I was looking through some old notebooks recently that were dedicated to thoughts and writings regarding my interests in old and ancient glass. I came upon some observations I had made following the viewing of an exhibition of glass vessels from the Roman Empire at the British Museum on the 27 January 1988. I recall it being a most extraordinary display of ancient glassware yet it was a trio of early Anglo Saxon glass vessels displayed in the museum that caught my attention most favourably. The following article refers to these. Before I viewed the exhibition of Roman glass I came across three early Anglo-Saxon glass vessels displayed in the Museum. The first vessel was the 5th to 6th century AD ‘Kempston’ Cone Beaker: (https://britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=k19973.jpg&retpage=20625) This remarkable vessel was discovered by excavation at a gravesite near Kempston, in Bedfordshire, in 1863 -1864. The glass ‘cone beaker’ forms as represented by this vessel are some of the most widely spread examples of this type produced in the Frankish glasshouses of what is now the French, Belgium and German areas of Europe (the Seine-Rhine glass making area). They are also some of the most elegant early Anglo Saxon drinking vessels manufactured. The ‘Kempston’ example is possibly one of the most beautiful and refined of its kind. Upon seeing it, I considered it might have been displayed to better effect, standing as it was next to the ‘Castle Eden Claw Beaker’, their respective forms almost in opposition to each other and both deserving of a case to themselves so each could be seen to best advantage. The elongation of the ‘Kempston Beaker’, its trailed decoration emphasising its vertical form, is exquisite, possessing an economy of decoration and an remarkable sophistication; its breathtaking simplicity being poised and austere. The ‘Castle Eden’ Claw Beaker: https://britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=k87222.jpg&retpage=20551 The claw beaker on the other hand represents the ‘Cone’ overtaken by the ‘Talon’; it is different creature emerging from a distinctive inflational intention, almost tortured into shape through its organic struggle for growth. A vessel ’felt’ into being it appears uncomfortable, uneasy and uncompromisingly expressive. Conversely the ‘Bag Beaker’ shape is simple ease: (https://britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=143138&objectId=94019&partId=1), It is a vessel with just the right amount of decoration and seems content to be itself, to strive for nothing other than to adhere to the force of gravity, a breath of air and the swing of the blowing iron, it is both satisfying and satisfied by itself. These are three distinctive and unique vessels each with as individualistic a character as a person, yet each remaining aloof and unobtainable. The three of them are of the same period yet provoked into shape by different conceptions, one could even say by different emotional agendas. There were also other small vessels from the Anglo Saxon period on display including drinking cups and flasks, beakers and tall glasses, simple and unadorned yet attractive and not without mystery. The origins of all this, the control of the inflated form, the applied decoration and pincered form resided in the gallery showing ‘The Glass of the Caesars’. It is all there representing the techniques, the methods of decoration, the self-assured skill that does not appear to have struggled in the making but has accepted the play of its own forces and exceptional abilities. There is a sense of ease, of confidence in the undeniable craftsmanship, artistry and knowledge displayed in this extensive display of glassware from the ‘Roman Empire’. On the other hand ‘Seine-Rhine’ glass and especially the three beakers mentioned differ markedly, not in lack of skill but in their emotional content. They are not only skilful; they are expressive. This may be the crucial difference between the glass of the ‘Roman Empire’ and later post Roman glass from Northern Europe; it is a difference not only in form and style but also in temperament. Romano-Syrian-Alexandrian glassware is more often than not a pleasure whilst its Northern European successor is at times decidedly uneasy and tense. Returning to the Roman glass on exhibition my preference, with a few exceptions, was for the inflated form. There were free-blown and mould formed shapes, pressed forms, cut and engraved examples whilst one particular moulded bowl looked for all its life as if it had been woven from glass. However on the visit to the museum on that day it was the Cone and Claw Beakers that remained uppermost in my memory. Both forms were from the same period (5th to 6th century AD) and of Northern European manufacture but the claw form had its origins in the Middle East, a shape given a distinctive quality at the hands of Northern European glassmakers by virtue of its migration to the North. The ‘Kempston Beaker’ has attracted attention since its discovery, being the most famous of this type of vessel discovered in Britain. Its age places it in a period of relative obscurity and mystery, it is also intact and possibly one of the most beautiful vessels of its type ever found. In the words of W A Thorpe, one time ‘Assistant Keeper of Glass’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum: “The ‘Kempston Beaker’ is the loveliest ancient glass ever excavated in England”. For me its simple elegance and proportions are remarkable, its economy of form being fundamental to its appeal and the manner of its decoration is in total harmony with its narrow inverted conical shape; a perfect marriage of form and line. Its straight-sided uncluttered shape flares elegantly at the mouth providing a most appropriate finish to the vessel. Thorpe again recounts: “The Kempston Beaker having turned inflation into trail belongs to the same order as Beavis Cathedral and Kings College Chapel”. Here Thorpe makes a comparison with characteristics of Northern European Gothic architecture, intimating that, although separated by over 600 years, a Northern European temperament found expression in very different ways but with defining characteristics evident in linearity and verticality. This affinity is subtle yet obvious in the line and its interplay with form, affirming the vertical elegance of the beaker, the perpendicular elongation echoing the way that architectural line affirms the verticality of Gothic architecture; it is as much a temperament, a denial of gravity, a desire to float. Over twenty cone beakers have been found in England many of them in fragmented form and later pieced together and restored. Of all of these Seine-Rhine beakers it is the ‘Kempston’ that achieves perfection. The Claw Beakers are extraordinary vessels, some appearing to be a development of the cone shape with the hollow claws attached to the lower section of the body, the anthropomorphic form of the claws disrupting the fine line of the conical shape. Others seem more like developments of the Bag Beakers in which a less conical shape forms the support on which to attach the claws. These are restrained and somewhat relaxed containers compared with other claw beakers that emerged. Some are fat and slightly bloated with almost rudimentary bases upon which to stand; some have wider bases yet have never attained a true verticality although they stand firmly. There is a distinctive and unquiet organic conflict in these vessels, their makers seemingly struggling for a conceptual realisation that allows a balance to be attained between verticality and that grasping talon. The cone and the talon are at odds with each other, the two elements tussling, seeking some kind of reconciliation but rarely realising it. It is this very quality that gives these vessels their remarkable and expressive power and force, a restlessness inherent in the union of their parts. Claw Beakers are not exactly tortured forms, they are not ‘Grunewaldian’ but have a dynamic sense of unease, they are not simply drinking vessels but seem to be expressions of a primeval force caught up in the cryptocrystalline form of the ‘Forest Glass’ out of which they were fashioned. The ‘Castle Eden’ vessel, remarkable enough that it survived its burial intact, epitomises this force and quality perfectly. These Seine-Rhine beakers developed out of a glass-making industry established by the Roman invaders and the Romano-Syrian glassmakers that developed under the Roman administration in Northern Europe. The inflated form and the application of line through applied of trails of glass found a different direction in the centuries that followed the fall of Rome. Its initial blending with a northern sensibility evolved to satisfy different cultural preferences for over a thousand years through, quite literally, the glass of the northern forests. It was a type of glass that relied more on natural colouration with a range of tints from pale to dark green and with varying shades of olive green and amber colour. In comparison to earlier Roman glass its range of colour was reduced and this might be considered a deterioration in both the quality of the glass itself and the skills employed in its making. However the relatively unrefined glass of the post Roman period achieved, at times, a great splendour, rich of tone and limpid of colour. At its best it was soft and silken, its natural colour range echoing the light and shade of the forests being perfectly in keeping with its woodland origins. This species of glass became the metal of the great Northern European ‘Waldglas’ (forest glass) tradition in which beech and other types of wood ash formed a good portion of the ingredients used in its making and wood from the forests was used as the furnace fuel. (google.co.uk/search?q=waldglas&nord=1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VjvsUsGIG9OFhQeE34HgBg&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1475&bih=896) As a variety of glass it can be considered eminently sensitive to its environment, its natural tones and colours totally appropriate to the light of northern interiors, which would have made the most of its deep toned beauty. Forest glass is indeed an apt term for such a lovely material, its substance literally deriving from the woodlands. Its qualities were a preference and at times attempts were employed to darken or deepen its natural colours even more so, whilst its transparency and interaction with northern light were extensions of the environment from whence it derived. Subtle and sensitive and even at its seemingly most mundane it is very beautiful.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 22:05:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015