Wilkinson, John Gardner; Birch, Samuel [Contr.]: The Egyptians in the time of the pharaohs: being a companion to the Crystal Palace Egyptian collections (London, 1857)

50

DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE EGYPTIANS.

of antiquity, which, at first made to imitate the varied
hues of a rare stone, were soon carried to such perfection

(W. 32.)

(W. 33.)

that they almost entirely superseded its use, so that no frag-
ment of a vase of the real Murrhine stone has yet been found.
It was probably what we know in England as Derbyshire
spar.

Glass was also cast, engraved, ground, and cut; and precious
stones were imitated successfully in that substance.

Though many Egyptian vases were of very elegant shape,
others were as deficient in form and proportion as some now
made in Europe and in China. JSfor is this extraordinary, when
we see that even the talented Greeks sometimes failed, particu-
larly in the handles and the footstalk of their vases, and many of
the later vases, called Apulian, though remarkable for their size
and the elaborate designs painted on them, are as elongated, in
defiance of all symmetry, as many of the glass bottles and
vases of Bohemia.

As it is interesting to compare the taste of different people,