p. 10 | ANCIENT ART

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 41.

ANCIENT ART.

THE priests of Ptah, at Memphis, were adepts in the glass-maker's art, and not only did they have factories for manufacturing the common crystal variety, but they had learned the vitrifying of the different colors and the imitation of precious stones to perfection. Their imitations of the amethyst, and of the various other colored gems, were so true to nature that even now, after they have lain in the desert sands from 2,000 to 4,000 years, it takes an expert to distinguish the genuine article from the spurious. It has been shown that, besides being experts in glass making and glass coloring, they used the diamond in cutting and engraving glass. In the British Museum there is a beautiful piece of stained glass, with an engraved emblazonment of the monarch Thothmes III., who lived 3,400 years ago.—St. Louis Republic.