. Glass. Syria ^—of that of European originthree is no need to speak. Edward Lane describes thesmall conical lamps of thin glass having a little tubeat the bottom in which is stuck a wick twisted rounda piece of straw. This is an old type of lamp thatI have dwelt upon in a former chapter. Perhaps themost interesting form of glass vessel now in use in Cairoand Damascus is the covered sherbet-jug or bowl—theKulleh. I have before me an example from Cairo madeof a nearly opaque white glass, decorated with floraldesigns rudely painted on and perhaps not fired. Where ^ At Vienna, in the Museum for A
. Glass. Syria ^—of that of European originthree is no need to speak. Edward Lane describes thesmall conical lamps of thin glass having a little tubeat the bottom in which is stuck a wick twisted rounda piece of straw. This is an old type of lamp thatI have dwelt upon in a former chapter. Perhaps themost interesting form of glass vessel now in use in Cairoand Damascus is the covered sherbet-jug or bowl—theKulleh. I have before me an example from Cairo madeof a nearly opaque white glass, decorated with floraldesigns rudely painted on and perhaps not fired. Where ^ At Vienna, in the Museum for Art and Industry, there is a small collection ofglass from Hebron. Besides the bangles of opaque glass which belong to the oldprimitive family, there are some small vessels of a deep amber-coloured glasssimilar to that brought from Rhodes, and finally a few vases of Persian type of abluish-green metal; among the last group may be found some lamps with glasstubes similar to those mentioned in the INDIAN GLASS this glass is made I do not know. We may perhapsregard the ware as a survival of the lattimo of the early-eighteenth century (cf. Lane, Modern Egyptians, 1842,vol. i. p. 224). Indian Glass.—The classical writers had a traditionthat the best glass in the world was made in India,thanks above all to the use of a pure rock crystal in themanufacture. There are some vague references to glassin the later Sanscrit literature, and in one of the older,but not the oldest, of the Hindu books, a distinction ismade between a vessel of glass and one made of it would be useless to search in the Hindustan ofto-day for any examples of so early a date. Apart froma few beads which may be assigned to Buddhist times,^ Ican point to no examples of Indian glass of earlier datethan the Mogul dynasty. It is to that period—hardly,indeed, before the later seventeenth century—that wemust attribute certain remarkable examples of glass,found for the most part in Delhi, which a
Size: 1270px × 1967px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondonmethuenandco
