Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
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carbonate of copper. This specimen is interesting, as showing the early
use and knowledge of suboxide of copper as a stain or coloring agent for
glass. The ancients employed several substances in their glass, and
colored glazes for bricks and pottery, but of which there remains no
published record. But these glasses and other ancient works of art prove
that they were familiar with the use of oxide
of lead as a flux in their vitreous glasses, and with
stannic acid and Naples
yellow as stains or pigments.
Other writers believe that glass was in more
general use in the ancient than in comparatively modern times, and affirm
that among the Egyptians it was used even as material for
coffins. It is certainly true that so well did
the Egyptians understand the art, that they excelled in the imitation of
precious stones, and were well acquainted with the metallic oxides used
in coloring glass; and the specimens of their skill, still preserved in
the British Museum and in private collections, prove the great skill and
ingenuity of their workmen in mosaic similar in appearance to the modern
paper-weights. Among the specimens of Egyptian glass still existing is a
fragment representing a lion in bas-relief, well executed and anatomically
correct. Other specimens are found inscribed with Arabic characters.
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