essential for controlled expansion of molten glass. It is not outside the bounds of possibility that a form of decorating solid glass preceded the art of glass blowing. The presumed earliest form of ornamentation was by a process of uniting particles of the molten material with the surface of a previously partly fashioned form, and then by the aid of certain instruments and processes so distributing this applied material as to form a pattern or imitation of something else than glass, some natural growth or chalcedonic marking. Examples of beads so decorated are known and with an antiquity attributed to them more remote than that of the blown glass objects of similar characteristics there is ground for this argument. Glass workers of Egypt, Rome and Venice all produced ornamental effects by methods easily traceable to this primitive means of bringing molten glass under control. possesses an advantage in being the most rapid of all the non-mechanical forms of patterning glass, the depositing movements being almost momentary.

It

Phoenician.-It has been argued that though the discovery of glass was made in Egypt, and by the Egyptians, the invention was put into practical form upon Phoenician ground, that Phoenician sand was used in its manufacture, and that its merchants were the first traders in the commodity, distributing it extensively over a large area in a day when transportation was not at all easy. Much of the glass made by the Phoenicians could scarcely be distinguished from that made in Egypt, but they had some characteristics peculiar to themselves. It is claimed that the colored glass bead originated there, was made most extensively and formed a considerable part of the merchandise with which they traded when traveling over Europe, India and other parts of the East, and into Africa. Discoveries in ancient tombs suggest they made many of the class of small vases associated with mortuary practices. Though small objects many of them personal ornaments appear to have been the principal part of the Phoenician production, they shared with Egypt a reputation for making large statues, obelisks and columns in green glass, possibly imitative of the emerald. In some classes of production the Phoenicians reached the greatest perfection, and possibly owing to their trading facilities the output of their workshops was larger than any others of their period.

China and India. The earliest period of glass-making by the Chinese has been put at about two centuries B.C. Whether they discovered their own processes or developed the inventions of earlier craftsmen is not known, but it was not at all unlikely that the making of glass in the early Chinese form was associated with their efforts in the glazing of pottery, a science in which they excelled. Chinese forms and color effects in glass are suggestive of perhaps earlier work in carving objects from rock crystals, jade and precious stones; an art in which they were among the earliest experts. They made a species of glass known as lieou-li, capable of being worked into imitation pearls. Another kind of glass was named po-li. While some of the Chinese glass showed a distinct attempt to imitate natural stone forms and effects one of their early experts reversed the

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order and was accredited with being able, by means of fire, to change stones into crystal. There is no connected history regarding Chinese glass, but occasional record suggests a regular continuation of the industry. In the 7th and 12th centuries there is mention of its use in valuable objects for presentation purposes. The city of Djan-kou is mentioned as a glassmaking centre in the 12th century. A 16th century writer eulogized a specimen of Chinese glass as "a fragment of that matter whereof the heavens consist." The work of the Chinese glass maker has been of great assistance to craftsmen in western Europe during the last century, and some of the most artistic glassware of modern times has resulted from the study of its features.

Ancient Indian glass bore a striking resemblance to that made by the Chinese of the same period.

Greece. There is not much history to support the association of the Greeks with glassmaking before our era, but mention is made of the use of "cups of glass," for drinking purposes in the 5th century B.C., and burning glasses were also known at that time. Glass for architectural decoration was known to have been used by the Greeks in a very early period.

About the time when the Barberini (Portland) vase - universally regarded as the finest example of ancient glass extant came into the possession of the Portland family (1784), there arose a question as to whether this gem was of Greek or Roman origin. While it was known the Romans had very extensively produced this class of form-for sepulchral purposes - and excelled in the art of carving glass; that the urn was found in a Roman tomb, and was supposed to contain the ashes of a Roman emperor, there were certain characteristics which were decidedly more suggestive of Greek than Roman origin. Some of the critics not only maintained that it was of Greek origin but that it was the work of Phidias himself. Possibly this theory was suggested by the similarity between the low-relief carving upon the vase, and the bas-relief sculptures, by Phidias, upon the walls of the temple of Minerva at Athens. If it could be proved to be the work of Phidias (about 430 B.C.), or even of his time, it would be quite as much a tribute to the science of the chemist who compounded the materials, and the skill of the craftsman who fashioned the urn itself, as to the artist who sculptured the figures upon it; that particular form of ornamentation being then at its best in Greece, while the class of glass-making was not perfected till six centuries later at Rome.

Rome. An authority upon ancient glass has made the assertion that during the period of the Roman Empire the manufacture of glass reached a point of development which in some respects has never been excelled nor even perhaps equalled. This statement was supported by an enumeration of some of the purposes to which the Roman glass was put, and the variety and extent of its production. Then, as now, the article for domestic use was the largest item of production, and this could be set down to the absence in those days of any suitable kind of glazed pottery for the same purposes. An enormous amount of glass was used for architectural decoration and also for personal ornaments. The wealth and luxury of Rome

had a stimulating effect upon the production of the most costly works of art in several varieties of glass, and no other period has been so prolific in this sense. Pure crystalline glass was the most valued of any kind, and was more costly than the precious metals. Vessels: for sacramental purposes, and urns as receptacles for the ashes of the dead, were extensively used throughout the whole period; the most precious examples of glass manufacture were those deposited in sepulchres; as many as 20 specimens have been found in a single tomb. The manufacture of artificial gems in glass was brought to great perfection. Roman glass of all kinds was exported very extensively as has been proved by the abundance of examples and fragments discovered at widely distributed points away from Rome.

