Painting, Gilding, Staining, and Enameling
Definition and Related Terms
- Gilding - The process of decorating glass by the use of gold leaf, gold paint, or gold dust. The gilding can be applied with size, or amalgamated with mercury. It is then usually attached to the glass by heat. Gold leaf can be picked up on a gather of hot glass.
- Gold-band Mosaic Glass - A variety of ribbon glass that includes canes composed of bands of gold foil laminated between two layers of colorless glass. Gold-band mosaic glass was made in parts of the Roman world in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D.
- Gold Glass - The term applied to several types of Hellenistic and ancient Roman glass objects decorated with designs cut and/or engraved in gold leaf, which is sandwiched between two fused layers of glass. Hellenistic gold glass was made by sandwiching the decoration between two closely fitting cast, ground, and polished vessels, which were then fused. Many Roman gold glasses apparently were made by applying the gold leaf to the surface of an object, reheating it, and inflating a parison against the decorated surface.
- Luster - A shiny metallic effect made by painting the surface with metallic oxides that have been dissolved in acid and mixed with an oily medium. Firing in oxygen- free conditions at a temperature of about 1150°F (600°C) causes the metal to deposit in a thin film that, after cleaning, has a distinctive shiny surface. Strictly speaking, this process is a form of staining.
- Staining - In glassworking, the process of coloring the surface of glass by the application of silver sulfide or silver chloride, which is then fired at a relatively low temperature. The silver imparts a yellow, brownish yellow, or ruby-colored stain, which can be painted, engraved, or etched.
Examples from the Corning Museum of Glass Collection
A Fragment of Roman Glass Decorated with Enamel
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Gold Glass - An Ancient Technique Rediscovered
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Painting and Enameling on Glass in the Roman Period
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