Smalt

History of Smalt:

Although several writers have suggested that smalt could be a European invention discovered around 1540 by Christian Schiirrer, a Bohemian glassmaker, evidence shows that cobalt was used in Egypt since the 27th century BC, and later on in Persia. Furthermore, it seems that before Schtirrer's discovery Venetian glassmakers were already familiar with the properties of cobalt, because some fifteenth-century Venetian glasses have been found coloured with cobalt. In Europe the use of smalt as an artist's pigment was widespread certainly as early as the late sixteenth century.

When was Smalt used?