Ancient Glass

Glass from the Ancient World, a handsome 298-page, illustrated catalogue, was published by the Corning Museum of Glass in connection with its summer exhibition of the noted private collection of Ray Winfield Smith fiB of Dublin, N. H. Mr. Smith is the author of an introduction on the sub- ject of ancient glassmaking and he also wrote a descriptive article for each of the five periods into which the exhibition was divided.

For the past 25 years Mr. Smith has collected glass objects from the dawn of glassmaking about 1500 B.C. up to 1200 A.D. The Corning exhibition included 611 of his most important objects, each of which was briefly described by Mr. Smith and 450 of which were illustrated in the catalogue.

The Smith Collection, in the words of Thomas S. Buechner, director of the Corning Museum of Glass, "reveals in a manner without parallel the infinite variety and extraordinary quality of the glasses produced during this period. It also demonstrates the great and unique contribution that a dedicated collector and perceptive scholar has made to our knowledge of one of man's relatively few basic materials."