It is used in the distinctive blue bottles of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry and Tŷ Nant mineral water.

The earliest known example of cobalt aluminate glass dates to a lump from about 2000 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, very possibly intended for use as a pigment; it was rare until the modern era.

A fragment of a mud painting in the ancient Tangut city of Khara-Khoto has been found to contain smalt, judged to be dated between the 11th and 13th centuries.

[12][13] The invention of a European smalt process has traditionally been credited to a Bohemian glassmaker named Christoph Schürer, around 1540–1560.

James VI and I considered awarding a patent for making a "blue azure" product for this purpose in Scotland in February 1609.