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Optic Molds
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One of the most fascinating aspects of glassblowing is that the fundamentals and basic tools have not changed for many centuries, even millenia.
I am indebted to the research librarians at the Rakow Research Library at Corning Museum of Glass for helping me research the very early history of optic molds. 
Consider that this predates the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440! It is clear to me that there is an optic mold closest to the left foot of the glassblowing in this image, you can see a bit of vertical lines at the top of that optic mold. If you look at the full-size (6.0 MegaByte) image (by clicking above), I would suggest that you are looking at a 10-Point or 12-Point optic mold, since at least 5 vertical mold lines are clearly visible. The French text has more to say about this:
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The image below is scanned from De Re Metallica by Georgius Agricola, 1556 (page 476) It clearly shows two glassblowing molds (labelled "E") on the floor near the furnace. 
(click for full-size 6.8 Megabyate image) The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition, 2008) has this to say about Georgius Agricola:
There are two optic molds, labeled "E", in the image above:
"Instrumenta quibus formae sunt datae" "Moulds by means of which the shapes are produced" Click here if you would like to see Agricola's image above as printed in Hoover's 1912 English translation, with English subtitles. |
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Antonio Neri's L'Arte Vetraria dated 1612
shows a very similar (Figure IV) to Agricola
In fact, Neri has the SAME TWO OPTIC MOLDS still shown as "E" 
and I note that in Neri we have an 11-pointed star optic mold and a 6-lobed optic mold although due to the irregular spacing of the star points, I would guess it was really as 12-point star optic mold, to give even 30-degree increments around the circumference. |
A very similar (Figure Q) appears in Kunckel 1756 (page 299):
"Die Instrumenten darein man formen geust." which translates into English roughly as "the instruments thereon one shapes" but note that the star optic mold in Kunckel is a much clearer 8-pointed star, although the lobed mold appears less well defined. |
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If you look around any glassblowing studio ("hot shop"), especially around the marver, which typically has at least one shelf inside it,
you will almost certainly find OPTIC MOLDS of many different shapes and sizes.
Steinert Industries appears to me to be the premier manufacturer of glassblowing Optic molds, with a mind-bogling variety of shapes and sizes. Please note that I have no financial interest or motivation in recommending Steinert Industries but it is my personal belief that they are an extremely quality company providing excellent glassblowing tools at reasonable cost. There are many other optic molds sold which are smaller than 4" tall, these are often used in lampworking / bead-making, and are not included on this web page.
p.s. I created this Optic Mold web page after completing my Fin Mold web page,
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(Clicking on any of the images or links below should take you directly to a web page with more information concerning that particular optic mold)
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glassblowing web page at 173.12.39.201 last modified: June 21 2009 |