The sun., 1919-08-31

such accounts, and We wonder what
| these vessels were, of what they were
made, and above all. whether any
| 'pecimens have survived to our day.
| The most prevalent theory until re-
! Gently was that they were some va
| riety of natural stone, such as agate,
sardonyx or jade; others thought they
were Chinese porcelain. But a care
full examination of the evidence avail
able makes any such theory unten-
| able. Ii the murrhine vessels were OF
hard stone, how could the man that
| Pliny tells of have bitten off the edge
of cup while drinking? And why
should Sidonius Apollinaris in emu
merating the materials used as inlay
on the door of Vulcan's house ex-
pressly distinguish between murrhina
and sardonyx and agate If they are
identical?
The most important passage for the
identification of the murrhina is Pliny's
detailed description of them in his
Natural History XXXVII., s. Their
brilliance is not great; they have lus-
tire rather than brilliance. What gives
them their value is the variety of
color the spots passing from purple
into clear white and again to a COM
hination of the two which varies from
sc-y purple 70 milky white tireed with
red. Some collectors especially ad-
mire the edges and certain refraction
to be found there, like that of the
rainbow; others the denser spots, and
to them translucence or pallor is
blemish." Plinys word maculse,
spots" is important and agrees with
Martials references to murrhine vases
as maculosR, spotted" or picta,
many colored." These are none of
them epithets we should apply TO agate
OF sardonyX, which are veined rather
than spotted.
What, then, could the murrhina have
been? There is, of course, the posi-
bility that we do not know and can
not know since they have all been
lost. But is IL likely that with the
known popularity of these vases. not
one, not even a small fragment, should
have been preserved? 1t would be I'M
satisfactory to have to believe it. But
there is no need to do so. We ac-
tually possess a large number of beau
ments of another type of vases dating
from the exact period in which the
nurrhina were popular, and which,
moreover, closely correspond with the
descriptions we have OF them. These
are the milleflori or mosaic glasses.
They certainly have lustre rather than
brilliance; they have great variety of
color and these colors melt one into
the other; they have Opaque and
translucent spots, and the edges are
often specially attractive, showing
patterns in different colors. Fragility
is, of course, characteristic of them,
and even Martials remark that muir
rhina are recommended for warm
drinks becomes appropriate, since
glass retains heat better than stone.
So striking is the similarity between
the murrhina as described and our
millefiori glass that even some of the
upholders of "stone" murrhina have
admitted that the millefiorl vases must
be glass limitations. It was Kisa in
his well known book on ancient glass
who came out boldly with the theory
that the millefori glasses and the
murrhine vases must be identical. And
his theory will probably meet with
general acceptance.
The only evidence against the case
is, first, that 1t is surprising that glass
vases should have been so highly
priced by the luxurious Romans to
whom vessels of gold and silver and
of precious stones were the order of
the day; second, that certain state |
&C., -. al 81. IT, a.
fact that he at least did not think |
the vessels were OF glass When he |
says. for instance, that we dig |
and crystal vases out OF the |
earth or refers to murrhine vessels as
composed of a liquid under the sur |
face Of the earth which is condensed |
by heat" he is clearly thinking of a |
natural, not an artificial product |
Again he tells us that these vases
come from the East, especially from |
Parthia, which country has no special |
with the mosaic glass |
vases. But we have learned by ex-
perience not TO take Pllny's science
and geography very seriously, SO that
his remarks on these subjects carry /
little weight nowadays. Indeed, at a
later date julius Capitolinus speaks OF |
"murrinos ct crystallinos Alexan-
drinos," and Alexandria, or rather the
whole OF Egypt, is just the place in
which we know that mosaic glass was
invented The confusion Of the an
clients on the subject of glass is, more
over we'll shown by Pausanlas's re-
mark: "Glass, crystal, murrhina, and |
what else is made by men OF stone" !