no On tlie Mamtfacture of Glass, Porcelain^ ^c. 



feet very pleasing, in consequence of the artist having alter- 

 nately introduced an opaque and a transparent glass. The 

 most delicate pencil of a miniature painter could not have traced 

 with greater sharpness the circle of the eye-ball, or the plumage 

 of the neck and wings, at which part this specimen has been 

 broken. But the most surprising thing is, that the reverse ex- 

 hibits the same bird, in which it is impossible to discover any 

 difference in the smallest details ; whence it may be concluded 

 that the figure of the bird continues through its entire thick- 

 ness. This picture has a granular appearance on both sides, 

 and seems to have been formed of single pieces, like mosaic 

 work ; united with so much skill, that the most powerful mag- 

 nifying glass is unable to discover their junction. 



" From the condition of this fragment, it was at first difficult 

 to form any idea of the process employed in its manufacture ; 

 and we should have remained entirely ignorant of it, had not 

 the fracture shewn that filaments of the same colours, as on the 

 surface of the glass, and throughout its whole diameter, passed 

 from one side to the other, whence it has been concluded that 

 the picture was conf|)osed of different cylinders of coloured 

 glass, which being subject to a proper degree of heat, united by 

 (partial) fusion. I cannot suppose they would have taken so 

 much trouble, and have been contented to make a picture only 

 the sixth of an inch thick, while, by employing longer fila- 

 ments, they might have produced one many inches in thick- 

 ness, without occupying any additional time in the process ; it 

 is therefore probable this was cut from a larger or thicker piece, 

 and the number of the pictures taken from the same, depended 

 on the length of the filaments, and the consequent thickness of 

 the original mass, -a 



" The other specimen, also broken, and about the size of the 

 preceding one, is made in the same manner. It exhibits orna- 

 ments of a gi'een, yellow, and white colour, on a blue ground, 

 which consist in volutes, strings of beads, and flowers, ending 

 ' in pyramidical points. All the details -are perfectly distinct 

 and unconfused, and yet so very minute, that the keenest eye 

 is unable to follow the delicate lines in which the volutes ter- 

 minate ; the ornaments, however, are all continued without in- 

 terruption, through the entire thickness of the piece." 



