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Two other displays attended by Elizabeth were those at Kenilworth in 1572 and at Elvetham in 1591.

A Display of the Earliest Type. From a contemporary print (c. 1650).

The first European people to make headway in the art of pyrotechny proper appear to have been the Italians. Vanochio, an Italian, in a work on artillery, dated 1572, attributes to the Florentines and Viennese the honour of being the first who made fireworks on erections of wood, decorated with statues and pictures raised to a great height, some in Florence being forty ells, or seventy-two feet high. He adds that these were illuminated so that they might be seen from a distance, and that the statues threw out fire from the mouths and eyes.

He refers to the practice, which survived up to the end of the eighteenth century, of constructing elaborate temples or palaces richly decorated, with transparencies illuminated from inside, statuary, gilding, floral and other decorations. On these erections the fireworks proper were displayed, and which were then called artificial fireworks. Nothing very large in the way of firework set-pieces seems to have been attempted, but effect was gained by repetition of a small device over the facade of the building.