LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER XVI.

       GLASS.

       Table of Contents

      Vessels with painted figures—Vessels with Greek letters—Drinking-horns of glass—Cut glass.

      Nothing perhaps can give us a better idea of the refined taste of some of the Northmen than the beautiful glass objects which have been found in different parts of the country. Many of these are evidently of Greek, some perhaps of Roman, origin. In the museums of Italy, Greece, or Russia no such exquisite bowls are found, which after having been painted they seem to have been baked or subjected to heat in order that they might retain their colour.

      Fig. 628.—2½ inches high; diameter across top, 3 inches; across bottom, 17

       10ths of an inch. A blue panther, with grey or brown contours and dots, attacks a brown stag; on the other side of which is a brown lioness. Between the animals are circles of dots, brown and yellow by turns, with a brown spot in their middle.

      Fig. 629.—3½ inches high; 39

       10th inches diameter. A brown bull, with a blue band with brown dots, attacks a brown bear. To the left a man in yellow coat and green breeches, holding a whip in one hand, in the other a blue shield; to the right a stag, being torn by a lion, both brown.

       These two vessels were found in a field, Nordrup, Zeeland, in a grave 3 feet 4 inches under the ground. It contained a skeleton, and, besides the two vessels, a Roman bronze vessel and bronze sieve, a gold finger-ring, a silver fibula, forty-one beads of glass and glass mosaic, a clay vessel, and fragments of two clay vessels.

      Fig. 630.—4 inches high, 3¾ inches in diameter across top. In a mound, Viborg amt, Jutland.

      Fig. 631.—Fragment of glass vessel, with gladiator and shield of blue tint, the gloves and shoulders are brown. Arm and legs of the other gladiator flesh colour. Thorslunde.

      Fig. 632.—Fragments of glass bowl found in a grave by Thorslunde, Fyen. ⅗ real size. The wolf is greyish upon light yellow ground. The arm and legs are of a brown tint, the dots yellow and brown. These lay alongside remains of skeletons which seem to have been buried in sitting posture; some of the designs are raised.

      Glass, as we have seen, has been found in the later bronze age: the ancient name for amber in the North was gler,¹⁷⁶ which was well known by the stone age people; but we are aware that glass was unknown to them.

      Fig. 633.—Fragment of a glass bowl of a green tint,⅗ real size, found in a grave mound by Thorslunde.

      Fig. 634.

      Fig. 635.

      Fig. 636.

      Fig. 637.

      Fig. 638.

      Fig. 639.

      Fig. 640.

       Border of the vase.

      Besides the glass vessels of Roman or Greek workmanship others of inferior quality, as is the case in every country, have been found; some of these, which are generally of a bluish green, yellow or white tint, are cut, some ornamented with thread patterns in relief.

      Fig. 641.

      Fig. 642.

       Fragments of what must have been a magnificent glass vase of a dark blue colour; the figures in relief are of an opaque white and represented most probably some mythological subject. Sölberg, Lower Eker, Norway.

      Fig. 643.—Glass drinking-horn. Norway.

      Fig. 644.—Thin greenish glass vessel, open at both ends. ¼ real size. Varpelev.

      Fig. 645.—Amethyst-coloured glass bowl. ¼ real size. Varpelev.

      Fig. 646.—Glass drinking-horn, length 8 inches, diameter of mouth 2½ inches; very rare in the North. ¼ real size. Bavenhöi.

      Fig. 647.—Vessel or goblet of greenish glass, ornamented with fillets. ¼ real size. Bavenhöi.

      Fig. 648.—Glass vessel. ⅓ real size. With white and blue ornamented threads, found with beads, and bronze pans and sieves, in a woman’s skeleton grave. Ringsted, Zeeland.

       Glass with thread-like lines have been found in a stone coffin, Roman, near Dusseldorf.

      Fig. 649.—Dark blue glass bowl mounted with silver, on which was inscription in Greek letters, ΕΥΤΥΧΩΣ (with good luck).

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