First of all, as observed above, Hirst draws effectively upon his background in print-making in the handling of graphic details in his glass. At the same time, Hirst's handling of volume and mass is confident and informed by a natural sensitivity to sculptural form and expression.

Hirst's use of metallic fields of ornament, and his engraving of these with graphic motifs and fragmentary passages of illegible script, recalls, in some measure, the intriguing "gold-sandwich" or zwischengo1d glasses made in Bohemia in the eighteenth century.

With their delicate spidery contours and their supposedly mysterious origins, these multi-media vessels represent another influence, albeit subliminal as opposed to direct, on Hirst's work in glass. The crisp graphic quality and illusory depth of image associated with zwischengold glasses are, after all, qualities that we associate with Hirst's oeuvre. In essence then, I suggest that it is the artist's considered assimilation into his own vocabulary and into his own formal syntax, of a variety of early decorative idioms, as well as the fundamental vigor of his plastic imagination, that underscore the visual cohesiveness of his imagery.

And given the nature of these generative sources, it is not inconsistent that these new works represent a convincing extension into contemporary practice of a long and varied tradition of making richly decorated glass vessels for presentation and suchlike purposes, of making what may be called "ceremonial" or "votive" glass forms.