PORTLAND VASE, a celebrated funeral vase, long in possession of the Barberini family, but which was purchased for a thousand guineas by the Duke of Portland, from whom it derived its present name. Its height is about ten inches, and its diameter where broadest six. There are upon it a variety of figures of most exquisite workmanship, in bas-relief, of white opaque glass raised on a ground of deep blue glass, which appears black except when held against the light. It seems to have been the work of many years, and there are antiquarians who date its production several centuries before the Christian era; since sculpture was declining in excellence even in the time of Alexander the Great.