During the 17th – 18th c. was a significant rising of glass production in Ukraine. The artistic forms and assortment of products were enriched, technological possibilities expanded, and the general culture of glass work increased.

Until the middle of the 19th century mainly glass items were produced in glass-making workshops – the gut, the first mention of which appears in the documents of the 19th c. Guty is a small enterprise, where they made glass and produced a variety of items. The vast majority of works of old glass belongs to the 18 – 19th c. and there are products of the Chernihiv, Volyn, Kiev and Poltava regions.

The widespread kind of products were bottles of various shapes and sizes: casseroles, flasks, barrels, figs, zbans, as well as bowls, glasses, mugs. A unique collection of glass figurines is presented in the form of bears, sheeps, birds. Such products were especially popular. The glass was decorated with molded threads, painted with enamel or oil paints or engraving.

Contemporary art glass is represented by the works of Lviv and Kiev artists.

Many talented masters worked at the Lviv Experimental Ceramic and Sculptural Factory. This is Mechyslav Pavlovsky, who perfectly possessed many techniques of glass blowing and managed to reveal the secret of the “Venetian thread” known all over the world. Franz Chernyak, Bogdan Valko, Peter Dumich, Oleksiy Gera, Yaroslav Matsievsky, Marian Tarnavsky, Vasyl Drachuk, whose works are marked by a bright creative individuality.

The works of the leading artists of the Lviv association “Rainbow” (now Rayduga) Yuri Shah, Lidia Vikhareva, Oleg Boguslavsky, Alexander Lasovsky are characterized by the perfection of the forms and the mastery of the application of the technique of faceting. Vitaliy Ginzburg’s creativity is represented by a miniature plastic from the thin glass wire and experimental compositions of glass and crystal.

Kyiv artists play an important role in the production and the formation of artistic qualities of contemporary glass. The works of Ivan Zaritsky, Lydia Mityaeva, Svitlana Golembovska, Volodymyr Henshke, Ivan Apollonov, Susanna Smiyan and Oleg Gushchyn are impressive with the richness of artistic forms, assortment, and the high culture of performance. Albert Balabin’s bright, creative personality has appeared in unique sculptures and compositions, in which he, unlike many other artists, is not only an author but also an unsurpassed performer.

These artists worked for a long time at the Kiev Art Glass Factory, which is almost 120 years old. Unfortunately, the plant is closed now and artists are not able to make their creative works.