The Engraved Gems 
 OF Classical Time 
 
 J. H. Middle ton 
 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030680882 
 
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THE ENGRAVED GEMS OF 
 CLASSICAL TIMES. 
 
HDnfion: C J. CLAY & SONS, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, 
 
 Ave Maria Lane. 
 
 ffiamfreillBe: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO. 
 
 Eeip5iB: F. A. BROCKHAUS. 
 
 0tia aotit: MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
THE ENGRAVED GEMS OF 
 CLASSICAL TIMES 
 
 WITH A 
 
 CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GEMS IN THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. HENRY MIDDLETON, 
 
 SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART, DIRECTOR OF THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, 
 
 AND FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ANCIENT ROME IN 1888." 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 1891 
 
 [AU Rights reserved.'] 
 

 ■^ ^ ^ BRARV^ 
 
 V 
 
 ®am6t(lige : 
 
 PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
MEMORIAE 
 
 VIRI CARISSIMI 
 
 CAROLI WILHELMI KING. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface and List of Authorities. Page ix to xv. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Page i to i6. 
 Scarabs, Cylinders and other early Signets. 
 
 CHAPTER II. Page 17 to 34. 
 Greek Gems. 
 
 CHAPTER III. Page 35 to 46. ' 
 Greek Gems (continued) and Etruscan Scarabs. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Page 47 to 58. 
 Roman Gems. 
 
 CHAPTER V. Page 59 to 65. 
 Cameo Gems. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Page 66 to 83. 
 Inscriptions on Gems. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. Page 84 to 96. 
 Inscriptions on Gems (continued). 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Page 97 to 102. 
 The characteristics of ancient Gems. 
 
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. Page 103 to 120. 
 The technique of Gem-engraving. 
 
 CHAPTER X. Page 121 to 128. 
 Gems in mediaeval times. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. Page 129 to 139. 
 The materials used for engraved Gems. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. Page 140 to 157. 
 The materials used for engraved Gems (continued). 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Catalogue of the Gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum 
 
 Page i to XXV. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN the following pages I have attempted to give a brief 
 account of the engraved gems and other forms of signet 
 which were used by the chief classical races of ancient times. 
 The book is intended for the general use of students of 
 archaeology, and has been written with the hope that it may 
 in some cases lead the reader to a more detailed and practical 
 study of this most fascinating subject. 
 
 The various tools and technical processes used by the 
 ancient gem-engravers have been discussed at some length, 
 since a close attention to these points is specially desirable as 
 a much-needed help in the frequently difficult task of dis- 
 tinguishing between gems of different origin and date. 
 
 With regard to the Appendix containing the catalogue of 
 the gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum, I have attempted to 
 indicate the period to which each gem seems to belong, in 
 spite of the great difficulty there is, very frequently, in 
 attaining to anything like certainty on this point. 
 
 Even though in many cases my judgment may be 
 erroneous, yet, on the whole, the attempt to distinguish 
 periods of workmanship has its use, in giving the reader a 
 notion of the general style and character of the gem in 
 question. 
 
 The gems which are described in this catalogue were, 
 with very few exceptions, collected by Colonel Leake, the 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 distinguished author of valuable works on the Topography of 
 Athens and other kindred subjects. They came into the pos- 
 session of the Fitzwilliam Museum in the following manner. 
 By his will, dated Jan. 17, 1859, Colonel Leake bequeathed to 
 his wife for her life his whole collection of books, coins, gems, 
 bronzes, vases and other antiques, with the provision that at 
 her death, the whole collection should be offered to the 
 University of Cambridge for the sum of ;^5000. 
 
 Colonel Leake died in i860, and his widow died in 1863. 
 It was then decided, by a vote of the Senate on Feb. 4, 1864, 
 that Colonel Leake's testamentary offer should be accepted 
 and that ;£'5ooo out of the funds of the Fitzwilliam Museum 
 should be devoted to this important acquisition. 
 
 The actual value of the whole Leake collection was 
 probably double of the sum paid for it, and its value has 
 largely increased since 1864. The coins alone are now 
 worth considerably more than the ;^50oo which was paid 
 for the whole collection. 
 
 In 1870 a catalogue of Colonel Leake's gems was pub- 
 lished by the late Charles William King, M.A., Senior 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, the well-known author 
 of many works on antique gems, which are full of interesting 
 matter illustrated by the widest reading and the most copious 
 learning. At this time, however, Mr King's eyesight had 
 begun to fail, and in consequence of that a certain number of 
 inaccuracies crept into his descriptions which make it de- 
 sirable that another catalogue should be prepared, illustrated 
 by a photographic process which gives the actual character 
 of each gem better than the woodcuts in Mr King's work. 
 
 Mr King's chief works on gems were the following — 
 Antique gems, 1866; Precious Stones and Metals, 1865; re- 
 printed in Bohn's Series in 1883; Handbook of engraved 
 gems, 1866; Antique gems and rings, 2 vols. 1872; The 
 Gnostics and their remains, enlarged edition, 1887. And 
 also a large number of articles on gems published in the 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 A rchaeological Journal, Vols. XVIII., xix., and others. All these 
 works are full of valuable matter, and are written in the most 
 interesting style. 
 
 Mr King's own collection of gems, consisting of 330 
 examples of various dates, was formed by him between the 
 years 1845 and 1877. 
 
 In 1 88 1 it was sold to an American gentleman, Mr J. T. 
 Johnston, who presented the whole collection to the Metro- 
 politan Museum in New York City. A descriptive catalogue, 
 written by Mr King in 1878, was published by the New York 
 Museum in 1882. 
 
 Mr King died suddenly in London on the 26th of March, 
 1888. Of his loss as a friend it is impossible to speak — 
 
 " aeternumque 
 Nulla dies nobis maerorem e pectore demet." 
 
 J. HEN. MIDDLETON. 
 
 King's College, 
 Cambridge. 
 
WORKS ON ANTIQUE GEMS'. 
 
 A large number of the most valuable monographs on 
 gems are scattered through the volumes of the chief archaeo- 
 logical periodicals of England, France, Germany and Italy; 
 with the names of which classical students will be familiar. 
 
 Books on gems of the 17th and i8th centuries are now of 
 but little value except for the records they supply, showing, 
 in certain cases, that a special gem is not, at least, one of 
 quite modern production. 
 
 The chief works of this class are these : 
 Agostini, Gemine antiche figurate, 2 vols., Roma, 1686. 
 De la Chausse, Gemme antiche di Michelangelo Causeo de la 
 
 Chausse, Roma, 1700. 
 Maffei, Gemme antiche di Dom. de Rossi colle sposizioni di 
 
 P. A. Maffei, Roma, 1707. 
 Stosch, Gemm.ae antiquae caelatae, Amsterdam, 1724, and the 
 
 same collection described by 
 Winckelmann, Pierres gravies du feii. Baron de Stosch, Flo- 
 rence, 1760. 
 Zanetti, Dactyliotheca, Rome, 1747. 
 Mariette, Traits des pierres gravees, Paris, 1750; a.nd Mziscum 
 
 Odescalchum, sive thesaurus gemmarum, Rome, 1751- 
 Gori, Museum Florentinicm, Florence, 173 1 — 1762. 
 Natter, Traiti des pierres gravees, London, 1761. 
 
 1 The most important works in English on engraved gems are those written by 
 C. W. King, a list of which is given in the Preface on page x. 
 
XIV WORKS ON ANTIQUE GEMS. 
 
 Gori, Dactyliotheca Smithiana, Venice, 1767. 
 
