ge:neiallv ncci'Pied axiom that when

glass-en;;raving firs! came !o be pr:1cticcd

the 16th
ccJrtu:ry, the of the art were men
who had flrst learned the art of hard-
stcmt:-e:ngra,;ing, Tirat this axiom is true will be
ar;f!;11Ca1atcr on in this article. It seems cxlrcmc-
ly that a similar link between hard-
sto:ue- has existed
the connection is
more difficult to demonstrate for the earliest
periods, where evidence is oncnv
Glass was in the 18th
uvn:&Sly in "''VIJL Sir Flinders Petrie refers to
a number of so "decorated"
mc;reilv with at Tell el Amarna.
2
he does not make it dear
whether this cnl'r:Ivin<' is done \Vith a or
means of a instrument. It has been
L This article is based on a
Circle in London in ::Vian:h,
<Uid
ft and second U
2, Sir \V. M. _Flinders
don, 1894, p. 27 and Pls. XIV,
read to the Glass
has been consid-
of fresh in-
'l'ell el Ama:rna, Lon-
53; XV, 133.
tha! WlHXJH:n,;ravnrg was prac-
ticed at this of a bowl of
_Petrie rather inclined to the view that such
work was done \vith an emery
mc:nt:uy obsidian bowl in the
collection has been adduced in smon.ort
at the 18th
work of this was carried out
abrasion.' It bears an im:erintiion relating
Corr:ingMuscum of
the Winfield
3.
Cominv. HJ57, p. 30,
4. W. M. F1iru:l0..:rs Petrie, 'The A.rts and
Ancient and I ,ondon, 1908,
whew reference is made on diorite
Gloss
Col-
ploug!Jed out with a point 1/ H50th
fm inch \vide.
5. Glass the Aru:irmt world, pp. 1'\o. 50.
83
to Ahrnose (c. 1546-1525 B.C.), the first king of
the 18th Dynasty.
The present writer was at first of the opinion
that such pieces were at least partially en-
graved by rotary his observa-
tions mainly on a ring-bezel in
the collections of the Victoria and Albert
:\.1uscum (Fig. 1). This came from the 1904-05
excavations at Deir cl Bahri and is engraved
with of the prenomen of Rameses.
6
On
:first examination this piece seemed to show in
the "characteristic ends of
wheel cuts/' it was evident that much
of the work had been done with a point. Fur-
ther investigation, however, combined with
an examination of a dozen or so pieces of
of the 19th to 22nd in
the British 1vlusemn col1ection, has convinced
him that these were pmbably wholly
point-engraved. The only certain traces of ro-
work on these of glass, and on one
or two carneHan consisted of
circular which had in some
instances been used as the basis of hiemglyphs
or other motivcs.
7
That this fact is not without
may be seen later. The only un-
mistakable traces of seemed to
occur on some or the like in tur-
and blue glass dating from the '1ate"
penvu. These showed long cuts which
appear to have been made by a thin wheel of
large diameter.
Further the
rc!>mn. the grinding of glass
6. 671-1905, by tlw Egypt Exploration .Fund.
Inscribed: meri (en Amen)," P"'""mably
for Rameses B.C,).
7. Kg. on a blue glass emblem with the cartonche
of Amenhotep III (e. 1400 B.C,), ::Vfuseum No. 1920.
175; and on tl1c carnelian rings No. 51577, prob-
of the 18th dynasty, and .54600, which however,
pnbaJblyof the '1atc" period. I am mueh indebted to
H. James of the of Egyptian
at the British Museum for me to
e: thi.-; and the pieces mentioned in the
note, and for giving me his views on the subject,
8. Kg. 6234 and 61105, the first of h1rquoise,
second of blue
84
by rotary abrasion had a slightly different em-
pnasJs. Here the work was on the whole con-
cerned rather with the hollowing out of more
or less solid or vcith the 11p
of decorative motives by moulding
processes (as, for example, the radiating petal
motives on a family of the earlie:st
of which so far known date from not later than
700 B.C.)H '\fo doubt this was done with some
such abrasive as emery)
known in Egypt at least as early as the 18th
v'm"' "''" "" In had been cut by
the use of tubular metal and it is ex-
tremely probable that the same technique was
in usc in the first millennium B.C. further
East.
12
One glass vessel which has been hol-
lowed out some such means is the famous
"Sargon vase'' (Sargon 722-705 B.C.) in the
British Museum, the inside of which
bears the marks of rotary grinding.
13
Of even
greater interest, is the fact that it
bears engraved on the shoulder the car-
touche and the of a lion. Unfortunately,
the surface-condition of this glass makes it
possilbleto decide how this engraving was done.
A series of brilliant circular depressions which
form the lines of the work, although appe:anng
at first sight to be a succession of drill-holes,
9. Axel von Saldern, "'Glass Finds at (',.ordion,"
Journal of Glass Studies, I, 19.59, pp. 23-ritL
10, Petrie, Arts and Crafts, 72-73: A, Lucas, how-
ever, considP-red the Egyptian to be more likely
powdered quartz sand (Ancient F.gy])tian Materials and
Industries, London [3rd ed.], 1948, pp. 90-93).
11. Petrie, Arts and Crafts, p. 72; Lucas, op. cit.,
p. 93.
12, One ClJt-from-the-block piece was previously
thought to have embedded in it the head of a copper
drill (Von Saldern, p. 33, 1\o. I, 14, Fig. 12). On sub-
sequent exanlinab"on at The Coming Museum of Glass
it was found that the "drill" was merely packed dirt
13. See D. B. Harden, Glass and Glazes, in ed. C.
et A of VoL II,
pp. 3:J6, 299 and Pl. C,D. the
bore of the tlmn of the neck,
workman employed some
bits aq the gouges (wa-l'zi!)
1: S. Howard Hans-
10,'50, p. 82, Pl.
