[117] The oldest of these ballads only dates back to the time of the Duke of Wharton, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The ‘wicked Duke,’ it is said, when in his cups would toss the ‘Luck’ into the air and catch it in his hand.
[118] This is the goblet figured in Schmoranz, p. 29. It belonged at the time, he tells us, to an unknown collector, who gave £1600 for it at Christie’s in 1881.
[119] Illustrated in Archæologia, vol. lviii., where it forms the starting-point of the paper by Mr. C. H. Read, that I have quoted from above.
[120] In this respect differing from the other cup in this collection to which the same date and origin are ascribed. I refer to the Aldrevandini goblet, with the armorial shields, described in the next chapter. The glass of this cup is already quite of a Venetian type, approaching to a true cristallo.
[121] He reigned during the temporary deposition of Malek Nasir.
[122] This lamp also has, I think, passed into the Pierpont Morgan collection.
[123] The badge of a sword is very frequent upon these later lamps, but it can hardly in all cases refer to the same sultan or emir.
[124] The only other lamp, as far as I know, that has been obtained from Syria, is one from Damascus, presented to the British Museum by the late Sir A. W. Franks. This in no way differs from the ordinary type except in the enamelled decoration at the base of the handles. A lamp of quite normal description at South Kensington has also been attributed, but very doubtfully, to the same Syrian town.
[125] The words on the document as I read them are ‘parte schietti et parte à rediselli.’ The ambassador at the same time sends an order for window-glass to be used in the new palace that Ali Pasha is building; and finally, for ‘uno di quelli ferali [fenali?] over fano di salla grande'—probably some kind of chandelier.
[126] We should have looked rather for some trace of Oriental influence. Freeman (Historical Geography, p. 240) speaks of the marquisate as ‘a feudal state, whose rulers had in various ways a singular connection with the East. As Marquesses of Montferrat they claimed the crown of Jerusalem and had worn the crown of Thessalonica.’ Again, early in the fourteenth century the marquisate passed to a branch of the imperial house of Palæologus.