Maharaja Ram Singh gave Red Oxide color to the
city of Jaipur and turned it Pink. In that time in whole of
Europe Murano Italian Glass had become very popular and had
been used in the Churches and Palaces. In Rajasthan (Rajputana)
also it became a fashion to provide colorful Stain Glass in
the palaces, temples and particularly in well known old houses
specially in Shekhawati Area.
In Europe this Glass had
been used with led soldering only, and the same work is done
by the Artists there even today.
An examination of preserved
specimens of medieval period reveals that most of them were
made of small, convex pieces of glass that were cut from large
blown glass globes coated on the inside with lead. Glass
bubbles measuring between 50 and 60 cm in diameter were most
often used for this purpose, and the blown glass was very
thin. It is also evident that the lead backing was applied
before the individual mirrors were created. The turner who
made the mirror frames clearly knew that the mirror he was
framing was convex because the central part of the wooden
frame is often also convex. This examination also reveals
parts of the manufacturing process. The glassmaker who
produced mirrors must have started by blowing a large globe of
glass similar to that employed in the making of traditional
window glass. The bubble was then coated on the inside with
lead. Later, the mirror glass was cut into the desired size.
While these main features of production can be discerned,
there are still many unanswered questions about how medieval
glass mirrors were made.
Glass
Blow Pipe
The making of mirrors and the
blowing of window glass were related activities. It was only
natural, therefore, that the blowing of the glass and the
making of the lead backing should take place in locations
where glassmaking and the production of window glass had been
established. In some cases, the mirrors were traded as
semi-finished goods, and the objects were finished in the
areas where they were sold. Throughout the medieval period, a
lead alloy was used to back mirror glass. Lead was very
suitable for this purpose, and it was easily obtained in most
places. The backing of the glass with lead must have taken
place when the glass was hot.
At the beginning of the 16th
century; or perhaps a little earlier, this method of lead
backing was replaced
by a new technique, called amalgamation, in Murano, near
Venice. At that time, Murano was a leader in the production of
glass and mirrors. Amalgamation, which involved mercury and
tin, was a cold technique used and another technique was
called flat glass. Glass is blown continuously for six days
until the furnace is empty. Two glassblowers work at one time
in four-hour shifts. During one shift, they produce 60 to 70
pieces. At the end of the six-day blowing period, the furnace
is allowed to cool down for four hours before new raw material
is shoveled into the melting chamber.