Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
29 of 123
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Poignard d'Or on azure, which agrees with their name and tried valor.
Besides these families, who still continue to exercise this art, there
are the Messieurs de Virgille, who have
a grant for a little glass-house. Messieurs
de la Mairie, de Suqrie,
de Bougard, and several others, have
been confirmed in their nobility during the late search in the year 1667.
"We have, moreover, in France, several great
families, sprung from gentlemen glass-makers who have left the trade,
among whom some have been honored with the purple and the highest
dignities and offices."
Enough is recorded to show in what estimation the
art was held in France by the government and people of that period; and it
is in nowise wonderful that an art invested with so much distinction,
conducted with so much secrecy, and characterized with so great a degree
of romantic interest, should have given rise to strange reports and
legends, hereafter to be referred to.
The writer referred to above states that there
were two modes of manufacturing glass. One he denominates that of the
"Great Glass-Houses," the other of the "Small Glass-Houses." In the large
houses the manufacture of window-glass,
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