A century later, laudable efforts to revive the glories of Venetian glass were made along some lines of the old-time productions, and fortunately for the industry these efforts suc ceeded, and operations have since been uninter ruptedly continued. Several of the earlier Venetian motives have been further developed, notably the form of decorating with "glass applied to glass° at the furnace. This feature remained long a Venetian characteristic, but in the eighties of the last century both French and English glassmakers adopted it, fruit and flow ers—with their foliage—andgrotesque mal and reptile creations supplying the motives.
France.— As Pliny mentions the "glass of Gaul° France may be credited with about 20 centuries of association with glass-making. Vessels and fragments attributed to the 2d and 3d centuries have been found in Nor mandy, and in the period between 486 and 752 glass-making was practised in several parts of the country. Greek workmen were employed there in the 7th century. There is 9th and 11th century evidence also. In the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries glass-makers worked at Poitou. Provence had its glasshouses as early as the 13th century, and they were quite im portant by the 16th. Window glass was made in Normandy in the early part of the 14th cen tury. In the 15th century it was a custom in France for the proprietors of glass works to become practical in the art themselves, whether they worked at the furnace or not, hence the °gentithommes verriers." In 1556 glass-works were established in Lorraine, upon a site which has not even yet been abandoned. Presumably Venetian modes of production were adopted at the foundation, for as soon as history begins to record its progress we get evidence of opera tions identical with those which carried France along in its glass-making till it eventually—in the 18th century—dispossessed its mentors of a great part of their western trade. In 1664 the disturbing element of warfare arrested the progress of this establishment, but did not stamp it out, and when peaceable times came again preparations were made to restart the furnace fires. On 17 Feb. 1767 land was do nated by royal decree to the promoters of the company, on condition that they erect a factory, homes for workmen and a church. Such success accrued from this incentive that after 20 years of effort to advance the art of glass-making the directors of the establishment were enabled to present to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris the first pure crystal glass ever made in France.
The government — delighted by this achieve ment — granted several thousand acres of forest land to the company—in those days wood fuel was used for melting glass —that all the world might know that it was the first in the French nation to fashion articles in pure crystal glass.
In 1788 three furnaces were in operation and more than 400 people employed in their work ing, an exceptionally large number in those days when small factories were the rule. In the 17th and 18th centuries there were works at La Rochelle and Nantes. Vessels for do mestic purposes and for ornament were made; and enameling was one of the early forms of decorating, family and city °arms" and mottoes furnishing the motifs.
White and colored glass was made, includ ing opalescent and marble effects. The secret also seems to have been known of patterning glass with studs formed in dies and welded on the vessel at the furnace. Much use has been made of this means of ornamentation in quite recent years. Mirror making was practised at Paris and at Cherbourg toward the end of the 17th century. These manufactories were united and the joint production was very large. About 1690 the process of casting glass was invented, and thus it became possible to produce very large plates. In 1693 these interests were trans ferred to Saint Gobain, a great centre of the plate-glass industry of our own time.
There is scarcely a variety of glass or a decorative motif that has not been practised by the French glass-worker, and in some branches they possess the largest establishments and employ the greatest number of people.
Belgium.— The period when glass-making was introduced into Belgium cannot be fixed for certain, but whenever it occurred it was under Venetian influence. Mirror-making and 'glass of crystal in the Venetian manner" are mentioned in 16th century history. Toward the middle of the 17th century a °gentleman glass-maker' from Murano had a patent granted him to make glass at Brussels. The terms of this patent implied an intention to substitute for imported glass a real home-made article.