Apart from the yearly exhibitions, examples of the glass of the Nancy school may be seen in Paris at the Luxembourg and at the École des Arts et Métiers. It cannot, however, be said that the general effect of this glass is, as a rule, either brilliant or decorative. M. Gallé himself is something of a poet—of the _symboliste_ school, I should judge. What it is that he aims at expressing by means of this often sombre glass cannot indeed be better presented than in his own words:—‘Mist and dews half shroud and half reveal the fine veinings and splashings in a grey jade-crystal vase. A thick flushing of rose-tinted glass is carved into a chimera-like flower, half influorescent, half smiling, half weary, half orchid, half pansy. A beetle drags its slow length over the rust of the lichens. Side by side with flesh-tints and carnations we see bold touches of coral pink. A pale gleam steals through the dull maze of iridium. Vegetable shadows grin at us. Phantoms of bloom are dimly seen. A fossil shell engraved beneath the fragile work contains the glass-worker’s signature.’—(Quoted by H. Frantz, _Magazine of Art_, vol. xx. p. 269.) Of quite another nature is the _pâte de verre_, a substance somewhat of the nature of a glass frit, which has been made use of by the French sculptor, M. Henri Cros, in the modelling of polychrome reliefs and friezes. I say ‘modelling,’ for this strange material can apparently be worked like wax or plaster at one stage of its preparation. When cold it is of so tough a nature that a nail may be driven into it. At the entrance of the new hall of Sculpture at the Luxembourg may be seen a relief of this _pâte de verre_ forming the back of a fountain. As a material it lies perhaps a little remote from the class of objects with which we have been occupied in this book. I mention it here as an example of the success which in France of late years has attended the attempt to take advantage of the new appliances and materials that, thanks to recent scientific discoveries, lie at the command of the artist and craftsman. Here, as in the case of the potter’s art, not only have old-world processes—those of the Far East above all—been revived, but a constant endeavour is being made to strike out in new directions. INDEX Achmin, glass from, 105, 163 Agricola, _De Re Metallica_, 260-262 Air-drawn stem, 326-327 Alabaster, imitation of, in glass, by Egyptians, 22 _Alabastra_, see _Unguentaria_. Alchemists and glass in Germany, 288 Alchemy, early mediæval works on, 119-124 Aldrevandini beaker, 179 Alembics of mediæval alchemists, 125 Alembics and aludels of modern Indian glass, 346 Alexandria, importance in history of glass, 44 Alexandria, glass of mediæval time, 149 _note_ Alkali, source of, 12-13 Almeria, glass made near, 246-247 L’Altare, 174-175 L’Altare _versus_ Murano, 224 L’Altare, glass-workers from, in France, 223-224 Altarist families settled in France, 227