Uranium glass

 

In the late 1700´s a pharmacist named Klaproth discovered the element uranium and later pointed out that its salts could be used as colouring material.

Within forty years of his discovery, production of glass coloured with uranium had grown into a profitable industry. Every form of glassware in various fluorescent shades of green and yellow was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries: Wine and liquor glasses, decanters, lampshades, bowls, figurines, even laboratory reagent flasks...Especially valuable were hand-blown glass pieces decorated with intricate engravings, etchings or hand-painted.

The production of uranium glass has decreased in the last 50 years and is indeed now rare. Modern trends are undoubtedly a factor, but also concerns about the safety of the levels of radioactivity in the glass (nevertheless very low!) and also the poisonous nature of uranium salts.

Perhaps the largest collection of uranium glass in Germany is housed at the Bergbau and Industriemuseums Ostbayern Schloss Theuern and is owned by Dr. Ulrich Dollinger and consists of some 3000 pieces. The pictures here are from this collection. Dr. Klaus Siemon of the Dr. Westmeier GmbH and his wife Ildiko have the third largest collection in Germany with some 900 pieces. The Westmeiers are also enthusiastic collectors but nowhere in this league!

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