Glass engraving is the decoration of glass by cutting shallow designs into its surface, either with a rotating wheel or with a hard point. The main methods are wheel engraving, in which copper or stone wheels fed with abrasive grind the pattern, diamond-point engraving, in which lines are scratched by hand, and stipple engraving, in which the image is built up from tiny dots.
Wheel engraving was developed to a high level in Central Europe in the seventeenth century, especially in Bohemia and Silesia, where engravers decorated thick, clear glass with landscapes, portraits and coats of arms. Diamond-point engraving was practised in the Netherlands and England, and Dutch engravers became celebrated for exceptionally fine stippled work on English glasses in the eighteenth century. In Britain, engraved drinking glasses commemorate political causes, notably Jacobite glasses with roses and mottoes, as well as marriages, ships and trades. Victorian engravers produced fern patterns, monograms and fine pictorial scenes. Collectors value crisp, accomplished engraving that is contemporary with the glass. Later engraving on genuine antique glasses, especially of rare Jacobite or political subjects, is a known problem, so attention to the style, wear and freshness of the cutting is important.
