Bontemps on Glass Making: the Guide du Verrier of Georges Bontemps The fifth in a series on how the understanding of glassmaking advanced over the course of three centuries from the early 1600s to around 1870. Georges Bontemps (1799-1884) was probably the most skilful and adventurous European glass works manager of his age. His life began inauspiciously because he was illegitimate and ignored by his father, a graduate of the Ecole polytechnique and army officer. In 1817 Georges was refused entry to the Ecole polytechnique, despite having done well in the entry examination. Bontemp then became...