or the journey just a dream! One cannot forget
the wild, rushing river of purplish-blues, and the pines, in deep
greens, which climb up, past ruined castles, perched on jutting rocks,
toward snow-capped mountain peaks. The views were beautiful, but so
were the statuettes which had caught our collector's eye. He bought
some, made inquiries as to facilities for reproduction at these
potteries, and exchanged addresses. The result was that to-day, that
humble potter directs several large factories, which are busy reviving
classic designs, which may be found on sale everywhere in Italy and in
many other countries as well as America.

CHAPTER XLI

VENETIAN GLASS, OLD AND MODERN

If you have been in Venice then you know the Murano Museum and its
beguiling collection of Venetian glass, that old glass so vastly more
beautiful in line and decoration than the modern type of, say, fifteen
years ago, when colours had become bad mixtures, and decorations
meaningless excrescences.

A bit of inside information given out to some one really interested,
led to a revival of pure line and lovely, simple colouring, with
appropriate decorations or none at all. You may already know that
romantic bit of history. It seems that when the museum was first
started, about four hundred years ago, the glass blowers agreed to
donate specimens of their work, provided their descendants should be
allowed access to the museum for models. This contract made it a
simple matter for a connoisseur to get reproduced exactly what was
wanted, and what was not in the market. Elegance, distinguished
simplicity in shapes, done in glass of a single colour, or in one
colour with a simple edge in a contrasting shade, or in one colour
with a whole nosegay of colours to set it off, appearing literally as
flowers or fruit to surmount the stopper of a bottle, the top of a
jar, or as decorations on candlesticks.

It was in the Museo Civico of Venice that we saw and fell victims to
an enchanting antique table decoration--a formal Italian garden, in
blown glass, once the property of a great Venetian family and redolent
of those golden days when Venice was the playground of princes, and
feasting their especial joy; days when visiting royalty and the
world's greatest folk could have no higher honour bestowed upon them
than a gift of Venetian glass, often real marvels mounted in silver
and gold.

We never tired of looking at that fairy garden with its delicate
co