"Last month my dad came down to the city to pay me a visit. We had a lovely day hanging out at home, and as we hugged goodbye I noticed something I hadn't ever paid attention to on the front door to my apartment building. There were spherical shapes in some of the glass panes on the door, and I had no clue what they were or why they were there."
"To create panes of crown glass, a skilled glassblower would inflate a large bubble of glass and then attach it to a rod (a 'pontil'). The bubble was then hand-spun rapidly until centrifugal force flattened it into a large, round disk. After cooling the disk, the pontil was discarded, and a characteristic, bull's-eye mark was left in the center. The disks were then subsequently placed into individual panes."
"I asked my dad if he knew what they were, but he didn't. My interest was piqued, so I went down a rabbit hole extensively researching these glass shapes - which I now know to be "crown glass" - in hopes to learn more about my building, and I've fallen increasingly in love with them. Here's what some experts in real estate, home exteriors, and interior design taught me about crown glass on my journey to understand the architecture of my building."
Crown glass consists of a spherical disk of glass set into the center of a glass pane, created entirely by hand. The process involves inflating a glass bubble, attaching it to a pontil, then rapidly spinning it so centrifugal force flattens the bubble into a disk with a central bull's-eye mark. Each disk cools with variations in thickness and ripple, producing unique, imperfect panes. Bull's-eye shapes visible in older building windows often indicate crown glass and reveal historical craftsmanship and decorative architectural detail.
Read at Apartment Therapy
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