Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
6 of 123
|
|
| |
indeed, it is well known that the glass of Venice, at one period, was as
highly valued as is the plate of the present day; and the passion for
possessing specimens, promised in England, at least, to excite a spirit
of speculation fully rivalling that exhibited in the tulip mania, so
ridiculous, as well as ruinous, in Holland.
It has been reserved for the present age, however,
to render the art of glass-making tributary to the comfort of man,—to
the improvement of science,—and by its modest cost to enable the poorest
and humblest to introduce light and warmth of the sun within, while
excluding the storms and chilly blasts; to decorate his table with the
useful, and minister to his taste, at a cost barely more than that of one
of his ordinary days' labor. That which once was prized and displayed as
the treasure and inheritance of the wealthy, and which, with sacred
carefulness, was handed down as of precious value, may now be found in the
humblest dwellings, and is procured at a charge which makes the account of
the former costliness of glass to partake almost of the character of the
fabulous and visionary.
That the art of glass manufacture is destined to
greater progress and higher triumphs cannot for a moment be doubted; and
the time will
|
|