Cage cup
Roman ‘cage cups’, in which a net of glass stands free of the cup, held only by tiny bridges.
Cage cups are among the most difficult crafts of antiquity, and only about fifty survive, often in fragments. One of the best preserved was found in Cologne and is in the Römisch-Germanisches Museum there.
Materials: Colourless and coloured glass
Manufacture: A thick-walled glass beaker was ground and cut away until an outer net remained, joined to the cup by thin struts.
The net of rings floating half a centimetre outside the cup.
The inscription round the rim, often a toast: BIBE VIVAS MULTIS ANNIS, drink and live many years.