues that anyone has learned from them and will carry on. On the other hand, this book makes clear that it is unfair to say that Littleton, et.al., showed that an individual glass artist could work melting a few hundred pounds of glass, since these guys were apparently doing it for decades. 1/21/96

Old Glass Paperweights, Their Art, Construction, and Distinguishing Features
Evangeline H. Bergstrom
Crown Publishers, 1940,47 2nd printing 1948
Walnut Hill Branch, Dallas 748 B499o2 M498P. CFA
Old fashioned style book, apparently done at low point in glass work, having sneers at 'modern' paperweights and treating the product as something worthy of attic research, the 'elder days of art'. How paperweights are made is useful. Snow balls are included, claiming recipe for fluid and snow is lost. Lead glass is claimed to be made with lead, not lead oxide. Much discussion of identifying various factories by styles of inserts.
10/28/99 re-signed out in connection with downtown visit to pickup suphides book (below). She states that silvery effect was like dew on leaves and sulphide name comes from sulphides of silver and nitrates of silver. No color pictures are included, but appearance of matt silver in glass seems visible. She says that clay in sulphides removed distortion, but finding match to glass was difficult. Sulphides were made in iron molds and talks about polishing and cleaning the molds and heating and reheating the product. In somewhat confusing sentences, she apparently says that the cameo is heated to red and then cooled somewhat and placed on a heated glass base.
page 70 has a picture of two crimps courtesy of Edmund W. Mimms, which have lots of petals. says detail was plaster at base of petals to protect soldering. Does not include detail of necking the base of the rose found by Corning librarian.
Millville rose is footed whether as a stand or attached unknown.
Paperweight variations: door handles, cologne bottle (stopper), Mantel ornaments (tall stand), shot glass pen holder (base), ink stand (stopper and thick base), Wine glasses (at bottom of bowl), Wig stand (glass cone footed), vase (ball foot), powder box (body), toasting glass (spiral stem?), newel post (ball), wafer glass (flattish bowl, thick foot), shot glass pen holder (foot), table ornament (ball, support ring)

Sulphides, The Art of Cameo Incrustation
Paul Jokelson
Thomas Nelson & Sons 1968
LC 68-25513
159 pages, many illustrations, some in color
748 J74S CFA DallasSystem ID no: AAI-5681
CENTRAL-CFA-4TH-NONFICTION
CALL NUMBER: 748 J74S -- BOOK -- Route
"From this it has been deduced that an unpolished object which does not melt at the temperature of crystal could, incrusted in its depth, simulate silver." Apsley Pellatt. Drawings shown illustrating a patent for sulphides in which a pocket is blown and the end opened on the pipe. The heated sulphide is placed inside, the end sealed and when the pocket is reheated, suction pulls the glass down on sulphide for application to the work. Patent for porcelain sulphide by Desprez Fils (Son, no first name known) "Nevers sand, white quartz, purified kaolin from Limoges and earth from Dreux." and another for an enamel composition (Nevers and white sand, then sand earth from Nevers and white Spanish chalk in equal ratios.)
One weak chapter (no pictures) refers to sulphide marbles. Gives names of two places making sulphides in 60's (at author's request in one case.)

-------------------- Collecting                                                                                                             Top
20th Century Glass, DK Collector's Guides
Judith Miller with Frank Leibe and Mark Hill
Dorling Kindersley & The Price Guide Company, 2004
Dallas Park Forest 748.2075 M648T 2004
ISBN 0-7566-0526-3
Superb book of 240 pages showing over 1000 photographs of glass arranged first by category (Blown & Cased Glass, Pressed & Molded Glass, Iridescent Glass, Enameled, Painted & Stained Glass, Engraved & Cut Glass, Contemporary & Studio Glass) and then by region and then by company. The last section contains 35 pages of alphabetical name listings of glass artists with one to four pictures of each person's work.  Company narratives include a timeline, history of personnel and style development and 4 to 10 pictures of work done including details. Lots and lots of ideas.  As a price guide each piece is given its collectors value.  A list of Museums, Dealers and Auction houses fills out the back. 2010-11-21
 

Miller's Buyer's Guide Glass
Jeanette Hayhurst, Consultant
Miller's, Octopus Publishing Group, London 2001
ISBN 1-84000-361-8
Dallas 748.2075 M652 2001
Whatever value it has to collectors, it is an incredible collection of small pictures of glass ware with a very complete index that allows finding examples in the book.   The objects are grouped by main categories [Animals, Baskets, etc.] alphabetically.  Index includes makers names. 2003-06-26

Warman's Glass, 4th Edition
Edited by Ellen T. Schroy
Krause Publications, Iola WI, 2002
ISDN 0-87349-394-X
Dallas Public Library 748.2075 S382W
A collectors guide to pricing and products, arranged mostly by glass company and products (e.g. bottles), with an index that does not cross reference exhaustively (banana boat is listed under Custard Glass, along with a lot of other table ware, but is not an entry in the index.)  Not a lot of pictures.  Nice snippets of information about styles, colors and companies. I got it to look for more objects for the GLOS-OBJ.HTM page.  2003-08-11.

