The “primitive” vessels which have been found in Egypt are small in size and consist of columnar stibium jars, flattened bottles and amphorae, all decorated with zigzag lines, tiny wide-mouthed vases on feet and minute jugs. The vessels of later date which have been found in considerable quantities, principally in the coast towns and islands of the Mediterranean, are amphorae and alabastra, also decorated with zigzag lines. The amphorae (Plate I. figs. 1 and 2) terminate with a point, or with an unfinished extension from the terminal point, or with a knob. The alabastra have short necks, are slightly wider at the base than at the shoulder and have rounded bases. Dr Petrie has called attention to two technical peculiarities to be found in almost every specimen of early glass-ware. The inner surface is roughened (Plate I. fig. 4 c), and has particles of sand adhering to it, as if the vessel had been filled with sand and subjected to heat, and the inside of the neck has the impression of a metal rod (Plate I. fig. 4 a), which appears to have been extracted from the neck with difficulty. From this evidence Dr Petrie has assumed that the vessels were not blown, but formed upon a core of sandy paste, modelled upon a copper rod, the rod being the core of the neck (see [Egypt]: Art and Archaeology). The evidence, however, hardly warrants the abandonment of the simple process of blowing in favour of a process which is so difficult that it may almost be said to be impossible, and of which there is no record or tradition except in connexion with the manufacture of small beads. The technical difficulties to which Dr Petrie has called attention seem to admit of a somewhat less heroic explanation. A modern glass-blower, when making an amphora-shaped vase, finishes the base first, fixes an iron rod to the finished base with a seal of glass, severs the vase from the blowing iron, and finishes the mouth, whilst he holds the vase by the iron attached to its base. The “primitive” glass-worker reversed this process. Having blown the body of the vase, he finished the mouth and neck part, and fixed a small, probably hollow, copper rod inside the finished neck by pressing the neck upon the rod (Plate I. fig. 4 b). Having severed the body of the vase from the blowing iron, he heated and closed the fractured base, whilst holding the vase by means of the rod fixed in the neck. Nearly every specimen shows traces of the pressure of a tool on the outside of the neck, as well as signs of the base having been closed by melting. Occasionally a knob or excrescence, formed by the residue of the glass beyond the point at which the base has been pinched together, remains as a silent witness of the process.

If glass-blowing had been a perfectly new invention of Graeco-Egyptian or Roman times, some specimens illustrating the transition from core-moulding to blowing must have been discovered. The absence of traces of the transition strengthens the supposition that the revolution in technique merely consisted in the discovery that it was more convenient to finish the base of a vessel before its mouth, and such a revolution would leave no trace behind. The roughened inner surface and the adhering particles of sand may also be accounted for. The vessels, especially those in which many differently coloured glasses were incorporated, required prolonged annealing. It is probable that when the metal rod was withdrawn the vessel was filled with sand, to prevent collapse, and buried in heated ashes to anneal. The greater the heat of the ashes the more would the sand adhere to and impress the inner surface of the vessels. The decoration of zigzag lines was probably applied directly after the body of the vase had been blown. Threads of coloured molten glass were spirally coiled round the body, and, whilst still viscid, were dragged into zigzags with a metal hook.

Egypt.—The glass industry flourished in Egypt in Graeco-Egyptian and Roman times. All kinds of vessels were blown, both with and without moulds, and both moulding and cutting were used as methods of decoration. The great variety of these vessels is well shown in the illustrated catalogue of Graeco-Egyptian glass in the Cairo museum, edited by C. C. Edgar.

Another species of glass manufacture in which the Egyptians would appear to have been peculiarly skilled is the so-called mosaic glass, formed by the union of rods of various colours in such a manner as to form a pattern; the rod so formed was then reheated and drawn out until reduced to a very small size, 1 sq. in. or less, and divided into tablets by being cut transversely, each of these tablets presenting the pattern traversing its substance and visible on each face. This process was no doubt first practised in Egypt, and is never seen in such perfection as in objects of a decidedly Egyptian character. Very beautiful pieces of ornament of an architectural character are met with, which probably once served as decorations of caskets or other small pieces of furniture or of trinkets; also tragic masks, human faces and birds. Some of the last-named are represented with such truth of colouring and delicacy of detail that even the separate feathers of the wings and tail are well distinguished, although, as in an example in the British Museum, a human-headed hawk, the piece which contains the figure may not exceed ¾ in. in its largest dimension. Works of this description probably belong to the period when Egypt passed under Roman domination, as similar objects, though of inferior delicacy, appear to have been made in Rome.

Assyria.—Early Assyrian glass is represented in the British Museum by a vase of transparent greenish glass found in the north-west palace of Nineveh. On one side of this a lion is engraved, and also a line of cuneiform characters, in which is the name of Sargon, king of Assyria, 722 B.C. Fragments of coloured glasses were also found there, but our materials are too scanty to enable us to form any decided opinion as to the degree of perfection to which the art was carried in Assyria. Many of the specimens discovered by Layard at Nineveh have all the appearance of being Roman, and were no doubt derived from the Roman colony, Niniva Claudiopolis, which occupied the same site.

Plate I.

Fig. 1.Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 7.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 8.
Fig. 10.
Fig. 9.

Plate II.

Fig. 11.Fig. 12.
Fig. 13.
Fig. 14.

Roman Glass.—In the first centuries of our era the art of glass-making was developed at Rome and other cities under Roman rule in a most remarkable manner, and it reached a point of excellence which in some respects has never been excelled or even perhaps equalled. It may appear a somewhat exaggerated assertion that glass was used for more purposes, and in one sense more extensively, by the Romans of the imperial period than by ourselves in the present day; but it is one which can be borne out by evidence. It is true that the use of glass for windows was only gradually extending itself at the time when Roman civilization sank under the torrent of German and Hunnish barbarism, and that its employment for optical instruments was only known in a rudimentary stage; but for domestic purposes, for architectural decoration and for personal ornaments glass was unquestionably much more used than at the present day. It must be remembered that the Romans possessed no fine porcelain decorated with lively colours and a beautiful glaze; Samian ware was the most decorative kind of pottery which was then made. Coloured and ornamental glass held among them much the same place for table services, vessels for toilet use and the like, as that held among us by porcelain. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 26, 67) tells us that for drinking vessels it was even preferred to gold and silver.