32 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
The glass found in large quantity in Babylonia, and of 
which there are several specimens in the British Museum, is 
also believed to have been made there; and that such glass 
was made under the Median rule is not improbable, though 
hitherto the excavations have been too slight and inadequate 
to substantiate this with certaint3\ It is probable also that 
Persia, which on starting into life succeeded to the inheri- 
tance of the Chaldean, Assyrian, Median and Babj^onian 
civilizations, from the first made a transparent glass. 
If the Hebrew word found in Job. xxviii. 17, literally 
signifying any transparent substance, really means glass, as 
many excellent scholars have thought it does, then the Jews 
must also, at a very earty period, have been acquainted with 
transparent glass; otherwise they would probably have become 
acquainted \vith the art during the Captivity. 
As with the Phoenicians, so with the Egyptians, the man- 
ufacture of horny glass was merely transitional. In both 
cases we find it soon replaced by the crystalline type. Whether 
the Egyptians of themselves excogitated the means of making 
the latter, or learned it from the Phoenicians or Assyrians, it 
is not possible to say; but the intercourse and relationship of 
Egypt with Phoenicia and Assyria were direct and intimate. 
The Phoenicians had a settlement at Memphis; and, after the 
time of Sargon, close resemblances between Assyrian and Egyp- 
tian art are met with, the result, as Mr. Rawlinson believes, either 
of Egyptian artificers working under Assyrian influence, or 
Assyrian artificers working under Egyptian influence. Any 
improvements in the art of making glass known to the Assyrians 
could thus scarcely have been concealed from the Egj'ptians. 
It was probaly through this intercourse with the Phoeni- 
cians, the more early civilized of the two nations, that the 
Greeks learned the art of making glass; crystalline, in their case, 
from the first. 
They do not seem, however, to have had glass in common 
use very early, as it is not mentioned in Plomer, and Hero- 
dotus was evidently not familiarly acquainted with it, as he 
speaks of the molten stone with which the Egyptians adorned 
the ears of the sacred crocodiles, without apparently under- 
standing its true nature, nor did he question that the emerald 
he saw at Tyre was a real one. The other supposed references 
to glass in Herodotus and Aristophanes are not conclusive. 
The earliest perfectly conclusive reference to glass bj' a Greek' 
writer is that of Theophrastus, who describes it distinctly 
as being made out of the sand of the river Belus. The glass 
from Greece, and that iDelieved to be Greek from Cyprus 
and Sicil3^ is usually of a sea-green tint, but beautifully clear 
and transparent, rich in tone, and otherwise of high technical 
excellence. There are some interesting specimens of this glass 
in the Slade collection. 
If crystalline glass was not previously known in Itah^ 
it must have become so after that intercourse of the Romans 
with Greece which ended in its final conquest. Virgfl com- 
pares the clearness of the Fucine lake to glass; and Plorace, 
using it as a standard of comparison for clearness, shows to 
what perfection its manufacture had attained . Pliny compares 
some of the glass at this time to crystal, and it is evident that 
it was esteemed in proportion as it resembled crystal in color- 
lessness and brilliance. He specially refers to the care em- 
ploj^ed in selecting sand; and Strabo, to the discoveries made 
at Rome, both with regard to coloring and mode of working 
especially in the kind of glass resembling crystal. Magnificent 
specimens abound in everj^ collection, so that we need onty 
mention here such masterpieces as the Auldjo, Museo Bour- 
bonico, and Portland vases, all of the most exquisite texture; 
the last so fine that Breval believed it to be chalcedony; 
Bartoli, Montfaucon, and other antiquaries, sardonyx. Pliny 
says, indeed, the Romans imitated precious stones in such a 
manner that it was extremely difficult to distinguish false stones 
from true, the opal, carbuncle, jasper, hyacinth, sapphire, and 
all colored stones. 
Under the fostering care of Rome, the Ancient Phoenician 
and Egyptian glass works flourished; Alexandria especially 
the most wealthy and splendid city in the world, was famed 
for its glass, with which Rome continued to be supplied long 
after Egypt became a province of the Empire. Some vases 
presented by an Egyptian priest to the Emperor Pladrian 
were considered so curious and valuable that they were only 
used on grand occasions. As specimens of late Roman crystal 
glass, of the most complete limpidity, the discs found in the 
catacombs, attributed by Padre Garrucci to the period between 
A. D. 200 and A. D. 400, are remarkable. There are several 
specimens of these curious relics in the British Museum ; also 
one of similar character, found near the Church of St. Ursula, 
at Cologne. 
Pliny, having described the process of the Romans for 
obtaining "vitrum purum, ac massa vitri candidi," adds: 
"Jam vero per Gallias Hispaniasque simili modo arenae tem- 
perantur." Thus, under the fostering influence of Rome, the 
manufacture of glass in tliese countries also was brought to 
comparative perfection. 
A part of the early Teutonic glass was similarly essen- 
tially Roman in character. From the immense amount of 
Roman glass continually discovered, aU of excellent work- 
manship, it can hardly be doubted that the Romans estab- 
lished manufactories in their various colonics. Their suc- 
cessors copied the Roman methods as closety as they were able; 
and there are many specimens of early Anglo-Saxon glass in the 
British Museum and elsewhere, almost indistinguishable from 
Roman in appearance or texture, however much they maj' 
differ in form and ornamentation. The Merovingian glass 
found in France, it is said, has much the same character. — Glass 
and Pottery World. 
(r n\ 
TILE— ALICE WITTE SLOAN 
