Perhaps the most characteristic decoration of the earlier transparent glass is given by a series of parallel ribs. This ‘pillar moulding’ may be formed on the surface in various ways—by stringings partly melted on to the surface, or by the use of a mould at one period in the development of the _paraison_. A graceful type of these little ribbed or gadrooned bowls—amber coloured, or again white with blue ribs—has been found over and over again in pre-Roman tombs on both sides of the Alps; these bowls are often seen in the museums of Switzerland and North Italy. Apart from beads and small objects of _verroterie_, they appear to be the earliest articles of glass exported to the Celtic tribes of these districts, but nothing is known as to their place of origin. In other cases such ribs or stringings, bending round the body in a more or less gentle spiral, form a very happy scheme of ornament. The decoration by trailed stringings—necessarily a rapid process, by which happy effects are sometimes attained almost by accident—may be regarded as a genuinely vitreous process. It is often combined with fringes and toothings impressed—on the margin of the handles above all—by the rapid and skilful use of the pincers. The commonest, and probably the oldest, application is as a more or less closely coiled stringing round the neck of the bottle or jug; this is convenient for handling, and gives the appearance at least of additional strength. The stringings on the later forms tend to hang loose upon the surface, sometimes taking the form of hastily written characters.[34] The cords and threadings may often be of a different colour from the vessel upon which they are applied—they may be reduced to knots or mere drops applied here and there. In such cases we have an apparent approach to decoration by enamel. But the form of ornament that we are now dealing with is applied directly to the soft _paraison_ or to the still unfinished vessel, and the glass of which the stringings are formed is probably of the same composition as that on which it is superimposed. So of the splashed or mottled ware. We have here real splashes of a liquid material applied to the _paraison_ while still on the blowing-tube. When the neck was subsequently shaped, these circular markings were drawn out into ellipsoid forms, showing that this part of the vessel was made at a later period. It is instructive to compare this result of the work of the blowing-tube with the patterns on the millefiori bowls. In these latter patterns we find no trace of subsequent distortion—a proof that the glass of which they form part has never passed through the stage of a _paraison_ or vesicle.[35] ENAMELLING ON GLASS