France.—Pliny states that glass was made in Gaul, and there is reason to believe that it was made in many parts of the country and on a considerable scale. There were glass-making districts both in Normandy and in Poitou.
Little information can be gathered concerning the glass industry between the Roman period and the 14th century. It is recorded that in the 7th century the abbot of Wearmouth in England obtained artificers in glass from France; and there is a tradition that in the 11th century glass-workers migrated from Normandy and Brittany and set up works at Altare near Genoa.
In 1302 window glass, probably crown-glass, was made at Beza le Forêt in the department of the Eure. In 1416 these works were in the hands of Robin and Leban Guichard, but passed subsequently to the Le Vaillants.
In 1338 Humbert, the dauphin, granted a part of the forest of Chamborant to a glass-worker named Guionet on the condition that Guionet should supply him with vessels of glass.
In 1466 the abbess of St Croix of Poitiers received a gross of glasses from the glass-works of La Ferrière, for the privilege of gathering fern for the manufacture of potash.
In France, as in other countries, efforts were made to introduce Italian methods of glass-working. Schuermans in his researches discovered that during the 15th and 16th centuries many glass-workers left Altare and settled in France,—the Saroldi migrated to Poitou, the Ferri to Provence, the Massari to Lorraine and the Bormioli to Normandy. In 1551 Henry II. of France established at St Germain en Laye an Italian named Mutio; he was a native of Bologna, but of Altare origin. In 1598 Henry IV. permitted two “gentil hommes verriers” from Mantua to settle at Rouen in order to make “verres de cristal, verres dorée emaul et autres ouvrages qui se font en Venise.”
France assimilated the craft of glass-making, and her craftsmen acquired a wide reputation. Lorraine and Normandy appear to have been the most important centres. To Lorraine belong the well-known names Hennezel, de Thietry, du Thisac, de Houx; and to Normandy the names de Bongar, de Cacqueray le Vaillant and de Brossard.
In the 17th century the manufacture of mirror glass became an important branch of the industry. In 1665 a manufactory was established in the Faubourg St Antoine in Paris, and another at Tour-la-Ville near Cherbourg.
Louis Lucas de Nehou, who succeeded de Cacqueray at the works at Tour-la-Ville, moved in 1675 to the works in Paris. Here, in 1688, in conjunction with A. Thevart, he succeeded in perfecting the process of casting plate-glass. Mirror plates previous to the invention had been made from blown “sheet” glass, and were consequently very limited in size. De Nehou’s process of rolling molten glass poured on an iron table rendered the manufacture of very large plates possible.
The Manufactoire Royale des Glaces was removed in 1693 to the Château de St Gobain.