Ancient Murrhine ware and its glass evocations
Résumé
There can be little doubt that the murrhine ware that served as a paradigm of luxury and extravagance in antiquity consisted of fluorite (or calcium fluoride, CaF2), although other materials, including glass, have been suggested. Uncertainty lay largely in the fact that few examples of ancient murrhine ware survive, since the material was very fragile on account of its crystalline structure. The 18th-century fluorite vessels known as Derbyshire blue john were soaked in hot colophane resin, and a similar process must have been used in antiquity. This will have imparted a certain fragrance, commented on by Pliny. Pliny describes the purple and white veins on murrhine, and how some connoisseurs admired wartlike "specks and spots." He also mentions that there were glass imitations, and these may perhaps be found in an uncommon variety of core-formed glass that is white with purple veins, and that occasionally has "specks and spots."