 Worlidge, Antique gems, London, 1768. 
 
 Cipriani, Drawings of 100 gems in the Marlborough Collection, 
 
 engraved by Bartolozzi, 2 vols, folio, 1780 — 1791. 
 Raspe, Catalogue of gems cast in paste by James Tassie, 
 
 London, 1791. 
 
 Many other large and costly works with illustrations of 
 antique gems were published in the i8th century, but the 
 engravings of that time give little or no notion of the real 
 character of the gems they represent, the main object of the 
 artist being to give a pretty picture rather than a faithful 
 copy. 
 
 Among more recent works the following are the most 
 valuable — 
 
 Toelken, Erkldrendes Verzeichniss der antiken vertieft ge- 
 
 schnittenen Steine, Berlin, 1835. 
 Kohler, Gesammelte Schriften, herausgegeben von L. Stephani, 
 
 St Petersburg, 1850—1853. 
 Panofka, Gemmen mit Inschriften, printed in Abhandlungen 
 
 der K5nig. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1851, 
 
 PP- 385—519- 
 Brunn, Geschichte der Griechischen Ki'mstler, Brunswick, 1859, 
 Vol. II., pp. 444 — &n ; and new edition, 1889, Vol. Ii., 
 
 PP- 303—433- 
 Chabouillet, Catalogue des cam^es et pierres gravies de la 
 
 Bibliotheque Imperiale, Paris, 1858. 
 Stephani and others, Compte-rendu de la Commission Imperiale 
 
 ArcMologique, St Petersburg, i860 to the present time; 
 
 and, dealing with the same subject, Antiquith du Bos- 
 
 phore Cimm^rien, St Petersburg, 1854. 
 Gerhard, Gesammelte akademische Abhandlungen tmd klcine 
 
 Schriften, Berlin, 1866. 
 Miiller-Wieseler, Denhndler der alien Kunst, Theil II., Gottin- 
 
 gen, 1869. 
 
WORKS ON ANTIQUE GEMS. XV 
 
 H. N. Story-Maskelyne, Catalogue of the Marlborough gems, 
 
 privately printed, London, 1870. 
 Milchhoefer, Die Anfdnge der Ku7ist in Griechenland, Leipzig, 
 
 1883, pp. 78 to 90. 
 Furtwangler and others, Mykenisclie Vasen, Berlin, 1886. 
 A. H. Smith, Catalogue of gems in the British Museum., with 
 
 an Introduction by A. S. Murray, London, i{ 
 
 Other works are referred to in the following text. 
 
XVI 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 4, fig. I ; Babylonian cylinder of c. 2600 B.C. 
 
 Pages 7 to II, figs. 2 to 12; Various forms of "Hittite" 
 
 signets. 
 Page 14, fig. 13; Phoenician scarab of mixed Egyptian and 
 
 Assyrian style. 
 Page 19, fig. 14; Glandular gem with rude figure of an ibex. 
 Page 19, fig. 15 ; Lenticular gem, with two goats of heraldic 
 
 style. 
 Page 25, fig. 16; Satyr and wine-cup ; Greek gem of the 6th 
 
 century B.C. 
 Page 26, fig. 17 ; Hero with bow and arrow ; Greek scarab of 
 
 the finest style. 
 Page 30, fig. 18; Lion and stag: fine Greek work of the 5th 
 
 century B.C. 
 Page 41, fig. 19; Portrait head of Eumenes I., king of Per- 
 
 gamus. 
 Page 66, fig. 20 ; Jewish signet with owner's name ; 9th or 
 
 8th century B.C. 
 Page 105, fig. 21 ; Gem showing a man working with the drill 
 
 and bow. 
 Page 107, fig. 22 ; Etruscan scarab, with rude drill-work. 
 Page 108, fig. 23 ; Lenticular gem, showing the use of the 
 
 tubular drill. 
 Page 1 10, fig. 24 ; Lenticular gem showing the use of the wheel. 
 Page 1 12, fig. 25 ; Head of Zeus ; Greek scarab of finest style, 
 
 showing the use of the diamond-point. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Plate I. 
 Greek gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum, to face p. xxvi. 
 
 Plate II. 
 Roman gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Scarabs, Cylinders, and other Early Signets. 
 
 In early times, when writing was a rare accomplishment 
 practised by few except professional scribes or members of a 
 priesthood, hard stones or jewels engraved with a name or a 
 device were of special importance from their use as signets, 
 the impression of which gave that authenticity and authority 
 to a document which in modern times is more usually conferred 
 by a written signature. The signet of a king was commonly Use of 
 regarded as an authoritative symbol of his power, which he "'^"^ ' 
 could delegate to a subject by entrusting to him the royal 
 seal, with permission to use it : as, for example in ancient 
 Egypt, when the Pharaoh of the time invested Joseph with 
 vice-regal power over his kingdom, " Pharaoh took off his 
 signet ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand," 
 Gen. xli. 42, Revised Version. In the same way a duplicate of 
 Augustus' signet was entrusted to a friend in Rome for use 
 during the Emperor's absence on military expeditions ; see 
 below, page 49 ; and cf Dio Cass. LIII. 30. 
 
 It was not until a comparatively late period, about the 4th 
 century B.C., that engraved gems were commonly treated as 
 personal ornaments. At first they were made and used 
 simply for the practical purpose of signets. 
 
 Scarabs : The earliest class of signets which now exist, Scarabs 
 with the exception of some Egyptian rings made wholly 
 of gold, are in the form of the sacred scarabaeus beetle 
 of Egypt, the symbol of the Sun-god Ra, the P'ertilizer of 
 
 v.. M. I 
 
 set as 
 rings. 
 
SCARABS AND 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 Revolving 
 mounts. 
 
 Materials 
 of scarabs. 
 
 Cylinders. 
 
 the World'. The back of the scarab is cut into the beetle 
 form, and the signet- device, usually a hieroglyphic inscription, 
 is cut on the flat underside of the scarab. A hole drilled 
 longitudinally through the scarab allowed it to be set in a 
 simple ring (SoktiIXio?) of gold or other metal, with a wire or 
 swivel passing through the perforation, so that, when required 
 for use as a signet, the scarab could be revolved, and its flat 
 side brought outwards and pressed on wax, clay or other soft 
 plastic substance. 
 
 Some of the signet-scarabs which are too large for setting 
 in a ring were worn on a string round the neck ; a method 
 which appears to have been one of the earliest ways of wearing 
 any kind of signet. 
 
 It should however be noticed that the scarabs of Egypt 
 were made for many other purposes besides that of signets^ 
 and the majority of them are not cut in hard stone or crystal, 
 but are moulded in clay or worked out of the comparatively 
 soft steatite, a vitreous glaze being applied by the maker both 
 to steatite and clay scarabs^ 
 
 In point of date the oldest scarab-signets of Egypt go back 
 to a very remote period : examples have been found with the 
 names of kings of the 4th Dynasty, dating about 3700 years B.C. 
 
 In later times the scarab form of signet was adopted 
 by the Phoenicians, the Greeks and other races, who either 
 directly or' indirectly came under Egyptian influence. 
 
 Cylinders : another very early class of signet is the 
 cylinder of Assyria and Babylon, measuring most commonly 
 from f of an inch to i^ inches long, and about half an inch to 
 an inch in diameter. These are not made of clay, like so 
 many of the Egyptian scarabs, but are cut out of hard stones, 
 
 1 The scarabaeus beetle (Egyptian Kheper) was adopted. as this symbol on 
 account of its moulding large balls of clay, round like the world, in which it 
 encloses its eggs. The heat of the sun hatches the eggs, and the young beetles 
 burst forth from the clay ball. 
 
