Yet numerous specimens do exist, including drinking glasses of all shapes and sizes, as well as fruit dishes, epergnes, sweetmeat glasses, decanters, and salt-cellars, which are undoubtedly Irish in their origin, and which are generally known as “Waterford” glass.
As far as can be determined, glass-making in various forms, enamelling, and even mosaic work and cameos, were carried on in Ireland as early as the beginning of the eighth century.
The finest examples of the earliest period are to be found in the Royal Irish Antiquities
FIG. 29.—NAILSEA JUG AND MUG.
Collection, which includes the famous Ardagh Chalice, the Tara Brooch, the Cross of Cong, and the Crozier of Clonmacnoise, as well as other well-known and interesting exhibits. At any rate, experts are agreed that even at this early date the art of enamelling on glass was practised in Ireland, being probably introduced by the Phœnicians who, in turn, had acquired the art from Ancient Egypt. In support of this belief is the fact that a large piece of red enamelled glass was found in the Rath of Caílchon on Tara Hill; but it is equally clear that the art of glass-making, if introduced at the time mentioned, speedily fell into desuetude, for there is no mention of any manufacture of glass between the ninth and the seventeenth centuries, nor are there to be found any specimens which may be attributed to this period. There are, further, no traces of the manufacture even of window glass of the commonest description.
In the seventeenth century, however, there were many interesting squabbles with regard to glass-making patents and their infringement, and there are records of petitions to the King concerning them; but from the Patent Roll of King James I. it appears that little was done. Still, we have it on record that permission was given to import glass in 1675, and it is suggested that craftsmen in Ireland attempted to imitate the work of Continental glass-workers, and various sums of money were granted by the Universities and others interested, to assist them in so doing. Some progress undoubtedly was made, for it is clear that by the eighteenth century factories were in existence and glass was being actually made in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Belfast, and Londonderry.
Some examples of early Waterford glass are, as far as shape and size go, replicas of glasses made in England at about the same period, but the reason for the almost immediate popularity of the Irish glass was its perfection of colour. A fine specimen which recently came under my notice is a preserve jar with cover ([Fig. 30]), about 18 inches in height, handsomely cut and shaped, with a square base and a fine spiked cover. It is undoubtedly one of the finest examples of early Waterford glass which it has been my privilege to inspect.
Genuine Waterford glass is characterised by a peculiar bluish tint in its body—due, it is generally recognised, to the presence of lead—but