Fascinating Glass on Display in California

California Travel Tips

Fascinating Glass on Display in California

Published on: September 03, 2019

I’ve always had a fascination with glass going back to childhood. While my mom described me as a bull in china shop and watched me like a hawk around glass objects, I didn’t let that deter me from trying to see and touch these mesmerizing items.

And today, my small collection of glass art objects amazes adults and children who visit. They want to pick them up (a blue-green marble made from the ashes of Mount St. Helens 1980 volcano, a cube that shines rainbow prisms, a blown glass rondelle or bullseye that hangs from the ceiling, a Steuben vase, and a tiny planet created in a small glass globe by artist Josh Simpson.) My collection isn’t particularly valuable but does remind me of travels where I bought these keepsake mementos.

However, one of the greatest glass collections to really knock my socks off is located in the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. Greek and Roman Glass (214) pieces date from about the mid-second millennium BC to AD 600. Organized by manufacturing technique, such as free-blown glass or cameo glass, the display showcases objects such as the Roman glass Quadripartite Kohl Tube, A.D. 400s–500s. Tall, ornate tubes like this one were used in antiquity to hold cosmetics, not unlike a modern tube of mascara.

Glass not only provides us with a valuable utensil to sip beverages such as water or wine, it also offers entertainment through its design. Perhaps that’s why California’s Glass Pumpkin Patch festivals are so popular!