This book presents 155 glass vessels and objects from the Ernesto Wolf Collection, most of which have never been seen by the general public before. The oldest of these pieces date back to the early phase of the glass-making art in the Tigris-Euphrates region around 1600 BC. The most recent are products the first century AD, when the new technique of glass-blowing had begun to spread throughout the Roman Empire. Among the most outstanding features this book unique are the magnificent color photographs by Hans Mayr, Peter Frankenstein and Hendrik Zwietasch, which vividly recapture the beauty of ancient glass - in some cases in substantial enlargements of these often tiny objects. Yet equally superb are the "technical observations", which offer an unprecedented systematic analysis of ancient glass technologies and production methods in a language accessible to laymen and scholars alike. (German edition available ISBN 3-7757-0502-3)