 " The great bulk of them, especially those made of pottery, were sacred 
 charms or amulets rather than signets. 
 
 ' The Fitzwilliam Museum possesses a good collection of this class of scarab : 
 they are described in the forthcoming catalogue of Egyptian objects in the 
 Museum by Mr Budge. 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 CYLINDERS. 
 
 such as green jasper, rock crystal, chalcedony, haematite, 
 carnelian, or more rarely amethyst and lapis lazuli. These 
 cylinders are drilled longitudinally with a hole of sufficient 
 diameter to receive a woollen or linen cord instead of a metal 
 wire, and they were worn as a bracelet on the wrist, or else 
 strung round the neck'. Though used primarily by the 
 powerful races of the Euphrates Valley, these cylinder signets 
 were not unknown among other nations, such as the Semites 
 of Phoenicia and Palestine, and even in the early island 
 colonies of the Phoenicians. The "signet and the cord," 
 mentioned in Genesis xxxviii. i8 and 25, Revised Version (or 
 "signet and bracelets" of the Old Version) are examples of 
 this use of the cylinder. So also in Canticles viii. 6, the 
 phrase occurs " set me as a seal upon thine arm." 
 
 A very large number of these Babylonian and Assyrian 
 cylinders still exist; they appear to have been used by all 
 except the very poorest classes. They are usually engraved 
 with the name of the owner in cuneiform characters, together 
 with figures of various deities, accompanied frequently by 
 attendant genii or worshippers. A very favourite subject, 
 especially among the earliest cylinders, is a deity or a king 
 slaying a lion. The sacred tree (H6m) between two guardian 
 beasts or winged figures of human form occurs very often. 
 This latter is the most characteristic of the designs used by 
 the inhabitants of the Euphrates valley ; from them it was 
 adopted by the Phoenicians, and thus spread over an area as 
 wide as the whole range of Phoenician trade, that is through- 
 out the whole of the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. 
 This very early and widely popular design was largely used 
 by the Tyrian builders of Solomon's temple, as we read in 
 I Kings, chaps, vi. and vii., and in 2 Chronicles, chaps, iii. 
 to v., where the device is mentioned as being repeated again 
 and again in various materials under the name of " the palm- 
 tree and the winged cherubim ^" 
 
 Method of 
 
 spearing 
 
 [cylinders. 
 
 Designs on 
 cylinders. 
 
 Palm-tree 
 
 and 
 
 Cherubim. 
 
 ^ In a few cases the cylinder is mounted on a metal pin with a boss at each 
 end to hold it fast, but this is quite exceptional. 
 
 ^ The Phoenician scarab illustrated in fig. 13, page 14, has examples of the 
 winged Cherubim of Assyria. 
 
 1—2 
 
BABYLONIAN AND 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 Dates of 
 cylinders. 
 
 The cylinder signet of a private person commonly has a 
 figure of his special deity, and often a representation of the 
 owner standing by in the attitude of worship. The inscription 
 usually gives the name both of the deity and of the owner ; 
 as, for example, a fine haematite cylinder in the British 
 Museum which is inscribed thus, " Abum-ilu the scribe, son 
 of Nur-Martu, the servant of the god Martu (Rimmon)." 
 
 Examples of these cylinders exist extending over a very 
 wide period of time, from about 2600 B.C. to 200 B.C. or even 
 later. Some of them are very fine examples of ancient 
 Oriental art, designed with much spirit and executed with 
 wonderful minuteness and delicacy of touch in the highly 
 decorative and conventional style which is common to all the 
 best Assyrian sculpture, whatever its scale may be. 
 
 Those of early date are the finest and most powerful in 
 style ; as, for example, a magnificent Babylonian cylinder of 
 jasper in the British Museum, the signet of a scribe, dating 
 about 2600 B.C., on which is cut a very noble figure of the 
 deified hero Gistubar strangling a lion': see fig. i. 
 
 Fig. 1. Impression from an early Babylonian cylinder of the finest style; with 
 the name of the owner and his deity in cuneiform characters, between two repre- 
 sentations (reversed) of the same subject — Gistubar strangling a lion : real size. 
 
 Sanson I. 
 
 The equally fine cylinder of Sargon I. (in Paris) is closely 
 similar in style to this, and seems to be the work of the same 
 engraver. The very decorative treatment of the hair, both 
 of the heroes and of the lions, is specially noticeable. 
 
 1 On the fine cylinders of this early period the most frequent subjects are 
 Gistubar and his companion Hea-bant slaying lions or bulls, sometimes separately 
 and sometimes together, like Heracles and lolaos in early Greek art. 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 ASSYRIAN CYLINDERS. 
 
 5 
 
 Persian 
 cylinders. 
 
 The date of Sargon I. is not known with any certainty. 
 According to some archaeologists his reign was as early 
 as about 2800 B.C. If so, the date of the cylinder shown 
 in fig. I would probably be two centuries earlier than is 
 suggested above. 
 
 In later times, under the Persian conquerors Darius and 
 Xerxes, Babylon produced cylinders of very minute and 
 delicate workmanship, showing the influence of Greek art, 
 but inferior in spirit and vigour to the engravings of earlier 
 date. The most remarkable example of this, dating from 
 the end of the 6th century B.C., is the signet of Darius 
 Hystaspes, a jasper cylinder engraved with the king in a 
 chariot hunting lions, and with the cuneiform inscription, 
 " I am Darius, the Great King " thrice repeated in the 
 Persian, Median and Assyrian languages. This also is in 
 the British Museum. Lastly, the cylinders of the 3rd century 
 B.C. are very rude in design and of the coarsest, most clumsy 
 workmanship. 
 
 The cylinder form of signet was also used, though not Egyptian 
 commonly, in Egypt. The Egyptian cylinders are, as a rule, 
 not made of crystal or jasper, but of pottery or steatite covered 
 with a blue glaze, exactly like the scarabs : on them are cut 
 or moulded, not large figure subjects, but hieroglyphic in- 
 scriptions. They appear to have been usually worn round 
 the neck. 
 
 The custom of wearing the cylinder-signet as an orna- 
 ment appears to have led to the use of plain unengraved 
 cylinders, strung on necklaces like large beads. A great 
 many of these in rock-crystal and glass have been found in 
 the tombs of Camiros in- Rhodes and elsewhere in the Greek 
 islands and sea-port towns. 
 
 When used as a signet the cylinder was rolled over a soft 
 lump of wax or clay, which was thus flattened out over the 
 surface destined to receive the seal, and at the same time 
 received the impress of the cylinder^ The fine clay used for 
 sealing not only with cylinders, but also with other forms of 
 
 ^ See Book of Job, xxxviii. 14, where Heaven, with its night and morning, 
 is described as being " changed as clay under the seal. " 
 
 Use of 
 cylinder. 
 
6 CYLINDERS AND CONES. [CHAP. I. 
 
 engraved gems, was called 7^ arj/jbavrpU {arjfiaiva) to seal). 
 Herodotus (ii. 38) describes the Egyptian priests using this 
 clay to mark with their signets the animals which were 
 accepted for sacrifice. Many examples of these clay seals 
 have been found in Egypt, used for many different pur- 
 poses, both religious and secular ; see page ^ty. 
 Stamps on The method of sealing by rolling an engraved cylinder 
 
 pottery. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^. ^ppg^j-g ^o have suggested a form of decoration, 
 which was largely used by the potters of Etruria for the 
 shoulders of their colossal jars {pit/ioi), of which a great 
 number of examples, mostly dating from the 6th or 5th 
 century B.C., still exist. 
 
