hello Paul - I immediately rushed for the shorter OED, only to find that the full word is not used - I've also just looked thru both of the Charles Hajdamach's volumes (the indices), and disappointingly he doesn't include the word either, from what I can see. My other dictionaries for glass give brief and obvious meanings but without any historical reference. But yes, it of course an extension of the root 'wry' - and relates to a style of twisting or spiralling which seems to have been very common during the C18 and C19 - although I suspect glass workers have been twisting glass for a lot longer. However, the fact that a twisty sort of glass has been around for a long time, doesn't prove that earlier workers used the word 'wrythen' - they may have used the word 'twist', only - so I don't know when 'wrythen' was first used - perhaps someone who is really clever can help us.
You're probably right, in that the word in this spelling is English - although no doubt other countries had an equally appropriate word, since glass in this style has doubtless been made everywhere for a long time - particularly on the the Continent.
Topic: controlled bubble/wrythen amber vase for id. (Read 824 times)
