118 
SECOND EGYPTIAN ROOM. 
[UPPER 
Assyrian. It has not, however, been found practicable to 
arrange the collections in any chronological order. 
It ma} 7 be sufficient to state, that the Antique Glass from 
the Slade Collection is placed in Table Case F, and the 
Upright Central Case L ; that from the Temple Collection in 
Wall Case 54, 55 ; that from the General Collection in Table 
Case H, and Wall Cases 5 6-61, excepting the Roman and 
Anglo-Saxon Glass found in England, which will be found in 
Wall Case 52, 53. 
The Oriental Glass, which is chiefly from the Slade Col- 
lection, occupies Wall Case 44, 45. The Venetian Glass 
from the Slade Collection is placed in Central Case G, and 
Wall Cases 46-51 ; that from the General Collection in Wall 
Case 42, 43. The French, German, Dutch, and Spanish 
Glass is placed in Upright Central Case K. 
The Egyptians, if not the inventors of making glass, were great 
workers in that substance, and applied a vitreous coating to pottery, and 
even stone. The Egyptian specimens in the Slade Collection are not 
so numerous as those in the Egyptian Collection (Table Case E in the 
same room), but include an elegant vase (No. 14) in the form of a 
papyrus sceptre, made for holding the antimony or stibium to be 
applied to the eyelids, and a very remarkable amulet (Case F) with 
the prenomen of Nuantef IV., a monarch of the Xlth dynasty, placed 
by Lepsius between B.C. 2423 and 2380. 
The glass works of Egypt must have been in full operation under 
the Ptolemies ; and during the Koman dominion they produced very 
elaborate specimens, especially minute mosaic patterns, of which there 
are good examples (No. 92, &c). These were made by arranging in 
the required patterns a number of slender rods of glass of various 
colours, fusing them together, and then drawing them out,. so as to 
reduce the whole uniformly ; transverse sections of the rod thus ob- 
tained would each exhibit the same pattern. 
To the Phoenicians may in all probability be referred the numerous 
little vases of brilliant colours which are found in tombs throughout 
the borders of the Mediterranean (Table Cases F and H). They 
exhibit everywhere the same technical peculiarities, and as they differ 
some-,vhat in form and make from unquestionably Egyptian specimens, 
it is probable that they are the products of the only other great centre 
of glass making, the celebrated works at Sidon. The forms are more 
Greek than Egyptian, frequently alabastra, amphora, and prafericula. 
The colouring is striking, generally in zigzag patterns of yellow, 
turquoise, or white, relieved by blue, brown, or green grounds. There 
are many fine vases of this kind in the collection, as well as one of the 
gold stands made to support them (No. 10). 
To a later period of the Sidonian workshops may probably be re- 
