Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/388

 A History of Art in Sardinia and I un. va. fragments of ancient glass were dug up in the various excavations. Most of these — extremely beautiful from their iridescent colour — were too minute to be worth preserving. The only piece in good preservation is a flagon which was found in a sepulchral cave on Olivet, with a dish already described. Its singular shape should be noticed. It consists of twin recipients and twin handles ; a third, now disappeared, originally arched over the top. The colour is a pale green, with raised circular or running lines, of a much darker tint approaching to blue (Fig. 25 1). 1 The composition of this unique vessel is both elegant and original, and should be classed among the finest Sidonian art-products, which we treated at length in a former volume. 2 Glass must have been known at a very re- mote date in Judaea, owing to the abundance and good quality of the necessary soda, which the Arabs of the desert extract from the ashes of saliferous plants (ice-plant), growing in the clefts of the rocks, more especially around the shores of the Dead Sea. These ashes are all taken to the glass manufactory at Hebron, where a whole sack fetches but a few pence. The low price both of material and labour may account for the industry never having dis- at Hebron ; despite the political calamities that have swept over the land, and, of late years, competition from the West. The few objects that have been found in Hebrew tombs preclude any satisfactory con- clusion being arrived at as to the shapes and designs of native glass. The following woodcut, figuring a white opaque glass flagon, has been ascribed to Jewish origin. It is divided into six panels, each decorated with forms in high relief, and a ring of leaves around the bottom. The clustering grapes and pomegranates are easily read ; not so the remaining form, which may be a citron or a rough-skinned coloquinta at will. The seams under the foot of the vessel show that the fused body was blown on three hollow cores or pipes (Fig. 2 52). 3 The exact locality of this flagon is not known ; save that Perétié picked it up somewhere in Syria. Its 1 Hist, of Art, torn. iii. chap. x. § 3. M. Greville Chester, Recovery. 2 Ibid., pp. 735, 738. 3 We borrow our description and observation from De Longperier, Vase Juif antique dans Œuvres, tom. i. pp. 192-195. Fig. 251.— Glass Flagon. ront .; nilp J Size of the original. Re- COntl covery, p. 489.