 The patterns on these were moulded in relief on the plastic 
 clay, after the jar was " thrown " on the wheel, but before it 
 was fired, by rolling along a cylinder or disc, on the edge of 
 which the design was sunk. These discs were usually about 
 9 or 10 inches in circumference, and therefore the pattern 
 repeats regularly at that interval. 
 
 The subjects on these bands are rows of animals, Tritons 
 and the like, often very similar in design and style to the 
 sculptured reliefs on the architrave from the Temple at 
 Assos, now in the Louvre. 
 Coties. Conical signets : in Assyria, even at an early period, 
 
 signets of conical form, of the same materials as the cylinders, 
 were sometimes used. These cones, with the device sunk on 
 the broad end, were pressed on rounded lumps of clay in 
 which a piece of string was embedded for the attachment of 
 the seal to a document. The mediaeval system of sealing 
 was similar to this, pendant seals of wax being fastened to 
 parchment deeds by a cord embedded in the wax. Many 
 of the so-called Hittite signets are conical in form, see 
 pages 7 and 8, figs. 2 and 3. 
 
 The later Persian signet-gems, from about the time of 
 Alexander downwards, were also very commonly cut, not in 
 the form of cylinders, but of truncated cones. These belong 
 to a period of artistic decadence, and are usually poor in 
 design and coarse in execution ; a great contrast to the 
 magnificent vigour of the figures on the early Assyrian 
 
CHAP. I.] " HITTITE " SIGNETS. 7 
 
 cylinders of about 2600 B.C., and also to the delicate minute- 
 ness of the Persian cylinders of the 5th century B.C.' 
 
 " HiTTITE " GEMS, so-called. 
 
 The name " Hittite " has been given to a very remarkable 
 and primitive class of signets, which appear to have been 
 made by some powerful race, whose influence extended 
 throughout a considerable portion of Northern Syria and 
 Asia Minor, at a very early period, perhaps fifteen or sixteen 
 centuries B.C. 
 
 These signets do not, strictly speaking, belong to the class 
 of gems ; as they are mostly cut out of the softer stones, such 
 as steatite and fine limestones, marbles and serpentine of 
 various colours — black, white, red and brown : a few are on an 
 inferior variety of pale green jasper. They are however of 
 very great interest to the student of early gems, since many 
 of them appear to be prototypes of the lenticular '' Island 
 gems ;" and others of various forms seem to show the gradual 
 modification of the cylinder into the cone-signet, and the fur- 
 ther change from the cone to the hemispherical or annular seal. 
 
 The variety of the shapes of these " Hittite " gems is very 
 great, but none of them appear to have been set in rings ; all 
 were suspended in some way by a cord, probably round the 
 neck of the owner. 
 
 The following are the chief forms of these signets : 
 
 I . Rude cylinders of the Assyrian shape. 
 
 'Hittite" 
 
 Changes of 
 form. 
 
 Fig. ... 
 2. Cones, with the principal device on the base, and the 
 hole or groove for suspension near its smaller end ; see fig. 2. 
 
 1 For an account of cylinders and other Oriental gems, see De Vogiie 
 
VARIOUS FORMS 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 Cone 
 signets. 
 
 If the cone is pierced the hole is drilled at right angles to 
 its axis, not lo,ngitudinally as in the cylinders. Some of these 
 conical signets are engraved with figures, not only on the 
 base, but also round the sides of the cone, thus forming a link 
 with the cylindrical shape of signet. 
 
 Another variety of the cone is very short in proportion to 
 its diameter, almost hemispherical in shape ; see fig. 3. 
 
 Ring 
 signets. 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 This variety, with its hole for suspension enlarged, leads 
 to the annular form of signet. 
 
 3. A ring-like stone, in which the perforation is not large 
 enough for the signet to be worn on the finger; it must 
 therefore have been suspended in the usual way by a cord ; 
 see fig. 4. 
 
 Fig. 
 
 A further development of this shape, which rarely occurs. 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 Melanges (TArchhlogie Orientate ; Paris, if 
 aramaischen &'c. Inschriften, Breslau, i8( 
 glyptique Orientate, Paris, 1886. 
 
 ; Levy, Siegel und Gemmen niit 
 and Menant, Recherches sur la 
 
CHAP. I.] OF " HITTITE " SIGNETS. 9 
 
 is an actual finger-ring cut out of stone, with one side 
 flattened to form the bezel for the signet device ; see fig. 5. 
 
 4. Another form among these signets is a rectangular Gable 
 tablet, flat on the lower side where the device is cut, and ■^'"''^' 
 shaped like a low-pitched roof on the other side, giving in 
 section a triangle with one obtuse and two acute angles, 
 the latter being rounded off; see fig. 6. The perforation runs 
 longitudinally through the tablet. 
 
 5. A great many of these signets have the bean-like. Bean 
 lenticular shape of the so-called "Island gems," usually with ■''"'"• 
 a longitudinal perforation, but sometimes, instead of that, 
 with a groove cut all round the rim of the disc, allowing 
 
 a cord or wire to be securely wrapped round the signet. 
 
 A few of the conical signets also were suspended in the 
 same way (see fig. 2), not by means of a hole drilled through 
 them, but by a groove cut round the smaller end of the cone. 
 Out of this form the handled sigfiet was developed, class 
 no. 7, described below. 
 
 6. Another less frequent variety seems to have developed 
 out of the cylinder by slicing its round sides off, making it 
 square or polygonal in section, and thus giving four or more 
 surfaces for separate devices, instead of the continuous band 
 of the cylinder. 
 
 7. Handled signets ; a large proportion of these signets Signets 
 are cut into various shapes with handles worked out of the handles. 
 same piece of stone. The flat surface where the device is cut 
 
 is of many forms, circular, oval, square, rectangular or lobed. 
 The handles too vary greatly in shape, some being short 
 projections, only sufficient to receive the perforation for the 
 suspension of the seal, see fig. 7. Others have tall handles, 
 in some cases moulded into ornamental forms at the place 
 
lO 
 
 VARIOUS FORMS 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 where the cord passed through the handle : see figs. 8, 
 9 and 10. 
 
 Chester 
 collection. 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Fig. 10. 
 
 Like the seals shown in figs. 2 to 12, the finest and most 
 elaborate of these handled signets is among the very fine 
 collection of " Hittite " gems, the most important in the 
 world, formed by the Rev. Greville Chester, and now in the 
 Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. 
 
 This is a large cubical signet cut out of a fine piece of 
 black magnetite, with minutely engraved figures of deities 
 on five sides of the cube. The pierced handle is elaborately 
 moulded, in a fashion which suggests metal-work rather 
 than hard stone. The workmanship of this remarkable 
 signet is very delicate and skilful, a striking contrast to the 
 usual very coarse figures on the " Hittite " seals. Though 
 resembling in general form the handled signets of the 
 '' Hittite" class, it is most probably the work of a Phoenician 
 gem-engraver : it was found in or near Antaradus on the 
 coast of Phoenicia'. 
 
 ^ It has been described and illustrated by Professor Sayce, Atxh. Journ. Vol. 
 XLIV. 1887, pp. 347 to 360. 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 OF "hittite" signets. 
 
 II 
 
 The devices on the " Hittite " signets are usually extremely 
 rude and coarsely cut, most of the sinking being done with 
 large drills and wheels, with but little help from subsequent 
 re-touching. 
 
