The Corning Museum of Glass is excited to announce the publication of Volume 63 of the Journal of Glass Studies (JGS). First produced in 1959, JGS is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes original research on topics related to the history of glass, from its beginnings to the mid-20th century. It appears in print annually every fall, with articles released to JStor a few months later.
At 412 pages, JGS 63 (2021) is among the largest volumes of the Journal ever produced, with 16 articles, 8 notes, and 5 necrologies. It is as international as ever, with 40 contributors based in 20 countries: China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Norway, Qatar, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Table of Contents with article abstracts can be found online.
Inside JGS 63 you can learn about the largest group of first-century CE enameled glass vessels ever found at a single site and its relation to the ribald Roman festival of the Floralia (Max), and follow a state-of-the-field survey of Medieval glass, focused on central Europe (Sedláčková). You can explore the marriage of art history and science in a pair of studies aimed at establishing a method for assessing authenticity in Renaissance Venetian gilded and enameled glasses (Barbe and Baumgartner and Verità and Biron). If your interests lie in Asia, consider the investigation of historical sources related to Patna and Lucknow, two Mughal glass production centers in India (Desjardins).
Of special interest to Corning Museum of Glass fans is the reexamination of one of the Museum’s signature objects, the so-called “Snowflake Warrior Vase” (Xue). Adjunct Curator of Asian Glass Shelly Xue, who examined the vessel during her time as Carpenter Foundation Fellow for Asian Glass from 2018–2019, redates the vase based on its manufacturing technique and on her study of how the vase’s iconography depicts a famous set of scenes from the Chinese Beijing Opera.
A special section titled “Glass From Scandinavia: The Emergence of a Regional Design Tradition (Part 2)” expands on a group of studies published in Volume 62 (2020), with three articles and an extensive bibliography on Scandinavian glass. These 10 total articles were first presented at the Nordic Utility Glass Conferences held in 2016–2018. Mette Bielefeldt Bruun, who served as guest editor for this special series, remarked that these articles “offer new knowledge and fresh perspectives on Scandinavian glass design and note both similarities and differences in regard to the glassworks and glass design in Scandinavian countries,” from the Middle Ages to the first half of the 20th century.
The necrologies in JGS 63 include obituaries and remembrances of two luminaries of the glass world who spent their careers at The Corning Museum of Glass and departed from us earlier this year: Dr. Robert H. Brill and Jane Shadel Spillman. The accompanying comprehensive bibliographies of their scholarly publications (compiled with the assistance of the Rakow Research Library’s Regan Brumagen, Manager, Reference and Access Services, and Gail Bardhan, former Reference and Research Librarian) are a testament to their lasting impact in their respective fields of glass scholarship. They are sorely missed.
Dr. Robert H. Brill 
Jane Shadel Spillman
JGS 63 also announces recipients of The Rakow Grant for Glass Research, made possible through the generosity of the late Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow. The Rakow Grant is awarded by The Corning Museum of Glass every year to one or more projects dedicated to the history of glass and glassmaking. The four recipients of the 2021 award and their projects are Anastasia Cholakova, “Medieval Glass Beads (8th–11th Centuries CE) from the Mesta and Struma Rivers Region, SW Bulgaria”; Alok Kumar Kanungo, “Mapping Kapadvanj Glass: The Last Surviving Traditional Tank Furnace in India”; Kerry Sinanan, “Transparency and the Black Atlantic: Glass and the Material Culture of Whiteness”; and Umberto Veronese, “Colonial Jamestown and the Roots of American Glass Making: An Archaeological Science Approach.”
Returning readers of the Journal of Glass Studies will note some changes from previous years, such as that each article abstract now appears at the head of its article, not at the end of the volume. But what you will find at the end of JGS 63 is a new, expanded “Information for Contributors.” With these clear instructions for submission, transparent descriptions of the review process, and a summary of JGS’s new style guidelines, we hope to facilitate—and encourage!—contributions for future volumes. Additional questions regarding submissions to JGS may be sent to publications@cmog.org.
Volume 63 of the Journal of Glass Studies joins a distinguished collection of CMoG publications, which are listed on the Publications Department webpage (https://www.cmog.org/research/publications). If you are interested in purchasing the Journal of Glass Studies (or other CMoG publications), you can find them online via the CMoG Shops. Volumes of JGS published in 2015 and earlier are available for the discounted price of $5.00.