Making Paperweights Continued 2
Glass containing gold or copper looks red at lower temperatures, while with higher heat it may change to mulberry,and at the exploding point it takes on a soft lemon shade. The blue of cobalt, the chrome green or yellow of chromium, the violet of manganese, and the canary of uranium are all widely used. If oxide of copper is added to a mixture containing a strong reducing agent, a glass is produced which is colorless when it first comes from the crucible, but which, when reheated, develops a rich crimson or ruby color.
Glass containing copper and gold behaves in much the same way, but with less intensity of the crimson effect. Cranberry red results from gold and copper mixed, oxblood from plain copper. Dark green can be produced from a mixture of copper scales and iron ore.
Arsenic and antimony were used to secure the soft opaque enamel, sometimes called milk or opaque white, which we see on the overlay paperweights; also for the hard, opaque enamel which is found in the lacy set-ups and latticinio effects discussed elsewhere in this book-tin oxide and lead were used to provide a firm texture and a smooth surface to the mixture.
Glass containing copper and gold behaves in much the same way, but with less intensity of the crimson effect. Cranberry red results from gold and copper mixed, oxblood from plain copper. Dark green can be produced from a mixture of copper scales and iron ore.
Arsenic and antimony were used to secure the soft opaque enamel, sometimes called milk or opaque white, which we see on the overlay paperweights; also for the hard, opaque enamel which is found in the lacy set-ups and latticinio effects discussed elsewhere in this book-tin oxide and lead were used to provide a firm texture and a smooth surface to the mixture.
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Not all factories made their own colored glass, but purchased it from others which specialized in that field. The result is a wide diversity in color, as well as in design, among the paperweights which came from widely different sources.
The old glass and the modern are quite different in texture. The old lacks the sharpness of the new, and it is said to have a softness to which the fingers of the expert are sensitive. It is probable that the glass "metal" was better in 1870 than today.
True enough, the glass in some of the weights made at that time is uneven and has flaws, but it must be remembered in their favor that the workers of that period did not have the heating and chemical devices in use today.
The old glass and the modern are quite different in texture. The old lacks the sharpness of the new, and it is said to have a softness to which the fingers of the expert are sensitive. It is probable that the glass "metal" was better in 1870 than today.
True enough, the glass in some of the weights made at that time is uneven and has flaws, but it must be remembered in their favor that the workers of that period did not have the heating and chemical devices in use today.
