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What purpose does a marver serve in glassblowing?
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glassware
Fish of core-made glass with “combed” decoration, Egyptian, New Kingdom, 18th dynasty (c. 1363–46 bc). In the British Museum. 0.141 m × .069 m.
In the context of glassblowing, a marver is a flat, smooth surface—typically made of metal, stone, or wood—used by the glassmaker to shape and cool a gather of molten glass.12
By rolling the molten glass on the marver, the gaffer can manipulate the material's form, preserve its symmetry, and begin the process of shaping it into a vessel before further inflation or hand-tooling. The term itself is derived from the French word marbre, meaning marble, reflecting the historical use of stone slabs for this purpose.21