ly preceding our era, is to be found. By this method the real capabilities of the material, both practical and artistic, were firs

lowing-tube. With these are associated certain plain spheres of thin glass of various colours, which may have been used as balls by jugglers, as mentioned in a passage in one of Seneca's letters. But the balls of cool glass, mentioned by other writers, held in their hands by ladies in summer, must s

me of the pieces are said to come from the neighbourhood of Nazareth, but the majority were probably found nearer to the coast, not far from Sidon and Tyre. The forms are on the whole classical, but Oriental influences may be seen in

comes from Pompeii. Now that town was destroyed in the year 79 A.D., and it had sixteen years previously suffered so seriously from an earthquake that little glass can have survived; we are thus able to fix within exceptionally narrow limits the date of most of the glass discovered in the ruins. Apart from a few elaborate examples extracted from the tombs-some of these may well be of an earlier date-we find a vast series of v

TE

LASS FROM TH

B.C. TO FIRS

s. Cicero mentions glass as an article of merchandise brought from Egypt, together with paper and linen. Strabo, writing under the rule of Augustus, says that at Rome every day new processes were invented

Gaul, where, before long, favoured no doubt by the cheapness of the fuel and of the raw materials, important centres of manufacture must have sprung up. We learn from Strabo that not long before his time the Britons obtained what little glass they used-this was confined, indeed, to articles of verroterie-from the Continent. But thou

hnical processes, and point to works on an extensive scale where large glass pots must have been in use. These spherical urns owe their preservation for the most part to the fa

own glass are chiefly of Gallic origin; the most important come from a collection made many years ago in the south-east of France. They may be compared with the Roman glass found in Britain exhibited in the Central Saloon. On the whole, these l

IX.). Notice especially the handles, and above all the insertion of the lower end of these handles into the side of the vessel. It is the neglect of attention to this point that so often gives an impression of weakness to the handles of modern ware, whether of pottery or of glass. But here the ribbed handle terminates in spreading lines tha

ted to apply to each of them the distinctive classical name, both Greek and Latin. But many of these terms are rather names of Greek fictile ware than of Roman glass, and as to the remainder, it is rather to the Byzantine scholiasts of later times than to writers of a good period, where allusions to glass are rare

s imitated in the moulded glass bowls, so we find that a class of pottery, common in England, in which the soft clay has been pressed in, perhaps with the fingers, to form on the sides vertical trough-like depressions, has been closely imitated in blown glass-such rounded depressions are easi

aison. A graceful type of these little ribbed or gadrooned bowls-amber coloured, or again white with blue ribs-has been found over and over again in pre-Roman tombs on both sides of the Alps; these bowls are often seen in the museums of Switzerland and North Italy. Apart from beads and small objec

s impressed-on the margin of the handles above all-by the rapid and skilful use of the pincers. The commonest, and probably the oldest, application is as a more or less closely coiled stringing round the neck of the bottle or

there. In such cases we have an apparent approach to decoration by enamel. But the form of ornament that we are now dealing with is applied directly to the soft p

ngs were drawn out into ellipsoid forms, showing that this part of the vessel was made at a later period. It is instructive to compare this result of the work of the blowing-tube with the patterns on

ling o

s are composed, in later times at least, of a base of silicate of lead (the flux), coloured by various metallic oxides. It is essential that these enamels should be more fusible than the body on which they are painted, so that when subjected to the heat of the muffle-fire they may be completely fused, while the glass or glaze on which they rest is not more

coration. Its full development was reserved for the Saracens of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This

the cup-like lids of the little bowls from Cyprus I have already mentioned. On a few fragments of thin glass from Egypt, draped figures have been painted in opaque colours. Perhaps the nearest approach to an effective use of enamel colours may be seen on two little cups found in graves of the fourth century at Varpelev, in Denmark. These Scandinavian tombs have yielded many interesting pieces of glass, as well as some bronze vessels-possibly booty brought home from marauding expedit

ground imitate an onyx cameo. Each medallion is surrounded by a circle of rosettes of brilliant colours-blue, red, purple, and white. The angular spaces are filled by smaller medallions, each containing a head, and the remaining ground is occupied by a tracery of gold. According to the Canonico Passini, this decoration is in very slight relief, and is executed in what can scarcely be regarded as a true vitrified enamel. The bowl has been mounted at a later time in a light setting of silver gilt with elegant winged handles. But what is more curious, at

