Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-03-23
Glass

Industrial ana commercial interests. Inc
last few years have largely added to our
public and private acquisitions, and the
immediate result has been marked In our
advanced manufactures and trade. The
Museum of Art in Philadelphia has acquir-
ed several collections of glass which form
a series of illustrations of the manufacture
from Its invention down to modern times.
The ertire collection IN the Museum ranks
among the finest and most complete exhl-
bitions of the history of this industry now
known, While certain European collec-
tions are richer in specific departments and
periods of manufacture, the New York col
lection IS richer in others, and few muse
ums now show as full and continuous
history of the subject. The invention
of glass is commonly attributed to the
PL9niclans. Very ancient discoveries of
glass in Egypt have somewhat shaken this
attribution, and it will remain uncertain
until further discoveries settle the question.
The PEenlcians, whether discoverers OF
the art or not, did not until late period
make useful articles to contain liquids,
The earlier products for some centuries
seem to have been confined to what we cali
pastes, mostly in small objects, signets,
and amulets. There are very few glass
bowls and other useful objects IN the Ces-
nola collection known as Ph9nician, be-
cause found in Pl enician tomDs and these
are all thick, heavy glass, contrasting with
the light and graceful work Of the Greeks.
They are, however, of late period. Phe-
nician gems in paste, the early products,
are among the treasures of the hurium
Temple in the collection. These pastes
were In large part limitations of stones, es-
pecially OF Lapis Lazuli, one of the most
esteemed of the anGiert precious stones.
Down to the time of the destruction of the
Kurium Temple and the burial of It's re-
cently-found treasure chambers it is prob
able that no glass had been made for
household use or ordinary purposes Of util-
lty. Herodotus, writing about b. &. 450,
seems to have known Of glass only as a
costly paste IN gems and the absence of
other examples among the great variety of
objects in the Kurlum vaults confirms the
deduction which had been made before,
that it was not till some lime after this
date that useful articles were made by the
Greeks. During the four centuries pre-
ceding the Christian era these wonderful
Greeks utilized the art of producing glass
of variety in form, color and purpose. BY
far the most valuable collection of Greek
glass now known is that in the Cesnola
COLLECTION, which thus illustrates the histc-
ry OF the manufacture, from the early down
to Roman times. Here the Chauvet collec-
ton, presented by MIR. III. G. Marquand.
takes up the history, -applng over on the
Cesnola collection in few early specimens
and giving examples of Greek; Roman and
medieval European WORK. This collection
CONSISTS largely OF choice and beautiful ex-
amples, and exhibit practically the skill OF
glaSsmakers in various times.
The Roman passion for engraved gems
revived the use of pastes with impressions
or casts of stones and other engravings,
and the popularity of these resulted IN the
transmission to and through the byzantine
imperial period of the art of making and
using opaque colUred glass for mosaics and
other purposes. among the King gems
are piles of these Roman pastes VIII ch
are indispensable illustrations in glass his.
tory, and their medieval successors are in
the Chauvet collection in q few excellent
specimens. No modern chemists have fur.
nished to glassmakers any richer colors
than some which the ancient chemists had
found and the ancient makers used. But
no workmen ever attained snch wonderful
skill al freedom in the manipulation OF
the ductile material, and no chemist pro-
duced such varieties of colors and shades
as did the late medieval and cinque cento
manufacturers. Glass In their hands be.
came CONCEALED atmosphere, with all the
hues of cold mornings, golden middays
and gorgeous sunsets; atmosphere with
ffaatiBg clouds and wreaths and tints of
smoke, drifting frosty iridescence and lurid
effects of approaching storms. Grotesque.
fantastic and beautiful shapes were pro-
Guced at viii, the material obeying ia the
hand the sudden thought of the artist, and
preserving 1t as freely the en- in fingers
of swift thinker and writer. The COLLECTION
presented to the Museum by Mr.. j. j.
Jarves shows large number of EXAMPLES
of this art of the old Venetian glassmakers
ard their modern pupils and imitators, and
to these must be added a small collection
of charming old pieces presented some time
ago by MIR. Marquand. Mr.. Jarves has
published in Hdrper's Magazine for JAN
uary valuable article on the Venice man
ufacture. These various collections, group
ed, cover a history of one manufacture
through period of much more than two
thousand years; and while there is in this,
as in all such collections, ample room tor
the addition of specimens more fully illus
tratiDg the fabric and places and styles of
work, the accumulation from various sour
ces which is now brought into one museum
must be regarded as an extraordinary re
suit.
The Museum needs what are very dittl-
cult to Standardization of Saracen
work. The Arabian civilization probably
derived the art through Persia from the
Greeks and PtGnlcians, and it seems also
probable that the medieval glassmakers of
Venice derived the art from the Arabs.
The Museum will doubtless in time acquire
these, and what is now also lacking, full
illustration of the use of glass for windows
and this chiefly in stained glass, an art In
witch modern artists have never euualled
the men of the dark ages. Among the
collections are specimens of glass made IN
Egypt and in other countries than those we
have named. What has been done by
other people can be and probably will be
done again. American skill, industry and
money are more and more directed toward
beautiful products as objfcts whereon
to employ capital and labor and sustain
trade, and the practical benefits of muse
ums of ait are thus realized. At the same
time the mere beauty to the eye of these
glass products is sufficient reason for their
collection and exhibition. III Ia a good in