Early history of lampwork - Some facts, findings and theories Part 1. Kunckel's description of lampworking in the "Ars Vitraria Experimentalis"

Abstract

Lampworking obviously was widely unknown until its first flourishing during the late European Renaissance. The demands of a budding science and the mannerist fancy for elaborate table decorations, adornments and miniatures were met by this exacting method of glass forming. The preferred raw materials were the low-melting Venetian cristallo and enamels, which were traded as shards, or cakes and rods, respectively. The lampworking technique probably started to spread when this raw glass became more easily available after the establishment of Venetian glasshouses outside of Venice in the 16th Century. Lampworking already is mentioned in Neri's "Ars Vitraria" of 1612. In 1679 Kunckel describes the manufacture of miniatures in a supplement to the second book of his Neri-Merrett translation "Ars Vitraria Experimentahs". This is the first known description of the lampworking technique.