He was ornamenting the sides of goblets and
wineglasses. On one he was cutting an initial letter, encircled by a
delicate wreath. Lawrence asked if he had a pattern to go by.
"I make my own patterns, and carry them in my
head mostly," replied the artist. "For this design, I just make four
marks for the top and bottom of the letter. The wreath I do without
making any marks first."
As the side he was engraving was necessarily
held from him, and he could see where he was cutting only by looking
through the glass from the other side, Lawrence wondered how he
could do such fine work. The artist, seeing him interested, showed
him still finer specimens. One was a fairy-like goblet, the surface of
which was surrounded and filled up by the gracefully bending sprigs and
drooping flowers of the fuchsia. Another was a landscape, showing a
hunter and his dog in natural attitudes, and a partridge rising on the
wing before the uplifted gun; and there were many more equally beautiful.
"Is it possible you do all this with a wheel?"
"I use a variety of wheels. Each has an edge
shaped for the kind of work it does. Here is the smallest." It was
scarcely bigger than a pin-head. "I'll show you a design-- this is it--
that required nine different wheels in the cutting."
"But you must understand drawing?"
"O yes. When I began as an apprentice, thirteen
years ago, I was set to work at first on broken glass,
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