Afterglow

I’ve always been fascinated by Uranium glass. It’s quite magical when you point an Ultra Violet torch at an humble object and see it turn into something other-worldly.

The oldest known use of uranium glass dates back to 79AD with a yellow glass tile being found in a Roman mosaic. 

Uranium Glass Lemon Squeezer

Uranium Glass Oil Lamp Shade

Although Pitchblende, a uranium ore, was used as a coloring agent in the local glass industry in Bohemia in the Late Middle Ages, it wasn’t until the Bohemian glass maker Franz Xaver Reidel began using uranium as a colouring agent, that it became popular.

Reidel Uranium Glass vase

Vaseline glass (as it was nicknamed) was at the height of its popularity during the late 19th/early 20th century with all manner of household items being made from it. However, during World War II, the U.S. government confiscated uranium supplies for the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb, leading to a ban on commercial production of uranium glass. Production did eventually start up again in the 1950s with Murano glass makers using uranium for many of the “submerged” glass pieces. The later glass whilst still pretty, does not seem to have the vibrancy of the earlier pieces.

Murano Glass Sommerso bowl by Mandruzzato

I feel I should also mention Neodymium/Alexandrite glass which was also developed in Bohemia by the reknowned glass maker Leo Moser in the 1920s. This glass appears to be lilac or pink until fluorescent light hits it and it turns blue. Not so much of a drama queen as Uranium glass, more of a raised eyebrow kind of surprise.

Murano Neodymium Decanter and Glasses.

Tracy Skeates