Glass-blowing was another art in which the Egyptians excelled.  Fifteen hundred years before Christ they made ornaments of glass, and glass vessels of large size were used for holding wine.  Such was their skill in the manufacture of glass that they counterfeited precious stones with a success unknown to the moderns.  We read of a counterfeited emerald six feet in length.  Counterfeited necklaces were sold at Thebes which deceived strangers.  The uses to which glass was applied were in the manufacture of bottles, beads, mosaic work, and drinking-cups, and their different colors show considerable knowledge of chemistry.  The art of cutting and engraving stones was doubtless learned by the Israelites in their sojourn in Egypt.  So perfect were the Egyptians in the arts of cutting precious stones that they were sought by foreign merchants, and they furnished an important material in commerce.

From the earliest times the Egyptians were celebrated for their manufacture of linen, which was one of the principal articles of commerce; and cotton and woollen cloths as well as linen were woven.  Cotton was used not only for articles of dress, but for the covering of chairs and other kinds of furniture.  The great mass of the mummy cloths is of coarse texture; but the “fine linen” spoken of in the Scripture was as fine as muslin, in some instances containing more than five hundred threads to an inch, while the finest productions of the looms of India have only one hundred threads to the inch.  Not only were the threads of linen cloth of extraordinary fineness, but the dyes were equally remarkable, and were unaffected by strong alkalies.  Spinning was principally the occupation of women, who also practised the art of embroidery, in which gold thread was used, supposed to be beaten out by the hammer; but in the arts of dyeing and embroidery the Egyptians were surpassed by the Babylonians, who were renowned for their cloths of various colors.

The manufacture of paper was another art for which the Egyptians were famous, made from the papyrus, a plant growing in the marsh-land of the Nile.  The papyrus was also applied to the manufacture of sails, baskets, canoes, and parts of sandals.  Some of the papyri, on which is hieroglyphic writing dating from two thousand years before our era, are in good preservation.  Sheep-skin parchment also was used for writing.

The Egyptians were especially skilled in the preparation of leather for sandals, shields, and chairs.  The curriers used the same semicircular knife which is now in use.  The great consumption of leather created a demand far greater than could be satisfied by the produce of the country, and therefore skins from foreign countries were imported as part of the tribute laid on conquered nations or tribes.

More numerous than the tanners in Egypt were the potters, among whom the pottery-wheel was known from a remote antiquity, previous to the arrival of Joseph from Canaan, and long before the foundation of the Greek Athens.  Earthenware was used for holding wine, oils, and other liquids; but the finest production of the potter were the vases, covered with a vitreous glaze and modelled in every variety of forms, some of which were as elegant as those made later by the Greeks, who excelled in this department of art.