The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1886-09-01
IN a GLASS FACTORY.
Modern Methods of nm Ancient HandI.
crnrl-ArtI,tIo skIll of pecnrntors.

Modern Methods of nm Ancient Handl.
crart-ArtlstlO Skill of Decorators.
From tho potrcom, one logically goes
10 the blowing.room, where the melted
glass is put into shape. This room al
ways strikes us rs miniature Hadcs,
only the spirits fitting about are the
grimy glnss blowers and their small boy
assistants. These men earn their money,
especially in midsummer heat. They
can discount the bees in their hive max
ing, and their sleight of hand and eye in
shaping the molten mass into lamp
shade or vase, with a few simple tools Of
wood and iron, is something that out
matches the skill Of the whole brute Gre
alton. The race who can blow glass, rs
Mt Sandwich, il il has no God to worship
should turn to and worship itself. The
work SO swift, unguided except by hand
and eye, is truly wonderful,
The cutting shop where the glass is
ground and cut in ornament puts us on
noting that glass making follows, like
almost everything else, tho fashion. In
the old days flint glass adorned with
flowers or other simple designs from ma
tllre was tho rule. Now it is the excep.
ton, The whole dish is fretted over
with deepcut sparkling lines and angles,
until in candle light it looks ablaze with
brilliants, rather florid and flumboyant
expensive and emphatic, and, above all,
en- vogue. In the decoration rooms,
added Of late years, where glass paint
ing goes on, one finds that the will Of
the great public has the upper hand in
deciding what sort OF work n popular
glass house shall turn out. Indeed this
factory reflects the public taste in glass,
following, ratherthan directing. There is
hardly more difference between a steel
engra ring OF AIRY Scholars "Dante and
Beatrice or Of his Faith and colored
print OF some modern French artist than
there is between Sandwich glass Of old
and now, Tho change, too, is exactly in
the same direction. Everything now
runs to color, and generally of very pro-
nounced shades, though we saw crimson
maroon lamp shades, and vases Of such
subdued and blended native tints as re.
minded us Of some gracious romance or
poem read or told in soft sunset.
Yet, take a sample Of public demand
and supply. The Morgan peaCh.bow
vase sold for $4,000. Hero they turn
out fac-similes OF that vase for sum
ridiculously less, and plenty OF them. In
tho decoration.rooms young men aud
women were painting on glass, which is
afterwards burned in ovens, as else all
the Colos would remain fusible, being
made with oxides Of gold, silver, etc.
The overseer is an Englishman from
Stafordshirc, who says that English
glass decoration is inferior to ours; that
a developed public taste will surely do.
velop artistic glasswork; that art schools,
and plenty Of them, ap needed to de-
vclop progress in glass and that as
America turns 10 art size will help this
establishment to a higher future. It was,
also, incidentally learned that the artistic
skill Of decorators here was about equal
rs between men and women, with the
balance, perhaps, a little towards the
men, who take to 1t Is a livelihood,
while the women generally move
through it to marriage and wedding
trousseau. As yet no genius in glass
decoration has appeared hee.-Sand.
witch (NlasS.) Cor. Boston Transcript