Historic England has a long-established and enviable reputation for producing high-quality publications on current research in the historic environment in an informative and engaging format. This is exemplified by David Dungworth’s latest volume, which presents a detailed examination of glass manufacturing in England from the medieval period to recent times. David’s renown as a preeminent specialist on historic glass-making is cemented by this impressive book, which is essentially his magnum opus on the subject. It draws together the cutting-edge research he carried out during his 18 years’ tenure as a materials scientist and subsequently Head of Archaeological Conservation and Technology for English Heritage (and latterly Historic England), and whilst the emphasis is drawn from scientific analysis of historical glass, the book provides a carefully balanced combination of documentary, chemical and archaeological evidence. The opening two chapters provide an illuminating explanation of glass, elucidating the range of raw materials used and the evolution of the technology employed. This includes a non-technical explanation of glass-melting furnaces, charting their adaptation and the dramatic changes in design that were demanded in the 17th century to enable a shift from wood to coal as a fuel. The text is illustrated by the conservative use of drawings reproduced from 18thand 19th-century accounts, together with some extracts from historic maps. These give way to a series of graphs depicting the chemical composition of glass-melting crucibles and adhering glass recovered from archaeological excavations, highlighting the value of a detailed examination of crucibles and the scientific analysis of glass and glass-working waste. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the skilled labour that was essential to the industry, and the key products of its three main branches (tableware, bottles and window glass) are introduced, although without any accompanying images. Having set the scene, the third chapter provides a critical examination of the archaeological evidence for glass manufacturing, with lavish illustrations of waste materials found during excavations. The production waste generated from glass-working can be more informative than that from almost any other historic industry, especially in the light of advances in scientific techniques that have been achieved in recent decades. The combination of archaeological evidence with the application of scientific analysis has, in several instances, provided a greatly enriched understanding of the raw materials and technologies employed in glass manufacture, and this section of the book demonstrates the importance of taking a considered approach to investigating glass-working sites and the benefit of effective dialogue between the various specialists involved in all stages of a project. The following chapter provides a fascinating overview of the medieval glass industry in England, when glass was a scarce, luxury material used to furnish the tables of the wealthiest members of society and to glaze buildings only of the highest status, such as churches and palaces. Often referred to as ‘forest glass’, its production was located primarily in rural areas with easy access to wood for fuel and bracken as a source of alkali. A useful précis of the historical evidence for medieval glassworking is coupled with an account of the key production sites of the period that have been excavated. The narrative benefits from the inclusion of plans of furnaces and images of the glass products and crucibles uncovered during the fieldwork, and the resultant scientific analysis of the glass-working debris. The transformation of the industry in the 16th century, attributable in no small part to the influence of immigrant glass-makers from mainland Europe and technological development, enabled the scale of production to increase whilst simultaneously encouraging a reduction in the cost of glass objects that helped to increase the demand. By the 18th century, glass was routinely used to glaze houses even for the less wealthy members of society, to store wine and beer and to serve drinks, and an account of the tableware-, bottleand window-glass branches of the industry that developed as distinct sectors is provided in the succeeding three chapters. The final chapter draws these separate threads together, and compares and contrasts the different sectors of the glass industry and attempts to set them into a wider context. Whilst the book gathers together material that has been published previously as journal articles or grey literature, some of these are not easily accessible, and thus the book engenders a high level of ‘discoverability’ for the glass industry by placing an invaluable synthesis of this work, including some newmaterial, in context. The comprehensive bibliography is also of considerable value to researchers, and there is little doubt that the book will gain acclaim amongst the archaeological community and special interest groups, whilst the engaging style of writing and logical structure makes it accessible and ‘easy to navigate’ for a wider audience. With a retail cost of £70, the book is not cheap, but this reflects the high quality of the content and production, and is ultimately a small price to pay for anyone with research interests in the archaeology of the English glass industry; it is difficult to see how this book could fail to become an essential reference work on the subject. Since the publication of this volume, Historic England has entered into a strategic partnership with Liverpool University Press (LUP) for the long-term running of the Historic England imprint, and all existing and future books will be managed and published by LUP under licence to use the Historic England brand for books. It is to be hoped that the established high standard that is personified by this volume on glass-working can be maintained.