I shall speak shortly, a little coloured enamel is spar

and Sculp

arly Roman times are mostly finished by a cutting-tool on some kind of lathe. In the case of the bowl of white glass from Canosa in the British Museum, closely imitating in form the well-known scyphos of the Greek potter, the handles are apparently carved out of a solid mass (cf. p. 46); a very similar bowl in the Charvet collection, said to have come from Cum?, is illustrated by Froehner. Still more interesting is the large shallow bowl or dish of white glass in our nati

ic Greeks, which, as we have seen, were often executed in a glass paste. But few specimens of work of this kind have come down to us-some half-dozen in all-and of these only two are perfect. The body of these vases is

the vase itself is certainly of an earlier date. The figures in this case stand out upon a dark blue ground-we need not dwell upon the interpretation of the subject. As Wedgwood long ago pointed out, a rich and almost pictorial effect is given by cutting down the white layer in places nearly, but not quite, to the blue base which then shows through a film of the slightly translucent white paste-an effect, by the way

e work may well be of a somewhat earlier time than this. The decoration is distinctly Alexandrian in character. Notice especially the band at the lower part with the sheep feeding under trees-in this we are at once carried back to the pastoral poetry of Sicily. It will be observed that the vintage scenes with the little naked 'pu

from the former owner of most of the fragments; in this case the decoration of the parts preserved consists chiefly of vine and ivy leaves. There are at Naples many fragments of onyx glass equal in beauty and skill of execution to these well-known vases. Among these, the ha

during the third and fourth centuries. From this time onward all through the early Middle Ages, if we are to judge from the treasures preserved in Christian churches, to nothing was more value attached than to vases and cups of rock crystal, often of imposing dimensions, carved in shallow or deep relief. When once the process of making a clear colourless glass was mastered, this natural crystal could be very closely imitated in a material wh

ne in taste and artistic invention, there was some advance in the direction of what we should now call applied sc

the glass was deeply undercut, so that the designs appear to float round the vessel, to which indeed they are only attached by small rods not easily visible. Of the last kind is the work that may conveniently be called diatretum, although it i

nor is there, I think, any trace of soldering at the base of the rods. We must turn again to the marvellous collection of late classical and medi?val objects that has been so long preserved in the treasury of St. Mark's at Venice for the most complete specimen of this undercut glass. Here will be found a situla, or bucket-shaped vessel, of slightly greenish glass, about eleven inches in height (Plate XIV.). On the upper zone is a hunting scene with two horsemen, treated with a certain energy that calls to mind some of the Byzantine and even Sassanian work of the fourth and fifth cen

olourless ground. So in another cup preserved in the Palazzo Trivulzio at Milan, the inscription Bibe Vivas Multos Annos is again in green glass, but the network is here blue. Where the detached decoration is of a different colour from the base, the original vase must have been of an onyx glass formed by a 'casing' process and of considerable thickness, unless, indeed, we are to regard the lettering and the network in su

TE

-GREEN GLASS,

E R

ractically complete relief; the subject represented appears to be the 'Madness of Lycurgus.' The arms and the draperies of these figures are connected to the base by little rod

ater date, nor is it even certain that the words refer to objects carved in glass rather than in rock crystal and agate. The word toreumata is used in connection with silver and even of earthe

nium Nili, qui

quoties perdid

l, xiv

's Epigrams it is mentioned as a cheap mater

and furrows scooped in a perfunctory fashion by means of a lapidary's wheel of some size.[42] At times this wheel was applied so as to make a rough b

the Rhine district, especially around Cologne. Some of these bear inscriptions in often very faulty Greek, but I do not think that this is a reason for inferring that they are not of local manufacture.[43] On one cup from Cologne the creation of man by Prometheus is represented, but the majority of the s

d; in every case the scene represented is the coast-line from the bay of Bai? to Pozzuoli, the

Christian use. The early fathers protested against all such elaborate and vain arts. 'The pretentious and useless vainglory of the engravers on vessels of glass may well cause those who use them to tremble, and such work should be exterminated by our good institutio

ced close together, the effect somewhat resembles that of our modern facetted glass. The resemblance is still more close when the surface is c

, and finally, the cut and engraved glass-is in a measure a chronological one, following roughly the order in which these various methods of working and styles of decoration succeeded

by the monk Theophilus, and by the pseudo-Heraclius,[44] as on the whole applicable to Roman times. Even at the present day at Murano, and doubtless at other glass-works little affected by modern industrial processes, much of the old method of working and many of the old terms remain almost unchanged. To give but one example:-when the workman is preparing the half-liquid gathering or ball of glass at the end of his blowing-tube, previous to inflating it with his breath to form the paraison or vesicle, he trundles the viscous mass upon a slab of iron which rests on th

ew of two kinds of black stone, for one of which they used the masculine form magnes-this was the loadstone-for the other the female form magnesia;[48] and this magnesia, at any rate at a somewhat later period, can be undoubtedly identified with the black oxide of manganese (MnO2), a substance known of old as the 'soap of glass,' from its power of removing the green colour derived from iron. Now we have seen that pure white glass, 'cleansed' probably by this method, had only comparatively lately been introduced into Italy, and some confused account of the new discovery had probably reached Pliny's ears. 'In the same way,' he continues, 'they took to adding to the fused mass shining pebbles, then shells and sandy concretions (fossiles aren?).' In these 'fossils' we may, perhaps, recognise the source from which was obtained the lime, an essential constituent of glass. Passing over some obscure references to the nitre of Ophir and the copper of Cyprus, Pliny goes on to say that the who

anufacture, practised formerly at Sidon, whose glass-works he seems to refer to as things of the past, with the newer processes now in use in Italy. It will be

