The writer referred to above states that there were two modes of manufacturing glass. One he denominates that of the "Great Glass-Houses," the other the "Small Glass-Houses." In the large houses the manufacture of window-glass, and bottles for wine or other liquors, was carried on. He states:—
"The gentlemen of the Great Glass-Houses work only twelve hours, but that without resting, as in the little ones, and always standing and naked. The work passes through three hands. First, the gentlemen apprentices gather the glass and prepare the same. It is then handed to the second gentlemen, who are more advanced in the art. Then the master gentleman takes it, and makes it perfect by blowing it. In the little glass-houses, where they make coach-glasses, drinking-glasses, crystals, dishes, cups, bottles, and such like sort of vessels, the gentlemen labor but six hours together, and then more come and take their places, and after they have labored the same time they give places to the first; and thus they work night and day, the same workmen successively, as long as the furnace is in a good condition."
Every glass-maker will perceive, from the foregoing description, that the same system prevails at the present time, as to the division of labor and period of labor, so far at least as "blown articles" are concerned. The names, too, then given to glass-makers' tools are retained to the present day, and, with slight difference, the shapes of the various tools are the same.
At the best, the manufacturers of glass in France were for a long period much inferior to the Venetians and Bohemians; but after the introduction of window-glass, from Venice, the making of crystal glass greatly extended and correspondingly improved.
In the year 1665 the government of France, desirous of introducing the manufacture of window-glass, offered sufficient inducement in money and privileges to a number of French artists (who had acquired the process at Murano, at Venice) to establish works at Tourtanville. At these works the same system of blowing was followed as that used in the Venetian glass-works. A workman, under this system, named Thevart, discovered the art of casting plate-glass, and obtained from the government a patent for the term of thirty years. He erected extensive works in Paris, and succeeded in what was then deemed an extraordinary feat, casting plates eighty-four inches by fifty inches, thereby exciting unbounded admiration.
The credit of the invention of casting plates of glass belongs to France, and the mode then adopted exists at the present day, with but slight variation. France monopolized the manufacture over one hundred years before it was introduced into any other country.
Writers generally agree that the manufacture of glass was introduced into England in the year 1557. "Friars' Hall," as stated by one writer, was converted into a manufactory of window-glass,—other writers say, for crystal glass, (called by the English "flint," from the fact of the use of flint-stones, which, by great labor, they burnt and ground.) In 1575 Friars' Hall Glass-Works, with forty thousand billets of wood, were destroyed by fire.
In 1635, seventy-eight years after the art was introduced into England, Sir Robert Mansell introduced the use of coal fuel instead of wood, and obtained from the English government the monopoly of importing the fine Venetian drinking-glasses, an evidence that the art in England was confined as yet to the coarser articles. Indeed, it was not until the reign of William III. that the art of making Venetian drinking-vessels was brought into perfection,—quite a century after the art was introduced into England; an evidence of the slow progress made by the art in that country.
As France was indebted to Venice for her workmen, so also was England indebted to the same source. Howell, in one of his "Familiar Letters," directed to Sir Robert Mansell, Vice-Admiral of England, says: "Soon as I came to Venice, I applied myself to dispatch your business according to instruction, and Mr. Seymour was ready to contribute his best furtherance. These two Italians are the best gentlemen workmen that ever blew crystal. One is allied to Antonio Miotte, the other is cousin to Maralao."
Although Sir Robert procured workmen from Venice, they were probably of an inferior character, and a space of fifty years elapsed before the English manufactories equalled the Venetian and French in the quality of their articles.