Forest glass

Forest glass rimer. XVII century, Germany or the Netherlands

Forest glass , waldglas ( German Waldglas ) - a greenish glass made with the addition of wood ash .

In medieval Europe, glass was a rather expensive product that only wealthy people could afford. However, the demand for it was constantly growing: the middle classes wanted to have utensils made of finer materials than wood or clay, but not as fragile as the widespread Venetian glass at that time ^[1] . Therefore, starting from the XIV century, in Northern and Central Europe began to produce practical, durable vessels from the local variety of glass (known, probably, since the times of the Roman Empire ).

For various reasons, glassworks were, as a rule, removed from the cities and located mainly in mountain forests. Firstly, the danger of fire was too great ^[2] . Secondly, forests served as a fuel source for glass melting furnaces. A large number of such "forest" glassworks arose in Germany, in particular in Bavaria , Thuringia , Hesse , Württemberg , Saxony , Silesia . Often they were whipped up and moved from place to place as the surrounding forest was cut down ^[3] .

Quartz sand with a high content of iron oxide gave a characteristic green color to the forest glass ^[2] . In the manufacture of glass was also used potash obtained by burning beech or oak wood ^[3] .

Glasses were made from forest glass (primarily rimers ), small rounded window glasses and beads for rosaries ^[4] . Although the majority of manufactured items were purely utilitarian in nature, they were distinguished by a variety of shapes and decorative elements ^[2] .