Glass has been prized by mankind for centuries. The qualities that delighted the ancients, the clarity, transparency, brilliance and malleability of glass, are the same ones that appeal to modern sensibilities. Early writers described glass in terms of wonderment: "Congealed of air, condensed of sunbeams, molded from the light of the open plain, or peeled from a white pearl." The passage of centuries serves to make glass even lovelier than when it was new, for time graces its surface with a jewel-like iridescence. We today cannot help but marvel that something so delicately lovely has survived since Rome was at her height. As we take pleasure in its beauty, we transcend the ages and share our emotions with the citizens of a vanished world.