Decorative Draughtsmanship
By Frances Federer

Verre églomisé is glass decorated with gold or silver leaf, sometimes used in combination. Although it was Jean- Baptiste Glomy, an eighteenth century Parisian picture dealer, who gave his name to the decorative process, the technique of decorating glass with engraved gold leaf was already known some fifteen hundred years before the establishment of the Roman Empire. The earliest examples of verre églomisé decorating two bowls from a tomb at Canosa, in Italy, dating from the third century B.C., are now in the British Museum.

To protect the delicate leaf the Romans developed a method of sandwiching the gold between two layers of glass. The edges were sealed and no joins could be seen. This is appropriately known as "sandwich glass".

Other examples of verre églomisé dating from the third and fourth centuries A.D. are known; they take the form of medallions, fondi d'oro, commonly cemented into the mortar of Roman burial chambers. Motifs picked out in gold leaf upon the glass included both Jewish and Christian, together with portraits and inscriptions.

Comments on the craft occur in Cennino Cennini's Craftsman's Handbook of 1437. "And I give you this advice, that the day before you want to work at this job, you hold your hand to your neck, or in your bosom, so as to get it all unburdened of blood and weariness." According to Cennini, the adhesive used to attach the gold was "glair," made from beaten egg white. It was left to stand overnight, and the separated liquid collected for use.

When the adhesive had dried, the gilded glass was placed on a black cloth laid on a writing table. "And you will put your table in the window, as if for writing," Cennini continues, "so arranged that the window shines over your head when you have your face turned toward the window."

The gold was then engraved with a sharp tool. In the English translation of Cennini this is referred to as a "fine needle", but this produces a mean line. I believe that a more likely instrument would have been a sharpened stylus of ivory or horn, as this produces a sensitive, controllable line very similar to line work observed in medieval verre églomisé.

Verre églomisé was use to decorate reliquaries in fifteenth century Italy. In accordance with the rich artistic tastes of the time, the gilded panels were backed with deep colours, usually pigments ground in oil.

Engraving on a verre églomisé panel, detail from a wall mirror c. 1700. (By courtesy of Stair & Co., New York)

The importation of shellac from the Far East during the seventeenth century promoted the widespread use of pigments mixed with shellac varnish, and in Europe this became the common method of backing verre églomisé. Gilded and coloured glass panels were then made specifically to be inlaid into furniture as well as various decorative items. Pigment in shellac gives a transparent colour, and this transparency was exploited by the overlay of silver leaf, which reflected light, adding luminosity and depth.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, with the breaking of the monopoly so long enjoyed by the Italian glassworks at Murano, glass-making factories began to spring up in other countries, manned by Italian craftsmen. The Vauxhall glassworks, in England, were founded in 1633. By 1700 sheets of silvered glass up to six feet long were becoming available, but at enormous cost, making them available to only the wealthiest nobility. Being as they were expensive status symbols, they were framed in carved giltwood and further enhanced with border panels of verre eglomisé. Strapwork designs were in vogue at the time, the strap borders containing the design. This was especially necessary as the common shape for the pier glasses at that time was very tall with arched tops and elaborately shaped shoulders and crests. Very often the designs included coats of arms.

At this period, between 1690 and 1700, the quality of workmanship was extraordinarily high. The gold leaf was probably engraved by highly skilled steel engravers; the standards of the draughtsmanship, the range of light and shade and the delicacy of line were rarely, if ever achieved outside this brief period of time.

Ironically perhaps, demand for such high quality panels tailed off as the costs of producing silvered glass reduced, increasing availability. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that a new fashion arose for this delightful form of decoration.

The penitent St. mary Magdalen, engraved in gold leaf and backed with foil. Spanish mid 17th century. (By courtesy of the trustees of the Victorian and Albert Museum)

Also in the late seventeenth century plaques were being made in Bohemia and being set into furniture. Soon, gilding and engraving skills were being applied to glass in the Roman manner - sandwiched within double walled vessels. The process was described by Johann Kunckel in his Ars Vitraria Experimentalis, first published in 1679. Hunting scenes or insignia were common subjects engraved on gold or silver leaf, rarely with the addition of colour. If colour was used, it was commonly a rich, ruby red varnish. The technique was known as Zwischenglasmalerei, "between glass painting", or sandwich glass. Fine examples can be seen at Londons' Victoria and Albert museum, from the Wilfred Buckley collection, and an enormous and comprehensive collection can be seen in Prague, the home of decorated glass. Around 1755, a complete service set with verre églomisé panels was made for the Margravine Sybilla Augustine of Baden, West Germany, who came from Bohemia. The service remains complete and can be seen in Baden.

