GLASS
History.
THE art of glass-making, unlike that of pottery, would
appear not to have been discovered and practised by
different nations independently, but to have gradually
spread from a single centre. No trace of it was observed
among the inhabitants of America at the time when that
continent was discovered, although considerable progress
in the arts had been made by some among them, e.g.,
the Mexicans and Peruvians; but the steps by which it
reached China may be indicated with much probability.
The credit of the invention was given by the ancients to
the Phoenicians, as is shown by the well-known story of its
fortuitous discovery by Phoenician merchants, who rested
their cooking pots on blocks of natron (sub-carbonate of
soda), and found glass produced by the union under heat of
the alkali and the sand of the shore (Pliny, Nat. Hist., xxxvi. 26, 65). A glassy mass may, however, be produced
in the smelting of many metallic ores, silica being present,
while the fuel supplies the alkali ; or by the combustion of
great masses of reeds or straw, in which the elements of
glass are present,—lnmps of coarse imperfect glass being
often found on the spot where a stack of wheat has been
burned. Now the Egyptians practised metallurgic operations from a very early period, and vast heaps of straw are,
and no doubt have been from the earliest times, accumulated in that country, and probably not unfrequently set on
fire. The adoption of glass as a substance capable of being
made subservient to the use of mankind may therefore be
due to the intelligence of some one who noticed its fortuitous production there. Be this as it may, by far the earliest
examples of glass existing of which the dates are attested
by inscriptions are of Egyptian origin. The earliest of
these, a small lion's head of opaque blue glass of very fine
colour, but changed externally to an olive green, was found
at Thebes by Signor Drovetti, and is now in the British
Museum;[1] on the underside are hieroglyphics containing
the name of N uantef IV., whose date according to Lepsius’s
chronology was 2423–2380 b.c. A bead of dusky green
glass bears the przcnomen of Hatasu, a queen who is con-
jectured to have lived about 1450 b.c. (Wilkinson, illmmers
and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. 1. 88).
That such may be the real dates of these objects is confirmed by the fact that glass bottles containing red wine
are represented on monuments of the fourth dynasty,
more than 4000 years old; and in the tombs at Beni
Hasan, dating from the reign of Usurtesen I., at least
2000 years b.c., the process of glass-blowing is represented
in an unmistakable manner (Wilkinson, vol. iii. p. 89).
Very many examples of glass found in Egypt may be seen
in museums, but, as they rarely bear inscriptions, it would
be difficult to trace the progress of the art through them ;
no competent person has hitherto undertaken the task. The
manufacture probably continued to flourish as well during
the period of the native monarchy as in that of the Greek
dynasty ; and its importance after the subjugation of the
country to Rome was probably even increased by the
new market then opened to its products. Martial (Ep,
xxi. 74) alludes to the importation of Egyptian glass int)
Rome; and it is mentioned in an ordinance of Aurelian.
Hadrian in a letter addressed to the consul Servianus men-
tions glass-blowing as one of the chief industrial occupations
of the inhabitants of Alexandria. The manufacture was
not confined to that city, but was also carried on in the
lower Diospolis on Lake Mensaleh, as appears by a passage
in the Periplus Maris Erythræi (c. 6).
Much of the Egyptian glass was uncoloured and of a somewhat dusky hue; of the coloured and ornamental varieties perhaps the most characteristic examples are the small vases usually in the form of either alabastra or amphorae, but occasionally in that of an Egyptian column. In these the prevailing colour is a deep transparent blue; but not unfrequently the colour of the body of the vase is some shade of pale buff, fawn, or white (an imitation probably of arragonite, Egyptian alabaster), sometimes deep green, and in rare cases red. In almost every example the surface is ornamented by bands of colour, white, yellow, or tor- quoise blue, forming zigzag lines ; in some examples there are only two or three such lines, in others the whole surface is covered by them. These lines are incorporated with the surface of the vessel, but do not penetrate through its entire thickness. By the Greeks and Etruscans such vessels were evidently much valued; the amphorae have been occasion- ally found in tombs, furnished with a stand of gold. In Rhodes and elsewhere they have been found associated with objects which probably do not date from an earlier period than the 3d or 4th century before Christ, and it does not appear that they are met with in tombs later than the Christian era; when coloured or ornamental glass vessels are discovered in these last, they are of a different character. Another species of glass manufacture in which the Egyptians would appear to have been peculiarly skilled is the so-called mosaic glass, formed by the union of rods of various colours in such a manner as to form a pattern ; the rod so formed was then reheated and drawn out until reduced to a very small size, a square inch or less, and divided into tablets by being cut transversely, each of these tablets presenting the pattern traversing its substance and visible on each face. This process was no doubt first practised in Egypt, and is never seen in such perfection as in objects of a decidedly Egyptian character in design or in colour. Very beautiful pieces of ornament of an architectural character are met with, which probably once served as decorations of caskets or other small pieces of furniture, or of trinkets; also tragic masks, human faces, and birds. Some of the last-named are represented with such truth of colouring and delicacy of detail that even the separate feathers of the wings and tail are well distinguished, although, as in an example in the British Museum, a human-headed hawk, the piece which contains the figure may not exceed three-fourths of an inch in its largest dimension. Works of this description probably belong to the period when Egypt passed under Roman domination, as similar objects, though of inferior delicacy, appear to have been made in Rome.
art from Egypt ; whether this be so or not, they undoubtedly practised it from a very early period and to a very large extent. Probably much the same processes were employed in Phoenicia and Egypt during some centuries before the Christian era, as they certainly were in Phoenicia, Egypt, and Rome for some centuries after. It seems probable that the earliest products of the industry of Phoenicia in the art of glass-making are the coloured beads which have been found in almost all parts of Europe, in India and other parts of Asia, and in Africa. The “aggry ” beads, so much valued by the Ashantees and other natives of that part of Africa which lies near the Gold Coast, have probably the same origin. These coloured beads are usually of
opaque glass; they exhibit great variety of colour and
- ↑ See introduction to Catalogue of Glass Vessels in the South K071- :mgtcm Museum, where an engraving of it is given.
