106 Mr Wilson on the State of the Arts in Italy. 



ornaments and figures ; this is an art in which the Italians 

 shew much taste and dexterity, so much dexterity indeed that 

 they sell numbers of antique bronzes of modern fabric yearly 

 to soi-disant antiquaries, who, however, neither possess that 

 extensive learning nor profound experience and correct taste 

 necessary to constitute such a character. It is much the prac- 

 tice in Rome to take moulds from real lizards and to cast them 

 in bronze ; these make very pretty ornaments for the table. 

 I regret that I am unable to give you an idea of the value set 

 upon these works. 



The manufacture of glass is pursued with great success in 

 Venice : the numerous glass ornaments for ladies which come 

 thence are well known, and the endless varieties of form and 

 combinations of colour given to glass beads for rosaries and 

 embroidery, or vessels for domestic use, are very ingenious and 

 beautiful. The ruby glass of the 1500 and 1600 can now be 

 imitated so as to make imposition a famous trade, the false 

 being only distinguishable by weight. Glasses are also made 

 in which white threadlike lines of arsenic are incorporated. 

 The process by which they make sheet-glass differs from ours. 

 Instead of being formed into immense circular sheets, the Ve- 

 netian workman blows cylinders of considerable length and 

 diameter ; he then cuts off the two ends of his cylinder, dexte- 

 rously slits it down one side, and spreads it flat on a table in an 

 oven. By this process sheets of a sufficient size are made, and 

 there is no loss as in those fabricated in this country. 



I think that I have lately observed that the process which I 

 have thus briefly described is practised at some manufactory 

 in England. 



The velvets of Genoa, and the exquisitely turned ware of 

 the same place, the straw hats of Tuscany, the silks of Florence, 

 the embroideries of Rome, the musical instruments and musi- 

 cal strings, and, although last not least, the maccaroni, of 

 Naples, are all samples of skill creditable to the Italians. As 

 I never met any one who could guess by what process macca- 

 roni is made into pipes, I have made a drawing of the copper 

 plate (fig. 2.) through which it is squeezed, in case any mem- 

 ber of the society should wish to understand it. 



I shall now request your attention to this lithograph of a 



