Since the early nineteenth century, the mention of luxury glass immediately has brought to mind the legendary French House of Baccarat. Where Steuben and Tiffany are quintessentially American, and Waterford is renowned for its rigorous attachment to cut crystal, Baccarat signifies a variety of things to many different people. For the wine connoisseur it is paper-thin glasses shaped especially to enhance the character and bouquet of Bordeaux, Sancerre, champagne, vintage port, or Napoleon brandy; for collectors, it means the most beautiful opaline and millefiori paperweights ever produced; for the fashion plates, it recalls the exquisite bottles of perfume designed for Guerlain, Patou, Schiaparelli, Dior, and Paco Rabanne, among others; and for potentiates, popes, heads of state or Maharajas it has always been known as the Crystal of Kings and the King of Crystals. The Baccarat glassworks were established in 1764 by permission of Louis XV in the province of Lorraine at the foot of the Vosges mountain range. The natural surroundings, the plenitude of hard woods to stoke the furnaces, and the region's tradition of glass-making were t