 Animals, such as goats and stags, and others too coarsely 
 drawn to be distinguished, together with very rude human 
 figures frequently occur. 
 
 Other signets have simple geometrical patterns, formed 
 mainly by combinations of wheel-cut straight lines, (see figs. 
 II and 12) closely resembling the seme patterns which fill up 
 
 Devices on 
 
 Hittite 
 
 signets. 
 
 Fig. II. 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 the backgrounds of early Greek pottery of the so-called 
 "Oriental" and "Dipylon" types. Some of these signets 
 have no more elaborate device than rows of drill-sunk holes, 
 like the sixes on ordinary ivory dice; see figs. 5 and 10. 
 
 There is however in the Chester collection (Ashmolean 
 Museum) one remarkable circular signet, with a rounded 
 handle cut out of hard whitish limestone, the device on 
 which is a much more skilful piece of work. Within a 
 circular, hatched border is a double-headed eagle "displayed," 
 very like the heraldic eagle of mediaeval Austria, designed 
 with much spirit and decorative power. The same device 
 occurs on some of the rock-cut reliefs of Asia Minor, which 
 have been attributed to the same " Hittite " race. This 
 double-headed eagle was adopted as his badge by the cele- 
 brated Moslem conqueror Saladin, who may possibly have 
 taken it from some of these early reliefs. It is to be seen 
 over one of the gates of the citadel of Cairo, which is said to 
 have been built by Saladin, or more probably by one of his 
 successors. It certainly was copied and introduced into 
 Western Europe by the Crusaders of the 12th century A.D., 
 
 Ragle 
 signet. 
 
 Badge of 
 Salahed- 
 din. 
 
12 
 
 " HITTITE " SIGNETS AND 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 The name 
 '' Hittite.'" 
 
 and thus the famihar "displayed eagle" of Austria may have 
 originated in the device used by some chief of the once 
 powerful eastern race', w^hich used these very interesting 
 and primitive signets. 
 
 With regard to the word " Hittite," as applied to signets 
 and sculpture of uncertain date and origin, it should be , 
 observed that the name is a somewhat misleading one, 
 since although monuments of the people who are so called 
 have been found in the country of the Hittites, that is, in the 
 district inhabited by the Canaanites of Coele-Syria, yet they 
 are also largely found in regions with which, as far as is 
 known, the true Hittites had no connection. 
 
 Nevertheless, the name which was given to this class of 
 objects at their first discovery may be provisionally retained, 
 until further researches have led to more accurate information 
 on the subject. 
 
 Phoenician Gems. 
 
 Egypto- 
 
 Phoenician 
 
 scarabs. 
 
 A large number of scarabs made of pottery or steatite in 
 the Egyptian form, but with almost meaningless copies of 
 Egyptian designs with blundered hieroglyphic inscriptions, 
 coarsely executed, are found in Rhodes, Cyprus and other 
 islands of the Mediterranean ; some of them apparently are 
 as early as the 14th to the loth century B.C. These imitations 
 of Egyptian work were probably made by Phoenician settlersl 
 In some cases these Phoenician copies are made oi paste 
 or glass, and have the back simply rounded, instead of being 
 shaped like the sacred beetle, a form which is usually called 
 the scarabaeoid, from its having the general outline without 
 the detail of the true scarab. 
 
 1 I have to thank Mr A. J. Evans, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, for 
 ample opportunity to examine the gems at Oxford, both those in the Museum, and 
 in his own very valuable private collection, and also for many useful suggestions 
 on the subject. 
 
 ^ The Fitzwilliam Museum possesses a good collection of these "Island 
 scarabs." 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 PHOENICIAN SCARABS. 
 
 13 
 
 No. 3 in the Catalogue of the Fitzwilliam gems, from 
 Camiros in Rhodes, is a good example of this class (see 
 PI. I.), and, though small in scale, it is a characteristic specimen 
 of Phoenician art, which most commonly combines the types 
 of Assyria and of Egypt, fusing them into one design, with 
 very little admixture of any forms which are of purely 
 Phoenician origin. In other cases Phoenician gems are either 
 wholly Egyptian or wholly Assyrian in style ; and even when 
 Phoenician deities are represented, such as Baal-Melkarth 
 or Baal-Moloch, they are usually treated to some extent after 
 the fashion of either Egypt or Assyria. 
 
 One remarkable signet in the Ashmolean Museum at 
 Oxford consists of a steatite scarab of Egypto-Phoenician 
 style, set in an open bronze frame with a small ring for suspen- 
 sion, very much like a form of seal which was commonly 
 used in the last century. In most cases, however, the Phoe- 
 nician scarabs which, like those of Egypt, have a longitudinal 
 perforation, were set in a swivel mount, not in a handled 
 setting. 
 
 In later times, from the Sth to the 4th centuries B.C., a 
 large number of scarabs and scarabaeoids of very superior 
 workmanship were made by the Phoenicians, both for their 
 own use and for purposes of trade. These gems, engraved in 
 the harder stones, such as jasper, chalcedony and carnelian, 
 are commonly found in Phoenicia itself, throughout Syria, 
 and in the islands of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Some of these scarabs have engraved devices of great 
 beauty and most delicate execution, arranged and treated 
 with that remarkable decorative skill for which the Phoe- 
 nician artists were so celebrated. The finest of these, 
 cut in chalcedony or sard, have Egyptian deities and sacred 
 symbols arranged, not with any special meaning, but simply 
 so as to fill up the space in the most decorative and graceful 
 way. One or two examples in the Ashmolean Museum are 
 among the finest which exist : they were brought from the 
 coast of Phoenicia by Mr Greville Chester, and probably are 
 considerably earlier in date than the scarabs from Tharros. 
 Their minute workmanship and very high finish is as re- 
 
 Symboh of 
 Egypt and 
 Assyria. 
 
 Later 
 
 Phoenician 
 
 scarabs. 
 
Tharros 
 scarabs. 
 
 Kreoii 
 tidas. 
 
 14 PHOENICIAN SCARABS [CHAP. I. 
 
 markable as their graceful design. Fig. 13 shows one of the 
 
 Fig. 13. Phoenician scarab of exceptionally delicate workmanship, dating 
 probably from the 8th century B.C. The device consists of various sacred Egyp- 
 tian and Assyrian symbols, arranged, without regard to meaning, simply as a 
 decorative device. In the centre is the Egyptian god Horus seated on a lotus 
 flower, between two winged cherubim of Assyrian style : at the top is the winged 
 orb of the sun, the symbol of the sun-god Ra. One and a half times the real she. 
 
 finest of these, with devices of Egyptian and Assyrian style 
 arranged in a very decorative way, and most delicately 
 worked in all its details. 
 
 One of the finest collections, now in the British Museum 
 (nos. 155 to 221), came from the cemetery of the Phoenician 
 colony of Tharros in Sardinia, in most cases associated with 
 objects which range in date from the 5th to the 3rd century 
 B.C. It is however more than probable that in some cases 
 the scarabs are much older than the date of the tomb in 
 which they were buried. 
 
 These later Phoenician scarabs frequently have, in addition 
 to the earlier designs borrowed from Egypt and Assyria,- 
 other subjects and forms of purely Greek origin ; the tide of 
 influence having turned during the days of Phoenician de- 
 cadence, with the result that Phoenician art was modified 
 by that of the Greeks ; whereas some centuries earlier it was 
 Greek art that received the influence of Phoenicia. 
 Scarab of No. 4 in the Fitzwilliam collection is a specially interesting 
 
 example of a scarab of this later type ; it was found in a 
 Greek tomb in the island of Aegina, and is inscribed with the 
 name of its owner Kreontidas ; see below, page 6"]. The 
 design on it, the sacred beetle with outspread wings, is of 
 purely Egyptian origin and the whole character of the scarab 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 OF LATER STYLE. 
 