Notwithstanding the prodigious output in each of the several varieties, it is a remarkable fact that there were few large glass-making establishments, a great part of the production being provided by artificers working on a small scale. The period was also remarkable for the variety of colors employed in glass-making, for the numerous processes of manipulation and for the large number of decorative motives; and it is astonishing to what proficiency the glass worker had attained in all these matters. Among colors, blues and greens were most largely used, with many shades of each; then followed purple, amber, brown and rose color. These were transparent colors. In opaque colors, white, red, blue-in tones from lapis lazuli to turquoise,-yellow, green and orange. The yellows and greens were in various tones also. These were mainly self-colors but the range was extended by manipulating processes. A most interesting, and technically a very difficult, process in manipulation occurs in the making of the blank forms used in the glass we know as "cameo." The Portland vase is the best-known example of this class. The Romans produced a vast quantity of it, though it is not quite certain that they originated either the methods of uniting the two bodies of glass required for the cameo effect, or the processes of sculpturing the ornamentation. Transparent blue was the usual ground color for cameo glass and opaque white almost invariably the coating from which the ornamentation was carved. Occasionally other colors were used. In this case the opaque white was inside the vessel, then a strata of clear glass and then the color or colors from which the ornament was fashioned. Pressed glass was one of the processes for certain forms of cameo. Discs, medallions and panels were produced in large quantities where replicas were required to complete a decorative scheme. It was not usual to duplicate vase forms in cameo ornamentation.

Black glass was largely used in making articles upon which food was served. It was also used as was brown and other colors - in making imitations of onyx. The various uses to which glass of the "mosaic" class could be put were made the most of by the Roman workmen, though some of the motives were of Egyptian origin. The "mille fiori" class, imitations of porphyry, and serpentine, agates and granites, were used in architectural decorations, even to pavements and wall tiles. The manipulation of threads of colored glass into patternings of the "vitro di trina" order was a well-practised art.

A well-practised form of decorating glass by use of gold leaf was invented by the Romans. The gold was embedded in the substance of glass at first, but later a patterning was made of it on the surface. These patternings were occasionally embellished by a second application of molten colored glass enclosing the gold leaf. By one, or both, of these methods, pictorial effects were occasionally produced. Inscriptions in this ornamental form sometimes appeared. In the manufacture of personal ornaments in glass, a process and effect very nearly approaching the cloisonné of later times, was carried to a high state of perfection by the Roman craftsmen. An effect, very much of the appearance of the "deposit" silver of our own time was made at Rome, but by directly opposite processes. The design was pierced in the silver vessel and the colored glass blown into it. The same idea has been experimented with in quite recent times, but the annealing process developed difficulties.

Malleable glass was talked of at Rome. It evidently was considered a menace to the industry, as the invention and the inventor passed out tragically by the edict of a Cæsar. Glass toughened by annealing in oil is its modern equivalent.

Glass prisms were known; "when the sun shone through them they gave the colors of the rainbow." Here we have the early form of the chandelier pendant. Magnifying glasses and lenses were also known.

The Romans preserved their choicest wines in amphora of glass. Window glass was used by the Romans at a time when mica, alabaster and certain kinds of shells were also capable mediums for transmitting light into the homes.

Though the Romans knew that highly polished black glass, or clear glass blackened on one side, would reflect images, it is not known for certain whether or not they made glass mirrors. The manufacture of Roman glass appears to have weakened as an industry after the fall of the empire, in all branches except mosaics. This class seems to have been continued, though with varying success, up to the 9th century.

Eastern Countries and Byzantine.- The art of glass-making seems to have been cultivated in ancient time in most of the Eastern countries, and though there is no way of linking the present with the past in this connection, there is little doubt the chain has not been broken for any lengthened period, and glass is made to-day in some of the countries that saw the blow-pipe operating in pre-Christian times. One writer says "Glass furnaces flamed on the Syrian coast for 25 centuries." Another "The Sidonians carried the art of glass-making to great perfection"; and mention is made of "the celebrated Tyrian glass." Glass was made at Antioch by the Jews; at Damascus; at Shiraz in Persia; at Smyrna. A large part of the ancient glass manufacture was in small objects, as vases, perfume bottles, personal ornaments and articles for sacred purposes. Articles of general utility were but a small part of the product. It may be, however, that such articles are unknown to us from the fact that they were not of sufficient interest or value to preserve. There were also some curious purposes to which glass was put. In the 12th century "a coffin of glass" is mentioned; also a