58 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



mould-marks, which were formed probably by first placing the gathering 

 of glass on the blowing iron into a ridged mould, and then taking it ont and 

 blowing it. Some pieces appear to have been blown into a mould having a 

 diamond pattern, flutings, &c. 



The old tall-stemmed drinking-glasses were made in large numbers in 

 Ireland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; but it is very 

 difficult to distinguish these from English specimens. 



Drinking-glasses, however, with tall stems, often enclosing air or white 

 twists, and having unusually small bowls, appear to be peculiar to Ireland. 



i t is said that coloured glass was made in Ireland in small quantities during 

 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and probably that used as framing to 

 mirrors may have been made in the Dubhn and South of Ireland glass houses. 

 No coloured glass, however, is mentioned in any of the advertisements of the 

 different factories, with the exception that in 1773 William Williams, at his 

 bottle and window-glass manufactory in Dublin, stated " that he made any 

 article of any colour that is made of glass." 



Large quantities of cut glass are made at the present day in England 

 America, and on the Continent, many pieces being exact copies in form and 

 cutting of the old glass. The colour of the modern metal is, however, seldom 

 like that of the old, being far too wliite and brilliant, and the pieces them- 

 selves generally much lighter in weight. As many pieces of this modern 

 glass are passed off as old, this short account of Irish glass cannot be better 

 brought to a close than with the words — Caveat emptor. 



The illustrations are from pieces in the writer's possession, and from 

 drawings of patterns used in the Waterford glass factory about 1820-30. 