 IS 
 
 Guilloche 
 border. 
 
 closely resembles some examples which are certainly of 
 Phoenician workmanship. It is however possible that it was Graeco- 
 the work of a Greek engraver settled in the Hellenic trading ^f£'"'" 
 city of Naukratis in the Delta of the Nile, where many objects 
 of Greek workmanship but of Egyptian style have been found. 
 Nothing is more difficult than to attain to any certainty either 
 as to the date or the origin of works of art of this class. As 
 is usually the case with the art of Oriental races, the same 
 hieratic forms survive for many centuries without any serious 
 alteration ; and even technical peculiarities and details of 
 style remain unchanged for very long periods. 
 
 In the later class of Phoenician scarab-gems the design is 
 very frequently surrounded by a peculiar border usually called 
 the " cable border," or in French the guilloche. This orna- 
 ment evidently originated in a sort of plaited design, forming 
 a series of circular loops, which is one of the commonest 
 patterns used in the early sculpture, painting and jewellery of 
 Mycenae and other primitive Hellenic sites. It survived in 
 Greek art on painted vases, and as a sculptured decoration 
 for buildings, throughout the whole period of Greek autonomy. 
 Both as a painted and as a carved pattern it occurs very 
 frequently among the architectural fragments of pre-Persian 
 date, which have been recently discovered on the Acropolis 
 of Athens. In most cases, when used as a border for scarabs 
 or scarabaeoids, the pattern has lost its curved lines, and has 
 degenerated into a band with a succession of straight or 
 sloping cross strokes, mainly owing to the technical difficulty 
 of cutting a curved as compared with a straight line on a 
 hard stone or jewel \ 
 
 A similar guilloche border occurs on the large thin di- 
 drachms of Metapontum, Sybaris and other cities of Magna 
 Graecia during the 6th century B.C., those, that is, which have 
 an incuse design on the reverse. 
 
 Among the Sardinian scarabs found at Tharros and others 
 of that type a great many have been found in their original 
 
 ^ Owing to its frequent occurrence on the scarabs found in the tombs of 
 Etruria, this guilloche pattern was once commonly called the "Etruscan border; " 
 it is not however a design of Etruscan origin. 
 
 Borders on 
 coins. 
 
i6 
 
 LATE PHOENICIAN GEMS. 
 
 [CHAP. I. 
 
 Mounted 
 scarahs. 
 
 Collections 
 of scarabs. 
 
 mounts ; this is usually a simple gold swivel-ring, which 
 allows the scarab to revolve on the wire which passes through 
 the longitudinal perforation. In some cases the scarab itself 
 is fixed in a gold mount or border of very delicate workman- 
 ship, which, of course, revolves with it. 
 
 In the 6th and sth centuries B.C. and even later, signets of 
 cylinder form, usually in magnetite, crystal, or chalcedony, 
 were made by the Phoenicians, and engraved with figures of 
 Assyrian style. 
 
 Later still, during the extreme decadence of Phoenician 
 art in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., signet-gems of conical 
 form, pierced for suspension through the smaller end of the 
 cone, were commonly used. 
 
 The device engraved on the base of these cones is usually 
 of the rudest and coarsest workmanship, a remarkable contrast 
 to the very beautiful engraved scarabs made by the Phoeni- 
 cians some centuries earlier. 
 
 With regard to collections of Phoenician gems, those in 
 the British Museum and in the Ashmolean Museum have 
 been already mentioned. A very fine collection of scarab 
 gems from tombs in Phoenicia and Syria was made by the 
 Due de Luynes, and was presented by him to the Biblio- 
 th^que Nationale of Paris. 
 
 Many Phoenician gems are illustrated by Perrot and 
 Chipiez, History of Art in Phoenicia, 1885 (translation), Vol. 
 II. p. 227 — 260: see also Cesnola, Cyprus, i^Tj, PL xxxi — 
 XLI; De Vogues Melanges d' ArcUologie Orientate has been 
 already referred to. A good description of Oriental cylinders 
 and cones is given by Perrot and Chipiez, IIist07y 0/ Art in 
 Chaldaea and Assyria, 1884 (translation). Vol. II., pages 251 
 to 280. In the main the literature of this subject is scattered 
 through the pages of many different archaeological period- 
 icals, chiefly published in Germany and France. 
 
17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Grb:ek Gems. 
 
 Among the earliest signets found on Hellenic soil, though Gold 
 clearly not of Greek workmanship, are the massive gold rings "•f"^'-'- 
 found in the tombs of Mycenae, which have figures of Oriental 
 or Egyptian type deeply cut on the broad gold bezel of the 
 ring. The date of these is certainly not later than the I2th 
 century B.C., and may possibly be earlier. As they are cut on 
 metal, not on hard stones, they do not (strictly speaking) come 
 under the class of gems. In style they are very different 
 from the gems which were found with them, and it is most 
 probable that these gold signets were not the productions 
 of native artists, but were Oriental imports. They are re- 
 markable for the great size of the gold bezel, and for the 
 complicated and pictorial character of their devices, very 
 unlike the simplicity of early Greek gems. 
 
 On one is cut a hunting scene of very Assyrian character ; Rings 
 two men in a two-horse chariot pursue a stag, at which one of Mycenae. 
 the hunters is aiming an arrow. Another of these rings has a 
 battle scene, in which the figures resemble those on the elabo- 
 rate bronze daggers inlaid with gold from the same tombs 
 within the Acropolis of Mycenae. A third is quite different 
 in style, being more like mediaeval or modern Hindoo work 
 than the production of any classical country. The subject is 
 this — a female deity in Oriental costume is seated under 
 a tree ; two women and a girl present flowers to her. The 
 field is filled up with various scattered devices. The whole is 
 bad in drawing, and weak and spiritless in design — very 
 
 M. 2 
 
i8 
 
 MYCENAE SIGNETS 
 
 [chap. II. 
 
 Mycenae 
 ^^eiiis. 
 
 Forms 
 of Island 
 Zenis. 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Pebble 
 gems. 
 
 unlike the vigour of the figures of Assyrian style on other 
 works of art from Mycenae. 
 
 Though sunk on a gold bezel, the design is sharply cut 
 with gem-engravers' tools, exactly as if the work had been on 
 a hard stone, instead of on soft, unalloyed gold. 
 
 In addition to these gold signets, a considerable number 
 of engraved gems were found at Mycenae. These were of 
 the class described in the following section, namely, gems of 
 lenticular form, cut on various hard stones and crystal. 
 
 Recent discoveries in Egypt have shown that pottery of 
 exactly similar type to that found at Mycenae was imported 
 into Egypt about 1400 B.C. ; this is a valuable piece of 
 evidence with regard to the probable date of the gems and 
 other objects found in the Acropolis of Mycenae. 
 
