Important stages in the history of glass : the 19th century

The 19th century was one of great artistic and scientific syntheses and glass production was to evolve and become radically rationalised.

The exploration and reproduction of styles and the expertise of the past shifted up several gears advancing spectacularly in the field of furnaces, mastering the art of firing, achieving purity and quality of materials, colouring palettes, decoration techniques and obtaining glass with specific properties……

Riding the crest of bourgeois prosperity, the market for glass blossomed, while the production of plate glass, mirrors, bottles and flasks became a specific activity that achieved industrial proportions.
The first step towards mechanisation was pressed glass which allowed the series of cast objects to be reproduced.

The Empire Style which dominated the first quarter of the 19th century gradually gave way to a fashion that emerged from central Europe.. Towards the middle of the century, the trend towards romanticism was to have a strong influence on production.