A chemical and technological study of ancient Russian glasses and refractories

JSGT 1957 V41 T168-T184

The author reviews what is now known of the activities of Russian glassmakers during the eleventh to the thirteenth century, particularly at or in the neighbourhood of Kiev, Vyshgorod, Rogatchev, Minsk, Grodno, and Smolensk, and then presents a selection of the many analyses and results of other tests he has made during recent years of refractory materials and glasses found at the above sites. From the analyses of five crucibles and one furnace brick it was shown that clays of siliceous type were used at Kiev and could have been derived from a local source. Out of one hundred and seventeen analyses of glasses made by the author, he presents in this paper eight of variously coloured mosaic tesserae, six of coloured beads, seven of coloured bracelets, six of window glasses, six of hollow-ware, and five of unshaped factory melts. The striking feature of the analyses is that the majority of the glasses contained lead oxide as a major constituent, not only the mosaic glasses, in several of which the amount exceeded seventy per cent, but even four of the six specimens of hollow-ware and two of the six window glasses had lead oxide as a major component. Potash was the dominant alkali; and potash-lead oxide-silica glasses were shown to have been in use for hollow-ware, as well as for beads and bracelets, several centuries before the adoption of glass of this type in England.

M. A. Besborodov