We know that cut glass is expensive, and the reason is that cutting it is a slow process.  Four wheels have to be used in succession, iron, sandstone, wood, and cork.  Sand is thrown upon these wheels in such a way that the glass is finely and delicately cut.  But this is imitated in pressed glass, which is blown in a mould inside of which the design is cut.  This is much cheaper than the cut glass.

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A higher art than cutting is engraving on glass, by which the figures are brought out in relief.  Distinguished artists are employed to draw the designs, and then skilful engravers follow the lines with their delicate tools.  If you will examine carefully the engraving on this Bohemian goblet, you will see what a wonderful piece of workmanship it is.

It seems almost a pity that so much time and labor, skill and genius should be given to a thing so easily broken.  And yet we have seen that a good many glass articles have been preserved for centuries.  The engraving on the Bohemian goblet is ingenious, and curious, and faithful in detail, but the flowers on this modern French flagon are really more graceful and beautiful.

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About four hundred years ago there was found in a marble coffin, in a tomb near Rome, a glass vase which is now famous throughout the world.  There is good reason for supposing it to have been made one hundred and thirty-eight years before Christ, consequently it is now about two thousand years old.  For many years this was in the Barberini palace in Rome, and was called the Barberini Vase.  Then it was bought by the Duchess of Portland, of England, for nine thousand dollars, and since then has been known as the Portland Vase.

She loaned it to the British Museum, and everybody who went to London wanted to see this celebrated vase.

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One day a crazy man got into the Museum, and with a smart blow of his cane laid in ruins the glass vase that had survived all the world’s great convulsions and changes for two thousand years!  This misfortune was supposed to be irreparable, but it has been repaired by an artist so cleverly that it is impossible to tell where it is joined together.

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This vase is composed of two layers of glass, one over the other.  The lower is of a deep blue color, and the upper an opaque white, so that the figures stand out in white on a deep blue background.

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The picture on it represents the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.  The woman seated, holding a serpent in her left hand, is Thetis, and the man to whom she is giving her right hand is Peleus.  The god in front of Thetis is Neptune, and a Cupid hovers in the air above.  On the reverse side are Thetis and Peleus, and a goddess, all seated.  At the foot of the vase is a bust of Ganymede, and on each side of this in the picture are copies of the masks on the handles.