Reminiscences of Glass-making

by Deming Jarves

THE ROYAL CLARENCE VASE.

William Hone, in his "Day-Book" for 1831, says, "This superb glass vase, designed by John Gunby, and exhibited at the Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, London, is an immense basin of copper, and its iron shaft or foot clothed with two thousand four hundred pieces of glass, construct a vase fourteen feet high and twelve feet wide across the brim, weighing upwards of eight tons, and capable of holding eight pipes of wine. Each piece of glass is richly cut with mathematical precision and beautifully colored; the colors are gold, ruby, emerald, &c.; the colored pieces being cemented upon the metal body and rendered air-tight. The exterior is a gem-like surface of inconceivable splendor; on a summer afternoon it forms a mass of brilliancy. The vase, by illumination of gas alone, glittered like diamonds upon melted gold. Mr. Reingale says the human mind, in all of its extensive range of thought, is not able to conceive a splendid glass vase cut in a more elaborate and novel way. At the first sight one is confounded with astonishment, and knows not whether what we see is real, or whether on a sudden we have not been transported to another globe. To England is due the honor of its production, and it comes from the hands of one of its numerous celebrated artists, Mr. Gunby. The precious metal, gold, glitters in all its glory, intermixed, or rather united with extraordinary beauty of cutting and rich and splendid enamelled painting. One is at a loss whether most to admire the shape, the gorgeous brilliancy, the sparkle of the gems, the beauty of the cutting, the enamelling, the general conception, or the immense bulk of this magnificent and astounding work of art."

The "Scientific American" states, "The troupe of glass-blowers at Hope Chapel furnish a very interesting evening's entertainment for those who are fond of practical things. A steam-engine, most beautifully constructed of different colored glass, is worked by steam all the time. The nature of the material affords an opportunity to see all the several parts moving at once, and it is really a very curious sight, even to an engineer, and one that will well repay a visit."

Among the numerous specimens of ancient glass now in the British Museum, there are enough of the Egyptian and Roman manufacture to impress us with profound respect for the art as pursued by the earlier workers in glass. Among them is a fragment considered as the ne plus ultra of the chemical and manipulatory skill of the ancient workers. It is described as consisting of no less than five layers or strata of glass, the interior layer being of the usual blue color, with green and red coatings, and each strata separated from and contrasted with the others by layers of white enamel, skilfully arranged by some eminent artist of the Grecian school. The subject is a female reposing upon a couch, executed in the highest style of art. It presents a fine specimen of gem engraving. Among the articles made of common material are a few green vases about fifteen inches high, in an excellent state of preservation, and beautiful specimens of workmanship. In the formation of the double handles and curves, these vases evince a degree of skill unattained by the glass-blowers of the present period.

The cases in the Egyptian room at the Museum contain several necklaces, small figures, scarabæi, and other objects, which would appear to an ordinary observer to be composed of precious stones. They are, in fact, at least most of them, formed either of glass throughout the whole substance, or of materials covered with a glass coating. The manufacture of articles of this description presupposes a market for them; and the desire upon the part of the less affluent members of society to possess, at a cheap rate, ornaments in imitation of their superiors, necessarily leads to the conclusion that, even at the most ancient of the periods I have mentioned, the Egyptians had made a remarkable advance in the customs of civilized life. The Museum cases also exhibit networks of glass bugles, with which the wrappers of mummies were often decorated; and there is abundance of evidence to show that wine was frequently served at table in glass bottles and cups. Alexander the Great is said to have been buried at Alexandria in a coffin composed wholly of glass.

The specimens taken from the tombs at Thebes are also numerous. Their rich and varied colors are proofs of the chemical and inventive skill of the ancients. These specimens embrace not only rich gems and mosaic work, but also fine examples of the lachrymatory vase. Some of the vases are made from common materials, with very great skill and taste. The specimen of glass coin, with hieroglyphical characters, must not be omitted; as also a miniature effigy of the Egyptian idol "Isis"; a specimen of which proves that the Egyptians must have been acquainted with the art of pressing hot glass into metallic moulds, an art which has been considered of modern invention. English glass-makers considered the patent pillar glass a modern invention until a Roman vase was found (it is now to be seen in the Polytechnic Institution in London), being a complete specimen of pillar moulding. Pillat states in his work that he had seen an ancient drinking vessel of a Medrecan form, on a foot of considerable substance, nearly entire, and procured from Rome, which had the appearance of having been blown in an open-and-shut mould, the rim being afterwards cut off and polished. This is high authority, and, with other evidences that might be cited, goes far to prove that the ancients used moulds for pressing, and also for blowing moulded articles, similar to those now in use.

Pompeian window-glass, of which panes have been discovered as large as twenty by twenty-eight inches, has proved, on examination, to have been cast in a manner similar to that now followed in making plate-glass, except that it was not rolled flat, as now, by metal cylinders, but pressed out with a wooden mallet, so that its thickness is not uniform.

A glass has been discovered at Pompeii, about the size of a crown piece, with a convexity, which leads one to suppose it to be a magnifying lens. Now, it has been said that the ancients were not aware of this power, and the invention is given to Galileo by some, to a Dutchman, in 1621, by others, while a compound microscope is attributed to one Fontana, in the seventeenth century. But without a magnifying glass, how did the Greeks and Romans work those fine gems which the human eye is unable to read without the assistance of a glass? There is one in the Naples Royal Collection, for example, the legend of which it is impossible to make out, unless by applying a magnifying power. The glass in question, with a stone ready cut and polished for engraving, are now to be seen in the Museum of Naples.

Specimens of colored glass, pressed in beautiful forms for brooches, rings, beads, and similar ornaments, are numerous. Of those of Roman production many specimens have been found in England. Some of these were taken from the Roman barrows. In Wales glass rings have been found; they were vulgarly called "snake stones," from the popular notion that they were produced by snakes, but were in fact rings used by the Druids as a charm with which to impose upon the superstitious. We find, too, that the specific gravity of the specimens referred to ranges from 2034 to 3400, proving oxide of lead to have been used in their manufacture; the mean gravity of modern flint-glass being 3200.

From what we gather from the foregoing facts, we are inclined to the belief that, in fine fancy work, in colors, and in the imitation of gems, the ancient glass-makers excelled the modern ones. They were also acquainted with the art of making and using moulds for blown and pressed glass, and forming what in England is now called patent pillar glass. All these operations, however, were evidently on a very limited scale, their views being mainly directed to the production of small but costly articles. Although in the time of the Roman manufacturers vases of extra size were made, requiring larger crucibles and furnaces than those used by the glass-makers of Tyre, yet it is evident that they produced few articles except such as were held sacred for sepulchral purposes, or designed for luxury. And while they possessed the knowledge of the use of moulds to press and blow glass by expansion, it does not appear that they produced any articles for domestic use. If it were not thus, some evidences would be found among the various specimens which have been preserved.