In the 16th century, Venetian glassblowers invented a technique for making glass which resembled ice made brittle by the heat of the sun. The objects give the impression that their outside surface is completely cracked. This kind of glass could be made in two alternative ways. In one method, hot glass is plunged into cold water, after which it is reheated gently before the final blowing. A similar result could be achieved by rolling hot glass on top of crushed glass. Latest by the 17th century colourless ice-glass was being manufactured also in the Netherlands. Ice-glass objects were extremely rarely imported to the towns in Northern Europe.
