The characteristic shape and style of this glass mark it out as having been made in Silesia (now in Poland), one of the most important glassmaking areas of Europe since the Middle Ages. By the late 17th century there were about a hundred glassmaking workshops operating around the mountain town of Schreiberhau and wheel-engraving and polishing work also took place there and in the nearby Hirschberger Valley. The region was ruled by the Counts of Schaffgotsch from their castle at Kynast near Hermsdorf and was a dependency of the kingdom of Bohemia ultimately under Habsburg rule, until absorbed into Prussia by Frederick the Great in 1742. Tradition has it that Count Hans Ulrich of Schaffgotsch (died 1635) brought hardstone engravers to his estate in the early 17th century. His son, Christoph Leopold of Schaffgotsch (1623-1703) installed a water-driven glass-engraving workshop under the master engraver Friedrich Winter in about 1690. Winter was a skilled hardstone engraver who succeeded in translating this technique to carving glass. From the mid 16th century generations of the Milanese family of Miseroni worked for the Habsburg emperors in Prague carving fabulous objects in hardstones, including rock crystal, which of course being colourless looks very much like glass. With the death Ferdinand Eusebius Miseroni in 1684 the workshop was finally closed. The style of these exquisite objets d'art could now be successfully imitated in glass. The equipment needed to carry out deep engraving of glass was essentially the same as that for carving stones, the only difference being that instead of steel wheels, for glass, copper wheels were used with an abrasive powder composed of oil and diamond dust. The earliest glasses linked to the Hermsdorf workshop are distinguished by their heavy brilliance, the glass being deeply cut with matte and polished areas. The designs of sweeping foliage are copied from the traditional decoration applied to rock crystal.

This glass was probably made in Silesia or possibly in nearby Bohemia in the third quarter of the 18th century. It harks back to the earlier Silesian tradition of Winter derived from rock crystal engraving, although by this time the engraved leaf designs have become shallower and also include strapwork patterns, used here around the reserve for the inscribed toast 'Es Leb und soll vergnuget Leben / den meine Hand das Glaswird geben'. (Let us be happy and enjoy life/ the glass will be passed from my hand to yours)

Information about the historical background to Silesian glass summarised from Catherine Hess and Timothy Husband, European Glass in the J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA. 1997