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27th and 28th of April,

1835, (x) but the second palus on his funeral pile.* The Assyrians appear of which took place in 1838, when four knights, to have had no finger rings. Bonomi, in his "Hisgirt with swords, and twelve other recognitors, tory of Nineveh and its Palaces," says that not a acted as the jury in a trial at bar in the Court of single representation occurs, amidst all the display Common Pleas, and were addressed by Chief of personal jewellery, of a finger ring. Baron Tindal in his summing up as "Gentlemen The cylinders of Assyria and the scarabei of of the Grand Inquest, and Recognitors of the Egypt exhibit the first efforts at intaglio engraving. Grand Assize." When the issue of the case was As the cross is the distinguished emblem of the thus tried, the writ of right and all proceedings by Christian, the beetle was of the Egyptian. The the Grand Assize had been finally abolished by original insect, by a particular movement of its an Act passed in the year when it had been raised, feet, made little round balls of earth, and thus, it is 1834. Henry the Second's whole system of the said, because it made a little world, the Egyptians Grand Assize and writ of right is obliterated from venerated its form as a symbol. Strung together, the statute book by one stroke of the pen: "And these scarabei formed necklaces, and were frebe it further enacted that no wager of law shall quently mounted as rings; the under part of each be hereafter allowed."(y) It had been condemned being engraved with emblems, formed a seal. The as dangerous by the Common Law Commissioners (2) some time before.

THE

ANCIENT JEWELLERY.-I.

engraving on cylinders and scarabei, Dr. Billing
thinks, was executed with splinters of corundum or
emery, set in metal like a glazier's diamond.
Scarabei were largely used by the Etruscans, and
Signor Castellani thinks the veneration in which
both Egyptians and Etruscans held the scarabeus
a good proof of the common origin of the two
peoples.

HE love of decking the person with gold and silver ornaments has always been a characteristic of oriental nations, and modern discoveries A signet ring (containing as much as twenty of exquisite examples in the tombs of Etruria show pound's worth of gold) engraved with the name of how the custom spread from Assyria, Persia, and a king, the successor of Amunoph III., who lived Egypt into Europe. Our word jewel is derived B.C. 1400, is described by Sir J. G. Wilkinson in from the French jouel and joyau, derived in its his "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egypturn from the Latin gaudium, joy. tians." The emblems were a lion (with the legend "lord of strength"), a scorpion, sacred to the goddess Selk, and a crocodile. This ring passed into the Waterton Dactyliotheca, and is now in the South Kensington Museum. In these early rings the devices were engraved on a signet (often in the form of a scarabeus), the hoop being of gold; after that time solid metal rings were used. Dr. Abbot, of Cairo, obtained a fine example of the latter found at Ghizeh; the hieroglyphics mark the name of Pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid. Egyptians were very fond of loading their fingers with rings, and the third finger of the left hand is generally represented with the greatest number upon it. The hieroglyphics on a gold ring exhibited by Mr. Gadsby at the Exhibition of Antiquities, at the Ironmongers' Hall, in 1861, meant " Protected by the living goddess Mut."

Of Assyrian jewellery, Mr. Layard says the earrings, necklaces, armlets, and bracelets were all of the most elegant forms. The clasps and ends of the bracelets are frequently in the shape of the head of rams and bulls, resembling Etruscan jewellery. It is curious that the earrings are, in the later monuments, often in the form of a cross. The more ancient the monuments the more exquisite the ornaments delineated upon them. "We see," observes Mr. Layard, "the same love of elaborate and profuse decoration, but not the elegance and variety, so conspicuous in the ornaments of the first period." The Babylonians always carried away the metal workers and other artificers of a conquered country, and the Assyrians also had probably gathered together a number of skilled workmen from all parts of Asia. Dependent nations offered immense quantities of gold and silver, and it is probable that the mines of the former metal were worked within the Assyrian dominion. Sacred and profane historians describe the vast amount of gold in Babylon and Nineveh. Beds were even made of that metal; it is said that 140 golden beds (or couches) were placed by Sardana