FIG. Fragmentary ring of opaque-blue glass,
Deir-el llahri. XlXth or XXth Dynasty (c.
1300-1150 B.C.). Victoria and Albert Museum.
seem on closer to be due to the pe-
culiar form of decay which affects the and
which is visible over the surface of the vessel
where no is likely to have taken place.
That such work have been done by
means of rotary abrasion in the 8th century B.C.
seems amply demonstrated by the fact that
!vlesopotamian cylinder-seals of far earlier
dates bear the marks of drilling with solid and
tubular and indeed of with the
whecl.
14
At Tell in private houses dating
14. H. Cylinder Seals, London, 1939, pp,
5-6. Of a or so seals in the British Museum
dating from the IIIrd Dynasty (about 2100-1800 B.C.)
some on examination showed evident traces of drilling
(e.g, 21123, 89284 and 89215), while others
seemed to have partly worked ""ith rotating
wheeJs (e.g. 89579, 89578), The wriler is indebted to
Mr. E. Sollberger of the Department of \Veskm Asiatic
Antiquities at the British Museum, for giving him facil-
ities for examining the Sargon vase and a number of
cylinder-seals.
Frc. 2. Hellenistic g-ravestone showing engraver" s
equipment. (After Feldhaus.)
FIG. a. Miniat-ure fram the "i\Jerulel'schen Briider-
buch"' showing " ~ H a n s Paternostrer." Late 15th
centun;. Stadtbibliothek, Nr,<rernbliTI(.
to the Dynasty of Sargon of Akkad (i.e., about
2500 B.C.) actual cngraving-instrmncuts were
found. "They were with some
completed and some unfinished cylinder seals
... into a small wbich evidently contained
the stock-in-trade of a jeweller or travelling
craftsman. There were several gravers and
small-edged and one piece which is best
e"vlained as a borer belonging to a bow-drill.
It had a spatnla-shaped cutting-edge and its
stem was square .in section, so that it could be
stuck in the wooden shaft to which the
bow,;trimr imparted the revolving motion; ... "'
15
The use of removable bits in dynastic Egypt is
attested by the finding in Tutankhamen's tomb
85
of a oow-opcn,ted fire-drill with this contriv-
ance.H> The drill-head is no
am1lo;gm1s to the flint drill-heads found
of a circular
be executed by means of a drill
and actuated a bow, cuts
made with a wheel an ap,pa.raltus
where the rotatir1g s1pindle is held in a fixed
pos:itkm and the !o be cut is appli.ed
this the head, In
means a horizontal an,an:gemt,nt in which the
spindle is held between two All later
ennir>m.fmt of this character is ancaiJt!"e:d
in the horizontal altl.>outgh it is
from later situations
jm;til1alblc to assume in this
were ar-
ranged in the horizontal sense. No such appara-
tus appears !o have but there is one
of evidence which may be taken to throw
on how it looked. There is in a nriv:ltc
collection in the tombstone of a Hellen-
istic
Mrms, who died at Philadel-
in of On this
stone there is the of his
craft (Fig, 2), Although one end of the stone is
broken away, the main of the tool can
be reasonably well discerned, There is a bow
\villi a which takes a turn about a hori-
zontal spindle: its vertical the
spindle terminates in a intended
to a disc at the end of the spindle,
seen turned to the front in forced persp>ective,
with the end of the visible at its mid-
86
gl<>hiJiai form is intended,
re<YaJ'dE:d as the wheel-
sh:!p<:d or end of the appara-
tus, Centuries later the Frenchman J, Chardin
gave a description of the Persian of
his time: HI ''The Persian make their
wheels of two of emery to one of lac
("laque") , . rotate these wheels hafted
on to a circular mandrel
1
with a bow which
hold in one while with the other
hold the stone the wheel , , , , When
want to the stone, they put in
of this wheel another made of red willlm.
which they throw or The seal-en-
gravers the how and a very small cop-
per wheel with emery. use Persian and
Indian emery .... "Similar has been
used in the Near East and India until cninpar<t-
modern refine-
ments include a to work the bow
and so the artist the use of his se<:on.u
and a to maintain the irrp<:tu:s
by the pull of the bow,
20
It is that this type of equipment
started as a drill
p, 88), and that it was gradually appre-
ciated that the material to be cut could be ap-
!o the as well as
engnwing-whecl of later times. This
head would the "bouterolle" of
19. Voyages du Checalier Chardin e11
Perse. pcrsans font leur roue de deux
ct d'une de . ns tonrnent ccs
avec un arcbL't
r autre, contre
l n"on'iJ, venlen!c n,;];,Ja i1s mcttent
roue unc roue faite de sm.1le
ils jettent de l' etain calcinb on du
eia,venrs des cachets se scrvcnt de l' archet
roue de t;uivre avec remeri. Tis ont
de l' meri de et de l' emeri des In des . . " cit.
C. I .amm, Mittelalterliche G l i i ~ e r ... aus dem
Berlin, I, 1930, p, 516,
20. Feldhaus, op. cit., CoL 2 t I.
the 18th (sec
p. It is interesting that Laurent K atter
comments on the of the ancient en-
gravers for this instrument,
21
A stone once in the po,ss<JSs.ion
of shows the half-fin-
ished work of another Hellenistic ge:m-engntv-
er. Here the pai.tm11
m:Ighcd in incision') vvith
is of some interest because
the is and
it is a reasonable inference that the stone was
cut in in a
often held to be a centre of glctss-ccttting; and
Of the eqllii>rwcnt used in Roman times we
seem to have no states that
smnc ""torno teritur," which implies some
instrument.
