Antique jewelry glossary

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Pâte de verre

Pâte de verre (French). A material produced by grinding glass to a powder, adding a fluxing medium so that it could be readily melted, and then colouring it (or using powdered coloured glass). Objects were made of it in a mould and the material was fused by firing. The varied colouring was obtained by the positioning of different powdered ingredients in the mould.

The process was used in ancient Greece to simulate gemstones set in finger rings and was revived in France in the 19th century, especially, as to jewelry, for articles made in art nouveau style.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson