This covered opalescent glass goblet, blown and rib-molded, and decorated with gold and enamel, imitates Venetian glass produced during the Renaissance, having been introduced from Syria in the Middle Ages. In the 1850s, Venetian glassblowing techniques were revived. This was due, in part, to the art critic and theorist John Ruskin's influential treatise The Stones of Venice (1851–53), in which he praised traditional Venetian glassmaking techniques. Design reformers like Charles Locke Eastlake and William Morris, who condemned factory-made, overly ornate table glass, also favored the elegance and simplicity of Venetian glass.