But the most important and the best preserved example of enamelling on glass is to be found in a small bowl, probably of the third or fourth century, preserved in the treasury of St. Mark at Venice. To this important collection I shall have more than once to return.[37] The little bowl in question—something over three inches in height—is of a translucent glass of a winy or purplish colour. The seven larger medallions that surround the body are filled with mythological subjects in a fairly good classical style; the pale buff-coloured figures on a black ground imitate an onyx cameo. Each medallion is surrounded by a circle of rosettes of brilliant colours—blue, red, purple, and white. The angular spaces are filled by smaller medallions, each containing a head, and the remaining ground is occupied by a tracery of gold. According to the Canonico Passini, this decoration is in very slight relief, and is executed in what can scarcely be regarded as a true vitrified enamel. The bowl has been mounted at a later time in a light setting of silver gilt with elegant winged handles. But what is more curious, at some time previous to the addition of the mounting, a band of white ornament, resembling cufic letters, but apparently illegible, has been painted round the inside just below the rim, and again outside the base. Much of this later ornament has been abraded, although the original decoration is well preserved, and I think that this fact is an argument in favour of the earlier work being after all of the nature of a true enamel fixed by fire. I describe this bowl here as I cannot see any trace of Byzantine influence in the purely classical medallions.[38] Finally, on a few of the gilt catacomb glasses, of which I shall speak shortly, a little coloured enamel is sparingly applied here and there, especially in the draperies. ENGRAVED AND SCULPTURED GLASS