all the brilliancy of the former, and its weight alone betrayed its inferiority; by which means, whatever was novel, or pleasing from its external appearance, was placed within reach of all classes; or at least the possessor had the satisfaction of appearing to partake in each fashionable novelty.

Such inventions, and successful endeavours to imitate costly ornaments by humbler materials, not only show the progress of art among the Egyptians, but strongly argue the great advancement they had made in the customs of civilised life; since it is certain, that until society has arrived at a high degree of luxury and refinement, artificial wants of this nature are not created, and the lower classes do not yet feel the desire of imitating their wealthier superiors, in the adoption of objects dependent on taste or accidental caprice.

Glass bugles and beads were much used by the Egyptians for necklaces, and for a sort of network, with which they covered the wrappers and cartonage of mummies, arranged so as to form, by their varied hues, numerous devices and figures, in the manner of our bead purses; and the ladies sometimes amused themselves by stringing them for ornamental purposes, as at the present day.

The principal use to which glass was applied by the Egyptians, (besides the beads and fancy work already noticed,) was for the manufacture of bottles, vases, and other utensils; wine was fre

* The lamps mentioned by Herodotus (ii. 62.) at the festival of lamps at Saïs, were probably glass. Vide infrà, p. 112.

*

quently brought to table in a bottle, or handed to a guest in a cup of this material, and a body was sometimes buried in a glass coffin. † Occasionally a granite sarcophagus was covered with a coating of vitrified matter, usually of a deep green colour, which displayed, by its transparency, the sculptures or hieroglyphic legends engraved upon the stone; a process well understood by the Egyptians, and the same they employed in many of the blue figures of pottery and stone, commonly found in their tombs ; the stone, in one case, being covered with a composition capable of vitrifying, and then exposed to a certain degree of heat, until properly melted and diffused over the surface, and, in the other, dipped into a mixture, which was vitrified in the

same manner.

Like the Romans, they used glass for mosaic work, and pieces of various colours were employed in fancy ornaments, in the figures of deities, in sacred emblems, and in the different objects for which inlaid work was particularly adapted, the quality there used being generally of an opaque kind. In some of these vitrified compositions, the colours have a brilliancy which is truly surprising; the blues which are given by copper are vivid and beautifully clear; and one of the reds, which is probably derived from minium, has all the intenseness of rosso antico with the brightness of the

* In Rome the use of glass vases superseded that of gold and silver. Plin. xxxvi. 26. "Usus ad potandum argenti metalli et auri pepulit (vitrum)."

† Alexander the Great was said to have been buried in a glass coffin at Alexandria.

glassy material in which it is found; thus combining the qualities of a rich enamel.

Many of the cups discovered at Thebes, present a tasteful arrangement of varied hues, and evince the great skill of the Egyptians in the manufacture of porcelain; and no one can examine similar specimens without feeling convinced of the great experience they possessed in this branch of art. The manner in which the colours are blended and arranged; the minuteness of the lines, frequently tapering off to an almost imperceptible fineness; and the varied directions of tortuous curves, traversing the substance, but strictly conforming to the pattern designed by the artist, display no ordinary skill, and show that they were perfect masters of the means employed to produce the effect proposed.

The Egyptian porcelain should perhaps be denominated glass-porcelain, as partaking of the quality of the two, and not being altogether unlike the porcelain-glass invented by the celebrated Réaumur; who discovered, during his curious experiments on different qualities of porcelain, the method of converting glass into a substance very similar to chinaware.

The ground of Egyptian porcelain is generally of one homogeneous quality and hue, either blue or green, traversed in every direction by lines or devices of other colours - red, white, yellow, black, light or dark blue, and green, or whatever the artist chose to introduce; and these are not always confined to the surface, but frequently penetrate

considerably into the ground, sometimes having passed half, at others entirely, through the fused substance; in which respect they differ from the porcelain of China, where the flowers or patterns are applied to the surface, and perhaps justify the use of the term glass-porcelain, which I have adopted. In some instances, the yellows were put on after the other colours, upon the surface of the vase, which was then again subjected to a proper degree of heat; and after this, the handles, the rim, and the base, were added, and fixed by a repetition of the same process. It was not with

out considerable risk that these additions were made, and many vases were broken during the operation; to which Martial alludes, in an epigram on the glass cups of the Egyptians.*

That the Egyptians possessed considerable knowledge of chemistry and the use of metallic oxides, is evident from the nature of the colours applied to their glass and porcelain; and they were even acquainted with the influence of acids upon colour, being able, in the process of dyeing or staining cloth, to bring about certain changes in the hues †, by the same means adopted in our own cotton works, as I shall show in describing the manufactures of the Egyptians.

It is evident that the art of cutting glass was known to the Egyptians at the most remote

* Martial, Epig. lib. xiv. 115. Calices vitrei :

periods, hieroglyphics and various devices being engraved upon vases and beads, made in the time of the 18th dynasty; and some glass, particularly that which bears figures or ornaments in relief, was cast in a mould. Some have supposed that the method of cutting glass was unknown to the ancients, and have limited the period of its invention to the commencement of the seventeenth century of our era, when Gaspar Lehmann, at Prague, first succeeded in it, and obtained a patent from the emperor Rodolph II.; but we may infer from the authority of Pliny, that glass-cutting was known to the ancients, and that the diamond was used for the purpose as at the present day, even if they were ignorant of the art of cutting this stone with its own dust. "Diamonds," says that author, "are eagerly sought by lapidaries, who set them in iron handles, for they have the power of penetrating any thing, however hard it may be." He also states that emeralds and other hard stones were engraved, though in early times it was "considered wrong to violate gems with any figures or devicest;" and the diamond was found capable of cutting those of the hardest quality, "for all gems," he observes, "may be engraved by the diamond." +

It is difficult to decide upon the precise method

* Plin. xxxvii. 4. Expetuntur (adamantis crustæ) a sculptoribus, ferroque includuntur, nullam non duritiam ex facili cavantes."

† Plin. xxxvii. Proem, and xxxiii. 1. He thinks the stone of Polycrates' ring was a sardonyx. xxxvii. c. 1.

Plin. xxxvii. 13. "Verum omnes (gemmæ) adamante (scalpi