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Among the earliest sources of gold, the washings in the bed of the Pactolus may be named, the precious metal being carried down from Mount Tmolus. Mr. King in his "Natural History of Precious Metals," p. 174, points out that the Lydian washers

* No coins have been discoved among Assyrian ruins, and no representation of money occurs in any of the sculptures. It is the same with Egyptian ruins. The earliest historical mention of a coin is the golden Daric, issued by Darius Hystaspes, B.C. 538. The gold coins of Miletes are said, however, to have been struck B.C. 800; but this is very uncertain.

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appear to have speedily exhausted the deposit; art fell to the ground, until 1814, when Signor but the immense mass of gold collected from this Castellani (the father of the author of the paper in source may be gathered from the list of the Dona- the Art Journal), impressed by its utility, followed ria consecrated by Alyattes and Croesus at various in the same path. Ten years after we find him temples in Asia and Greece. Sophocles termed (aided by Professor Morichini and the Abbé Scarthis gold electrum from its pale colour, owing to the pellini) reading a paper before the Academia de' large alloy of silver. A great deal of the Egyp- Lincei on chemical processes for the yellow colourtian and Etruscan jewellery is made of this pale ing of gold, and the application of electricity to gold. A reference to Herodotus will show the vast gilding. By 1838 or so, he had brought his art to quantity of gold offered by Croesus at Delphi, considerable perfection, being greatly aided in his obtained by that Lydian king from the washings researches by the Duke Michel Angiolo Caetani. of Pactolus. Another fact will show the immense Such discoveries as the tomb of Regolini Galasse, amount of gold at this early time. Pythius, a in Cervetri, and those by Campanari, at Ioscanella, Lydian, a private person, offered Xerxes nearly four and the Marquis Campana at Cere, were of the millions of gold darics, each of which was about utmost importance to him. They enabled Signor the size of a guinea!

Castellani and his two sons to fathom the secrets The Medes and Persians wore bracelets of great of the ancient goldsmith's art, and they had opporvalue and beauty, and the latter people were the tunities also of collecting the specimens of ancient first to assume the torques, or torc, which after- jewellery which we are glad to say now adorn our wards became such a characteristic Celtic orna- national collection. The collection, recently purThis twisted golden collar appears on the chased by our Government at a cost of £24,000, neck of Darius and his officers at the Battle of and now exhibited in the Gold Ornament Room at Arbella, represented in the celebrated mosaic at Pompeii; one is held by a figure on the staircase at Persepolis ("Kerr Porter's Travels"), and several were deposited in the tomb of Cyrus.*

ment.

the British Museum, is especially rich in Greco, Phoenician, and Etruscan work, these two being transitional between Egyptian and oriental work and developed Greek. The characteristic of this A great similarity of design is apparent in the Greco-Phoenician work is a granulated surface, projewellery of early races, and indicating an Eastern ducing a beautiful effect. The pale gold, or origin. Perhaps no goldsmith's work of any coun- electrum before mentioned may be observed in try equals for exquisite beauty the early jewellery these works. Examples of very early Etruscan art of Greece and Italy. Little, very little, is known of in this collection, are the golden armlets in repoussé the history of the Etruscans, but their vases and ornaments, discovered in tombs, show in an unmistakable manner that they were not the barbarians the Greeks would have us believe.

work, with curious figures from Care and the silver and amber collars and necklaces from Præneste. The Etruscans may have learned the art of granulating from the Phoenicians, but the Greeks do not seem to have developed it.

