Another class of glass ornaments consists of small flat plaques or plates, pierced with a number of fine holes, which appear to have been sewn upon garments.  These are usually patterned, sometimes with spirals, sometimes with rosettes, occasionally, though rarely, with figures.  Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez represent one in their great work upon ancient art,[844] where almost the entire field is occupied by a winged griffin, standing upright on its two hind legs, and crowned with a striped cap, or turban.

Phoenician opaque glass is comparatively rare, and possesses but little beauty.  It was rendered opaque in various ways.  Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez found that in a statue of Serapis, which they analysed, the glass was mixed with bronze in the proportions of ten to three.  An opaque material of a handsome red colour was thus produced, which was heavy and exceedingly hard.[845]

The methods pursued by the Phoenician glass-manufacturers were probably much the same as those which are still employed for the production of similar objects, and involved the use of similar implements, as the blowpipe, the lathe, and the graver.  The materials having been procured, they were fused together in a crucible or melting-pot by the heat of a powerful furnace.  A blowpipe was then introduced into the viscous mass, a portion of which readily attached itself to the implement, and so much glass was withdrawn as was deemed sufficient for the object which it was designed to manufacture.  The blower then set to work, and blew hard into the pipe until the glass at its lower extremity began to expand and gradually took a pear-shaped form, the material partially coolling and hardening, but still retaining a good deal of softness and pliability.  While in this condition, it was detached from the pipe, and modelled with pincers or with the hand into the shape required, after which it was polished, and perhaps sometimes cut by means of the turning-lathe.  Sand and emery were the chief polishers, and by their help a surface was produced, with which little fault could be found, being smooth, uniform, and brilliant.  Thus the vessel was formed, and if no further ornament was required, the manufacture was complete—­a jug, vase, alabastron, amphora, was produced, either transparent or of a single uniform tint, which might be white, blue, brown, green, &c., according to the particular oxide which had been thrown, with the silica and alkali, into the crucible.  Generally, however, the manufacturer was not content with so simple a product:  he aimed not merely at utility, but at beauty, and proceeded to adorn the work of his hands—­whatever it was—­with patterns which were for the most part in good taste and highly pleasing.  These patterns he first scratched on the outer surface of the vessel with a graving tool; then, when he had made his depressions deep enough, he took threads of coloured glass, and having filled up with the threads the depressions which he had made, he subjected the