c laundries with their
modern glossing machines were instituted.

Some of our readers may have seen the curious glass tubes, one yard in
length, into which ale was poured in the days when it was considered a
desirable attainment to be able to drink at one draught a "yard of ale."

Of the larger vessels such as wine bottles, the chief collectable
feature about them is the old glass-bottle-makers' stamps, very
frequently found on fragments of bottles, such stamps often turning up
among the oddments of kitchen drawers which have probably been
undisturbed for many years. To collect bottle stamps is certainly an
uncommon hobby, but one that is not altogether devoid of interest.

Ornaments of Glass.

Of household ornaments in glass there appears to be no end. There are
the glass Venetian vases and ewers, beautiful and graceful in form,
richly ornamented in gold; and there are the old English and French
vases, the colouring of which is not always in accord with modern taste.
Cut glass, in whatever form it is met with, is appreciated, in that the
workmanship involving so much studious labour is recognized. Continental
glass has at all periods been imported into this country, and especially
so Bohemian glass, of which there are decanters of ruby, claret,
blue, and other rich colours; some remarkable effects have been produced
upon red glass by adding tinted colours and white decoration
interspersed with gold. Glass lustres have acquired an antiquarian
value, and chandeliers and mantelpiece lustre candlesticks are sought
after by the collector, who sometimes finds interspersed with cut glass
lustre pretty coloured china droppers.

[Illustration: FIG. 63.--BATTERSEA ENAMELS.]

Pictorial Art in Glass.

Stained-glass windows are associated with ecclesiastical edifices. Old
English houses, however, not infrequently contain armorial panels, coats
of arms in leaden frames, and curious little pictures in colours which
can be hung against modern windows where the light will throw up the
rich colouring of the old-time painters. Little patches of colour, too,
were often introduced in otherwise plain diamond-shaped lattice panes.

There are glass pictures, so-called, oftentimes consisting of coloured
prints pasted on one side of the glass, a softened effect being produced
by the glass through which they were seen; but they must be
distinguished from the more costly paintings _on_ glass sometimes met
with.

In many an old hous