The relationship of some of these examples to some of the “cut platelets” in a collection of sam- 
ples from the Barbaria Company is astonishing: “glass jewelry on a black wooden stand, a central 
area embroidered with beads, four Strands laid in a circle with sample beads and 30 cut platelets 
of various colored glass fluxes" (TH 11350, here dated 1815; the original, however, is barely visible 
but still clearly dated 1813!). Other Barbaria samples are also practically identical to some of the 
Barbini glasses, for example the piece with white flecks in reddish brown (ill. 7, lower left), which 
corresponds with sample no. 471 from Barbaria (TH 32744: “A collection of all the glass beads, 
rods, and similar products made in Venice, altogether 783 items in a sample card in book form 
bound in red leather, the latter consisting of 8 pieces. Georg [sic! recte: probably Giorgio] Barba 
ria, Venice;" inventoried 1837). 
Almost a Century later, the six colors of chandelier stones from Josefsthal (ill. 9) in white, yellow, 
light and dark green, blue and reddish brown, give a brief survey of the main colors in production. 
GEM PASTE AND GLASS PASTE 
“Smalti” and “Amausen," glass cakes, mosaic pastes and glass paste, “Schmelzglas" and 
“Schmelzfarben,” enamel colors and molten glass, glass compositions and composition glass: 
the whole confusing diversity of the “art of glass melt” is reflected in these terms. Are smalti and 
glass cakes identical? Are glass fluxes transparent colors and enamels opaque colors? What are 
pastes? Are glass paste and enamel synonymous? 
Everything is - in the most applicable sense of the word - “in flux," as puzzling as glass itself; 
created in complicated processes, dependent on innumerable components, melted in fire, 
shaped in cooling and renewed heating, determined by substances that color and those that de- 
color, and in the end not really completely solidified, but mysteriously alive, flowing slowly and 
endlessly. 
Some of the words used for special kinds of glass also have imaginative names: “Amausen," 
“smalti,” “Schmelz,” “enamel.” Let us have a look at what language specialists have to say. Jacob 
and Wilhelm Grimm explain this glass as “colored glass, easy to melt, with which the surfaces of 
metal or porcelain objects can be coated as decoration or protection, or upon which paintings 
can be made, also Schmelz (see the same), email . . .” (Grimm, 1899, Vol. 9, p. 1026). 
Kluge pursues “schmelzen" etymologically; it is akin to the English smelt, vt. D or LG smelten (fr. 
MD & MLG, respectively); akin to OHG smelzan “to melt,” OSW smaelta, OLE meltan; to melt or 
fuse, also a melted substance, the condition of being melted; akin to on melta “to malt for brew- 
ing;” derived from the German is ital. smalto, “Schmelzglas, Schmälte" or the English smalt, 
“Schmälten” to enamel. (s. Kluge, 1934, 11 th edition, pp. 529, 530). 
In Kluge we find many words that are important to us in this connection. In books on glass tech- 
nology the definitions of terms are often contradictory. Articles on the theme, “Schmelzglas,” are 
sometimes listed under glass, sometimes enamel. Many authors regard “Schmelzglas,” “glass 
paste" and enamel as synonymous, many as headings or sub-headings. 
“Schmelzglas” and “enamel” are frequently more likely to be connected with metal rather than 
other materials, e. g., with enamelling (covering a metal surface) or for decorating metal and bi- 
jouterie. Making a multi-layered piece of glass by overlaying with coatings of enamel glass is re 
lated to enamelling, at least as far as the assembly process is concerned. Enamel colors or paste 
colors are used for painting on porcelain, glass or metal, although consideration must always be 
made of the underlying material being decorated (this is, of course, just as true of enamelling as it 
is of overlaying). Glass enamel colors come in infinite variety (special types include variations like 
trans-enamel, enamel millefiori, etc., many of which were developed in the Bohemian glassmaking 
schools). 
The transparency of enamel colors also leads to differing opinions. In the German edition of Loy- 
sel’s “Art of Glassmaking" the (unnamed) writers remarked, “The colored transparent and opaque 
glasses, the latter of which are also called Schmelzgläser can, to my knowledge, only be obtained 
in Bohemia and Venice” (Loysel, 1818, p. 114): here Schmelzglas was equated with opaque glass. 
Prechtl speaks of glass fluxes and glass paste, “Generally, glass fluxes is the name given to co 
lored glass to which metallic oxides have been added during the molten state. This coloration is 
done for different purposes, either to tint common and crystal glass while being made in the fac- 
tories, so that it can be turned into glass panes, glass tablewares and cut wares of all kinds. These 
are what are usually called colored glasses. On the other hand, glass is colored to imitate pre- 
cious stones, in which case they are referred to especially as glass paste. If the glass fluxes are 
made opaque by the addition of tin oxide or phosphoric Urne, so that they achieve a white or co 
lored stone-like appearance, then they are called Schmälten (smalti) or Amausen, Schmelz or 
enamel" (Prechtl, 1836, pp. 35, 36). C. Meindel devotes a detailed chapter to glass paste chiefly 
from his point of view as a porcelain and glass painter in his book on “The Preparation of Enamel 
Colors, Glass Flux and Glass Paste” (Meindel, 1848, pp. 17-28). 
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