23
:Much 1st
llc'w'ev,er, seems indeed to have been turned on
some sort of in which the is ro-
character which had in and not the
cnt!ravirt!'-Nh,eel proper. It is indeed pr,ob:1bly
kind of
an open mind to the possibility
e<pliplmotnt of this was some
tool which could be
ada:ptc:d as drill or in
accordance with the needs of the work in hand.
is also the source of our of the
abrasives
"sand of
from
available at this time. He mentions
-" which is emery, and ''sands"
and and certain
Cypn.s and and final
2L Laurent 1'raitt? de la M6thode A11tique
de Gra-ver en Pierres cmnp.ar'e t;mec la Mi'tlu>de
rnoderne London, p. 4. Althm>gh
in French, was of German orlgln.
22, op, cil,, pp. 400-40L Figs. 207-210.
23. Plinius Secundus, llisto-ria Naturalis, XXXVI,
19.3,
KOster, "Technischcs aus dcr anliken
Berichle aus den Preussischen K-unvt-
" XLI!, 1921, PP- 104 ff.
24. See
stone from
tmmitce.
1
" l'heonhncstJJS, in his llis-
a1so enielv.-'"
With the decline of the Homan Ernpirein the
died out both because
prccondi:tion for its existence - a
fine qualil:y
the nature
and because
In the East it
never to trace en-
in unbroken
continuity th,-m,:!Eh Sassanian to Islamic timcs.
17
In the 9th- l.Oth there in
Persia and also in a
school of which i.s not d valled
until the end of the 17th cerrtm:y m Eu:ro1pc."'
All this work may be SUJ?P<Jsed to have been
executed with of the
described later hy Chardin,
In the
to be decorated cllttin<' or engrav-
ing, gems were still cnl?:r:av<Ja. hc,w<JH<r crude-
and substituted for
the natural hardstone.
29
It i.s to be
that the '"l''ipmcnt
shines
25. Plinius Secundus, op. cit., XXXVI, 9-10. Sec A.
Lucas, op. cit., p. 9L
26.
see Earle F, C, llicha,-ds, Theo;oluvzsi,u.s
on Storws, Ohio, 1956, pp.
27. Von Saldem, op. cit, pp. 44-45.
28. See Prudence "Islamic Relief Cut Glass;
a of Glass Studies, III,
literature thf'.rc cited.

Gemmenschnitt im
l!fL 1-2,
Kameen, Berlin,
Rc Deside-
Milan, 1962,

makcii no mention of this

hi;;; d()wn and
in a manne:r have been
'"'""'"' in pn,-dynaMtlc For the most recent
account, sec Treatise of TheOJ1h-
ilns, translated wiih Introdud:ion and Notes
G. Hawthorne and Smith, Chicago,
pp. 189-191, Gems,"
87
the same general character still in use.
City at Nuremberg is a 15th century
miniature showing a maker of rosaries at work
3). The details of his equipment are not at
all clear, but his right knee appears to be apply-
pressure to the head of his spindle, and it
has been that he is in fact drilling the
beads held at the other end of the apparatus.
31
A machine of this however
1
would require
very little adaptation to turn it into an engrav-
That gems were being wheel-
cut at this date is indicated by Antonio Averlino
Filarctc's treatise Trattato delT Architettum,
which was finished in 1464. Among the mis-
ce1Janeous information surveyed in his hook,
Filarete refers to gems in a passage of dialogue:
"' ... Tell me, how are they cut, if they are so
hard?'
'TI1e method would be difficult to explain to
someone who had not seen it with his own eyes.
As I have told you, it is done with the diamond-
point and with wheels of lead and emery: and
some do it with a little bow ("archctto").' ""
The wording of the passage is somewhat oh-
scu.re. In the word "archett<( might
refer either to a bow operating the spindle of
the engraving-apparatus, or it might imply
some sort of bow-shaped saw such as was in
fact used to cut gems. What seems definite,
hnwrvcr is the usc of lead wheels and of emery
.'31. G. K Pazaurck, op. cit., interprets this ::V1S.
as sho'Wing the "Paternostrer" giving his beads their
::;phcrieal form or perhaps 6nifihing pr polishing them
("Abdrehen von Rosenkranzkugeln''). He implies !.hat
the heads arc of hardstone, but there is no evidence for
this. A somewhat similar picture of a chaplet-maker in
Venice in the 18th century shows very similar appara-
tus in usc for making: heads of what is dearly wood.
Feldhaus, op. cit., interprets the "Paternostrer's" activ-
ity as that of entting his beads from the plank held in
his lefl hand, by mean.<> of a multiple drilL This appears
to eut a circular piece from the wood whilst at the same
time piercing a central hole: no doubt the plank would
then be turned and worked from the opposite side, 'l11is
seems to make more sense than Pazaurek's interpreta-
tion.
32. A. llg, Ed., Quellenschriften fUr Kun.stgeschichte
und Kunsttechnik, Neue Folge, III, Antonio A-cerlino
Filarete's Ttactat Uber die Baukunst .. . , ed. hy \V. van
O{'ttingen, Vienna, 1890, p. 659. .
88
as abrasive. combination Inight be
used only for the plane-cutting of hardstones,
but a late 15th century text, this time from
Germany, fills Jn some detail which appears to
point unequivocally to gem-engraving. This
states that for gem-stone cutting a machine
is necessary, together
with its five discs of lead, pewter, copper, steel
and This seems to imply inter-
changeable working-heads, ranging from the
hardest (steel) to the softest limewood, for
polishing.
The
cussed has
propelling mechanism so far dis-
been the bow-lathe. The earliest
form of this shows only the bow as the motive
force, and it seems most likely that the bow was
drawn first forwards and then backwards, to
give a reciprocating motion. The addition of a
flywheel might mean that when the spindle was
set in motion in the one dircdion, the flywheel
would sustain this impetus, the cord of the bow
being then s]ackened and d:raV\JU back to its
original position ready for a second thrust.
