N all the ages of all the world's arts and crafts there has been nothing achieved more beautiful, more artistic, or more fascinating than the creation of glass vessels; and yet the serious proposition that the glass bottle is an object to inspire earnest appreciation and enthusiastic admiration has been generally received with scant respect and reluctant credulity. It is not, however, for the art children of glorious old Egypt and enchanting Venice to succumb lightly to uninitiated detraction. The pursuit termed "bottle-collecting" must be acknowledged as distinct and original in pleasure to the eye and delectation to the "inward eye," and with a few time-tested credentials the bottle may speedily ingratiate itself. From fabric alone the bottle claims prestige as of noble origin: high scientific authority has placed glass, in value to mankind, above that precious metal, gold. For humanity's needs and progress glass has done what gold could never do, and in beautypower-in captivating color, in rare grace of form, and in splendid lusterglass is incomparable. Oriental stuffs charm by glow or delicacy of hue; time-aged metals give delight by glory in tone or reflection; old china has its effective eloquence of lovely, mellowed light; but in glass alone is found the very heart and core of color, beautiful translucence. In ancient Venice the phiolarius, or maker of glass vessels, and other workers in this exquisite material were often granted exalted rank, it being justly esteemed a rare and intellectual occupation to evolve from such dull and commonplace ingredients as alkali-dust and sand the clear and ethereal substance of which bottles are fashioned. The early Venetian glass-workers, in ceremonial processions to celebrate the doge's election, attracted and delighted the eyes of the populace by exhibitions of beautiful vials, scent-bottles, and decanters. Spiritual forces, too, have not been voiceless concerning the high purpose of this most refined and elegant trade: the legend yet lives among devout latter-day glass-makers that the great St. Peter was the original inventor of cathedral glass. The bottle has always been beloved and honored of art. In innumerable old prints and paintings it is shown with notable frequency. Not merely is presented what may be termed the bottle rampant, or the bottle in action, in the foreground, as depicted in representations of feasts, revels, or orgies, -betrothals, weddings, and christenings,but the bottle couchant, the bottle in the background, of value as a touch of homely domestic detail, or as a choice bit of artistic accessory. A collection of unique bottlesa cabinet for the mind's eye-may be gathered from the genre-paintings of the old Dutch and Flemish artists. With these great masters of art the bottle was almost a brush-autograph, so often does it appear: now the single quaint bottle in the open casement, or the bottle in groups and rows on windowledges against the leaded JAPANESE BOTTLE. BLUE GLASS, DECORATED panes; again in clusters IN GOLD AND ENAMEL. hung against the wall, or ROSE-WATER BOTTLE. in niches sunk in the shadowy fireplaces. in antiquarian dens, or in the armorer's Bottles show in long rank and file on chim- workshop; in biblical, ecclesiastical, and hisney-shelves, or peer from deep nooks torical paintings; in landscape and other naover old arched doorways; they gleam ture scenes. through half-open closet doors, or are visible among old books on curious high shelves near the ceiling. A girl in church, at early mass, on the way to the fields, has a waterbottle beside her as she kneels in the pew; and even "Death, the Friend," is represented with a bottle hanging beneath the folds of his robe. Other schools of painting, too, through a long procession of years, have found the bottle lend itself happily to the portrayal of a wide range of human interests: it figures effectively in still-life studies, in the artist's studio, in old apothecary-shops, The outdoor bottle has a long, pictorial history: the traveler's bottle; the harquebusier's flask; the Austrian mountaineer's bottle; the Alsatian pilgrim's bottle, swung from her side in a beautiful netted bag; the laborer's bottle, hung from his donkey's neckor half hidden beside the haycock; the gleaner's bottle, dangling on his back as he plods. homeward. In the fifteenth century huntinghorns were fashioned of glass, and the feet or pedestals of ancient civic gold and silver drinking-cups were modeled as bottles. Among the chosen themes of Oriental art A GROUP OF DUTCH BOTTLES. are the water-carrier's bottle, in many odd and beautiful designs, the sherbet-dealer's bottle, and the familiar narghile, or bottle-pipe. Equally interesting, no doubt, would be the bottle in literary art; but it would entice too far afield. Dr. Johnson and his intellectual contemporaries are seldom represented unflanked by certain sturdy old black bottles; and in the well-known picture, "A Literary Party at Sir Joshua Reynolds's," appear several beautiful bottles and three ornamental old decanters. Throughout the whole wide and captivating realm of collections, be it conceded, there is probably no other curio-quest so thoroughly "caviar to the general" as the collection of bottles; hence it is an open OLD ENGLISH. AUSTRIAN. HUNGARIAN. HUNGARIAN. secret that the unique pursuit is flippantly and humorously regarded by a large and misguided majority of otherwise reasonable beings. By these uncomprehending onlookers, the bottle-collection, in interest and artistic value, is classed somewhere near that oldtime childish diversion, the button-string; and fond friends, who generously make over to the bottle-lover all their own lightly held bottle-shapes of beauty or comely ugliness, never fail to garnish the gift with many "odd quirks and remnants of wit" at his expense. Even the old-bottle dealer, unmasked, stands revealed merely a financial sympathizer, and, after a trade is closed, facetiously offers the insatiate bottle-collector free use of his shackly old push-cart and his horse's straw |