put by that writer into the mouth of Trimalchio are not always to be taken seriously. In later days a similar tale was told of a French inventor-in this Richelieu takes the place of Tiberius. After mentioning the calices pteroti, the costly 'winged cups' of Nero, Pliny gives some account (quite out of its proper place, by the way) of obsidian, a black stone much resembling glass, which was shaped not only into various dishes for use at the table, but also into figures of some size-statues of the divine Augustus, for instance, for that monarch much prized the material. Vitrum h?matinum, 'a red opaque glass,' is passed over rapidly. 'White glass is made also,

ery unlikely. Nor have we any information about the arrangement of the furnaces. These glass houses were, however, well known to the beggars and loungers of the time-we hear of them as places of resort in cold weather for those who had no other way of warming themselves. In the Greek Anthology (No. 323)

s only found in Egypt, a story which points to the jealousy of foreign competition on the part of these craftsmen. So on the Ph?nician coast he hears from some of the wonderful qualities of the Sidonian sand, while others tell him that one sand is as good as another. Strabo goes on to speak of th

ed little Roman glass of any artistic merit, partly perhaps for want of systematic search. But there are few districts in France or in the west of Germany where the exploration of Roman cemeteries has not yielded a plentiful crop. If we travel northward from the estuary of the Rhone by way of Arles and Nismes to Avignon, Valence, and Lyons, then across by the country on either side of the Jura to the valley of the Rhine, and follow that river by Strassburg to Cologne, we pass fo

e Thames, may be brought commercially at least into connection with the wealthy provinces of Northern and Eastern Gaul. It

ll-known image, beneath the Christian sarcophagi (in these, too, not a little glass has been found), the earlier Roman tombs lie on the bed-rock. From these tombs numberless urns of glass, in cases of lead or stone, have been taken, as well as many examples of glass of rare and exceptional shapes-among others what is apparently an alembic for use in distil

t behind him children and grandchildren, who doubtless followed his trade. We must not infer too much from a single instance; we know, however, from other sources,[51] that there was a large influx into Gaul at this time of Semitic people, chiefly of a humble status, craftsmen and small merchants, and that they found their way in above all by the valley of the Rhone. These ubiquitous traders are generally referred to as Syrians, and I think it likely that the glass trade, not only in the south of Gaul but further afield, may have been in great measure in the hands of Orientals of this class. This wou

, square and spherical, and jugs with 'claw' handles. All of these forms we are familiar with in England. The museums of Ami

seums of Trèves, of Cologne and of Bonn, are above all rich in Roman glass, and the German arch?ologists have endeavoured-and this has hardly been attempted elsewhere-to arrange this glass in a chronological sequence. They think that they can distinguish the following stages in the industry:-1. Up to 50 A.D. glass was a rarity in the north, but the millefiori and marbled glass of the south was imported to some extent. 2. After the middle of the first century, glass-works were established for the manufacture of large urns and smaller vessels of a 'Natur-glas,' bluish rather than greenish in

is a step in the right direction. It must be borne in mind that this Rhenish glass belongs to the same Romano-Celtic family as that found in France, but, as in the latter country, the Celti

It would even seem that glass was at one time more in favour and perhaps cheaper than earthenware. A curious point is the number of localities in Poitou and La Vendée which bear names such as La Verrerie and Verrière; at as many as seven places with names of this class, M. Fillon claims to have found the remains of Gallo-Roman glass-works. These do not appear to have been established before the time of Trajan, and it is to the

s with circular feet and wide-mouthed cups with rounded bases.[55] To one of these a fantastic decoration has been given by a contorted streak of blood-like tint in the midst of the glass-caused by the perhaps accidental presence of a fragment of copper-oxide; we have here at any rate on

lass in

question of glass in our country. Nor have we any definite evidence, apart from a few lumps of glass that may have had their origin in an accidental fire, that any glass-works existed in England during this long interval,-no evidence, that is to say, apart from that based upon the large amount of Roman glass found in England and the size of many of the specimens. The English glass, however, in no way differs from that taken from Roman tombs in the north of France. I have mentioned already the most notic

en the mouth of the Medway and the Isle of Thanet. In this neighbourhood, in the flat land between Sittingbourne and Faversham, were situated what were probably the most extensive potteries of Britain, and it is hereabouts if anywhere in England that

AT

S FROM BRI

t of the subject, as this must needs be, is rendered very difficult. Much that is both interesting and important must be omitted or only br

e person to whom the piece is presented; of such we have already given some examples. 2. The name of the maker. With few exception

the buyer remember,' which he sometimes added to his name, were perhaps intended to accentuate the signature. The glass-blowers of Sidon seem to have been proud of their native town; along with their signature its name generally appears on the 'thumb-pie

our letters placed in the angles-letters that have been a standing puzzle to antiquaries. Many pieces of glass bearing the stamp of Firmus, of Hilarus, or again of Hylas-contracted or in the genitive case-have been found not only in Italy (as in the neighbourhood of Perugia), but also in the Cologne district. On the other hand, the signature of Frontinus is above all frequent on a series of barrel-sh

im become general in later times. The practical difficulties in the case of blown glass may be a sufficient reason for this. Perhaps

not dominated by Greek influence and traditions; it was an art which, although essentially developed under the Roman rule, had its origin in Semitic lands. As an industry I cannot help thinki