| [277] | Dr. Bushell hints that such inscriptions may in cases have been added by modern curio-dealers in Pekin, as a bait to European collectors. |
| [278] | As arranged now at South Kensington, the carved glass may be compared with the companion series in agate and other stones. |
| [279] | Dossie, in his Handmaid of the Arts (2nd ed., 1764), declares that there was at the time he was writing a great demand in China for ‘the brown Venetian glass with gold-spangles, called the Philosopher’s Stone.’ |
| [280] | The making of glass is still an important industry at Poshan, where the native quartz-rock is melted with saltpetre. Window-glass, bottles, and lanterns are made, and the clear glass is exported in the form of long rods tied up in bundles. Williamson’s Journeys in North China, vol. i. p. 131. |
| [281] | See, for confirmation of this, the previous note. In China to-day the word liao has replaced the older names for glass. For the better kinds of work the Shantung glass is worked up at Pekin—this is the Ching liao. Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. ii. p. 63. |
| [282] | I have to thank Professor Church for the results of an analysis of a snuff-bottle ‘like nearly white jade or milk-quartz faintly greenish.’ It contained lead-oxide, 48·3 per cent.; potash, 8·8 per cent.; soda, 1·1 per cent.; and silica, 41·5 per cent. We have here a remarkably pure potash-lead glass, for only 0·2 per cent, of alumina and iron oxide was found. The specific gravity of this specimen was 3·8; that of another bottle of clear strong green glass was 3·7. |
| [283] | In some of the Imperial tombs of the sixth and seventh centuries of our era glass jars have been found. One of these is described as of white glass ornamented with round knobs. In the grave of the Emperor Nintoku (fifth century) were found fragments of blue and white glass. It is very unlikely that any of this glass was made in Japan. |
| [284] | Now in the British Museum; it is referred to on p. [152]. |
Transcriber's Notes
Dashes used to represent duplicated entries in the [Index] have been replaced by the text they represent.