There seems to be no evidence, however, that
the bow-lathe with flywheel was in use in late-
medieval the scene on which we must
now focus our attention, since it was presum-
ably there that the apparatus evolved which
we shall later see in its developed form.
The conversion of reciproca] to continuous
33. K von Czihak, Schlesische Gliiser, Dreslau, 1891,
p. 126, n. 1. The passage runs: "VViltu dy edelin steync
poliren, so mustu zcu dem irstin cyne mole adir get-
czeugk, dorezn V scheybin und syne spillen gehoren;
dy irste scheybe sal scyn a us bley, dy andir von tc:t:ehen
(Zinn), dy dritte von coppir, dy virde von stole, dy V.
von lindenn holtcze adir von rewst'hin lcdir. Alzo hosht
den getczewg.-So du dy edelin steyne poliren wilth,
so saltu sy zcu dcm irstin an eyne spille ki::iten.-Du salt
den koth (Kitt) alzo mach.i.n ... "That is: "lf you. wish
to polish precious stones, then you need in the first
place a miU or machine, to which belong five wheels
and their spindles; the first wheel shall be of lead, the
second of pewter, the third of copper, the fourth of
steei, the fifth of lime-wood or of chamois-dressed
leather. So you have the machine. If you wish to polish
the precious stones, then ym1 must in the first place
cemcnl Lhcm to a peg.-You should make the cement
in the foHo;;v'ing way .. ,"
movement i.s a matter which seems to
u"'i\"'li'"' the attention of the mechanics
""'''""Y An obvious way of
this motion is by the usc of a cnmk:-h:mtlle,
but whereas in the Ivliddlc this device was
of as, for in-
StanCe: a );LUHmUH.U,
an1narentlv ap-
to the function of nrnclnci11 ro-
movement such as that
work of This may have been due
to the difficulties of a suitable
wheel-ratio between the and the
spindle. The second device which may over-
come the of motion is the
crank by a treadle. Here the
the foot in the treadle
is much less than that used the
arms the crank-handle, The crank used
in the brace-and-bit seems to have
evolved in the course of the 14th the
first illus!ra!ion of it from the 15th
century. A illumination of about
1430 shows a crank worked a hand-operated
connecting-rod, and another picture from the
same "'\fS. illustrates a mill-mechanism worked
by a double-crank to which arc attached two
worked trea-
although this
ci<3UI'IV disccrniblc.
34
of the is not
At the end of the same
this pr<lhlem of cortvertin
to continuous motion
tcntion of no less a person than Leonardo da
Vinci. On one sheet of in the Codex
Atlanticus we sec not a vertieal
saw by a cranked wheel, but
two sets of each of which he calls '"a
("tomio"), one of them a crank
by a and a large driving
the other a smaller wheel by
34. On these mechanical
rand Gille, ":f\,..faehincs" in
pp. 652-4.
:)5. G. Piumati, Etl,, Il Codice Atlantica di J ...eonardo
da Vinci, VoL of Plates HL Milnn, 1!104, Pl MCCCV.
381l\.b.
a crank and the power
source of which is not being trans-
ferred from this wheel to an even smaller one,
frorn which a appears to run. This ratio
of wheels would seem a suitable one for
rectuiJred for hardstone
If the wheel of this appa-
hrrm<>liot below the wo:rkirt!! SJ.Irhwc,
treadl.e, the essentials
pmfccted emrravinl!-vvhecl would be all
Whatever the form of in use dur-
eeJ>lu.ry--andof this the indications
so far a
glimyJse-tlhme can be no doubt whatever that
FIG. 4. Two of "lathes" and one of a saw,
Leonardc0 da Vinci.
89
rep1ese,tting a stm;te-et1!'rr.tver
Victoria and Albert 1\.luseum. lost Amman.
Crown Cctm,<rik:ht
in the Court
and elsewhere. :'ttl
With the advent of the 16th the
tun; becomes much clearer In 1568 there ap-
a or book dif-
ferent with wood-cuts
One of these shows "Dcr Stciusclmcider'' ("The
pntcti.cirtg his craft in front of
Here at last is repre-
reacSorlah]y ctJ!n]JreherJshc detail the
of the gem-engraver, Below the
is a flywheel actuated by a
treadle to a crank: from it a continuous
hand nms two holes in the uuwkinrr-
36. Sec, e.g., Gchhart, op. cit., pp. !26-7, 133 1L,
vm ff.
90
surface up and over a pulley set a turned
The vertical fixed to the
exact details of this of the
not clear, but there is no mtlSGKtlllg
main features. On the bench is
stand the different wheels which may
be fitted into the the
demands of the work in hand. Two of them are
shown loose on the bench, their thickened ends
where they into the spindle
clearly visible. The is now
free to usc both his hands for the work
to the wheeL Beneath the cut is the
"! cut on my wheels
and small such as and (?) dia-
m.ond emerald, and good
the coats-of -anns of many a such as
are set in and many other coats-of-
arms besides." This is supplemented
from a literary source when
in his famous 15th sermon "On l;Jass:mftki:ng,
in
cutter has his
wheels."
