Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-07-29
VENETIAN GLASS.
AN ANCIENT INDUSTRY REVIVED IN
THE ISLAND OF MURANO.

!
the Old Venetian Glassworkers Make
Beautiful Articles of Use and Ornament
Among the lagoons, nearly due north
of Venice, in the island of Murano
there lives race of men who seem tc
have great future. They are the de-
scendants of the old Venetian glass
workers, and Of late years they have
been reviving the ancient art which
made Murano famous in the past, Of
glassblowing
The old Venetian glass was what is
commonly called blown, but the name
gives a very small idea of the manufac-
ture. Glass has certain characteristics
which give it its true beauty and value
for art purposes, and though you may
neglect these and force it to make forms
utterly foreign to its nature you are
producing not works of art, but mon
strosities. Whatever glass may be, it
is in its natural state not crystalline, SO
that nature is outraged when we grind
it into sharp angular forms that belong
rather to other materials. The old Veiie-
tian glass was light, bright, vitreous in
appearance and stained with the richest
possible colors, and all these qualities
are retained in the newly revived man
ufacture at Murano
There is one more strong point in ia
vor of glass blown and worked over
than molded-namely, that every indi-
vidual piece is an original art, and as
it is almost impossible that any two
should be exactly alike, unless their
form is very simple indeed, the buyer
chooses according to his fancy and is
sure that no one else possesses piece
exactly the same size and shape. In the
manufacture Of the ordinary cut glass
minimum cred lead) is frequently add
ed to increase its brightness, but this
destroys at once the characteristic light
ness, and, causing it to cool more rapid
ly, quite prevents the possibility of
working it in the proper ductile and
malleable condition.
The Murano material is worked as
the ancient Venetian glass made on the
same island used to be, and all the old
methods have been discovered, or at
least the same effects have been pro-
duced. The famma, perhaps more
strange than beautiful, the millefore,
the smelze, including perfect limitations
of agates. chalcedons, lapis lazuli, ETC.,
for mosaic, the aqua marina. rich ruby
colors, the brilliant avventurino, all are
here, and many other kinds of work,
some Of which are limitations of the old
glass and some new inventions
The tools used are a hollow reed Of
iron, a few instruments like shears, of
different sizes, and a stamp with a
awberry shaped die. The end OF the
rod is dipped into molten glass of, say,
ruby color, and portion accumulated
on it's end If too much or too little is
taken, the wineglass will not be of the
right size, and if the metal, as it is call
ed, is not Of the right temperature. the
color will be too dark or too light. The
lump is rolled on table into symmetry
and heated again. A few turns of the
rod and breath or two through it, and
a hollow ball appears at the end. One
extra puff Of the breath and the bowl
would be too large and too thin. A boy
brings up small portion of white glass,
which he has picked out of another res
ervoir and blown hollow. This must be
so hot as almost to drop off the rod, and
must be ready at the exact moment. He
touches the bowl with it. and the two
adhere like sealing wax. A pull asun-
der and one dextrOus twist form the
delicate stem of the wineglass upon
which three little Jumps of glass are
then stuck and stamped as strawberries
and the whole is again introduced into
the furnace, where it would instantly
droop out of shape but for the deft ma
nipulation which it undergoes.
By the time it is heated the boy is
ready with another globe of glass. per-
haps of a different color, which he
causes to adhere to the bottom OF the
stem. The man spins it around between
his shears, nipping part Of it almost of,
and thus gaining the right quantity Of
metal for the foot, no less and no more.
One tap on an iron ledge breaks the su-
perfuous piece, and leaves a small hole
at the point Of the fracture. Once more
the action of the fire is called in to soft
en- the brittle material, and when the
pear shaped ends come out the points OF
the closed shears are introduced to
widen the opening into cuplike form.
A small lump Of avventurino is by
this time on the end Of the boys rod,
melted and only saved from dropping
by his dexterity. One touch and it ad-
heres to the end of the cup just formed.
He puts it out and winds it around, ad-
herring as it goes to the edge. Again the
fire does its duty, and then the artist
finishes the form of the foot, detaching
Immediately the bulb at the top from
his hollow rod. Another rod, with a
molten piece Of glass, is prepared for
him by the boys ready cooperation,
and is pressed against the center of the
foot, to which it adheres Into the fire
goes the whole piece, and when with
drawn the bowl of the glass is partly
shaped by the shears, avventurino wound
around the edge as before with the foot
A last heat, and with artistic care the
delicate, crocuslike bowl, which is some
day to contain the sparkling wine, is
completed. London Globe.
The Minuteness of Spores.
Euorv ,,1apf in tho vopatarfe kingdom