F - flacons

Wertheim Glass Museum

F for flacons are nothing more than containers for fragrance. Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) brought perfume to the courts of Europe. The nobility preferred flacons made of clear lead crystal glass for individual perfume containers - they conveyed luxury and elegance. In the 19th century, flacons made of strong colours such as ruby red, agate green or cobalt blue came into fashion.

Wertheim Glass Museum

Eau de Cologne - the "water from Cologne" - conquered the salons of the world after the end of the monarchy (1789/99) in France in a specially created bottle as the first brand fragrance.

René Lalique (1860 - 1945) designed his first glass bottle in 1908 using the inexpensive air-blowing method. This made perfume accessible to a broad section of the population.

Wertheim Glass Museum

In 1921, Coco Chanel (1883 - 1971) created her famous "Chanel N° 5" - the first artificial perfume. For it, she designed a simple bottle made of clear crystal glass, which made all other bottles seem unfashionable.

F - Bottles

Wertheim Glass Museum

F for bottles are among the oldest glass products. Until about 1750, they were uniformly used for beer, wine, cider, juice or water.
Glass bottles:
protect the contents from the effects of light;
guarantee transparency for cleaning control;
label the exact origin and guarantee the quality of the beverage.
guarantee the quality of the beverage.

Wertheim Glass Museum

Pilgrim bottles are the forerunners of today's Bocksbeutel bottles, hip flasks and snuff bottles.

F - clinical thermometer

Wertheim Glass Museum

F for clinical thermometer is manufactured by Uebe from Wertheim.

F - thread glasses

Wertheim Glass Museum

F for thread glass goes back to the Venetian thread glass technique, in which different coloured glass rods are fused together.

Further glass under F:

Binoculars, foam glass, Franconian glass, five-ball apparatus (according to Liebig), threaded/coloured glass rods, window glass, window pictures, bottle devils

G - Glass from the Spessart

Wertheim Glass Museum

G for glass from the Spessart region near Wertheim was mass produced from the Middle Ages to the early modern period (12th century to the beginning of the 19th century):

1406: Foundation of the Spessartbund with 40 huts
Production period of the huts: Easter to Martini
Daily production, e.g. 200 Guttrolfe or 300 mugs

G - Green glass: Forest glass

Wertheim Glass Museum

G for green glass, also called forest glass, were the main products of the Spessart smelters and almost exclusively intended for export:
Romans, beaker moulds, rods, fitting glasses, tankards, jugs, bottles for household and pharmacy, goblets, flutes, glasses à la facon de Venise.

Characteristic of the forest glass, so named after the location of the huts in the forest, is its green colouring due to iron oxide contents in the sand.

G - Glass from Thuringia

Wertheim Glass Museum

Glass from Thuringia, produced in the first forest glassworks in the Thuringian Forest, originated in the 14th/15th century. As early as the 16th century, the glassworks were relocated from the forest to the village.

From 1770 onwards, a flourishing cottage industry developed with the introduction of lampwork. The main products were glass animals ("Thuringian knick-knacks"), which were fitted with a glass hook from the middle of the 19th century and exported to the USA, Japan and Europe as Christmas tree decorations.

G - Glass eyes

Wertheim Glass Museum

G for glass eyes (eye prostheses) were also made by Thuringian glassblowers from 1770 together with physical-technical instruments.
From the 1950s onwards, they were made in Wertheim by former Thuringian glassblowers.

G - Gutrolf

Wertheim Glass Museum

G wie Guttrolf from Latin gutta = drop or guttur = throat.
The thin, twisted tubes of the neck of the bottle were intended to enable dosed drinking. Guttrolfe were mainly used for high-proof spirits.

G - Glass Bead Cabinet

Wertheim Glass Museum

The estate of the Mainz scientist Thea Elisabeth Haevernick (1899 - 1982) with a total of around 3000 glass beads (from around 1000 BC to the early Middle Ages), together with the holdings of the Wertheim Glass Museum, made it possible for the first time to show a summarised overview of the history of the glass bead from its beginnings to the present day.

Wertheim Glass Museum

Divided into subject areas, the early glass beads in connection with the merits of Th. E. Haevernick are to emphasise the scientific research of glass beads with special attention to the method of manufacture.

Wertheim Glass Museum

Glass beads:
as a sign of wealth and status symbol
as a burial gift and protection for the dead
as protection against the "evil eye" for humans and animals
as a substitute for precious stones and gold
as a means of trade, exchange and payment

More glass under G:

Excavation finds, glassworks model, glassmaker's pipes