Sculpture
Glass Coloured Print
ca. 1760 (made)
ca. 1760 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This is a glass print, sometimes called a glass picture. Its maker had to soak a black and white print in water, stick it face down onto the back of a sheet of glass, rub most of the paper away from the back leaving a thin transparent layer of paper and the ink making the image. The next stage was to colour the image from the back in oil colours. This was then fitted into a frame and the buyer could then hang it up on his or her wall straight away. Because the print is stuck to the back of the glass, if the glass gets cracked or broken, it cannot be replaced.
English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. The period of their greatest popularity was from about 1760 to 1790. Much of the appeal of glass prints to shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints.
English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. The period of their greatest popularity was from about 1760 to 1790. Much of the appeal of glass prints to shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Sculpture (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Etched and mezzotinted glass coloured print in a frame with a black extended composition moulding |
| Brief description | Framed glass picture - Sculpture, British, ca. 1760 |
| Physical description | Etched glass picture |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Given by Teddy Dawe |
| Object history | RP No. 96/1175. The frame is not eighteenth century, and dates from ca. 1860. Another version of this image was sold at a sale of Fine English Prints Laid on Glass, Christie's South Kensington, 14 September 1998 no. 165 (illus, captioned 167) |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This is a glass print, sometimes called a glass picture. Its maker had to soak a black and white print in water, stick it face down onto the back of a sheet of glass, rub most of the paper away from the back leaving a thin transparent layer of paper and the ink making the image. The next stage was to colour the image from the back in oil colours. This was then fitted into a frame and the buyer could then hang it up on his or her wall straight away. Because the print is stuck to the back of the glass, if the glass gets cracked or broken, it cannot be replaced. English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. The period of their greatest popularity was from about 1760 to 1790. Much of the appeal of glass prints to shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints. |
| Associated objects |
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| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.598-1997 |
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| Record created | April 8, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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