100+ years old art print ... in excellent condition ... reverse side is blank !

Size:  8 x 11 inches.
Condition: Excellent condition.  Printed on heavier laid paper. Plate mark present.

Though the French glass industry was extensive and expanding, none of the methods shown so far was indigenous. Exclusively French, however, was the technique of casting or pouring molten glass in plates, the most important innovation since the prehistoric discovery of glass itself. Considerable obscurity surrounds the circumstances. Neither the inventor nor the date is certainly known, although Barre et''' does credit the discovery to Bernard Perrot, or Perrotto, the naturalized descendant of a famous family of Altarese glassworkers. It is agreed however, that plate glass was in production from 1688. The principle of the process is that glass is handled like metal. This admits of the manufacture of far larger and more uniform plates than any method dependent on blowing. And though casting plate glass required a heavy investment in plant, the compensation was an extensive substitution of unskilled labor for skilled. Almost all 18th century plate glass was manufactured by a single concern, the Royal Plate Glass Company, which had been founded in 1665 under the patronage of Louis XIV. It had plants in Saint-Gobain in Picardy and at Tourlaville in Normandy, and a polishing plant and warehouse outside Paris in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. At the outbreak of the Second World War, this concern was still one of the largest in the world.

Legend:
A mixture of frit and cullet is preheated in a kiln from which a workman (1) withdraws it. Transferring it to the main glass furnace is a continuous process. It is very hot and is carried around by scoopfuls (2), and thrust (3) through an opening into a pot where it is to be fused. The men return for another load (4) and await their turn (5 and 6). A furnace master supervises the progress of the melt (7). Apparently the heat is less intense than near a crown glass furnace) for the workmen are shielded by only their hat-brims. Fuel dries across the rafters.