In view of the high technical skill thus shown in the colouring and working of the material, nothing is more remarkable than the almost total absence from our collections of any glass, using that word in the narrower sense, that we can classify as Gothic. We know, indeed, that during these centuries much glass was made in France, Germany, and Italy. But for one reason or another the material was not in favour for objects that had any claim to be regarded as works of art. And yet during all this time the few rare specimens of sculptured glass brought from Constantinople, or of enamelled glass from Egypt and Damascus, were highly prized, and it might well be thought that the skill and knowledge to rival these examples were not wanting in the West. Such was not the case, however; the monasteries had ceased to be centres of practical art industry,[96] and the glass-makers had retired from the towns to the depths of the forests, where under the patronage of the local _seigneur_ they built their glass-houses, moving on from one spot to another as the fuel became scarce. On the condition of delivering yearly to their feudal lord a specified number of vessels, these glass masters appear to have been freed from further imposts, and indeed they soon began to claim special privileges. In France some of these grants or contracts have been preserved in local archives, and in them we have a source of information lacking in other Western countries. Perhaps the most significant of these patents is that granted in 1338 to a certain Guionet. The Dauphin of the Viennois conceded to this _maître de verrerie_ the right of taking wood when it suited him from parts of the forest of Chamborant, on condition that the said Guionet should furnish him yearly, for the use of the prince’s household, with the following pieces of glass:—240 beakers with feet, known as _hanaps_; 144 _amphoræ_, 432 _urinalia_, 144 large basins, 72 plates, 72 plates without borders, 144 pots, 144 water vessels, 60 _gottefles_, 12 salt-cellars, 240 lamps, 72 chandeliers, 12 large cups, 12 small _barils_, 6 large vessels for transporting wine, and one _nef_. This was certainly an ample yearly supply even for a princely household. The practical, not to say homely, nature of most of the objects requisitioned is obvious. The _gottefle_, we should add, has been thought to correspond with the later German _gutraf_; it was in that case a vase with a long twisted neck, sometimes double, like a Persian sprinkler; it was perhaps used for oil.[97] The _nef_, no doubt, was an imitation in glass of the well-known centre-pieces of silver in the form of a ship. The little _baril_ is a form handed down from Roman times. In Provence, as early as the year 1316, we find mention in the inventory of the property of the Countess Mahaut D’Artois of ‘_Grant planté de pots de voirre et de voirres d’Aubigny et de Provence et d’autres païs et de diverses couleurs et bocaux et bariz_’ (Hartshorne, p. 88).