Previous to the purchase by the Emperor of the French from the Pontifical Government of the The works destined for table or personal use Campana Collection for £200,000, it was deposited were made more massive than those intended in the Sacro Monte di Pietà. Signor Angusto simply for funeral pomp. The latter exhibit the Castellani was at the time of the sale commissioned most extraordinary delicacy and minuteness of to repair the injured articles; and he then had a workmanship. All these early works Signor Castelcapital opportunity of examining the valuable lani points out are in pure gold, alloy not being examples of ancient jewellery with which it was found in gold until the time of art decay. We see in enriched. He embodied his observations in a trea- these works evidences of mind-one man (an tise, a translation of which appeared in the Art artist) carried out the whole; the article did not Journal for May, 1869, and from this we shall quote a few remarks :

In the early part of this century an attempt was made at Naples by the goldsmith Sarno to revive the beautiful forms of early art. A considerable number of works were produced, but the manufacture declined, and the workmen appear to have contented themselves afterwards by fabricating these articles to impose upon archeologists. Thus, this at first praiseworthy attempt to revive a lost

pass through several hands and so lose its individuality. Signor Castellani's remarks are worthy of note:-"In antique gold work, whether of Greece or Italy, the material is always subservient to the workmanship; the most refined elegance, and the most exquisite taste, guided the hand of the artist, while his chisel created figure and ornament designed with the minutest grains and the finest wire, intaglios and flowers, and so harmonised the parts together, uniting elegance with simplicity, that the jewellery examined closely appeared wonderful for *See Dr. Birch's papers on the torc of the Celts-minuteness of work, and at a little distance comArchæological Journal, vol. ii., p. 368, and vol. iii., p. 27. bined purity, simplicity, and unity of design." It appears that the methods used by the ancients to

These contain a vast amount of information on the subject, and are illustrated with numerous woodcuts.

solder the exquisite decorations on the ornament £700. The collection is rich in examples, exare not known. The ornaments were not raised hibiting the "beaten up" work brought to such by stamping or casting, and this has probably had perfection by the Greeks, and called by them a beneficial influence on the art-character of the torentike, hence the term torentic. At a later period objects. After trying a number of mixtures and enamel and precious stones were introduced with solvents, and examining the works of Indian gold- a more magnificent, though not more artistic, effect. smiths, Signors Castellani found aid in an unex- Such works as the diadem from Melos and the pected direction. In the little town of St. Angelo, sceptre of a priestess from Tarentum, are of the in Vado, among the Apennines, a few workmen, greatest importance. shut out from the world, preserve the ancient traditions of their art, making filigree ornaments for the mountain girls. Some of these were induced to come to Rome, and we are not surprised to hear that they imitate, from their free manner of working, antique jewellery more successfully than skilled workmen with complicated tools. The vexed General di Cesnola, American Consul at Cyprus question of the ancient solvents remains a mystery, in 1866, obtained imperial permission to open the though we gather from Signor Castellani's paper tombs on the island, chiefly on the Necropolis of that he has discovered a new process for making Idalium (Dali). From these in two or three years the exquisitely fine grains which form the distinguish- he obtained a very fine collection of gold and ing feature of Etruscan work. silver ornaments, glass and pottery, sold in London,

The early Greek and Roman intaglios were designed more for use than ornament. There are few antique cameos of a period before the Augustan age, and as these were engraved by the adamant or corundum point, they are all small and of low relief.

In the Waterton Dactyliotheca is the finest Etrus- last year. About 130 pairs of ear-rings were can gold ring in existence. Padre Gerucci, of the found, some being beautiful examples of early Greek Sacred College, describes it as a betrothal or nuptial art, though exhibiting Phoenician influence. The ring, and the Avvocato Rusca obtained it about gold mortuary ornaments were very curious, con1857 from a villano in the Maremma. It has sisting of thin plates of pure gold, placed on the figures of Hercules and Juno placed back to back brow of the dead. Some of these were in the form on the hoop, having their arms raised above their of a broad flat band about six inches long, having deheads. Hercules is covered with the skin of a lion, signs (representing acanthus leaves, rosettes, and Juno with that of a goat. Fairholt in "Rambles scrolls), pressed in low relief upon them. Allied to of an Archeologist" (Virtue, 1871, p. 81), figures these are the seven bracteate gold funeral wreaths an ancient Etruscan gold ring in the British Museum, in the Castellani collection. The Greeks derived chimeræ being represented upon it. Silver rings are rarer than those of gold in the tombs of Etruria, and iron and bronze examples are gilt.*

