This colourful glass bowl has acquired its delightful pattern by
means of a special technique called mosaic glass or millefiori,
a thousand flowers, as the finished result often emerges as a
flower-pattern. Roman, 1st century AD. The earliest known glass
vessels date back to the 16th century BC. They were produced in
the Eastern Mediterranean and from here the production of glass
soon spread to other parts of the antique world. Whereas the
early forms of production – e.g. to wind scorching molten glass
around a core of clay – were difficult and time-consuming, the
invention of glassblowing in the 1st century BC meant that the
objects could be produced far quicker and cheaper. Due to this,
glass changed its status from primarily being a luxury material
to also being an everyday material, which was used for anything
from oil bottles to window glass. The exhibition GLASS shows
this exact development through a selection of antique Egyptian,
Greek and Roman glass objects from Thorvaldsen’s collection of
antiquitie