NONDESTRUCTIVE IN-SITU RAMAN-STUDY OF ARTISTIC GLASSES

A non-destructive 'in situ' Raman spectroscopic study was carried out on 28 artistic glasses grouped in eight age classes between 1750 and 1 940, in order to characterize the authenticity (age) of these objects. Other non-'in situ' instrumental methods which require only micro amo unts of sample, should be avoided in this ease owing to the great brit tleness of the samples. Although it was not found possible to characte rize the age of the samples from the Raman spectra, which were very si milar for all the different glasses examined, nevertheless, the intens ity of the fluorescence band increased with the age of the samples. Th e logarithm of the ratio between the 1880 cm(-1) Raman band intensity and that of the fluorescence band, obtained from the spectra where the fluorescence band was kept at the same intensity for the different sa mples, shows a linear relationship with the age of the glasses, and th erefore constitutes a spectroscopic marker for the characterization of the authenticity of the samples.