A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2). Johann Beckmann

338

In 1793, the French government actually collected a quantity of old red glass, with the view of extracting the gold by which it was supposed to be coloured! Le Vieil was himself a glass-painter employed in the repair of ancient windows, and the descendant of glass-painters, yet so little was he aware of the true nature of the glass, that he even fancied he could detect the marks of the brush with which he imagined the red stratum had been laid on!

339

[M. Langlois names the following writers: “Neri en 1612, Handicquer de Blancourt en 1667, Kunkel en 1679, Le Vieil en 1774, et plusieurs autres écrivains à diverses époques, decrivaient ces procédés.” (p. 192.) He fixes the restoration of the art in France at about the year 1800, when Brongniart, who had the direction of the Sèvres porcelain manufacture, worked with Méraud at the preparation of vitrifiable colours, p. 194. Among modern artists he particularly mentions Dihl, Schilt, Mortelègue, Robert, Leclair, Collins, and Willement.]

340

Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale, 1826.

341

Though it is difficult to produce the copper-glass uniformly coloured, it is easy to obtain streaks and patches of a fine transparent red. For this purpose it is sufficient to fuse together 100 parts of crown-glass with one of oxide of copper, putting a lump of tin into the bottom of the crucible. Metallic iron employed in the same way as the tin throws out a bright scarlet, but perfectly opake.

342

“Dr. Lewis states that he once produced a potfull of glass of beautiful colour, yet was never able to succeed a second time, though he took infinite pains, and tried a multitude of experiments with that view.” Commerce of Arts, p. 177.

343

[At the recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Cambridge (June 1845), M. Splittgerber exhibited specimens of glass into the composition of which gold entered as a chloride. These specimens were white, but upon gently heating them in the flame of a spirit-lamp, they became a deep-red. If again the same reddened glass is exposed to the heat of an oxygen blowpipe, it loses nearly all its colours, a slight pinkiness only remaining.]

344

Gattereri Elem. Artis Diplom. 1765, 4to, p. 285.

345

It is singular that Pliny denies that the Egyptians used seals, lib. xxiii. c. 1. Herodotus however, and others, prove the contrary; and Moses speaks of the seal-rings of the Egyptians. See Goguet.

346

Herodot. lib. ii. c. 38.

347

Lucian. in Pseudomant.

348

Act. iv. ap. Bin. tom. iii. Concil. part. i. p. 356. Whether the γῆ σημαντρὶς, however, of Herodotus and the πηλὸς of Lucian and of the Byzantine be the same kind of earth, can be determined with as little certainty as whether the creta, called by some Roman authors a sealing-earth, be different from both.

349

Orat. in Verrem, iv. c. 9. In the passage referred to, some instead of cretula read cerula. I shall here take occasion to remark also, that in the Acts of the Council of Nice before-mentioned, instead of πηλὸν some read κηρόν: but I do not see a sufficient reason for this alteration, as in the before-quoted passage of Lucian it is expressly said, that people sealed κηρῷ ἣ πηλῷ. Reiske himself, who proposes that amendment, says that πηλὸν may be retained. Stephanus, however, does not give that meaning to this word in his Lexicon. Pollux and Hesychius tell us, that the Athenians called sealing-earth also ῥύπον.

350

Orat. pro Flacco, c. 16.

351

Serv. ad lib. vi. Æneid. p. 1037.

352

Lib. xii. c. 43.

353

Georg. i. v. 179.

354

Creta fossica, qua stercorantur agri. – Varro, i. 7. 8. It appears also that the πηλὸς of the Greeks signified a kind of potters’ earth. Those who do not choose to rely upon our dictionaries, need only to read the ancient Greek writers on husbandry, who speak of ἀῤῥαγεῖ πηλῷ ἀργιλλώδει. See Geopon. x. c. 75. 12, and ix. c. 10. 4.

355

I piombi antichi. Roma 1740, 4to, p. 16.

356

Heineccius and others think that the amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ, in Petronius, were sealed; but it is much more probable that they were only daubed over or closed with gypsum, for the same reason that we pitch our casks.

357

[Blue wax may now be seen in every wax-chandler’s shop; it is coloured blue by means of indigo.]

358

Heineccii Syntagma de Vet. Sigillis, 1719, p. 55.

359

Plin. lib. xxii. c. 25.

360

Trotz, Not. in Prim. Scribendi Origine, p. 73, 74.

361

P. Festi de Verb. Sig. lib. xx. Hesychius calls this cement μεμαλάγμενον κηρόν. – Plin. lib. xxxvi. c. 24.

362

Lib. viii. c. 4.

363

Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique. Paris, 1759, 4to, iv. p. 33.

364

Mémoires conc. l’Histoire d’Auxerre. Par. 1743, ii. p. 517.

365

Bibliothèque des Auteurs de Bourgogne, 2 vols. fol. ii. p. 217.

366

Histoire Générale des Drogues. Paris, 1735.

367

This Rousseau appears also in the History of Cochineal, as he sent to Pomet a paper on that subject, which was contradicted by the well-known Plumier in the Journal des Sçavans for 1694. He is mentioned also by Labat, who says he saw him at Rochelle; but at that time he must have been nearly a hundred years of age.

368

Von Murr, in his learned Beschreibung der Merkwürdigkeiten in Nürnberg, Nurnb. 1778, 8vo, p. 702, says that Spanish wax was not invented, or at least not known, before the year 1559. This appears also from a manuscript of the same year, which contains various receipts in the arts and medicine. There are some in it for making the common white sealing-wax green or red.

369

See Chronicon Godvicense, p. 102.

370

Wecker gives directions also to make an impression with calcined gypsum, and a solution of gum or isinglass. Porta knew that this could be done to greater perfection with amalgam of quicksilver; an art employed even at present.

371

Tavernier, in his Travels, says that in Surat lac is melted and formed into sticks like sealing-wax. Compare with this Dapper’s Asia, Nuremberg, 1681, fol. p. 237.

372

Bruchstücke betreffend die Pflichten eines Staatsdieners; aus den Handlungen des Raths Dreitz, nebst Bemerkungen vom ältesten Gebrauche des Spanischen Siegelwachses, Frankf. 1785, 4to, p. 86; where the use of these antiquarian researches is illustrated by examples worthy of notice.

373

Historische Untersuchungen gesammelt von J. G. Meusel, i. 3, p. 240.

374

Original Letters of the Paston Family, temp. Henry VI. i. p. 21, and p. 87 and 92.

375

Meusel’s Geschichtforscher. Halle, 8vo, vi. p. 270.

376

Ibid. iv. p. 251.

377

Aromatum et Simplicium aliquot Historia, Garcia ab Horto auctore. Antverpiæ 1574, 8vo, p. 33.

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