There are just 400 odd items of stained glass, the earliest dating to the 14th century, such as the German Gothic portrait of St.George. Next come several items attributed to the renowned 16th-century glass painter Karl von Egeri. The collection is rounded off by late 19th-century and early 20th-century works in Art Nouveau style which originated in St Petersburg mansions.

The extensive collection of Western European glassware presents the marvellous talents of craftsmen from Italy, Spain, Flanders, Germany, Bohemia, England and France from the15th to 20th centuries.

Glassware was one of the most characteristic forms of the Renaissance Italian applied art, from its development in Venice in the 13th century. Venetian glass is distinguished by its refined and fragile beauty, and the Hermitage has a small but exquisite collection.

Spanish glassware, combining local Hispano-Moresque traditions with Venetian, is very individual. The Hermitage has an exceedingly full and varied collection of Spanish glassware of the 16th and early 17th centuries, which incorporates 230 items.

German and Bohemian articles of the 17th-18th centuries are widely represented: glasses, covered goblets, transparent glass cups, jugs, whose exquisite engraving and forms reflect Baroque and Rococo stylistic peculiarities.

Western European glassware of the late 19th century to the 20th century includes interesting examples of English glass, vessels from the Lobmeyr factory, from the American firm of Tiffany, French glass by the firm of Brocard as well as items by the Daum brothers, E.Galle, the Parisian firms Legras and Lalique.