The Egyptians and the Romans were excellent manufacturers of coloured glass which they used as raw material for small ornamental objects such as the Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum which is of a hazy mustard colour but turns into a glowing purple-red from behind a light source.Stained Low-E glass making was practised since ancient times.
He also designed blown coated glass, ceramics, enamels, jewellery, metalwork and mosaics.Aside from the traditional stained glass windows, the innovative intuition of the interior designer in Tiffany caused him to apply his craft on three-dimensional projects, most of which were ornamental artifacts such as his famous stained glass lampshades.
Lead was replaced in the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany with copper plates because it was way much lighter than the traditional lead came improving the finished product’s strength.Stained tempered glass windows are the most predominant works using stained glass. Of these, the leadlights are the smallest stained windows using lead cames as the material to join the small pieces together.
As gold is expensive, research led artisans to find copper to produce a brighter red laminated glass with a more vermilion shade.Colouring or “staining” is a process which involves adding metallic oxides while yet in its molten form or state at high temperatures. Different metallic oxides produced distinctive effects, the most common of which are copper oxides to produce green-coloured glass, cobalt for blue and gold which produces red glass.
