The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-16
C0STLINESS OF GLASS.
NEW AND BEAUTIFUL THINGS IN
THE CRYSTAL WORLD.
American Cut Glass on The Table of
Mr.. G. ". Childs-LalIa Rookh Cups
and Russian Glass Enemeled in Col
ors-Wornen as Glass Anateurs.


ors-Women as Glass Amateurs.
(CoDUIqhtl
NV YORK, March ia woman to
whose hand there fiuttered a check straight
down from the sunshinv skies spent two
afternoons hunting Lalia Rookh GUYS il the
glass and bric-a-brac stores. When she had
achieved a set which pleased her, she spread
her tea-table with cloth of soft whitish
green, silk plated in peculiar folds to simu-
late pillows of foam, and in the hollows she
set many low crystal dishes filled with low
daffodils and fairy lamps of the color Of the
cloth, an6 put on an empire gown of whitish
green, with pale yellow silk sash, and
pa ssd her glass teacups in their porcelain
! plates, and was sat SIZED. To serve tea in
| glass is very Russian and very fashionable.
| Fewer women care for glass than for
china. A woman IS more app to bid fancy
( price for a ford Sevres plate or for a jap
anese sword guard or even for a miniature
shrine decoration in carved ivory, if her
wandering feet guide her TO the spring auc-
ton sales, than for good piecs of glass,
even though the book of Job does liken the
most precious things to wisdom but find
god and glass still more valuable Once
upon time, they say, Venetian nobemea
were forbidden to wed girls of the working
! classes unless they bestowed their titles aud
| honors on the daughters of glass blowers,
butnowadays noblemen set up palace keep
ing with the gIrls-preterably American
glrls-who have most money, and the only
apparent connection between marriage and
glass Is the competition, in which marriage
is reputed TO come out ahead, in fragllity.
Mrs. Hayes appreciated glass almost as
| thoroughly as porcelain, and though she
no for AoI h =
with the wonderful dinner set of ], OOO pieces
of china, which to this day is brought out
only when the diplomatic corps or promi-
neat government officials are to he enter
tanned, yet she left the big mahogany side
board in the white house dining-r ON
loaded with cut glass vessels of every shape
and description. There are salad bowls
faceted until they are respondent with
strong reflected lights and an iafinitude Of
pTismatic hues; there are delicate forms Of
light brown glass, 50 thin that they look
like soap bubbles; there are massive
epergnes that look Ike as if they weighed
hundreds of pounds; finger bowls jostle salt
cellars, wine 2 asses are crowded against
long -necked decanters. Sometimes when a
ray of sunshine ST. likes on the pieces they
flash and glitter and sparkle like a giants
brooch of diamonds.
= ina Lvali, VINO wrote donovan" and
I'VE Two" has passion for crystal, and in
her home in sunny Eastbourne she sets her
collection almost as high as did the Athe-
nial ambaS adors who could find no
stronger terms in which to picture the mag
nificence displayed at the court of the great
King Of Persia than to say that there thew
drank from god and glass. An English
woman who knows Mrs. Hump rey Ward
was telling me yesterday that the author of
Robert EllslEere" is a counoisseur of glass.
and Emily Faithful has small but beauti-
full cabinet collection Of Rus ian glass enam-
eled in colors aud old Byzantine work in
enamel.
For table ware crystal has ousted colored
glass within the past two or three seasons.
1t made its way slowly at first, for even
wealthy people grudged the money
demanded for good cut glass patterns. Per.
haps the fact that the best cut glass is
American had something to do with this
baca@ardness, for we dearly love 81
import" thing. The PROPULSION of Ameri-
can crystal used on the table of Mr. 6. W.
Childs very probably helped to bring
1t into fashion. AS it usually stands, Mr.
Childs' table is covered with a scarlet
spread of Oriental cashmere, heavily en-
broidered with bullion thread Ia the
middle is a mirror lake, four feet long. 1t
bears center piece in silver gilt, vasiform,
and finished at the top with eight burners.
though 1t is used instead for flowers Silver
gritfins are the pieces, aud there is border
all the way around of silver filgree smiling
at its own reflection. Standing by the cam
delabrum at one end of the table is silver
and gilt wine cooler with panels of cu2ils
aid graces. The corresponding piece at the
Other end is crystal bowl used for flowers.
This is supposed to be the finest piece of glass
yet made in this luntry, and for be luty and
perfection OF cutting it stands ahead of the
best Baccarat ware.
Mr.. Childs' crystal collection far exceeds
in value the estimates placed on it in print.
1t has grown little by little during the last
| seventeen years, and is the result of taste
and care as we'll as time. The exquisite
carafes, compete. fruit and bonbon stands
low and high, and with or without silver
bases, is a revelation of the stage to which
gla cutting has been Carried in the United
| States. 1t awakens fresh interest and pride
in the artists and artisans of ones own
COUNTRY to see these choice productions in a
place where only the best things of their
kind are used.
The price of piece of cut glass depends
on the number of processes necessary to
complete the pattern. The renaissance"
cut IS only of the newest and about the
cheapest of all, and tumblers shown In it
are really very pretty. The greatest part
of the glass is left plain, but just below the
middle OF the tumbler is run a band of
faceted work which costs the workman only
two separate cuttings, one for each direc-
ton in which the lines are run The
strawberry" the Strawberry and dia-
mond," the strawberry, diamond and
FAM" and the 'hobnail" are all pretty and
simple cuts which are wide popular be-
| cause they are not expensive. The Paris
ian" cut is one of the latest and is costly.
The pattern is complicated and calls for
eight or ten separate cuttings, after which
the finest toucaes are put in carefully with
delicate tools by the most skilled wofkmel }.
| Comparatively little engraved glass is
now in use. the cut glass having preference.
Goblets tried to come back year or two
ago, but tumblers bravely stand their
ground. Little cut glass SAT- cellars look
primitive, b { are fashionable Carafes for
daily use are better than glass water Jugs,
though the latter are newer aud perhaps
more snowy. Cut glass salad bowls, with a
border of sparkling shells which radiate
light from hundred facets, come in square
shapes as well as round; the spring designs
are sometimes three-cornered and some
times the model seems to have been cab
| bage leaf curled. Cut glass bon-bon dishes
are leaf-shaped, or they copy a she'll or the
upturned palm of the hand Celery dishes
are in fashion like tiny canoe or a tray
with straight sides. A large square-cor-
nered cut glass cup with two handles, and
standing in a glass plata he