118 
SECOND EGYPTIAN ROOM. 
[upper 
eight Christian subjects miay be distinguished. The mosaic glass, and 
especially that imitating various stones, was much used to line the 
•walls, or to form the pavements of rooms. Very clever imitations of 
gems were made, and the glass intaglios and cameos have preserved to 
us designs of some of the greatest gem engravers; being generally 
moulded from gems, and not themselves engraved. 
After the fall of the Koman empire the glass works of the West must 
have gone to decay ; of glass of the Anglo-Saxon period there are in the 
Slade Collection only three specimens, a tumbler with a convex base» 
from Selzen (No. 319), and two cups found in Kent. Those from 
the General Collection (Case 52, 53) are more numerous. In the 
East, glass making was still continued, probably in the neighbourhood 
of Damascus. There are in the collection some very fine specimens, 
all decorated with enamel and gilding. (Case 44, 45). Two lamps from 
mosques, made, according to the inscriptions, for Seifeddiu Takuzde- 
mur. Viceroy of Egypt, a.d. 1341, and Governor of Damascus in 1343,. 
who died at Cairo in 1345. A third lamp was made for the Emir 
Skeykhoo, who died in 1356. There are likewise two fine bottles. 
To a later period belong some Persian specimens (Nos. 341-3), and a 
few Chinese ; two of the latter bear the name of the Emperor Kien- 
lung, 1736-96. 
The earliest known specimens of Venetian glass are of the fifteenth 
century. The earlier examples seem to have the forms of silver plate^ 
and are frequently massive, and richly gilt and enamelled. One of the 
largest examples in the collection is a covered standing cup, with gilt 
ribs (No. 362). Two of the earliest, and also most elaborate speci- 
mens, are a green goblet with portraits (No. 361), and a blue cup 
with a triumph of Venus (No. 363). The shallow ribbed bowls, or 
dishes, are very handsome, and have frequently coats of arms in the 
centre ; on one of them (No. 371) are the arms of the Doge Lorenzo- 
Loredano, 1501-21, another (No. 372) has those of Leo X., 1513- 
21 ; a third (No. 374), those of Fabrizio Caretto, Grand Master of 
the Order of St. John, ] 513-21. 
The vases of blown glass are frequently very elegant, especially 
those in uncoloured glass ; the stems are very often decorated with 
knots, wings, and fantastic additions in blue glass. Vases were alsa 
made entirely or partially of coloured glass, generally blue, purple, or 
green; sometimes a milky opalescent colour was produced, due, it 
is said, to arsenic; also an opaque white, derived probably from 
tin, which is further diversified with splashes of other colours. An- 
other kind of variegated glass, which was called calcedonio, exhibits 
the streaky hues of the onyx, and was occasionally sprinkled with avan- 
turine spots. 
Great use was also made by the Venetians of rods of glass enclosing 
threads of opaque white glass (laticinio), arranged in various patterns. 
Thus was produced the elegant lace glass (Vetro di triiia) in which 
Venice was unrivalled. Another variety (a reticelli) is ornamented 
with a network of opaque white lines, enclosing at the intersections, 
bubbles of air. A goblet of this kind (No. 682) has in the foot a half 
