This publication provides a complete and lavishly illustrated catalogue of the sixty-four objects in the British Museum's gold glass collection (fifty-five late antique and nine replicas). It includes a discussion of the iconography of the objects and refines the chronology of gold glass. This book is the edited version of David Thomas Howell's thesis, whose untimely death prevented the addition of sections on the history of gold glass in earlier periods, incised figural decoration on contemporaneous glass and a further elaboration of H.’s remarks on the value of gold glass objects within a wider economic context.

Ch. 1 presents the history of gold glass scholarship from the late sixteenth century. H. fully exploits the previous bibliography, exposing the origin of some of the still current assumptions about gold glass (which are critically assessed in later chapters). Ch. 2 traces the provenance of the British Museum's collection, providing a detailed overview of the original eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collectors and their social context, and of changing Victorian attitudes towards late antique art.

In the third chapter, the production techniques of gold glass are examined and three types are described: 1. Cut and incised technique, the largest category, which is divided into three subgroups: vessel bases, which are the most common, diminutive medallions and (less clearly distinguishable) gilt glass plaques; 2. Brushed technique, used on naturalistic portrait medallions with cobalt blue backings; 3. Gilt glass trail technique, used on bases of vessels with a gilt glass trail inscription sandwiched between two layers of colourless glass. In the same chapter, Andrew Meek presents the scientific analysis of the British Museum's gold glass which contributes to a more precise dating of the brushed and the gilt glass trail techniques. Ch. 4 examines the manufacture of gold glass. The evidence of previous attempts at gold glass reproductions is looked at in detail and medieval accounts of working with glass and gold leaf are also examined. These form the basis of the author's own programme of experimental gold glass reproduction, which led H. to new conclusions regarding the material value of gold glass in Late Antiquity.

Ch. 5 examines the distribution and context of gold glass based on a thorough review of the literature (presented in appendix A) demonstrating that findspots are distributed throughout the Western Roman Empire. H. concludes that it is plausible that the manufacture of gold glass was restricted to Rome and that it was all made by a small number of craftsmen working in three different workshops distinguished on the basis of the different production techniques used. Based on the analyses of the illustrations and the inscriptions on the vessels, as well as on the chemical analyses and the differentiation among different subgroups, H. dates gilt glass trail vessels and brushed technique portrait medallions from the mid-third to the early fourth centuries and cut and incised technique gold glasses to the later fourth century, approximately a.d. 360–390. Finally, the function and cost of gold glass is considered and it is noted that many among the cut and incised gold vessels were unlikely to have been functional objects. H. concludes that they were not difficult to produce, quite probably ready-made and affordable by a wider group than the aristocratic élite. Gold glass vessels had a primary commemorative function — reused in a funerary context for the decoration of individual loculi, probably as valued possessions of their owners.

Part Two of the volume consists of the catalogue. Objects are presented grouped in four iconographic categories (Christian religious portraiture; Christian biblical episodic imagery; secular portraits and portrait-style depictions; and Jewish, pagan and secular themes and inscriptions unaccompanied by images) and within each categorization, in chronological order of acquisition by the British Museum. Modern reproductions and fakes are presented last. In the catalogue the iconography appearing on gold glass is discussed in detail, extending to other contemporary media as well.

The book is supplemented with three useful appendices: A. Distribution of gold glass findspots and associated contexts; B. Profile drawings of all fifty-five late antique gold glass pieces in the British Museum drawn by Stephen Crummy; C. A modern attempt at reproducing cut and incised technique sandwich-glass vessels with photographs and captions provided by the Roman glassmakers, Mark Taylor and David Hill. There is a full bibliography, but (and regrettably) no index.

In conclusion, this catalogue manages successfully to present the British Museum's gold glass collection in a careful and coherent way. It offers a detailed overview of the medium as a whole, employing the results of the scientific analysis as well as providing an insight into the location of the workshops, the period in which they were active, their technical practices and iconographic preferences, and the distribution of their products.