DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32044#0017
INTRODUCTION.
11
till the end of the eighteenth century that they entirely superseded the
use of coloured glaises in large works.
The introdudtion of enamels, though it occasioned a great extension
of the scale of colour in glass painting, was attended with disadvantages.
The paintings lost in transparency what they gained in variety of tint ;
and in proportion as their pidturesque qualities were increased by the
substitution of enamel colouring for coloured glass, their depth of colour
sensibly diminiihed.
The praitical application of enamel colours to glass, seems always to
have been condudted nearly as at present. Some of the earlier examples
of enamel painting are however superior in transparency to the modern.
This is particularly the case with Swiss glass paintings of the seventeenth
and close of the sixteenth century ; in which enamel colours are con-
stantly to be met with, firmly adhering to the glass in lumps of a six-
teenth of an inch in thickness, and so well ssuxed in burning as to be
nearly as transparent as pot-metal glass.
MtntUm
Of glass employed for domestic purposes, the earliest examples known
are the glass beads and admirable imitations of amethysts, and other pre-
cious stones frequently found in Egyptian Tombs.* The beautiful blues,
produced without cobalt or nickel, and their reds, without gold (as
proved by Klaproth’s analysis), evince a considerable knowledge of the
chemical art in opaque and transparent colouring. The Chinese also
from a very remote time have been skilled in glass-making of a similar
charadter. M. Abel Remusat, (in his “ Histoire de la ville de Khotan,
&c”) states, that their imitation of the precious stone yeschm was so ex-
cellent, that it was almost impoisible to distinguiih the artificial from the
real.
This description of glass-ware was manufastured into vases of various
forms by the Chinese, from whom the Arabians procured them. Some
were of a clear transparent white, extremely brilliant, and as pure as a
precious stone ; and others of a beautiful blue, and equally pure. In
Egypt and Syria, no difference was known between the real and artificial
yeschm, the latter being of the same form, thickness, and specific gravity,
* The majority of these beads, however, are composed, not of glass, but of burnt clay, or
earthenware glazed ; or perhaps, of glazed earthenware pounded, and mixed with coloured
glass fuzed together ; of such substances are the numerous figures of mummies, beetles, and
other figures. “ Curiosities of Glass-making,” by Apiley Pellatt.
11
till the end of the eighteenth century that they entirely superseded the
use of coloured glaises in large works.
The introdudtion of enamels, though it occasioned a great extension
of the scale of colour in glass painting, was attended with disadvantages.
The paintings lost in transparency what they gained in variety of tint ;
and in proportion as their pidturesque qualities were increased by the
substitution of enamel colouring for coloured glass, their depth of colour
sensibly diminiihed.
The praitical application of enamel colours to glass, seems always to
have been condudted nearly as at present. Some of the earlier examples
of enamel painting are however superior in transparency to the modern.
This is particularly the case with Swiss glass paintings of the seventeenth
and close of the sixteenth century ; in which enamel colours are con-
stantly to be met with, firmly adhering to the glass in lumps of a six-
teenth of an inch in thickness, and so well ssuxed in burning as to be
nearly as transparent as pot-metal glass.
MtntUm
Of glass employed for domestic purposes, the earliest examples known
are the glass beads and admirable imitations of amethysts, and other pre-
cious stones frequently found in Egyptian Tombs.* The beautiful blues,
produced without cobalt or nickel, and their reds, without gold (as
proved by Klaproth’s analysis), evince a considerable knowledge of the
chemical art in opaque and transparent colouring. The Chinese also
from a very remote time have been skilled in glass-making of a similar
charadter. M. Abel Remusat, (in his “ Histoire de la ville de Khotan,
&c”) states, that their imitation of the precious stone yeschm was so ex-
cellent, that it was almost impoisible to distinguiih the artificial from the
real.
This description of glass-ware was manufastured into vases of various
forms by the Chinese, from whom the Arabians procured them. Some
were of a clear transparent white, extremely brilliant, and as pure as a
precious stone ; and others of a beautiful blue, and equally pure. In
Egypt and Syria, no difference was known between the real and artificial
yeschm, the latter being of the same form, thickness, and specific gravity,
* The majority of these beads, however, are composed, not of glass, but of burnt clay, or
earthenware glazed ; or perhaps, of glazed earthenware pounded, and mixed with coloured
glass fuzed together ; of such substances are the numerous figures of mummies, beetles, and
other figures. “ Curiosities of Glass-making,” by Apiley Pellatt.