, and
therefore it was impossible to make them large. Two hundred years
afterward, a Frenchman discovered a method of making sheet glass by
machinery, which is called _founding_, and by this process it can be
made of any size.
But even after the comparatively cheap process of founding came into
use, looking-glasses were very expensive, and happy was the rich
family that possessed one. A French countess sold a farm to buy a
mirror! Queens had theirs ornamented in the most costly manner. Here
is a picture of one that belonged to a queen of France, the frame of
which is entirely composed of precious stones.
[Illustration]
I have told you how the Venetians kept glass-making a secret, and how,
at last, the Germans learned it, and then the French, and their work
came to be better liked than that of the Venetians. But these last
still managed to keep the process of making mirrors a profound secret,
and the French were determined to get at the mystery. Several young
glass-makers went from France to Venice, and applied to all the
looking-glass makers of Venice for situations as workmen, that they
might learn the art. But all positively refused to receive them, and
kept their doors and windows tightly closed while they were at work,
that no one might see what they did.
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