37
mentions that '"the stone-
and little
The relevance of this pitotUJre of the stone-
equipment becomes dearer when
one turns to the earliest on
known in l<:t.rrne since the Roman The
exact of the of this art is not
known, hut it is that the
first pe:rscm,ility to make his name in it was a
before he was
enQ'r,av,er. This man was L'tsrmr
in 1586 left his home town of in Li..i.ne-
burg to turn up in in 1588, In
1601 he was there given the title of "ll11f>erial
!!ern-f:n!!rU\'er"
38
1606 he had transferred his
services to where in that year he is
oder
vom Glass.macbm,
fol. recto,
38, R. Schmidt, Das G!as, llcrlin and I ,eipzig, (2nd
ed,), 1922, p. 281,
referred to in documents as ''Electoral Saxon
gem-engraver."" In of 1608 he is de-
seJrib:ed as '"minded to to "
40
and in
October of that year he is in fact found in
rnwt:te with the title
and
his
to
described in the Saxon records as lmvi1w
,gn<vc:d four "Cirristellin Tafficn"
oonnm> of members of the rul-
and since these which
a number are albeit of Princes other
than those named in the Dresden
are of it is a reasonable sup-
position tbat Lehmann was aheacly engJ:aving
in Dresden at this date. In 1609 Lehmann
obtained an Impe1rial Privil<ege
him alone tho
he many years
industrious and no sma11 expense, dis-
covered the rut and business of gl:ls>:-e:agravir:tg,
and it into "44
There arc nevertheless grave to
Lohmann as the first engraver to
transfer his art fro:rn hardstones to In a
letter to the Duke of dated
he wro!e !hat the Duke's Wilhelm V,
'"had me the art of stone- and
39, VValteK Glas- und
Stejnschnitt nm 1600," Siichsi.vche
Geschichte, 55, 1934, p. 109, n 21; cf. 20 aml R 22,
40. Holzhauscn, op. cit.., 110, R 24.
41. des
des Kaiserhauses ., XIX, p,
XCIII, No. 16878.
42. Holzhauscn, op. cit., p. 109, R 19.
1 (the Elector Christian
E. Kris,
ein zur Friih-
L Glaschnittes," Anzeiger
Ge:rmanischen Nationalmuseums., Nu,mnborg, 1963,
pp. 116-131.
44. von T eutsche Acade:mie der
Edlen Bild- -und
1675, p. 345.
cn!W>vine in my "Iii
It of course, possible that by he
\vrote, Lehmann of the two arts as
vumBcuv the same. This would
be rnore if there were not in exist-
ence two which appear to date from a
time well before we hear of Lehmann
at
re>Jresentati<Jn of
which was recorded in an of
1595 as been in 1590 - two
years after Ldunann had arrived in Pr:o<';"e.
W c know of a at Dresden before
still in
is the famous
beaker in the
Museum of New York
47
Count Wilhelm von
Clara von
to his fiancee
in 1592.
that since G. E. Pazaurek re,!Sonaibly ct,;mou
came from it was more
P"Ju:"u''Y cne:raved in the South than in Bruns-
and that since the mount did
rru"ue naiHCimrK, and the engrav-
had certain affinities with later work alrnost
euna.m1cv done in Tlm1ingh>, it was most
to have been executed in the latter rcgum.
1'\;either of these bears a close resem-
blance to tbe well-authenticated
work of and the of
evidence seems to that
Lehmann was not the first to revive the art of
p. 87, n, 4: GHstav E,
Alt-thiiringex (;!a;isclmtt!," Glastechnische
Berichte, scc'!ns to that the
letter was to i,,J;ih,:],;; V.
46. Holzhausen, op. cit,, pp. 87, 108-9, H. 17 and
18, and 2,
47. R. Sclnnidt, Die Gl<Mer der Smnmdw;g Afiihsar.",
Keue
Pl. 13.
n.d. (1927), pp.
48. Pazaurck, Gl.asschnitt," p" 825.
49. If Lehmann's statement to Duke :\faximilian I is
to be taken at its face value, this may have
91
Lehmann's importance for the purpose of
this article, however, is that in his person we
see the gem- and glass-eng:ra vcr unmistakably
united, the one function from the
other. His history justifies the inference tl1at
the equipment of the glass-engraver was in all
essentials that of the hardstone-engraver: and
that where we cannot with certainty point to
clear evidence as to the nature of the glass-
engraver's tools at a given period, we may rea-
sonably infer that it closely resembled those of
the hardstonc-cngravcr at the same period.
This inference is borne out by a number of
cross-checks at d i f f e r e ~ t points.
The late 17th century print illustrated in Fig.
6 shows a glass-engraver at work,
50
and al-
though the artist has forgotten that the driving-
belt of the machine should pass below the level
of the bench, what is shown above it seems
reasonably well-observed. Here one may re-
mark the "tower" of the apparatus, with the
driving-pulley enclosed in a square structure,
apparently equipped with two screws on either
side and at the top. From the spindle projects
the actual engraving-wheel, and numerous al-
ternative wheels are seen on the table in front
of the artist, who holds the tall-stemmed goblet
in both hands to cngra vc it. On the table to his
left arc two srnall containers) each with a
la or the like resting in it. These no doubt con-
taken place in Bavaria. Tn this connection lhc name
of Valentin Drausch rlesf'rves mention, although he is
never referred to as more than a gem-engraver (Hol:.r.-
hausen, op. cit., pp. 91-3, 104-8, R 8-1.1). A perhaps
even stronger candidate is Zacharias Peltzer (or Beltzer),
whom Sandrart mentions as Lehmann's colleague in
Prague and apparently also as an engraver of glass
(op. cit., p. 316), and who was seal- and crystal-en-
graver to Maximilian of Bavaria from 1576-96 (Holz-
hausen, op. cit., pp. 94-5). See also :.Vfeyer-Heisig,
"Caspar Lehmann: ein Beitrag , .. "
50. In the Coming Museum, A virtually identical
print, in everything except the accompanying text, is
illustrated in Erich Mcycr-Heisig, Der NUrnberger
Glasschnitt des 17. ]ahrhunderts, Nuremberg, 1963,
Fig. 1, and is there shown as being by Chrisloph Weigel
and dating from about 1680. The Coming print does
not come from Weigel's Stiindebuch of 1698.
92
Fm, 6, \V oodcut showing a glassengraver at work.
