aceful enough, and
seem to be the prototypes out of which were developed the more elaborate
productions of the Greeks. [PLATE LXXXII., Fig. 2.] Others are more
simple, being without ornament of any kind, and nearly resembling a
modern tea-pot (see No., IV. [PLATE LXXXII., Fig. 2.]) The glazed
pottery is, for the most part, tastefully colored. An amphora, with
twisted arms, found at Nimrud (see [PLATE LXXXIII., Fig. 1]) is of two
colors, a warm yellow, and a cold bluish green. The green predominates
in the upper, the yellow in the under portion; but there is a certain
amount of blending or mottling in the mid-region, which has a very
pleasant effect. A similarly mottled character is presented by two other
amphorae from the same place, where the general hue is a yellow which
varies in intensity, and the mottling is with a violet blue. In some
cases the colors are not blended, but sharply defined by lines, as in a
curious spouted cup figured by Mr. Layard, and in several fragmentary
specimens. Painted patterns are not uncommon upon the glazed pottery,
though upon the unglazed they are scarcely ever found. The most usual
colors are blue, yellow, and white; brown, purple, and lilac have been
met with occasionally. These colors are thought to be derived chiefly
from metallic oxides, over which was laid as a glazing a vitreous
silicated substance. On the whole, porcelain of this fine kind is rare
in the Assyrian remains, and must be regarded as a material that was
precious and used by few.

[Illustration: PLATE 83]

Assyrian glass is among the most beautiful of the objects which have
been exhumed. M. Botta compared it to certain fabrics of Venice and
Bohemia, into which a number sit different colors are artificially
introduced. But a careful analysis has shown that the lovely prismatic
hues which delight us in the Assyrian specimens, varying under different
lights with all the delicacy and brilliancy of the opal, are due, not to
art, but to the wonder-working hand of time, which, as it destroys the
fabric, compassionately invests it with additional grace and beauty.
Assyrian glass was either transparent or stained with a single uniform
color. It was composed, in the usual way, by a mixture of sand or silex
with alkalis, and, like the Egyptian, appears to have been first rudely
fashioned into shape by the blowpipe. It was then more carefully shaped,
and, where necessary, hollowed out by a turning machine, the Marks of
which a