444 



EXHIBITION, BEITISH INDUSTRIAL. 



effect; combining cheapness, softness, and a 

 certain adaptability of color to almost any com- 

 plexion or dress. 



In the French Court were shown some imi- 

 tations made by M. Savary, including a tiara 

 of mock diamonds and some rings and other 

 ornaments set with paste, rabies and emeralds, 

 exceedingly close imitations of the real, which 

 might be worn at a party without any risk of 

 detection. 



M. Vales showed some real and imitation 

 pearls strung alternately on the same string ; 

 and so well made are the false that unless a 

 jeweller had them in his hand and tested them 

 by the weight and size of the bore, he would 

 be unable to distinguish the imitation from the 

 real. M. Topart had also four strings of pearls, 

 two of them real and two false, which the un- 

 initiated could not distinguish ; yet one may be 

 set down as costing about 8 francs, and the 

 other about 800. 



A fine specimen of Cameo-cutting was ex- 

 hibited, a head of the Emperor of the French 

 an admirable portrait set in diamonds, 

 which was bespoken by the Empress, at the 

 price of 250. 



GLASS. Stained Glass. The display of paint- 

 ed windows in the Exhibition was a very large 

 one, and the first of the kind that has been 

 seen in this country. It was, however, fuller 

 of promise than performance, in the original 

 treatment of subjects, in place of copying epo- 

 chal styles and methods of execution. 



Household and Fancy Glass. The manufac- 

 tures of works of art in glass proved as attrac- 

 tive as any class of the Exhibition ; the Aus- 

 trian glass was good in color, and in their 

 chandeliers was most effectively and artistical- 

 ly arranged; the Bohemian and Hungarian 

 glass are special manufactures which were also 

 admirably represented in the building ; but the 

 pure cut crystal glass, for exquisite forms, 

 whether cut, blown, or moulded, and, above 

 all, for the very highest effects of the engraver's 

 art, the visitor found in the English Court. 

 The display was really wonderful. Here were 

 such triumphs of the engraver's art as Venice 

 never knew ; even wine-glasses fetched 6 and 

 7 apiece. There were lustres and chande- 

 liers, too, of all descriptions and almost every 

 grade of excellence from the simple classic 

 design of Dobson and Pearce, worth 12, up 

 to the gorgeous crystal temple of Defries, 

 which cost over 3000 to manufacture. 



First, for fine art work, both in form and 

 marvellous perfection of engraving, was the 

 ollection shown by Dobson and Pearce. One 

 of the great gems in this collection an en- 

 graved glass tazza, 12 inches high, was pur- 

 chased almost the first day it was shown for 

 250 guineas, incomparably the largest sum ever 

 paid for a single and very small piece of 

 modern glass work. The panels in the cup, 

 with their fine cup designs, are as delicately 

 marked as steel engravings and as deep as in- 

 taglios, all cut with the wheel, even to the 



minutest chasing of its flower scroll-work. A 

 very small engraved Cup, not much larger than 

 an ordinary tumbler, exquisitely engraved, was 

 bought for 50 guineas the first hour it was 

 seen. No piece of Venetian glass of the same 

 size ever fetched so high a price. 



A claret jug sold for 50 guineas, one side of 

 which is deeply cut with a grotesque Baffael- 

 esque design, of surpassing excellence ; the foliage 

 scroll-work apes, dragons, and other monsters 

 being a perfect chapter, on the weird com- 

 binations of Eaffaelesque ornament. The birds 

 in this piece seem to have an actual plumage, 

 so exquisitely is every feather worked out in 

 the cutting. In a somewhat similar work, the 

 centre ornament is a group of water-lilies float- 

 ing in a lake, produced with an effect almost 

 equal to an optical delusion. So also with 

 fountains on another class of works they are 

 not so much engraved as they seem to flow and 

 ripple from the very body of the vase. Above 

 Messrs. Dobson's collection was hung a won- 

 derful Venetian chandelier, of their modern 

 manufacture, which in design and drooping of 

 festoons was equal to the rarest old Venice 

 types, only much more brilliant in its metal. 

 In this collection were also shown the cheap- 

 est, simplest, and most beautiful designs of Mr. 

 Marsh, of the Lord Chamberlain's office, for table 

 decoration, which took the first prize at the 

 Horticultural Society's fete last year. Messrs. 

 Phillips exhibited in the form of a Crystal 

 Table, the most brilliant piece of cut glass in 

 the building. Behind it was placed a kind of 

 epergne, or centre-piece for fruit and flowers, 

 representing a pool with weeds and bulrushes 

 in glass, and surrounded with nautilus -shells at 

 the base, which altogether made up the most 

 original and effective piece of this class in the 

 display. Both these were manufactured by 

 Messrs. "Webb, of Stourbridge. Messrs. Pel- 

 latt's engraved glass also attracted such admira- 

 tion that the firm received orders to make large 

 dessert services of the same kind for the Prince 

 of Wales and the Viceroy of Egypt : each ser- 

 vice is to be so elaborate in design that many 

 months will be required to complete them. 

 The same firm showed cups, tumblers, and jugs 

 of the most beautiful forms, covered with a 

 perfect embroidery of exquisitely engraved 

 designs : their copies of the Koh-i-noor in crys- 

 tal glass, cut in the form in which this great 

 diamond was first exhibited in 1851, were in- 

 finitely more brilliant than the renowned gem 

 on its first debut. 



But in the general average of his exhibi- 

 tion of Cut Glass, Alderman Copeland had no 

 superior. The jewelled dessert service of the 

 brightest crystal, was a signal triumph of manu- 

 facturing skill : each piece has a lustre of its 

 own that is brilliant beyond description. 



One of the newest and most effective objects 

 in Decorative Glass was shown by Powell and 

 Co. These were vases of double glass, the 

 outer one of pure flint, the inner colored to 

 resemble dark serpentine marble. Between 



