THE Ancients were acquainted with glass, and handled it with a skill unsurpassed either by the marvellous artists of Murano or by modern industry, which has made such strides in this branch, thanks to the fresh elements of success due to the discoveries of chemistry. Hence, whether choice be made of the simple amphora or the "guttus" of common glass, unadorned except by a form, charming in its elegant proportions and its iridescent coating, the work of time, which exfoliates the surface in coloured scales, evanescent as those of the butterfly's wing, or whether search be made for the mille fiori cups, vases of double layers like the Portland, or glasses in enamelled reliefs like Baron Gustave de Rothschild's superb specimen, the collector will find in antique glass a valuable auxiliary to give variety and effect to his cabinets.

History has preserved the names of some workers in glass from C. Pom-ponius Apollonius, maker of vitreous disks, and Venastus, "specularius," or glazier to the family of the Emperor Claudius, to Julius Alexander of Carthage, Eunion, maker of vases, and Artas of Sidon, whose name appears inscribed on vases preserved in the Louvre and Paris National Library. Euphrenius also has traced his name on a goblet adorned with two myrtle branches, formerly in the Durand Collection, now in the Louvre.

Antique glass is also the means of procuring certain little relics of the highest interest. There are the glass pastes nearly all moulded on the most celebrated antique intaglios or engraved stones, copies of which were thus sought to be procured at the time. Some of these paste copies are now the only mementos of the long lost originals.

Here we speak of the cameos and intaglios, because everyone possesses some of these charming objects, which the earth has saved from destruction, while arraying them in a brilliant iridescence. But a visit to the Louvre will show to what a degree of luxury the workers in glass carried their art. Extremely remarkable is the grand picture imitating an agate, and adorning the central case in the last room. Not only is the principal bas-relief, with its numerous figures, a master-piece of composition and workmanship, but the several parts enclosed in the frame evince no less advanced technical skill. Here are busts coloured after nature, with vine chaplets, and brilliant draperies, more life-like in their appearance than the finest antique cameos.

Carved wood Chinese Etagere, lacquered and gilded, containing Oriental objects in bronze, porcelain, and glass.

Shall we here refer to the famous Barberini vase with its white figures on a blue ground? The piece just mentioned fully rivals it in perfection, and we ourselves possess fragments of the same class conceived in the highest style of the art. But what has been nowhere else seen are certain applications of coloured pastes on glass, as in the cup found at Nimes and presented to the Louvre by M. Aug. Pclot, and more especially in the marvellous cup belonging to Baron Gustave de Rothschild, on which birds, perched on delicate branches, encircle the glass like a wreath.

Let us not forget to mention in passing the glass of the Lower Empire, mostly found in the Catacombs of Rome, and which, on a leaf of gold engraved and soldered between two glass disks, show either the portraits of the Byzantine emperors, or the favourite emblems of the early Christians. These glasses, described and figured by Buona Orelli, but very rare in collections, have served as the model for certain Italian fabrications presently to be mentioned.

But centuries must be passed before we again meet with this art attaining its utmost splendour in Venice. One of the most singular facts connected with this school is that the oldest works of the masters are precisely the most perfect and marvellous.

Where were these masters trained? For how can they be supposed to have been able, all at once, to create an art so perfect in all its varied manifestations.

Many hold that they were inspired from Byzantium; but it must be remembered that Byzantium was but the dead body of the old Roman civilisation galvanised into momentary life. It might recall the echoes of the past, but it could not create.

It seems much more reasonable to look for the source of the Venetian Art in the East, whence commercial Italy contrived to draw so many inspirations. We are all familiar with the daring and successful enterprises of the Venetian navigators, and to what an extent their discoveries and acquisitions tended to further the civilisation of the West. Let us therefore take Venice at the moment when Paolo Godi of Pergola, was instructing Angelo Beroviero. Devoted to the study of chemistry, Godi had discovered secrets for the colouring of glass and enamels which were perfected by his pupil, and to him are attributed the marvellous pieces in white or coloured glass, to which he applied ornaments and enamelled subjects in the style at once vigorous and natural, characteristic of the early Italian schools. Certain allegorical subjects would seem to have been invented by Mantegna. By this artist, his son Marino and his son-in-law Ballarino was trained; that generation of masters destined to immortalise the workshops of Murano, already widely known through the vast trade in small glass-ware, ever since the thirteenth century, carried on by it with every part of the world, as well as through the painters in glass, and the workers in mosaic, who had decorated the cathedrals of northern Italy.

It would be needless to dwell on the prominence due to Venetian glass in all sumptuous interiors. The tazze in white or coloured glass, sprinkled with gold in foliage and relieved with pearl enamelling, are well suited to take their stand with bronzes on etageres and other convenient places. The same is true of the drinking vessels (buires) and slender ewers, with their trefoil mouths and handles gracefully curved in the shape of an S. Whether tinted an azure blue or the effective purple-red, and relieved with enamelled foliage, or else of colourless glass divided by the elegant columns of "latticinio" or milk-white threads; they all, "a ritorti" or "reticelli," have a decided stamp entitling them to a foremost place amongst objects of taste. Amongst those that are altogether unrivalled, we may mention the "air bubble" vases, and those strange and extravagantly shaped glass objects, representing fantastic animals, said to have been made by Nicholas de l'Aigle for operations of alchemy, or perhaps were more probably intended by their chimerical forms to act on the terrified minds of the dupes who came to consult the alchemist.

Venetian Glaas-wnre of the Sixteenth Century. (Collection of P. Gasnault.).