26 
House & Garden 
The top of the milk- 
white and ruby dish shown 
opposite has a floral con¬ 
tour and decorations 
BEGINNING WITH BOHEMIAN GLASS 
Revived Interest hi this JI are Ajfords a Good Opportunity for the New 
Collector—The History of the Glass 
O NE never quite 
realizes h o w 
many sorts of glass 
there are until com¬ 
ing to collect them. 
Before the mysteries 
of their history have 
come to be revealed 
to the rider of hob¬ 
bies, glass will, per¬ 
haps, have beeir just 
glass to him, beauti¬ 
ful or unbeautiful 
as the case might be, 
and cherished or re¬ 
jected accordingly. 
But once the collec¬ 
tor comes within the 
thrall of its study, 
he finds that glass 
presents astonishing variety, a histor}', too, as 
fascinating as it is voluminous. In the “long 
and fair gallery” of his imaginary Temple of 
Solomon, Francis Bacon awarded a foremost 
place to a statue of the inventor of glass, “in 
recognition of its extraordinary usefulness to 
the civilized man.” 
“Who,” said Dr. Johnson, “when he saw 
the first sand or ashes by a casual intenseness 
of heat melted into a metallic form, rugged 
with excrescences and crowded with impuri¬ 
ties, would have imagined that in this shape¬ 
less lump lay concealed so many conveniences 
GARDNER TEALL 
of life as would in time constitute a great part 
of the happiness of the world ? I'hus was the 
first artificer in glass occupied, though with¬ 
out his own knowledge or expectation. He 
was facilitating and prolonging the enjoyment 
of light, enlarging the avenues of science, and 
conferring the highest and most lasting pleas¬ 
ures; he was enabling the student to contem¬ 
plate nature and the beauty to behold 
herself.” 
These decanters in ruby, white and claret col¬ 
ored glass are engraved to show the crystal 
color of the cut surfaces 
Originating in Egypt, conveyed thence to 
Greece and Rome, flourishing in Byzantium 
only to languish there or to be carried into the 
barbaric north, later to reappear, the art ot 
glassmaking underwent many vicissitudes in 
its earlier days. 
Time has been extraordinarily gentle with 
much ancient glass. Quantities of glass ob¬ 
jects dating from antiquity have been recovered 
from the sands of centuries in which they lay 
buried and have come to us whole, despite 
their fragility, whereas metal objects contem¬ 
porary with them have been excavated from 
the same spots so corroded by rust as to have 
lost their original forms. Our museums— 
notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New 
Fork, and many American private collections 
—are rich in specimens of ancient glass. 
Considering its historic interest and intrinsic 
beauty, it is remarkable that objects of this 
sort should still be offered to collectors at such 
reasonable prices. The study of ancient glass 
is interesting, even if one does not collect it. 
For instance, the collector of Bohemian glass, 
that interesting ruby-colored and claret-col¬ 
ored fabrique—there are, of course, also other 
colors to be met with in Bohemian glass— 
will be interested in a study of the evolution 
of color in glass as disclosed in ancient pieces 
and in the literar}" references contemporary 
with or following their manufacture. 
d'he Egyptians had glass of blue, green, 
)ellow and jasper-red, amethyst purple, but 
Ruby glass decanter 
with rococo decor¬ 
ations 
Late l&th Century ruby glass Of early \9lh Century workmanship are these tumblers and bottle of red White and gold engraved Bo- 
goblet engraved with hunting Bohemian glass. The tumblers have the stained surfaces cut away and hemian glass claret tumbler 
engraved with scalloped rim 