Probably by Christoph Weigel. Nuremberg; late
17th century. Corning Museum of Glass.
tain the abrasive, mixed "\.vith oil, Vitith which
from time to time he smears the engraving-
wheel. On the shelf and cupboard to his right
stand further glasses, either finished or waiting
their tum for decoration. Among them may be
recognized types characteristic of Nuremberg,
where tbis no doubt originated, and
where the leading 17th century school of glass-
engraving was situated, The essential correct-
ness of this print is confirmed by an achml sur-
viving engraving-head preserved in the Muse-
um at Liberec, in Czechoslovakia (Fig. 7). This
has been dismounted from its original working-
surface and remounted on a block of wood. It
is dated 1697, and inscribed with the names
Scholzoph" and "Christo Heltzel,"
but whether these arc the names of the makers
or of the users, there is no indication. If these
Fxc. 7.
dated 1697 Bohemian.
Liberec Museum, Cz:cc''""'lm;ak:ia.
Fxc. 8. Engraving-head, dated 1697 Bohemian.
Liberec Mw;eum.
seem to have
behind them. The mecha-
men were jn fact en:graver:s,
left no other name
nism of this engrctviJng-hcad be seen
and agrees in
every particullar descJciption of such a
of
Oeconom ..l>">'che
later.
51
With the
the article on
it is
detail of the eqJJipmt:nt.
as follows:
6
ll
for every
dc1;cription runs
"Irnnled'ialely on the surf ace of the a,
stands a c d made of turned on
which is fastened with screws an iron or brass
housing The two walls e d and h d
of this hear in the middle a small iron
axle ('Welle'), or so-called
f g. It must be made of ternpcred
and its JO<Irnals I'Zaolfen:') must be made
... , 18

first referred to in this connection
Nuimi\ereer Glasschnitt ... , p. 20.
cit., pp. 7.51-2.
FIG. 9. Engraving-head, dated .16.97. Bohemian.
Libe-rec Museum.
93
from hard steeL These run in f and t in a lead
bush which is
from two lead i and
k. The two when hear-
a u u i ~ . The aim of this jmtlqlositkm of the
two leaden checks is to press the upper cheek
nearer to the if use of the 1nachinc
the f wears out, and this 1neans
spimllc f g once more vvith the
steadiness. For this purpose a small
screw e is connected \>v'ith the leaden cheek k,
and means- of this the artist can force the
upper cheek k nearer to the lower one i. The
same holds with the two cheeks of the
he1uirrg t in the wall h d of the At g
spilndle f g has a conical
and in this there is a slot
cut out. For the artist inserts in the
f g the conical rear end
-u -v, of his and fixes this wheel
94
the more
so;mc!Je. in that a
hon u of the wheel
latter ... "
is cmnplete.
in the said of the
on the conical rear por-
fits into the slot on the
later en-
a of
Stockholm
hovvcv<'r. the equiprrent
in every detail to the
conti.nuation of
Oecorwmische Ertcr
1
'Cirrpi1idi0:
in the
"On the spiindle f g there is an iron l,
on t.he rirn of which a cord l n
with a wooden driv-
m n. The iron shaft
o p has at q a so-called crooked he;uirre
a
crauKJ to and to a wooden treadle s, is
attached a leather means of this
treadle s the artist sets the machine in motion
dPnn''"'n" it with his fooL" The Stock-
adds a in the
interpreta.ticm of the Liberec wheel which one
would not guess from Kruenitz, Frmn the finial
cnrw;rrint< the a horizontal rod nnriccts
this slot is
threaded a torrgr;e intended to rerrulatc the oil
and mixture which forms the
rmcv1mt it from
That the Liberec appa;rabCis
orighmlly equiplred in this way seems dear
the holes which
mounting the finiaL
the knoh sur-
Kruenitz an account of how the en-
Svenska
Stvddmi:n, 1936, pp. it is
that this machine wa'i bnJu,;h! from to
Sweden and in the
1870's 1881-
1931. It half of the HJth
century.
54, Seitt:, op. I-L Strehblow, Der Schmuck
des p. 83, who gives this the
narne of and states tlHtl it :is :made of brass
with leather {Seit?; says felt).
FIG. 12. Augu;t Prob-
ably Bohemian;
Stockholm.
century. Stad.wnu.,eum,
.FIG. 13. Set of en!;ratnne;-wirwels the appara-
tu.s shown in
FIG. 14. Engraving showing hard,)tone-engraver at
work., tVith his tools, P, ]. TraitC des
Picrres Cravees, 1750. Victoria and Albert Mu-
seu-m.
95
graver fed the abrasive to his cutting-edge.
He says that the emery ("Schmirgcl") is broken
up in a mortar and then on a stone
with an iron balL The resultant is then
in an iron without a handle" mixed
with olive oil ("Baumohl"), and on the
bench. When it is put to the
which is aiiowed to take a few turns in the
mixture.M This was no doubt the
followed the engraver shown in Weigel's
(Fig. 6).
One further ray of light is thrown by the
apparatus preserved in Stockholm. With the
engraving-machine was a set of
wheels (Fig. 1.3). These arc made with a steel
shaft set in a haft which appears to be of lead
or a lead-alloy,'" and which is fitted with the
lug to stop it slipping as is described by
Krucnitz (soc above p. 94). The heads arc of
copper, in the two smallest where
the head is turned out of the steel of the shaft
m thus again the account
given by Krucnitz. ::-.b In modern the
l!:nmintc-'''h'oel is fixed in its socket
tap of a hammer, and detached inserting a
tool in a slot at the bottom end of the socket
and it out.nn Since this slot exists in the
Libcrcc (Fig. 8), it is reasonable to
surmise that the same methods were also used
as far back as the end of the 17th cm1turv.
] 4 here, from shows a French
gem-engraver of the mid-18th at
together with all the tools of his craft. Figs. 2-4
on this cut show the which is
in all essentials tbe same as that described by
Kruenitz and by the ex-
amples illustrated here (Figs. 7-9, 12),
5i5. Krucnitz, op. cit., p. nJB.
