Annular Gourd - Verrerie De La Margeride - XVIIIth Century

The Manufacture royale de verre de la Margeride was created by letters patent of November 28, 1769. Located in the town of Védrines Saint Loup, it was directed from 1769 to 1773 by Paul Bosc d'Antic, former scientific director of the ice cream factory. of Saint-Gobain. In the 1780s, the establishment had nearly 150 workers working in eight furnaces and manufacturing annually "ninety to one hundred thousand pounds of ordinary glasses". It did not survive the Revolution but was reconstituted for a time in Chamblard, commune of La Besseyre Sainte Marie (43) from 1825 to 1834. ' The common glassware is called "fern glass" because of the use of fern ashes in its composition; more or less well purified they tinted it. The production consists largely of drinking glasses, common since the 17th century, bottles, flasks, and all kinds of utensils that can be made of glass but very few of which have survived breakage. Like this water bottle that we present to you. Most glasses are affected by the disease which alters their structure. In fact, glassmakers in continental forest regions used plant ash (potash) to lower the melting temperature of the silica mixture (sand, granite, etc.) from 11700 C° to 1700 C°. Potassium glasses are chemically unstable and sensitive to ambient humidity, which causes microscopic fractures in the material and makes it opaque. In addition, the glassmakers of the region, and of the Margeride in particular, used manganese oxide to discolor the naturally greenish glass. However, under the action of humidity, the manganese oxide changes over time and superficially colors the glass in pink or purple. This pink color is clearly visible on this bottle. Dimensions: 20cm x 14cm x 8cm