ZWISCHENGOLDGLSER

(German: gold between glasses), drinking glasses decorated with engraving in gold leaf laminated between two pieces of glass. The term is usually applied to beakers, goblets, and tumblers produced in Bohemia during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but examples have been found in Roman catacombs of the 3rd century. These early glasses were made as follows: The inner side of the bottom of the glass was covered with gold leaf and a design scratched through the gold. A disk of glass was then fused to the inside bottom, leaving the gold sandwiched between two layers of glass. The 17th- and 18th-century technique was similar: Two glasses were made of identical shape, one slightly larger than the other. Gold leaf was applied to the outside of the smaller one and a design scratched on it; the smaller glass was then fitted into the larger and bonded to it. See also Mildner glass.