.56. Seitz, op. J.9; Strehblow, op. ciL, p. 78
mentions an alloy and lead.
.57. Seitz, op. cit., pp. l9-20.
58. Op. cit., p. 752, 994, C.
.?ll Strehhlow, op. ci-t., p. 78.
60. P. Ma1iette, Twite des Pierres Paris,
1750, Pl. facing p. 208.
96
except that the head itself is enclosed, presum-
ably to obviate unnecessary wear of the
through dust and abrasive on
them. One further difference in this apparal'us
is that the into which the
wheels slol is square in the wheel being
held firm means of two screws (Fig. ,!)
1
The remainder of this most instructive Plate
shows the tools in detail. 9
and 10 show the engraving-wheels for
use, either in a circular or held verti-
cal in a box with a cover. 12 is the
bottle to hold the olive-oil, 14 a container
for the and Fig. 15 a little
bowl the mixture of the two, to-
gether with a (also for its ap-
plication (to the stone in this rather
than to the wheel). 24-30 show the dif-
ferent engraving-wheels. This is closely
echoed in that illustrated in the great French
Er,;r:!Jd<rpriclie, in which the Plate volume de-
voted to '"Gravure en Picrres fines" is dated
1767.'l1 the very follows that
of .:vfarictte in a way to that the article
was I:uge1y derived from that source.
The thus equipped, leans his
bows on the bench (on little cushions if
w1mcs, as we sec Dominik Bimann doing in a
of 1833)
62
and presses his
glass on the 1mderside of the wheel, having the
wheel between himself and it. According to
Krmmitz, his first task is to work over with a
wheel of the outline of his sul)ject
which he has previously dnnvn on the surface
of the with a mixture of white lead and
gum water.
6
;
1
He then proe<ec<Js to cut the rnain
OL Didcrot et D' Alemhert, Encyclopedie ou TJir:-
tionnaire Rai.sonne, Sdences, des r-;t des
Wfetiers .. , Paris, Recueil de Planches, V,
tl2. C. E. l'azaurck, Glaser der urul Bieder-
meierzeit, 192!3, 100. See also Strehblow,
op. cit., p. 77.
63. p. 1.56. Strehblow :recommends a good
white mixed with (op. c'if., p.
8;3), a instance of lhe life of these tradi-
tional tcdmiques.
forms of his
as
nitz docs not go of
technique, that there is no rule
as to how the wheels shall be selected. A mid-
century has left us an
account of how to engrave a gem.,
his obscTvations with a (Fig.
The account runs as follows:
.. One by out with a half-
round tool an oval of the size of the head in
To obtain one must move the
stone for otherwise the
tool will make no more than a circular
away little by little to the depth re-
f or the eyes. Sec letter "a' on the section
3JL
65. Laurent
de Graver en Pierres
moderne
. .,.r;;
- ~ - .
. \ ..
Knc>modooc ii'lustra;ring the of a gem,
T rait de la methode de
en Pierres fines ... , J754. Victoria and Al-
:Museum.
"One can in the axis as far as
up the 'modium on the letter
' and below as far as up the neck
below the letter 'a.' One in
the same way the short axis to an
oval suitable for the head.
"This one may the space
for the and cnlar1;e
side than on the in imitation of the
nal. VVith tbe same tool one may mark out the
space for the to about the shown
letter 'b' in 3, and with about the
width shown at letter 'b' of 2. After this
one and takes a smaller one for
the forehead, letter 'e' of 2 and 3, and
the same for the rnodium and stotrting
the so as to avoid tools
"The foundations thus one takes a nar-
rower slightly mcmded, and as as is
called for the of the nose, and one en-
of the nose in a graves the
the " " " " ' ' ~
and the neck Sec letter 'd' in
ures 2 and 3.
''After this a smaller tool is necessary for i n ~
and across the end of the
nose, to form the one sketches ln. the
eyes, and the locks of letter 'f
in 2 and .3. one takes the boute-
rollc (this is the instrument with the head made
splrwric,d) to the on the end of
the nose) which has to be o:n to what has
ahceadv been Letter 'g' in 2
entirelv at
after which one
errml<w< tools which are smaller and cut
to finish the in accordance with the
capa<oity of the artist."
He concludes: "That is all that can he en-
the enurn,vir O"-,;en"1
97
FIG. 16. Unfinished panel of engraved glass.
early 19th century. Victoria and Albert M,use-um.
Crown Copyright.
tially finished has survived in !he collections of
the Victoria & Albert Museum (Fig. 16). It is
Swiss wmk dating from the early years of the
19th century, but it clearly shows preliminary
cuts of the kind described by Kruenitz and
'\latter.
After the engraving was finished, it was pol-
ished as required with wheels of the same di-
mensions and shapes as those used for the en-
graving itseH, but made of lead for the larger,
and pewter for !he smaller ones.
66
The abra-
sives used were or oxide of tin 1nixed
with water, or powdered pumice and water,
67
66. Kruenitz, op. cit., p. 758. Cf. Strehblow, op. cit.,
pp. 80-81, who also mentions poplar-wood, spindle-
wood, and a bristle-edged wheel (cf. Fig. 14, No. 19,
here).
67. Krucnitz, op. cit., p. 757. Cf. Strehblow, op. cit.,
p. 80, who names "Kuglerschlamm" as abrasive-that
98
It is clear that even before the end of the 17th
century the glass-engraver's equipment had
been rendered sufficiently light and portable
to enable it to be taken from place to place by
vagrant glass-hawkers, who could then engrave
on the the initials, coats-of-an:ns, etc. de-
sired by their customers. The outstanding ex-
ample of this phenomenon was the Bohemian
Georg Franz Kreybich, who covered Europe
from end to end with his barrow in the last
years of the 17th century and the early
of the 18th century.
