ft On the Antiquity of Etching on Glqfs. 



*' take a pane of glafs of any kind, clean it well, and free it from greafe, by wafliing. with a 

 *' ley, and when dry, trace out upon it, with fulphur and varnifh, whatever you choofc. 

 " Put a border of bees'-wax round it, about one inch high, and then pour the corrofive 

 " acid, prepared as before direfled, carefully over the whole furface of the glafs, and let it 

 *• fland undifturbcd for fame time, the longer the better. The glafs will become corroded, 

 " and all you had traced before, will now appear as if raifed» or elevated, above the furface 

 " of the glafs, in a very diflinft and pleafing manner." 



This advertifement is figned /. G, JVigand, and dated from Goldingoi, in Courland. In 

 a fubjoincd note, the author of it confefles that he is not the inventor of the corrofive acid, 

 but that he had the receipt from ^. Pauli, a famous phyflcian^ refident at Drefden, and 

 lately deceafed. He further aflerts, that the late do£tor, during his life-time, had etched 

 on glafs feveral curious crefts, names, and figures, in a manner no lefs beautiful than fur- 

 prifing. 



In a fupplement to the before mentioned publication, the fame author very earneftly en- 

 deavburs to convince the public, that the art of etching on glafs he had made publifhed fome 

 time before, was very different from the art of engraving on glafs by means of emery, 

 flint, red-hot iron, or other (harp pointed inftruments of the hardeft kind. Nor is it that 

 art, fays he, by which MatheGus, the famous apothecary, operated, who formed elevated, 

 or engraved figures, feftoons, and other ornaments on glafles, drinking cups, &c. for all this 

 I know very well is done by means of diamond pencils. 13ut the method I have made public, 

 feems to be, in faft, the very fame admirable and fecret art which was formerly practifed 

 by a flcllful artifl. of Nuremberg, who worked in that art folely for the emperor Charles II. 



On purfuing this fubje£l a little further, there remains, no doubt, but that this old artifl 

 of Nuremberg, to whom our author alludes, is the perfon of whom Doppelmair * gives 

 the following account : " Amongfl: the artifts of Nuremberg mufl be enumerated Henry 

 " Swanhard, a fkilful engraver in fteel and flone, who found out by the glafs of his 

 " fpedacles, upon which fome corrofive liquid had fallen, a new art of etching upon glafs, 

 *' which difcovery he made in the year 1670." Wagenfeil f, on the contrary, relates, that 

 the inventor derives more merit from his difcovery, than accident entitled him to claim-. 

 " Swanhard," fays he, " by the acutenefs of his genius, proved what was hitherto deemed 

 *' impoflible. He was the firft who ever compofed a corrofive, fo aftive as to diffolve the 

 *' hardeft cryftal glafs, which hitherto refifted the force of the mofl powerful fpirits of the 

 " apothecaries. By means of this corrofive, Swanhard delineated and etched on glafs 

 *' figures of men, fome naked and fome drefTed, and all kinds of animals, flowers, plants, 

 ** trees, and fhrubs, in a manner perfectly natural, and perfectly eafy." The fame is men- 

 tioned in Schneider's Biography of the Artifts of Germany,. 1 740, p. 37. 



How the above artift prepared his corrofive is iiot mentioned by any of the above 

 •authors. It is, therefore, very probable, that he kept his art a fecret, as it feems that the 



• Doppelmair's Hiftory of the Artifts of Nuremberg, 1734^ p. 16. 



f Wagenfeili Comment, de Civifeate Norimbergenfi, Altdorf, 1697. 4to. p. 154. 



3 leccipt 



