Offering a visual survey of the world's great glassmaking traditions, this book starts with the craft's origins in ancient Egypt and Syria and explains the invention of glass-blowing. It goes on to cover Renaissance and Baroque European glass, the Venetian tradition, the rise of engraving and the technical developments of the Industrial Revolution. The book ends with Art Nouveau and 20th-century masters such as Lalique and Marinot. Special features examine the cross-fertilization of ideas from other artistic disciplines, different cultures and areas and novel techniques and designs. The author started her career as an expert in European glass and ceramics with Sothebys and Phillips, has written many magazine articles and lectures regularly on the subject.