Colour-band Glass bottle

The earliest technique using melted, viscous Glass is fusing. It was not until much later, from about the dawn of the Common Era, that Glassblowing emerged, which heralded probably the most dramatic revolution in the production of hollow Glassware. In the Roman Empire, the two techniques had been used simultaneously to make luxury Glassware for centuries, until the blowpipe largely eclipsed Glass fusing in the manufacture of luxury Glass containers. Colour-band Glass emerged in the infancy of Glassblowing and represented the further development of an older technique, namely mould-melting. It involves fusing coloured Glass rods together in such a way that a Glassblower can take up the mass with his blowpipe and blow it into the shape of a container. It seems this very complex process only lasted until the mid-1st century AD and, judging by the finds, was practiced both in the East (Levant) and the West (Italy). (Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk)