Glass has always occupied a marginal position in China. From the earliest times, it has exhibited a varied composition reflecting the disparate sources for raw materials, and it was further complicated by the occasional mingling of western glass in the manufacturing process. For instance, chemical analysis of early glass artifacts found in China showed that they had been made with soda (SiO2) and lime (Na2O) of western Asian origins. The fact that these specimens came mainly from the coasts of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in southern China indicated that this glass, in the form of ingots or finished products, was imported through the maritime route. Glass was also shipped in large quantities as cullet (glass lumps and discarded broken vessels), suitable for remelting and making new glass inexpensively. Thus, while it is not always possible to establish the uniqueness of Chinese glass from a chemical standpoint, analyses have been able to shed light on its various components and...
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Curtis, E.B. (2014). Glass in China. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10183-3
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Glass in China- Published:
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10183-3
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