Although the Greeks did not develop the granulated Etruscan work, they produced beautiful examples of jewellery, devoting more attention to form and ornamentation with repoussé work. The exquisite necklace found at Melos is believed to be the finest example of goldsmiths' work in existence. It is in the Castellani collection, and cost about

*Mr. C. Sackville Bale exhibited at the Exhibition of

the use of the ring from Asia Minor. Though, as Pliny points out, there are no traces of it in the Homeric poems; at one period every Greek freeman had a ring. Seal rings were used in the time of Solon, for he made a law forbidding an artist to keep the form of a seal he had sold.* The Lacedæmonians wore iron rings, so did the Spartans. Earrings are mentioned in the Iliad. The Etruscans were probably the first people who restricted the earring to females. The sterner sex had worn the ornament among the Assyrians and Persians, the early Christians as a rule did not wear them.

The Roman collectors prized examples of Greek colatura (cælo, to chase,) very highly. This is the TOPEÛTIK (Tоpeúw, to bore,) before mentioned, and these derivations seem to refer to the second process of repoussé work, viz., the chasing of the work after the design had been "beaten up,” by placing

Antiquities at Ironmongers' Hall, in 1861, a pair of Etruscan gold armillæ. We transcribe the following description of them from the catalogue. They were "formed of two flat plates of gold joined together. On the principal side of each the surface is covered with delicate and minute filigree ornaments of zig-zag and angular lines running across. Between them are two subjects:-Two men, with arms upraised, are standing by some trees, and a horseman darting a javelin, with an elegant lateral border of the guilloche pattern. On one of the clasps are represented two winged lions and a rosette in filigree, on each side of which is a human figure; on the other clasp is only one lion. The inside plates of * Pythagoras forbade the images of the gods to be worn these bracelets are ornamented with repoussé designs, amongst on rings. Mr. Waterton says no gems certainly known to be which may be distinguised two lions, and two winged figures, of the Pheidian period exist, and it is believed that gems were perhaps harpies. These extraordinary specimens of gold- not mounted in rings prior to the lxii. Olympiad. Pyrtogeles smiths' work came from the ruins of Etruria, and are of high was appointed by Alexander the Great his engraver in ordiantiquity. The style is quite oriental, like some of the nary. Greek women wore ivory and amber rings, and the rings vessels found in Etruscan tombs, and may perhaps be Phoeni- worn by them were always less costly and numerous than cian. They were formerly in M. Louis Fould's collection." those used by men.

solder the exquisite decorations on the ornament £700. The collection is rich in examples, exare not known. The ornaments were not raised hibiting the "beaten up" work brought to such by stamping or casting, and this has probably had perfection by the Greeks, and called by them a beneficial influence on the art-character of the torentike, hence the term torentic. At a later period objects. After trying a number of mixtures and enamel and precious stones were introduced with solvents, and examining the works of Indian gold- a more magnificent, though not more artistic, effect. smiths, Signors Castellani found aid in an unex- Such works as the diadem from Melos and the pected direction. In the little town of St. Angelo, sceptre of a priestess from Tarentum, are of the in Vado, among the Apennines, a few workmen, greatest importance. shut out from the world, preserve the ancient traditions of their art, making filigree ornaments for the mountain girls. Some of these were induced to come to Rome, and we are not surprised to hear that they imitate, from their free manner of working, antique jewellery more successfully than skilled workmen with complicated tools. The vexed General di Cesnola, American Consul at Cyprus question of the ancient solvents remains a mystery, in 1866, obtained imperial permission to open the though we gather from Signor Castellani's paper tombs on the island, chiefly on the Necropolis of that he has discovered a new process for making Idalium (Dali). From these in two or three years the exquisitely fine grains which form the distinguish- he obtained a very fine collection of gold and ing feature of Etruscan work. silver ornaments, glass and pottery, sold in London,

The early Greek and Roman intaglios were designed more for use than ornament. There are few antique cameos of a period before the Augustan age, and as these were engraved by the adamant or corundum point, they are all small and of low relief.