68
Later evidence from Den-
mark has shown that the practice continued
there until well into the 18th ccntury.
69
It had been argued here that the smvicinP"
engraving equipment and the written sources
authorize the assumption that the apparatus of
the glass-engraver developed directly ou! of that
of the hardstone-engraver. A difficulty arises,
however, at this point. Joachim von Sandrart,
writing in 1675 apropos Georg Schwanhardt,
the pupil of Lehmann and the founder of the
Nuremberg school of engravers, says:
70
''Now
although the previously mentioned artists
brought glass-engraving to perfection, in so far
as judgment and drawing were it
was nevertheless impossib]e for because
of the all-too-powerful and clumsy tools which
they used, to give delicacy or charm to their
work; considering the still existing heavy appa-
ratus and wheels (for which they had to employ
assistants and wheel-turners, from whose midst
thereafter sprang those still-flourishing weeds
the 'Stimpler'") it is to be marvelled at that
is, a mixture of water with fine sand obtained hy
pension in water and elimination of the grosser

68. See "From Kamcnicky Scuov over the whole of
Europe with a \Vheelbarrow," Czechoslovak Glass
Reviet.v, TX, 5/6, ID54; J. R Vas Glas, Prague,
19.54, p. !.'i6.
69. Gudmund Boesen, "Glaskraemmere og gla:ssni-
dare: noget om glas og glashandell Danmark for 1760,"
Kulturminder, J.9tH, pp. !30 ff.
70. Op. cit., p. 346.
71 . I .it. "'bunglers." On the connotation. of this word,
sec von Czihak, op. cit., pp . .129-130.
achieved as much as Since then
more convenient and suitable cqui1nncnt has
been
,_,asp!lr Lehmann already the use of the
wheel for his work on
this reference to and clumsy tools in
the context of the Schwanhardt family's activi-
ty at a later date? Nfodern commentators have
been to brush Sandrart aside as an un-
reliable source, but he personally lived in
X<uc,mlbcJ,g at a time when the elder Schwan-
hardt's sons were still and he had been
for a while in when
Schwanhardt the Elder himself was workin<':
he was therefore
to
a position to know. It is
such without
reason) and on this there seems
to be some evidence which has not
hitherto been to bear. Dr.
Ut,isi!'
72
has out that in the <..'Onhact
for dravvn up in 1573 be-
tween. the Duke of Bavaria and the Saracchi
it that one brother
another
shilping, and a third do the decorative en-
The is that the first two
would usc the hand-turned
while the third would usc the gem-cngr:lV<Jr s
Ntlvertli:el<JSs, when we look at Karel
ni<rh11re of the interior of the \1iseroni
workshop in we see in the
only with hand-
turned wlle<lls, and two cutters or
by the windows so that the
their work. A closer look at the nearer of these
shows him to be
which nnJiects towards him. Of a
wheel or a object in the workman's hands
there seems to be no trace, and he assumes the
72. Ni.iml;errer Glasschnitt . ., p. 19.
exact postcuc of an engraver en12:a1ied on some
dose of work The is dated
and its """ """"""Y observed detail for
its accuracy. That the hand-turned wheel con-
tinued in usc is demonstrated two of
evidence. The German Paul Schind-
ler, for Duke Frederick III of Holstein-
in 1651 and 1652 ob-
paymccnts of money to meet the wages of
assistants who turned the wheel for him as he
worked: in there were 3 Reichs-
taler "to Andreas wahl, a soldier, who for a
time turned the wheel at the glass-engraver's. "
73
When Schindler his
widow sold tools" ("I )nehinstmcm,en-
te")," and if Schindler did not change from one
type of to another in the course of
his this won1d have meant that
the hand-turned was in use until
towards the end of the 17th ecu,tm-v
says that such cquifHWcnt was "still existing,
and this at least must have been a matter of
ne1rsona1 observation). Secondly, on the trade-
glass-Jsclller, from the third
we sec such a
here it is clearly
rather than
worth in mind that although cngntvcd
ha vc been with of
ascribed to Paul of
the only two works which are known
to be one is a bot-
tlc76 and the other is a decorated
with facets (Fig. 19). It may well he
that of this sort was at first used for
finer work but was to the
field of covered in German pan"cJKc
the work of the or as
73.
und
"Der Glasschneider Pa-ol Schindler
nmdis,che Glaser des 17.
Erich
74. Ihid., p. 203.
75. Ibid., p. 204.
76. Ibid., 2.
99
the engraving-wheel was for the
more delicate tasks. It is worth bearing in mind
that when he died in 1689, the Frankfurt glass-
engraver Johann Hess left behind him in one
room of his house a and
i.n another "
77
The
two types of equipment may have been com-
plementary, and it is possible that glass-en-
gravers who came to the art way of rock-
<:ri/Sttzt C1.1tting may have heen more familiar
with the hand-turned wheel than those who
came to it by way of seal-cutting on hard-
stones.78
77. "Gross Schlcif.rad" and "Glasschneiderwerk-
zeug" -see G. E. Pazaurek, "Her Frankfurter Glas-
schnitt und die Familic Hess," Der Kmostwanderer, 8,
1926, p. 96, n. 12.
78, Part H of this study will appear in a future
volume of the ]ottrnal.
FIG. 17. Karel Skreta, The Family of D. Miseroni.
Oil-painting, dated .1658. Narodni Galerie V Praze.
FIG. 18. Detail from trade-card of Maydwell and
VVindle, showing cutting-machine.
London; third quarter of 18th century. Collection
of the writer.
FIG. 19. Door from a clock by Claus Radeloff, the
glass panel executed by l'aul Schincller for Freder-
ick lii of Holstein-Cottorp io 1654. National Mu-
seurn, Copenhagen.