Antique Fakes and Reproductions
Ruth Webb Lee
Lee Publications, Wellesley Hills 81, Mass. 1938, 1950
Dallas Public Library, Walnut Hill, 748 L479A2
This book is mostly tedious to read, devoting paragraph after paragraph to essentially identical descriptions of pieces of glass that are reproductions or deliberate frauds (fakes) of older collectable pieces. Some non-glass stuff is covered in separate chapters. The highlight of the book, for me, is Plate 44, which shows three pieces blown off the same mold: a tumbler, a candy dish and a mug. The variations are interesting. Some other pictures show pairs of pieces from a mold. A lot of different kinds of glass objects are shown. 1/21/96

-------------------- Other Techniques                                                                         Top

Simple Glass Projects, 36 beautiful projects
Marthe Le Van
Lark Books, 2002
ISBN 1-57990-282-0 Dallas Lib Dntn 748 L433S 2002
Lark does excellent books and this book provides excellent directions and photos for projects with glass that do not require heat.  Some basic directions on cleaning and cutting glass and bottles set a good basis. The 36 projects are roughly a third painting on glass, a sixth each etching with safe cream and stain glass lead and copper foil projects and a third bottle cutting and gluing on "embellishments".  If there is any flaw, it is the lack of sources.  These often go out of date quickly but brand names and suggestions certainly help - the bottle cutter used is something I have not encountered before (with a tilting cutter head.)

Electroplating and Electroforming for Artists and Craftsmen
Lee Scott Newman and Jay Hartley Newman
Crown Publishers, 1979
ISBN 0-517-53058-9 Dallas Lib. Oak Lawn Br. 671.732 N553e
A good source of information, especially on safety needs and building basic equipment, along with a good supply of bath recipes (gold, nickel, copper, brass, silver, etc.) with specific operation requirements and causes of faults. Unfortunately, most of the effects are illustrated with blobby things that I don't find attractive. Although all the information for doing so is here, there are no examples plating on glass. No list of sources. 5/24/97

Engraving Glass, A Beginner's Guide
Boyd Graham
Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.
135 West 50th Street
New York NY 10020
1982
ISBN 0-442-23852-5
748.6 G738E Dallas Lib. Preston Royal 1/15/92
This book in an introduction to using a diamond bur to carve patterns in glass, as distinct from copper wheel and stone wheel engraving. Sandblast etching is covered only briefly. The author wrote the book because he had to learn techniques himself and books were not available. The book includes very detailed equipment descriptions (with source lists), projects with step-by-step details, glass sources and display plans. Good attention is given to safety and many pictures are included, mostly of projects and the author's work.

The Kaleidoscope Book, A Spectrum of Spectacular Scopes to Make
Edited by Thom Boswell
Dallas Public Library, Lakewood, 688.72 K14 1992
ISBN 0-8069-8370-1
1992 Sterling Publishing Co.
More than just making, it includes very good color photographs of some spectacular modern scopes, external art pieces, and instructions for making about eight K's including from a large cardboard box, PVC and other materials. http://kaleidoscopeheaven.org/

101 Projects for Bottle Cutters
Fischman
748.2 F5290 Dallas Pub.Lib Downtown
Good basic reference for methods, shows about half a dozen cutting methods/jigs and about the same for breaking, including ice, fire, nichrome and tapping inside. Projects not reviewed  3/13/95 [I looked over this book in 2003 and realized how absurd the projects are - cut the bottom off a bottle for a coaster, glue the bottom to the neck portion for a door handle. Most of the projects end with something that looks just like pieces of a bottle. bottle.htm 2003-08-12
Out of Print, but many copies available on the internet, Google.com with "101 Projects for Bottle Cutters"

Plastics As An Art Form
Thelma R. Newman
Chilton Book Co. Philadelphia, 1964, 1969
Covers all aspects of all kinds of plastics in art forms, including casting, painting, lamination, foaming, etc. of polyester & epoxy resins, acrylics, vinyls, polystyrene and polyethylene and silicones. Safety procedures and sources of supply are given. 1/17/99
Out of print 1/17/99
Plastics as a Design Form and Plastics as Sculpture 1972, 1974, publisher unknown.

Crafting With Plastics
by Thelma R. Newman
THIS TITLE IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE. The publisher is out of stock. If you would like to
purchase this title, we recommend that you occasionally check this page to see if it's been reprinted.
Paperback (January 1983)
Chilton Book Co; ISBN: 0801960592
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 971,319
AtoHass is joint venture of Rohm & Haas and another company to do Plex. www.rohmhass.com


--------------------- Internet                                                                                           Top

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911 Edition, Long article on Glass, OCR is not proofread.  GLASS http://53.1911encyclopedia.org/G/GL/GLASS.htm
  I have a clean copy of this from my own edition carefully proofread ebglass\ebglass.htm

 

 

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