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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 1283119, member: 5833&quot;]First, thank you all for coming.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=":)" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; None of us is an expert at distinguishing ancient glass from glass that is closer to modern.&nbsp; Christopher Lightfoot, until spring of this year, was the glass expert in the Met&#039;s Greek &amp; Roman department.&nbsp; He was kind enough to reply to an inquiry.&nbsp; One of the first things he said was &#039;...as regards your glass intaglio I would be reluctant to say, even if I handled the piece, whether it is ancient or of more recent manufacture.&#039;&nbsp; His conclusion that it probably really is ancient was based on the ready availability of genuine Imperial Roman era paste gems during the Georgian period, which meant there was no profit to be had in fakes.&nbsp; Evidently nothing about it screamed &#039;modern&#039; or &#039;fake&#039; at him; he did not discard the possibility of antiquity right up front.&nbsp; I don&#039;t expect us, alone or collectively, to be able to come to a firmer conclusion.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, Dr. Lighfoot&#039;s expertise is more with glass vessels than glass gems.&nbsp; Someone who has made more of a study of ancient glass gems is inclined to see the Achilles intaglio as modern (still maybe 300+ years old) for what is also a circumstantial reason, so wants to see the physical evidence as supporting this view.&nbsp; He does not see for Achilles, as he does for the blue &amp; green intaglio of the drunken Silenus, sufficient &#039;bubbling&#039; of the surface.&nbsp; I surmise this is a symptom of the surface hydration the test S_O_S mentions measures more precisely, &amp; that the greater the degree of bubbling, the older the piece is seen to be.</p><p><br /></p><p>To my eye, just as inexpert as any of yours, Achilles is every bit as bubbly as Silenus, &amp; the corrosion in a spot that got dinged also looks very similar.&nbsp; So.&nbsp; With the blue &amp; green intaglio as your standard, would you say the brown intaglio meets it or falls significantly short?&nbsp; You can see some other examples here:</p><p><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/cameotimescom/ancient-banded-glass-intaglios/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.pinterest.com/cameotimescom/ancient-banded-glass-intaglios/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pinterest.com/cameotimescom/ancient-banded-glass-intaglios/</a></p><p>The banded glass intaglios seem never to have been faked; the process is very involved &amp; there are still lots of genuine ones around.&nbsp; They were being made 1800 - 2000 years ago, which makes them a good index for other ancient glass.</p><p><br /></p><p>What say ye?&nbsp; Doth the gentleman bubble enough (compared to Silenus)?</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.antiquers.com/attachments/glass-compare-2-jpg.218026/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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