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Vitrum Annulare, Pastes

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VITRUM ANNULARE.
genious, although extremely simple in practice. A number of fine rods of coloured glass were arranged together in a bundle so that their ends composed the pattern wished, as a bird or a flower, exactly as now the makers of Tunbridge ware do with their slips of differently-coloured woods. This bundle was then enclosed in a coating of pot-metal, usually opaque blue glass ; and the whole mass being fused sufficiently to run all the rods together into a compact body, was lastly drawn out to the diameter required. In this way all the rods were equally attenuated without altering their relative position ; and the external coating, when the mass was cut across, became the ground of a miniature mosaic, appa­rently the production of inconceivable dexterity and niceness of touch. Each section of the whole necessarily presented the same pattern, without the slightest variation in its shades and outlines. The most exquisite specimen in existence, once the Duchess of Devonshire's, is now in the British Museum. It is a square tablet about an inch wide, exhibiting, upon a ground of the most beautiful blue, a kneeling winged goddess, Sate. In the figure the junction of the threads defies the nicest scrutiny, and pro­duces the effect of an exquisitely painted miniature in the brightest colours, brought out by the high polish given in the finish to the surface. The back, left rough, clearly exhibits the rationale of the process.
Under "Emerald" something has been said respecting the perfection to which the art of making false gems was carried by the Romans. Pliny, in his description of the precious stones, frequently alludes to the difficulty of detecting their counter­feits in glass. In the making of drinking vessels and for other ornamental purposes, he enumerates the following varieties :— " Glass resembling obsidian2 is made for dishes (escaria vasa) ; also a sort entirely red and opaque, called Haematinon ; an opaque white also, and imitations of the Agate, the Sapphire, the Lapis-lazuli, and all other colours."3 Specimens of all these kinds are
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