Roman glass
This section includes all Roman vessel and window glass. Beads and glass objects are stored and catalogued separately, without online access at present.
The invention of glass-blowing in the 1st century BC makes the Roman period perhaps the most significant of all in glass history. Glass had been restricted previously to small luxury items made by a casting process. Blowing enabled craftworkers to mass-produce large bottles and jars for everyday use, or - conversely - to make individual vessels of great translucence and delicacy. Roman glass was made with soda, which derived from Mediterranean marine plants or minerals. Although London itself had a glass-blowing industry, its glass was prepared by re-melting broken vessels ('cullet') rather than directly from raw materials.
The Museum has one of the most important collections of Romano-British glass, derived principally from archaeological work between c. 1850 and 1970. All the main techniques and shapes are represented, if only by fragments.
Featured types
| Cast dishes and plates (1 - 100) |
| 'Sports cups' and other mould-blown vessels (40 - 100) |
| Other tablewares and drinking vessels (40 - 400) |
| Phials and flasks (including bath-flasks) (40 - 400) |
| Bottles (40 - 300) |
| Miscellaneous (43 - 410) |
| Pillar-moulded bowls (50 - 100) |
| Window glass (50 - 400) |