Mosaic Glass Bowl

Roman Glass Bowl, 0-100 A.D., 12 cm diameter, Inventory number: H2901, Thorvaldsen Museum.

This glass bowl is in bluish green glass with a pattern in yellow, lilac, white and pale green. This colourful glass bowl has acquired its delightful pattern by means of a special technique called mosaic glass or millefiori, a thousand flowers, as the finished result often emerges as a flower-pattern. Glass using this technique was made by slowly melting different-coloured glass rods, fusing them together, cutting them into discs, placing them in a mould and finally polishing them.