Ornamented And Stained Glass.*

the production of it by itself almost worthless as a trade . Plate glass , the contract price of Avhich is 3 s . 3 d . per foot , is usually selected for this enrichment . An ordinary pattern can be embossed on this for Is . Go , per foot ; one very elaborate for

3 s . 3 d . This is the way to emboss . The plate of glass , carefully cleaned wifch Avhiting , is placed over the drawing , which is usually a bit of unhealthy scroll-work ; and the ground of the pattern is painted wifch common Brunswick black , to resist the action of the acid . When this is quite drya

, bank is built round the edges of the glass . This bank may be formed of strips of glass , made AA-ater-tig-ht at the lower edges Avith hot tallow and carbonate of iron , laid on Avith a brush . Then pour on fluoric acid , which should be of medium strength , and let it remain for about half an hour .

When the pattern is bitten in , say a sixteenth of an inch , scrape off the Brunswick black , and grind the surface of the glass with emery and a piece of plate glass about 2 in . square . A clear pattern on a frosted ground is thus produced . If the acid is too weak , the BrunsAvick black "will come off before the pattern is sufficiently bitten in : if too strong ,

the engraved surface will be very rough . If , therefore , the acid is too strong , or Avhen it bites unevenly , keep the surface of the glass stirred Avith an old brush . If fluoric acid of excessive . strength is placed upon glass , corrosive action is instantaneous , and an appearance is given to the

surface like that seen upon old glass by the action of the atmosphere for several centuries . Any one Avith an ordinary knowledge of the use of the pencil , and Avith 20 s . in his pocket , may set up as an artist in this pursuit . A bottle of BrunsAvick black Is . ; one pound of fluoric acid in

a gutta-percha bottle , say os . with a rest for his hand , a few pencils , and a packet of emery ; these form his humble stock-in-trade . The facility and cheapness of execution and competition have caused embossed glass to become one of the items in builders' contracts ; and although it should not

from that cause become an inferior production , yet I do not believe there are a score patterns in all London equal to Avhat ornamental drawing should be . In most cases too much is attempted ; an utter ivant of knoAvledge is shown ; and ivhat Avould become interesting through invention , is a A ile compound of unmeaning scraps , cooked up without skill and taste .

A study of the ornamentation ofthe early Greek A'ases in the British Museum , and the acquirement of knoAvledge generally , would have great influence in correcting these feeble and intemperate productions . In embossed glass , skilful linear ornament and invention may be hoped forbut nothing

, more . In Mr . Grace ' s office doorways , Wigmorestreet , are specimens of the highest character , and these are instances of its utmost capability . There is also some good work in the windows of the Hero of Waterloo public-house , near Waterloo

Station ( Messrs . Hill & Co . architects ) , but the patterns are all alike . The ceiling * of the library of Orleans House is of this kind of glass , but the effect is painfully cold , and unworthy of imitation * We now come to the method of staining and colouring sheets of Avhite glass , a process used

principally for hall-lamp squares . The manufacture is almost confined to Messrs . Chance ' s glass works . The yellows and dull reds are produced hy a silver stain , afterwards described ; the blue is a semi-transparent enamel , made Avich the black oxide of cobaltmelted with a soft flux . Green is

, produced by painting * one side hlne , and staining the other side yelloAV ; browns and flesh reds b y fche peroxide of iron mixed Avith a flux . About thirty years ago , before the production of stained glass AvindoAvs was understood , some of

our church AvmdoAvs Avere ornamented by this process . Reynolds ' s window , in New College , Oxford , is an instance . I lately examined this window , and found it in an excellent state of preservation . Nofc so the Van Ling Avindows in Christ Church , Oxford , also of this kind , painted in 1630 on squares of

white glass , but now decaying * in large patches . The productions of the modern Munich school , which are but little more than transparent paintings , are largely indebted to this enamel system of painting . The Peterhouse Church , at Cambridge , Avith the exception of its fine old AvindoAV at the

east end , is full of these German transparencies .. Occasions might arise Avhen this system of glass ornamentation would be required ; but it is an unskilful Avay of painting , anel may be left to ornament cheap lamp squares Avithout regret .

Both Avhite work and embossing may be made good of their kind , and the effort to produce skilful specimens will fit the artist in some measure for work of higher import . One test for good ornamental work is the axiom advanced by the Marlborough House authorities , that " ornament must

have some near or remote signification . " The art of glass jjainting—that is to say , painting made of pieces of coloured glass united together with bands of lead , was invented in France about the middle of the tAvelfth century . At the beginning * of the thirteenth centuryifc

, became a part of the system of the decoration of French Pointed architecture , spreading afc the same time all over the north-Avest of Europe , wherever Northern Pointed architecture became established .

During the Avhole of this century there was such a rage for this decoration , that not a window Avas constructed without inserting * stained glass , or intending to insert it . There are some feAV existing * specimens of