The Corning Museum of Glass has a mission to “inspire people to see glass in a new light.” This is definitely what I needed when, in 2016, I arrived from London as the Museum’s new Curator of European Glass. Typical of most historians and curators of decorative arts and material culture, I had little previous experience of glass and, as I stood in the galleries, looking at the serried ranks of English drinking vessels, I confess I struggled to summon enthusiasm. With the exception of some brightly enameled pieces, it seemed these vessels were intended, by their very clarity and understated design, to be inconspicuous. However, I knew this was an important period in glassmaking; the 18th century was a golden age for the perfection and production of British lead glass or “crystal” (an innovation introduced in the late 1670s that used lead oxide to create a particularly bright and clear glass, with a notable heft). From histories of dining and drinking, I also knew that the contents many of these vessels were intended to hold were not available to everyone. The types of glass most frequently found in museums would have been present only in the wealthiest of households, alongside expensive and desirable materials like silver, porcelain, lacquer, and mahogany. What place, then, did glass hold within the rich material culture of the British elite during this period?

I began to read 18th-century diaries and accounts, scouring the pages for references to glass. Before long, I found myself immersed in the courtesy literature of the period and began to note the common usage and interchangeability of the terms “polite” and “polished” and comparisons between well-polished individuals and a variety of glossy surface finishes. This, in turn, led me away from the more obvious realm of tableware and lighting to technological developments in the production of polished plate glass, used for windows and mirrors, and the transformative effects this type of glass had on architecture, interiors, and sociability. Finally, I began to understand the latent significance of the material during this period and was amazed at how glassy the 18th century really was. Glass, it seemed, symbolized the modernity (for better or for worse) of the British nation.