Exhibition

Glasmuseum Hentrich
im museum kunst palast

Red is a tricky color. In the form of blood it is known to mankind as a color of life, but it tends to fade quickly when applied onto dead objects.

The colour red and alchemy

Towards the middle of the 17th century the alchemist Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604–1670) discovered that a solution of gold turned bright red when some tin was added (later this was called “purple of Cassius”). He also realized that this solution can be used as a ruby-red colorant for glass.

Glauber was less interested in the nice red color than in its alchemical implications: A trace amount of gold was powerful enough to intensively dye a large amount of glass. Glauber believed that he was on the right track for the “transmutation,” the change of base metals into precious metals. He tried—unsuccessfully!—to extract the color from the glass, to ultimately discover the philosophers’ stone.

The Manufacture of Gold Ruby Glass

Glauber’s laboratory achievement was converted into factory production by the glassmaker and alchemist Johann Kunckel (1637?–1703) in Brandenburg state, Germany. His glasshouse in Potsdam produced the first gold ruby vessels in the 1680s. These products were the cause of great enthusiasm among the princes of the Holy Roman Empire, who sought them for their collections, or even to have them produced in their own states.

The Exhibition

The show focuses on a private collection of gold ruby glass of the baroque period from Berlin, which has never been shown in public before. These objects supplement the exquisite collection of gold ruby glass vessels that is owned by the Glass Museum Hentrich.


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