735
and increase his enjoj'ments, glass holds a prominent |place. Tf we regard its use in the fabrication of utensilsto contain the fluid portions of our food, it is most espe-cially valuable, since its surface has the power of resisting ithe action of almost all liquids, and, as a material, it iunites strength with extreme lightness and great capacity. !Its perfect transparency is another rare quality, wherebythe purity and clearness of the liquid it may serve tocontain is immediately manifest, enabling the satisfiedeye to minister indirectly to the pleasures of taste. More- *over, whilst it is one of the most cleanly materials, from 'its extreme smoothness and hardness of surface, it is also jmost easily purified, and its pristine brilliancy is restored !by the smallest possible effort of labour. Besides all ‘these varied qualities, the materials of which it is com- jposed are of the least costly kind, and the processes of jits manufacture extremely simple; so that it is fitted for jgeneral use, and within the means even of the poorest |purchasers.
For the purposes and utensils above enumerated, thequalities ascribed to it, properly understood and dulyconsidered, will lead to a discovery of the principleswhich should govern its design and decoration. Of these,the foremost are its brilliancy of surface and its trans-parency, both which should ever be preserved with thegreatest care in all right treatments of glass. And yet,strange to say, these qualities are not only often disre-garded, but there is a strong tendency to contradict anddestroy them : thus we see wine-glasses and decanters,water-bottles, carafes, and drinking-vessels of manykinds, not only with the surface covered with groundornament, but sometimes wholly and entirely changedand obscured by grinding, so as to render them perfectlyopaque: or, we have colour most injuriously applied todestroy purity, and prevent a proper enjoyment of the |glowing lustre of the liquid contents; whilst sometimes jthe material is wholly or partially opalized; in the one!case making it into a spurious porcelain, in the other into ia species of japanned hardware, without the toughness iand tenacity of that manufacture. Another excellence ofglass is its lightness, as compared with its power of con-taining ; the maintenance of this quality is opposed tothe heavy and deep surface-cutting to which glass is nowso frequently submitted, especially in water-jugs and de-canters, and in the pieces of dessert-services. This cuttingis intended to enhance the jewel-like and prismatic effectof glass, but it is opposed to its true qualities for suchpurposes, and should only be resorted to in bandies, stems,or bases, where transparency is unimportant, where con-structive thickness is necessary, and the grasp in holdingmay be aided by the facets of the surface. Yet it has ibeen the fashion to carry this practice of cutting to an ’extreme, tending to vulgarize, as far as possible, the :simple and beautiful material: in some of the works ex- ;hibited it has been applied even to the howls of wine- 1glasses. i
The more simple mode of manufacturing glass is pro- |ductive not only of the most beautiful shapes, but of its !best qualities: and blown glass unites thinness, trans- |lucency, and pure surface, to forms which combine thegreatest symmetry with varied curves; that is, the sphere,resulting from the circular motion of the workman’s in-strument, elongated by the breath and weight, into theellipse and its combinations. These blown forms may beornamented by narrow bands of engraved ornament, of jwhich flatness and symmetrical distribution are requisite Jqualities: in wine-glasses and drinking vessels it ought ito be reserved for those parts of the bowl which do not iinterfere with a perfect sight of their contents. Anygilding or enamelling can only be admissible under thesame rules. In all cases, elegance of form should be thefirst consideration, to which cutting, gilding, or engrav-ing should be entirely subordinate. The relation of thestem to the bowl in wine-glasses is another point of someimportance. The practice has of late obtained of makingthem of such extreme tenuity as to produce a sense offragility and insecurity, which is quite as great an error !in taste as the contrary fault of heaviness and thickness. :
Like porcelain, a section of the manufacture of glass is )devoted to the production of what can scarcely be called by j
any other name than ornaments. But while the productionof porcelain ornaments has been fostered by princes, and,through the clever artists attached to royal manufactories,has arrived at great beauty and rare excellence, reflectingback an improved taste on the design and decoration ofthe general manufacture, glass has not been favouredwith such advantages; and the specimens of Bohemianand Hungarian glass in various parts of the Exhibition,notwithstanding the rare beauty of the materials of themanufacture, can hardly be instanced for the merit oftheir design. The mode of manufacture, by casting inclumsy masses in wood or metal moulds, and reducing by-cutting with the wheel, is contrary to the best qualitiesof glass, which consist of lightness and elegance. Thisalone causes many of the faults of the manufacture;since the true characteristics of glass are lost, and arereplaced by qualities too apt to degenerate into the mere-tricious and the gaudy. Thus transparency is merged inrich colour, and this, again, overlaid with gilding: orthe surface is flashed with opal, cut away by grinding tothe coloured under-surface.; sometimes’giving the ap-pearance of porcelain, sometimes even that of the inferiormanufacture, papier mache; whilst, occasionally, thewhole surface is frosted by grinding, and tinted in crudecolours, the appearance of glass being entirely lost, andonly its worst quality, that of brittleness, remaining:whilst the forms adopted are often as inelegant and rudeas they are unsuited to the material to which they areapplied. The tall chandeliers exhibited among CountHarrach’s glass are examples of these remarks; at firstsight they resemble papier mache, from the excess ofgilding on the dark ruby glass; and when examinationdetermines them to be glass, the deeply-indented hori-zontal thmatings of the mouldings of the shafts give asense of dangerous insecurity and ill-adapted construc-tion. This is far less seen in the smaller works of thesame kind, but it is, nevertheless, the natural result of awrong application of constructive forms to the material,and of an improper over-decoration of the surface : whilstit would appear that the true adaptation of such glass forthe above purposes has not yet been obtained, its use inthe manufacture of lamp pillars, knobs, and handles, lockfurniture, and finger plates, has been more successful,and seems likely to be attended with more tastefulresults.
"When glass is used for large objects, such as chande-liers and candelabra, where construction is required, itsknown brittleness is rather at variance with the construc-tive application of the material, and it seems in the prin-cipal branches and supports to require not only a hiddenmetallic structure, but even the appearance of it to theeye, to overcome a certain sense of insecurity.
In upright standing candelabra the work should ariseout of some other material as a base, and it is exceedinglyobjectionable to base a glass superstructure on the samematerial, supported on foliated or other forms of thenature of feet. In hanging chandeliers a constructionentirely of glass equally quarrels with the sense ofsecurity; the chandeliers of the last century illustrate theerror of such constructions—their long bent branchesappear weak and brittle, and the full beauty of the glass isnot brought out by the lighting; the present mode, whichtreats glass rather as a string of jewels assisting to hangup the branches, is more consistent with its true use andbest qualities; for while in masses it constructs ill andhas not its full brilliancy, lustre and prismatic beautyare obtained by loose pendant forms cut with properfacets, so that every motion, however slight, contributesto the splendour of the work by the varied reflections ofthe lights. In such works coloured glass should be intro-duced sparingly, and it should always be translucent,opalized coloured glass hardly ever having a judiciouseffect.
In referring to the exhibited works in the manufac-tured material, the first place is due to the glass fountainof Messrs. Osler (Class XXIV., 20, p. 700). It is amatter of regret that a production so unique in thismaterial should not be entitled to praise for its design;the truth is, that, works of the like magnitude in glassnever having been before attempted, and the designer