中文翻译：

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14 至 20 世纪英国的玻璃工艺

历史悠久的英格兰以信息丰富和引人入胜的形式制作关于历史环境中当前研究的高质量出版物，因此享有悠久而令人羡慕的声誉。大卫·邓沃斯 (David Dungworth) 的最新一卷就是例证，该卷详细介绍了从中世纪到近代的英格兰玻璃制造。这本令人印象深刻的书巩固了大卫作为历史玻璃制造领域杰出专家的声誉，这本书本质上是他在该主题上的代表作。它汇集了他在 18 年的材料科学家任期内进行的前沿研究，随后是英国遗产（以及后来的历史英格兰）考古保护和技术负责人，同时重点是对历史的科学分析。玻璃，这本书提供了文献、化学和考古证据的仔细平衡组合。开头的两章对玻璃进行了有启发性的解释，阐明了所用原材料的范围和所采用技术的演变。这包括对玻璃熔炉的非技术性解释，绘制它们的适应性以及 17 世纪要求的设计上的巨大变化，以实现从木材到煤作为燃料的转变。文本通过保守地使用从 18 世纪到 19 世纪的记录复制的图画以及历史地图的一些摘录来说明。这些让位于一系列图表，描绘了从考古发掘中回收的玻璃熔化坩埚和粘附玻璃的化学成分，强调对坩埚进行详细检查以及对玻璃和玻璃加工废料进行科学分析的价值。本章最后简要概述了对该行业至关重要的熟练劳动力，并介绍了其三个主要分支（餐具、瓶子和窗户玻璃）的主要产品，但没有任何附图。布景后，第三章对玻璃制造的考古证据进行了批判性检查，并提供了在挖掘过程中发现的废料的大量插图。玻璃加工产生的生产废物比几乎任何其他历史行业的生产废物都更具信息量，尤其是考虑到近几十年来科学技术的进步。在一些情况下，考古证据与科学分析的应用相结合，极大地丰富了对玻璃制造中使用的原材料和技术的理解，本书的这一部分展示了采用深思熟虑的方法来研究玻璃的重要性- 工作地点以及参与项目所有阶段的各种专家之间有效对话的好处。下一章提供了对英格兰中世纪玻璃工业的精彩概述，当时玻璃是一种稀缺的奢侈材料，用于为社会最富有的成员提供餐桌，并只为教堂和宫殿等最高地位的建筑物上釉。通常被称为“森林玻璃”，它的生产主要位于农村地区，那里很容易获得用作燃料的木材和作为碱来源的蕨菜。对中世纪玻璃加工历史证据的有用概要，以及对这一时期已挖掘出的主要生产地点的描述。叙述受益于包括现场工作期间发现的熔炉计划和玻璃产品和坩埚的图像，以及由此产生的对玻璃加工碎片的科学分析。16 世纪的行业转型，在很大程度上归功于来自欧洲大陆的移民玻璃制造商的影响和技术发展，使生产规模得以扩大，同时鼓励降低玻璃制品的成本，这有助于以增加需求。到 18 世纪，玻璃通常用于为社会中较不富裕的成员上釉，用于储存葡萄酒和啤酒以及提供饮料，并且提供了发展为不同部门的行业的餐具，瓶子和窗户玻璃分支的说明接下来的三章。最后一章将这些不同的线索放在一起，比较和对比玻璃行业的不同部门，并​​试图将它们置于更广泛的背景中。虽然这本书收集了以前作为期刊文章或灰色文献发表的材料，但其中一些不容易获得，因此这本书通过对这些工作进行了宝贵的综合，为玻璃行业带来了高水平的“可发现性” ，包括一些新材料，在上下文中。全面的书目对研究人员也具有相当大的价值，毫无疑问，这本书将在考古界和特殊兴趣小组中获得赞誉，而引人入胜的写作风格和逻辑结构使其易于理解和“易于浏览”更广泛的受众。这本书的零售价为 70 英镑，并不便宜，但这反映了内容和制作的高质量，对于对英国玻璃行业考古学有研究兴趣的人来说，这最终是一个很小的代价；很难看出这本书怎么会不成为有关该主题的重要参考书。自本书出版以来，Historic England 已与利物浦大学出版社 (LUP) 建立了战略合作伙伴关系，以长期运行 Historic England 印记，并且所有现有和未来的书籍都将由 LUP 管理和出版，并获得使用 Historic England 品牌书籍的许可。希望能够保持本卷所体现的玻璃加工的既定高标准。