Among Glass Cements in common use which can be recommended are the well-known Polytechnic, also the Imperial Liquid Glue (no heating required), Hayden & Co., Warwick Square, London. There is also a very good glass cement made and sold by Keye, filter-maker, Hill Street, Birmingham.
The Venetians made ordinary glass goblets very beautiful by painting on them in relief with a substance which I suspect was in some cases a form of silicate, or else with a kind of paint which was not enamel, yet which seems to have been partly vitreous. It rather resembles oil paint with glass powder, but I doubt if it was this.
Working in glass implies the mending and restoration of stained-glass windows; that is, of painting on glass and a study of designs. Of all this there is almost a literature. Among other works I can commend A Book of Ornamental Glazing Quarries, by A. W. Franks, £1, 1s.; Divers Works of Early Masters in Ecclesiastical Decoration, by Owen Jones, £3, 10s.; Westlake’s History of Stained Glass, vol. i., Fourteenth Century, 13s. 6d.; vol. iii., Fifteenth Century, 18s., published by Batsford, 52 High Holborn. At Rimmel’s, in Oxford Street, the reader can generally obtain these, and all works on similar subjects at prices much below the original cost.
A mending cement for glass is made as follows:—
| Common cheese | 100 |
| Water | 50 |
| Slacked lime | 20 |
This is found in many books of recipes. It must be observed that the cheese is to be for sometime carefully pounded with the water till quite soft, and the lime then very quickly stirred in. This is not only useful to mend glass, but can be applied to many other purposes. The cheese is best when fresh.
Caseine (or pure cheese) can be combined with ease with liquid silicate of soda (Lehner), and thus forms a very strong cement for porcelain or glass, or any other material. Fill a flask with one-fourth of fresh caseine to three-fourths of silicate, and shake it thoroughly and frequently.
Another formula is as follows:—
| Caseine | 10 |
| Silicate of soda | 60 |
This must be used very promptly, and the article mended dried in the air.