Dutch Engraved Glass 1603-1800
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 80 pieces of Dutch engraved glass which date from between 1655 and 1787. This collection mainly includes 18th-century copper-wheel engraved lead-glass drinking glasses. Earlier items include two superb diamond-point line-engraved glasses dating from the second half of the 17th century, and a single fine stipple-engraved 'polder' glass of about 1760. The undecorated glasses in many instances may have been English or German, and imported to the Netherlands to be engraved by its famously skilled craftsmen. The subjects engraved on these glasses were drawn from every aspect of social and political life, reflecting such concerns as family, trade, agriculture, maritime activities and the church. There are also examples relating to pregnancy, societies, trade and shipping, patriotism, politics, agriculture and hunting. Most of the pieces in this collection were acquired by Sir William Burrell (1861–1958) himself. A further 20 were added in the early 1990s, in part to celebrate Glasgow's status as European City of Culture (1990). The collection is now one of the finest outside the Netherlands.
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