Find something on display: Lower shelf

Made from the glass of a discarded bottle.

Beads made from blue, red and ‘milles feuilles’ glass.

Glass buttons or counters found in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians were the first to make coloured glass objects.

A lump of glass made from molten Silica.

These beads are of unknown date and have been variously described as Egyptian, Medieval and Renaissance. The two halves of bead show how the colours are added by progressive dipping and coating.

The mineral Mica is a Silicate that forms in very thin layers; the single sheet shows how transparent it can be. It was known as Muscovy Glass. Mica is mainly white but there is a black variety containing iron.

Coloured opaque glass can be used to fill small compartments of metal objects, and is known as enamel. Decoration using tiny compartments is known as milles feuilles – French for millions of leaves.

Flint is a variety of quartz. It is strong and heavy but can also be chipped away to create very fine sharp edges.

Flint is a variety of quartz. It is strong and heavy but can also be chipped away to create very fine sharp edges, sometimes serrated, as in these examples.

Quartz is a silicate that can form large clear crystals, known as Rock Crystal, or dark opaque lumps, known as Flint.

These small bottles include many found during excavations in Canterbury. The double one has a label identifying it as found in Medinet-Tabou (Habou?) in Egypt. The bottles would have contained perfume, cosmetics, medicine and similar.

Obsidian is a glassy rock formed through cooling of volcanic lava so fast that few crystals form. It can be black or green (like examples in Colour and Camouflage), and sometimes ropy, like this piece.

Sand is made of silica – glass.

Transparent Selenite is a variety of Gypsum, a hydrated calcium sulphate.

The skeleton of an ocean sponge, known as Venus Flower Basket, is made of silica by the soft-bodied creature living inside. David Attenborough chose the Venus Flower Basket as one of the amazing creatures he would save if he had an ark, in a recent TV series.