Glassblowing is a glass forming technique which was invented by the Syrian craftsman in the 1st century BC somewhere along the Syro-Palestinian coast. The establishment of the Roman Empire provided motivation and dominance of glass production by this method, the use of blown glass for everyday tasks spread. The Phoenicians set up the first glass workshops on the eastern borders of the Empire, in the birthplace of glassblowing in contemporary Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, as well as in the province of Cyprus. Meanwhile, the glassblowing technique also reached Egypt.

By the middle Ages, Venice had become a major center of glass making. Then, the glass blowing industry moved to the island of Murano. The Venetian glassmakers from Murano produced cristallo, clear, fine glassware by employing glassblowing, in particular, the mould-blowing technique.

Eventually, this art spread in many parts of the world, in China, Japan and the Islamic lands and became ubiquitous.

In the 1820s the industry experienced the most important innovation since the Syrians invented the blow pipe. Bakewell patented a process of mechanically pressing hot glass which would change how glass was used forever.