In the Waterton Dactyliotheca is the finest Etrus- last year. About 130 pairs of ear-rings were can gold ring in existence. Padre Gerucci, of the found, some being beautiful examples of early Greek Sacred College, describes it as a betrothal or nuptial art, though exhibiting Phoenician influence. The ring, and the Avvocato Rusca obtained it about gold mortuary ornaments were very curious, con1857 from a villano in the Maremma. It has sisting of thin plates of pure gold, placed on the figures of Hercules and Juno placed back to back brow of the dead. Some of these were in the form on the hoop, having their arms raised above their of a broad flat band about six inches long, having deheads. Hercules is covered with the skin of a lion, signs (representing acanthus leaves, rosettes, and Juno with that of a goat. Fairholt in "Rambles scrolls), pressed in low relief upon them. Allied to of an Archæologist" (Virtue, 1871, p. 81), figures these are the seven bracteate gold funeral wreaths an ancient Etruscan gold ring in the British Museum, in the Castellani collection. The Greeks derived chimeræ being represented upon it. Silver rings are rarer than those of gold in the tombs of Etruria, and iron and bronze examples are gilt.*

Although the Greeks did not develop the granulated Etruscan work, they produced beautiful examples of jewellery, devoting more attention to form and ornamentation with repoussé work. The exquisite necklace found at Melos is believed to be the finest example of goldsmiths' work in existence. It is in the Castellani collection, and cost about *Mr. C. Sackville Bale exhibited at the Exhibition of

Antiquities at Ironmongers' Hall, in 1861, a pair of Etruscan gold armillæ. We transcribe the following description of them from the catalogue. They were "formed of two flat plates of gold joined together. On the principal side of each the surface is covered with delicate and minute filigree ornaments of zig-zag and angular lines running across. Between them are two subjects:-Two men, with arms upraised, are standing by some trees, and a horseman darting a javelin, with an elegant lateral border of the guilloche pattern. On one of the clasps are represented two winged lions and a rosette in filigree, on each side of which is a human figure; on the other clasp is only one lion. The inside plates of these bracelets are ornamented with repoussé designs, amongst which may be distinguised two lions, and two winged figures, perhaps harpies. These extraordinary specimens of goldsmiths' work came from the ruins of Etruria, and are of high antiquity. The style is quite oriental, like some of the vessels found in Etruscan tombs, and may perhaps be Phoenician. They were formerly in M. Louis Fould's collection."

the use of the ring from Asia Minor. Though, as Pliny points out, there are no traces of it in the Homeric poems; at one period every Greek freeman had a ring. Seal rings were used in the time of Solon, for he made a law forbidding an artist to keep the form of a seal he had sold.* The Lacedæmonians wore iron rings, so did the Spartans. Earrings are mentioned in the Iliad. The Etruscans were probably the first people who restricted the earring to females. The sterner sex had worn the ornament among the Assyrians and Persians, the early Christians as a rule did not wear them.

The Roman collectors prized examples of Greek colatura (cælo, to chase,) very highly. This is the TOPEUTIKŃ (TOPEUW, to bore,) before mentioned, and these derivations seem to refer to the second process of repoussé work, viz., the chasing of the work after the design had been "beaten up," by placing

* Pythagoras forbade the images of the gods to be worn on rings. Mr. Waterton says no gems certainly known to be of the Pheidian period exist, and it is believed that gems were not mounted in rings prior to the lxii. Olympiad. Pyrtogeles was appointed by Alexander the Great his engraver in ordinary. Greek women wore ivory and amber rings, and the rings worn by them were always less costly and numerous than those used by men.

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