Excerpt from Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum, Vol. 20: October, 1907 The most far reaching change of this century, the fifteenth, was the intro duction of enamel; this consisted of colored glass ground to a powder; the powder, or pigment as it should be called, was, and is, mixed with fat oil, or with gum and water, to make the particles adhere when the mixture is painted upon the glass. In the kiln the medium is burned away and the ground glass pigment melted, causing it to adhere, more or less firmly to the sheet of glass upon which it is painted. The beautiful diaper patterns note' especially shields in the illustration dated1588 - are done in such enamel. The part to be diapered is covered with matt enamel and fired. A second matt is then spread over the first, and when dry the pattern _is etched with a pointed instrument, even with a needle, so that the result is like the finest lace. Note, too, the clever way the needle is used to give life, by lights and half tones, tothe fur of a bear in one of the glasses (not illustrated), to the fur of the gryphons in the second illustration, also to jewels, to the glisten ing light on armor, etc. In Swiss glass the enamel is so well managed that an exquisite effect, unattainable by other means, is produced. In large windows exposed to the weather and to the effects of time, the enamel is wont to flake off with dis astrous results. The Swiss seem to have avoided this misfortune, whether from the smallness of the subject or the greater skill -of the artist is difficult to determine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.