The monuments of the sixteenth century have long been collected and classified. At Cluny, and in the Retrospective exhibitions, may have been seen several of those charming pieces rivalling the Venetian glasses, but shown by their legends and style to have been French. In point of fact, Henry 11. had summoned to Saint Germain-en-Laye, Teseo Mutio, by whom the Italian style was naturalised in France; but the wars of those times caused the furnaces to be neglected, and they were soon extinguished. No doubt Charles IX. endeavoured to revive this industry, for we find Fabriano Salviati removing to France in 1572. But it was Henry IV. who seriously set about its thorough re-establishment, by founding privileged workshops in Rouen, Paris, and Nevers. Nor must it be supposed that nothing was attempted beyond distant imitations of the Murano school. A sufficient proof of the surpassing elegance of the French glass-ware is shown in the fact that they were considered worthy of the favour of Catherine de Medicis. Her inventory mentions No. 262) thirteen pieces made in the Sainte Germain-en-Laye style, and two little painted glass vases of Montpellier, No. 325.

Still more numerous in France are, undoubtedly, the products of the seventeenth than of the previous centuries. Amongst others mentioned, occur those large round specimens produced in Normandy alone; but with a taste characteristically French, they have been hitherto but little noticed. Nevertheless, efforts continued to be made in the same direction, and so late as the eighteenth century the Stale is found still encouraging the erection of glass works by numerous letters patent. One feels somewhat surprised to observe amongst the privileged, the names even of the nobility - Francois de Bigot de Claire-Bois, at Rouanne; the Countess de Bethune in the Nivernais; the Duke de Montmorency, at Aigremont; Le Roy de Chaumont, Governor of the Invahdes, at Chaumont-sur-Loire; Francois de la Douepe, at l'Herbergemont. In some of these letters patent, there occurs evidence of the efforts made by the State to struggle against foreign competition, and foster the national industrial energies. At Nantes, the glass works of Vauzoul, established in 1728, received the title of "royal" in 1736; in 1766, Leonard-Francois-Marie, Count de Morioles, and his wife Marie-Gabrielle Renard de Fuschem-berg, obtained a licence to establish at Villefranche, in Champagne, a glass manufactory "facon de Boheme," "which would be all the more desirable that there are but very few of the kind in the realm, although this sort of glass is in almost universal use, and is mostly obliged to be imported from abroad." Their licence was granted for fifteen years.

Is this all, and will the collector have no other anxiety beyond the difficulty of detecting and distinguishing between French and Venetian glass-ware? Not by any means; for Flanders especially, that favoured country of the Arts, will also have to challenge serious consideration. The inventory of Charles V., made in 1379, tells us that he possessed, "Ung gobelet et une aiguierc de voirre blanc de Flandres garni d'argent." So early as 1421 the city of Namur had a glass factory under the direction of Annieul. In 1553 Josue Hennesel was flourishing in Brussels; in 1625 Anthonio Miotti, doubtless from Venice; and in 1658 Henry and Leonard Bonhomme were managers of furnaces in the same place. In Antwerp, also, M. Houdoy's work shows us the imitation of Venetian glass actively carried on in the second half of the sixteenth century, under the fostering care of Ambrosio de Mongarda. In 1599, his widow marries Philip de Gridolphi, who obtains an extension of the licence, although another glass-worker, Jean Quarre, had been established there since the year 1567. Gridolphi was succeeded by Ferrante Morron, and he in his turn by Van Lemens. In 1642 the licence passes over to Giovanni Savonetti, a Venetian from Murano, who is replaced in 1653 by Francesco Savonetti.

All these artists must have produced works, and we have already met with Flemish glass-ware, clearly characterised as such, in its style allied to the faiences of the same origin.

Germany on its part had some remarkable workshops in the sixteenth century, and we are all familiar with the enamelled "vidrecomes" with the armorial bearings of the princes of the Holy Empire. M. Spitzer has shown us the "eglomise" and gilded glass, rivalling in workmanship, if not in style, the grand Italian tazze. Johann Schaper, of Nuremberg, Johann Kcyil, and H. Benchert were still at work in the seventeenth century, covering glasses and tazze with their effective enamels. In 1609 Gaspar Lehmann of Prague was decorating glass objects with delicate engravings with the wheel, and communicated his skill to his pupil, George Schwanhard. But the most astonishing artist in this branch was the already-mentioned Johann Schaper, who was able to transfer to glass, subjects and arabesques of such delicacy as at the first glance to look like a mere haziness in the glass. To render it still more marvellous, tradition tells us that the artist never set to work till he had stimulated his imagination by copious libations, such, as in the case of any one else, would have had the effect of dimming the sight and unnerving the hand.

In England there flourished, under Queen Elizabeth, Cornelius de Launoy who established glass-works there. To perfect these, Philip de Gridolphi was invited over from Antwerp in 1567. Lastly, in 1615, a privilege was granted to Robert Mansell for the manufacture and importation of all sorts of glass.

What variety and pleasure may not connoisseurs derive from these precious and delicate products.