At the end of the eighteenth century the taste for verre églomisé began to take hold with the prosperous settlers in the New World. Panels of glass were incorporated into furniture, later into mirror frames and into "banjo" as well as wall clocks. Baltimore became a centre for this work, where stencilling, too, became a popular, more cost effective decoration. Factories sprung up, and a center for this work developed in Baltimore.

From around 1800 American Federal style mirrors, corresponding to English Regency style, became the rage. Their rectangular frames consisted by columns on either side joined by a cornice and frieze. The frieze was, in fact, a verre églomisé panel, while the mirror plate itself filled the large rectangular space below. In American mirrors of the period, popular motifs were symbols of American Independence, such as the phoenix, the American eagle and so on. Verre églomisé panels contemporary English mirrors, meanwhile, tended to feature standard landscapes; a ruin, a pond, a little man fishing with large overhanging tree in the foreground, or else a floral design, or a geometric pattern. These designs often made use of silver leaf, too. By this time styles in the designs had changed considerably from that on one hundred years before. Now a looser, less sophisticated hand can be seen, but no less experienced. Constant repetition developed an excellent technique, and a shorthand style of drawing was borne out of familiarity with the subject matter and with the materials.

For these panels a combination of engraving and painting was employed. The linework was engraved first, then the brush used to isolate areas before removing excess gold and backing up. The methods and materials of this period were remarkably uniform, both in England and in the United States.

A wall mirror, c. 1700 with panels of verre églomisé backed with a rose ground which is further backed with gold leaf.

Professor R.D. Harley describes the pigment asphaltum in her book Artists' Pigments c. 1600-1835. This was wildly popular at this time, and very over-used. Painting conservators have for years been wringing their hands over the problems of deteriorating paint surfaces containing this substance. It shrinks and cracks and darkens and precious little can be done to restore the painting. It was the back-up paint of choice for glass artists at the beginning of the nineteenth century as it was a) a beautiful colour, b) it dries quickly, and hard, and c) is reversible. This last fact prevents the artists from painting over it in oil paint, but there was nothing to stop him from overlaying with water- based paint, which is just what he did. But the alligatoring, or craquelure that occurred in time sometimes marred the beauty of the églomisé, occasionally pulling the gold leaf away from the glass. Many examples of mirrors from this period can be seen in the study section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

After 1800, the craft of gilding on glass was restricted to the picture frame trade, namely for the protection and enhancement of silk embroideries and of prints, and also to the sign-writing industry. The techniques developed by signwriters throughout America up until prohibition were enormously elaborate. The breweries alone could afford to clad whole sides of buildings with glass advertisements: wonderful rich effects were employed which are still used in the trade today, on a smaller scale.

In late Victorian England, meanwhile, William Sutherland was pleading for greater use to be made of this practical and beautiful art form. In Chapter VII of his treatise on sign- writing, he writes: "We cannot see any objection to this style of decoration being used for the panels of doors etc. in combination with embossed ornament. The friezes of the entablatures of our doors, wall panels, and certain portions of our ceilings, panels of side-boards, wardbrobes, bookcases etc. all form suitable positions into which designs on glass might be introduced. Its brilliancy and permanent character should be a great recommendation." Sadly I don't think many took much notice of his words, for precious few examples exist of work from that time.

A contemporary table top. using 22 carat gold leaf together with tarnished silver leaf.

Bringing us up to the present day, however, we see a very different picture. Looking through trade magazines we see many references to verre églomisé; people are teaching it, or doing it, and the awareness now of the discipline is much more general. For people who feel comfortable drawing the medium is very appealing, and for those who are not, the fact that so many patterns, shapes and textures can be explored is tremendously seductive. A few discriminating interior designers regularly commission verre églomisé for their clients' projects, whether they are tables tops, of mirrors, or indeed wall coverings for the entire room, as if the glass were wallpaper. If people are so inclined the use of computer aided designs can help hugely to reduce costs and to make this art form accessible to an even wider clientéle. Over the last decade as was said, awareness has been growing, but there is a great deal of room for many more artists to get on board and show the world what they are capable of.

Restoration

It is recommended that a skilled conservator be employed to undertake the restoration or repair of an original verre églomisé panel. Do not attempt the work yourself as what might seem a minor matter to an amateur could cause great harm to the piece and affect the value of the antique. Should the glass be broken, it is sometimes possible for a conservator to make a near invisible repair. Alternatively, broken originals can be replaced with copies by specialists.

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