§21. EARLY USE OF GLASS. 31 



originated in Egypt is afforded by the oldest records that re- 

 main, of a time too when there is no appearance of its being 

 recorded as a new discovery : and the simple process of glass- 

 blowing is represented in the usual way among the Egyptian 

 sculptures of the time of King Shafre, the founder of the 

 second Pyramid, about 2400 b. c. The process too of staining 

 glass of various colours, is shown to have been employed 

 about the same period ; and the method of cutting and en- 

 graving it is proved by a large bead, bearing the name of one 

 of the Pharaohs, to have been known at least as early as 

 1460 B.C. Glass was one of the exports of the country; one 

 kind could only be made there ; and so celebrated was Egypt 

 for the excellence and abundance of its glass, that it consti- 

 tuted part of the tribute imposed upon the Egyptians by 

 Augustus. It was of the most varied hues ; and the many- 

 coloured ornaments superadded to the surface of the vases, 

 and other objects, and fixed by the blowpipe or the furnace, 

 are referred to by Martial *, and are seen in those many-hued 

 cups found in Egypt (and elsewhere), which are doubtless 

 imitations of the real murrhine f, a stone answering to none 

 other than fluor spar, which bears an evident resemblance 

 to those productions of the Egyptian glass-makers. 



The immense emeralds mentioned by Pliny and others 

 were glass ; so too were many cups and ornamental objects, 

 noted for their richness, in the low ages ; as the supposed 

 emerald dish called " Sagro cateno," of Genoa, which " came 

 into possession of the Genoese, as an equivalent for a large 

 sum of money, at the taking of Csesarea in Syria ; and which, 



* Sec Martial's Epigram, xiv. 115. 



" Adspicis ingenium Nili, quibus addere plura 



Dura cupit, ah quotics pcrdidit auctor opus." 



f Pliny (xxxvi. 26) says this was imitated in glass : " fit et album et mur- 

 rhinum." (See xxxvii. 2.) 



