Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
33 of 123
|
|
| |
workmen, so also was England indebted to the same source.
Howell, in one
of his "Familiar Letters," directed to Sir Robert Mansell, Vice-Admiral
of England, says: "Soon as I came to Venice, I applied myself to dispatch
your business according to instruction, and Mr. Seymour was ready to
contribute his best furtherance. These two Italians are the best gentlemen
workmen that ever blew crystal. One is allied to
Antonio Miotte, the other is cousin to
Maralao."
Although Sir Robert procured workmen from Venice,
they were probably of an inferior character, and a space of fifty years
elapsed before the English manufactories equalled the Venetian and French
in the quality of their articles.
Evelyn, in his "Diary," states:
"On the proclamation of James II., in the market-place of Bromley, by the
sheriff of Kent, the commander of the Kentish troops, two of the King's
trumpeters, and other officers, drank the King's health in a flint wine-glass
three feet tall."
In the year 1670, the
Duke of Buckingham
became the patron of the art in England, and greatly improved the quality
and style of the flint-glass, by procuring, at great personal expense,
a number of Venetian artists, whom he persuaded to settle in London.
From this
|
|