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Vitrum Annulare, Pastes

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VITRUM ANNULARE.                           347
The abundance of pastes, all passing for antiques, on the accumulation of which so many amateurs pride themselves, is perfectly astounding, and reads an amusing commentary upon Ovid's dictum—
" lu quod volumus credula turba sumus."
Many dilettanti exhibit them by hundreds at one and the same time, and must therefore cherish the belief, if they wish to support their authenticity, that the old vitriarii spent their lives in producing these imitations by myriads merely for the purpose of cowing them broadcast in the earth to turn up again for the delectation of future ages. The rate at which they are sold depends entirely now upon the credit of the cabinet to which they may belong : sometimes I have known them go for two or three shillings per dozen, and those, too, good examples in their way.
To account rationally for this plentifulness, it must be borne in mind that for two centuries (before the Eegent) the Italians were largely manufacturing these articles, their material being the hard glass then commonly made, and their moulds coarse, as their false Agates plainly show ; it is therefore hard to perceive how their fabrications can be discerned from the ancient, being produced under conditions so similar.
As for the fine specimens that began to appear after Homberg had so greatly improved the process, their polish and their softness forbid their entering at all into the question. And under the same head may be classed all that followed ; even the amateurs, whom Goethe speaks of, having so far made themselves masters of the technical pro­cesses when once invented, as to be able to bring out pastes free from bubbles, and exhibiting a clear impression of the matrix. Modern pastes betray themselves by one almost certain mark of their origin, when they retain at the back
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