 " Island gems : " examples of the earliest class of engraved 
 gems of Greek workmanship have been found in great numbers, 
 within recent years, on many early Hellenic sites, and more 
 especially in the islands of the Aegean Sea, hence their usual 
 designation of " Island gems." Their chief peculiarity is that 
 they are engraved on rounded pebble-like stones, mostly 
 shaped like a circular bean [lenticula], and hence called 
 " lenticular gems ; " less frequently they are of oblong form, 
 like a bluntly pointed oval. Stones of this form are usually 
 called " glandular gems " from their resemblance to the 
 ordinary lead sling-bullets {glandes). These two forms appear 
 to be referred to by Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII., 196) when 
 writing of the favourite shapes for gems, engraved or plain, 
 " Figura oblonga maxime probatur, deinde quae vocatur 
 lenticular Nos. i and 2 in the Fitzwilliam catalogue are 
 examples of the glandular form, with characteristic animal 
 devices; see also fig. 14 from a glandular gem in the British 
 Museum. They are always pierced with a hole drilled 
 longitudinally through them, but in many cases they are too 
 large to be set in swivel-rings, like the scarabs, and were 
 probably worn by a string round the neck. 
 
 These shapes seem often to have come naturally from the 
 form of the nodule of chalcedony or the water-worn pebble, 
 which was polished, and had the signet device engraved on it, 
 
CHAP. II.] AND " ISLAND GEMS." I9 
 
 with very little cutting away of its natural surface. This 
 is suggested by a common Greek word used for engraved 
 gems, ■\frrj<po<; or BaKTvkLKrj ■\lrrj<po';. 
 
 Fig. 14. Characteristic example of an early glandular gem, representing the 
 long-horned goat or ibex, which inhabited the mountains of Crete and other 
 islands, cut in steatite. The use of the drill is evident in forming the border, and 
 the hair and horns of the animal, which appears to be dead or wounded : real size. 
 
 Gems of this type' must have been common during the 
 Homeric period; and Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 12) is wrong 
 in arguing that, because Homer does not mention the use of 
 signets, therefore they were unknown among the Greeks 
 of the Homeric age. 
 
 The devices cut on these early Greek gems consist chiefly Earliest 
 of animals, such as lions, goats, deer, bulls, eagles, dolphins devices 
 and others, very frequently arranged in a sort of heraldic 
 way — two similar animals being set face to face or back 
 to back, forming a stiffly conventional design like the beasts 
 
 Fig. 15. Characteristic example of a lenticular gem of heraldic type, cut in 
 rock crystal, with two goats on their hind legs, very skilfully designed so as to 
 occupy fully the whole area of the gem ; Brit. Mus. No. 5 7 : real size. 
 
 sculptured over the " Lion gate" of Mycenae (see fig. 15 and 
 fig. 23 at page 108). Somewhat similar animals of heraldic 
 character occur very commonly on the round shields of 
 
 ' See Milchhofer, Die Anfdnge der Kunst in Griechenland, 1883, pp. 78 — 90. 
 
 2—2, 
 
20 " ISLAND GEMS " [CHAP. 11. 
 
 warriors on Greek painted vases of the 6th and 5th 
 centuries B.C. 
 
 These " Island gems " are obviously of various dates, from 
 the Bronze Age of Mycenae and Tiryns down to the 7th or 
 6th century B.c ; they are most commonly cut in steatite, but 
 Oriental harder stones are also used. In style they are usually rude 
 ^^^ ^' and coarsely worked, showing little artistic refinement, but 
 
 their designs are frequently very decorative and well arranged 
 to suit the shape of the gem. In many cases a very 
 distinct Assyrian influence appears, some of the lenticular 
 gems having figures which are rude copies of those on the 
 cylinders of Babylon and Assyria, probably owing to the 
 trade and artistic influence of the Phoenicians. The earlier 
 examples of the lenticular and glandular gems seem, like the 
 pottery of Mycenaean type, to have been produced not only 
 in the Greek islands, but also all along the extensive coast- 
 line of Hellenic territory, where a certain unity of artistic 
 design seems to have prevailed in spite of the wide extent and 
 scattered position of the different portions of these maritime 
 colonies and settlements. 
 Spartan One of the finest lenticular gems of this class, in the 
 
 collection of Mr A. J. Evans, at Oxford, is remarkable from 
 being cut out of the fine green feldspar or basalt from Mt 
 Taygetus in Laconia, which was so largely used for decorative 
 purposes by the Romans of the Empire — the marmor Lace- 
 daemonium. of Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXVI. 55. 
 
 The device on this remarkable signet, which, judging from 
 its material, was probably cut in the Peloponnese, is a bull, 
 and, behind it, that curious monster resembling a sea-horse 
 which frequently occurs on works of art of this early type. 
 The exceptional material in which this gem is cut is strong 
 evidence in favour of its being the work of a Laconian artist, 
 as it is very improbable that a piece of basalt from Taygetus 
 would have been exported for use at any far-away place. 
 The British Museum possesses three or four gems of similar 
 style cut in the same stone. 
 
 A large number of fine gems of the early lenticular class, 
 probably of local fabrique, have recently been discovered in a 
 
 basalt. 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 AND GREEK SCARABS. 
 
 21 
 
 bee-hive tomb of the Mycenae type at Baphion, near Sparta : 
 they are identical in design and technique with those found in 
 the Greek islands, at Mycenae and elsewhere on Hellenic soil: 
 see 'E^ij/j,. 'Apxai. 1888 — 9, PI. 10, p. 175; and 1889 — 90, 
 PI. 10, p. 163. 
 
 The commonest material used for the "Island gems" is 
 steatite (soapstone), but some of them are engraved on much 
 harder stones, such as rock crystal, carnelian and chalcedony. 
 The fine lenticular gem, for example, which is shown in fig. 
 15, is cut out of rock crystal of very good quality, and that 
 shown in fig. 23 is of carnelian ; see Brit. Mus. Cat. of Gems, 
 Nos. 57 and 106. It evidently was not, as was the case with 
 the Hittites, on account of defective technical skill that the 
 softer steatite was so often selected by the earliest Greek 
 gem-cutters. The very bold and spirited character of many 
 of the designs which are cut on very hard materials shows a 
 complete command of the most effective tools, such as the 
 engraver's wheel and drill — instruments which in skilful and 
 patient hands will work even more refractory stones than rock 
 crystal or carnelian. 
 
 Baphion 
 gems. 
 
 Materials 
 of early 
 gems. 
 
 Later Greek Gems. 
 
 In the 6th and Sth centuries B.C. Greek gems were usually 
 cut in the scarab or scarabaeoid form, partly, no doubt, on 
 account of the commercial intercourse with Egypt, which was 
 fostered by the Greek settlement at Naukratis in the Delta, a 
 town which appears to have been at the height of its prosperity 
 during the 6th century B.C. 
 
 A large number of the existing gems of this time, mostly 
 in the form of scarabs, have been found in the tombs of 
 Etruria, whither they must have been exported in large 
 number, by Greek and Phoenician traders. 
 
 It is noticeable that scarabs were used by the Greeks, not 
 only for signets, but as personal ornaments. Antiphanes, an 
 Athenian dramatist of the 4th century B.C., in his Boeotia 
 (quoted by Athenaeus, Deipn. XL, 48 ad fin.) mentions the 
 Kavdapos or scarabaeus beetle as a woman's ornament — "On 
 
 Greek 
 scarabs. 
 
 Scarabs as 
 ornaments. 
 
22 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF SIGNETS. [CHAP. II. 
 
 Statuette 
 
 ivith 
 
 scarab. 
 
 Law of 
 Solon. 
 
 Cf.pagen. 
 
 Seals as 
 
 he Kal yvvaiKelov Koafxapiov iari KdvOapoi, ^ AvTi,^avrj<; elprjicev 
 ev BoiuTia, — but no indication is given of the material of 
 which the scarab was made. 
 
 That the scarabaeus was an ornament worn also by men 
 is shown by a fragmentary statuette in marble about ten 
 inches high, from Cyrene, now in the British Museum. 
 
 It is a draped male figure of the Asklepios type ; round 
 the neck is a cord or necklace from which hangs a pendent in 
 the form of the sacred beetle, with long outspread legs. 
 
 The importance of the signet-gems of this period, as a 
 means of securing property and giving authenticity to docu- 
 ments, is borne witness to by Diogenes Laertius (l. 57) who 
 states that one of Solon's Athenian laws (about 600 B.C.) 
 forbade gem-engravers (SaKTvXoojXvcpol) to keep an impression 
 ^of any gem they had sold, for fear of another being made 
 exactly like it. 
 
 Among the Greeks it appears to have been the custom for 
 men to send impressions of their signets to give authenticity 
 to messages, or as pledges for a bargain. The former use is 
 mentioned by Sophocles (Trachin. 614), 
 
 Kat Tfoz'S' niToicreL'i (^Vft, o Kelvo'; evfiade<i 
 'Z(f>pa'ylSo'i epxei t^S' eTrov fiaOi^aerai'^. 
 
 Compare also Euripides, /p/i. Aul. 155. 
 
 Plautus, in his Pseudolus, mentions how the Macedonian 
 soldier Harpax, when buying a slave-girl, deposited with the 
 first instalment of money an impression of his signet (symbo- 
 lum), as a pledge for the completion of the bargain. And 
 again when he forwarded the rest of the money he sent 
 a letter with another seal from his signet to testify that he was 
 concluding the transaction; see Pseud. 11. ii. 53 and iv. 
 ii. 44. 
 
 Among the later Greeks and also among the Romans 
 it was not unusual for the writer of a letter to state at the end 
 of it what device it was sealed with, as a security against 
 the letter being opened and re-sealed. 
 
 ' On this use of the word iriy/ia for a signet device see the inscription on a 
 scarab given at page 67. 
 
CHAP. II.] SIGNET AND TALISMANIC GEMS. 
 
 23 
 
 Letter to 
 Trajan. 
 
 Pliny^s 
 signet. 
 
 An example of this is quoted in the Appendix, Catalogue 
 of Fitzwilliam Gems, no. 2 p. iii. 
 
 In one of the letters to the Emperor Trajan written from 
 Nicomedeia by Pliny the younger while he was Propraetor 
 of the province of Pontica, 103 to 104 A.D., we have another 
 instance of this precaution. 
 
 Pliny states that he delays sending to Rome a certain 
 prisoner named Callidromus in the hope that a gem may be 
 found which, the prisoner asserted, had been stolen from him. 
 
 The gem was engraved with a portrait in royal robes of 
 its former owner, Pacorus, king of Parthia, whose slave 
 Callidromus had been. 
 
 Pliny concludes by saying that he sends with the letter a 
 nugget of ore, said to have come from a mine in Pai'thia, and 
 that the packet is sealed with his own signet, the device 
 on which was a quadriga : see Pliny, Epis. X., 74 (16). 
 
 The talismanic rings, with devices of magical curative or 
 protective power, which the Romans were so fond of, were 
 not so largely used among the less superstitious Greeks ; 
 but such things were not unknown. Aristophanes {Plut. 883) 
 alludes to signets which were a safeguard against poisonous 
 reptiles, when he mentions the Just man's ring, which would 
 protect him against the venom of the public informer — 
 
 ^OKaiof. OvBev irpoTi/MW aov ipopw jdp 7rpia,fj,evo<; 
 
 Tov SaKTvXiov TovBl Trap" EvSa/ttoi/ Spa^^rj^. 
 
 Again in a fragment of a play by Antiphanes (quoted by 
 Athenaeus, Deipn. III. 96 (123)) the miser says 
 
 Eai/ 8' apa 
 ^rpe^Tj fie Trepl rrjv <yacTrep\ rj tov 6/Mcj)aX6v, 
 Uapd ^epraTOV SaKTuXioi iari fiou Spa'^^^fx.rj';. 
 
 These rings, which only cost a drachma, must have been 
 set with paste, not real gems. 
 
 Many Greek signet-gems bear the badge (eTrlaij/Mov) of Personal 
 the owner, a sort of heraldic charge which was used to 
 distinguish between various individuals of the same name. 
 Thus we find on the celebrated inscribed bronze plates from 
 
 Talisman 
 sipnets. 
 
24 
 
 HERALDIC BADGES. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 on Greek 
 coins. 
 
 Roman 
 denarii. 
 
 Greek 
 
 vases. 
 
 Subjects 
 on gems. 
 
 Heraklaea in Magna Graecia {Tabulae Heraclaeenses) each 
 magistrate's name is followed by the name of his distinguish- 
 ing badge, such as a dolphin, an ear of wheat, a bunch of 
 grapes or the like. 
 
 On Greek coins, from the 4th century B.C. downwards, 
 magistrates' names are very frequently indicated by the 
 addition of their eTriarjixa to the usual device either on the 
 obverse or reverse of the coin. 
 
 It is probable that in some cases the name of the artist 
 -who engraved the coin-die is represented by a symbol of this 
 kind, instead of by an inscription or monogram, but no ex- 
 ample of this can (as yet) be pointed out with any certainty. 
 Great skill and taste are frequently shown by the way in 
 which the badge of the individual is combined and blended 
 \Vith the main design on the coin. 
 
 So on the early Roman denarii of the third century B.C., 
 before the actual name or monogram of the Mint official was 
 used, the identity of the magistrate was indicated by some 
 object which he used as his device, placed in the field of the 
 reverse by the side of the usual figures of the Dioscuri on 
 horseback. 
 
 Greek vases, especially those of the 6th and 5th centuries 
 B.C., have countless examples of warriors bearing on large 
 round shields their personal heraldic badge ; cf. Aeschylus, 
 Sept. con. Theb. 384, and 427. 
 
 Some very beautiful and exquisitely minute examples of 
 these heraldic shield-devices are to be seen on that wonderful 
 little vase from Thebes, which was given to the British 
 Museum by the late Malcolm Macmillan. The principal 
 band on the vase has a row of fighting warriors, each bearing 
 a device on his circular buckler. See Jour. Hell. Stud. 
 Vol. XL, 1890, Plate I. and p. 167. 
 
 The subjects on Greek gems of the 6th to the 4th century 
 B.C., are very largely scenes from poems of the Homeric 
 cycle, and the achievements of divine heroes, such as 
 Herakles, Theseus and Perseus, and also athletes in various 
 postures. Dionysiac subjects also frequently occur — Satyrs, 
 Fauns, Maenads and the god Dionysos himself Heads or 
 
CHAP. II.] ARCHAIC GREEK GEMS. 25 
 
 busts on gems appear to have been rare till about the end of 
 the 5 th century B.C. 
 
 Fig. 16 shows one of the finest known gems of archaic 
 
 Fig. 16. Greek scarab of the 6th century B.C. of the finest archaic style, 
 representing a satyr dancing with a wine-cup in his hand ; skilfully designed so as 
 to fill the whole field : one and a half times the real size. 
 
 style, dating from about the middle of the 6th century B.C. Archaic 
 This is a large scarab of striped chalcedony in the British ^'^'y^- 
 Museum, No. 289, representing a bearded Satyr dancing, 
 with a wine-cup in his hand, within a "cable" border. The 
 figure is bent to bring it within the oval field of the scarab : 
 at his feet is a large amphora. The design of this gem is a 
 good example of the pains taken by the Greek engravers to 
 occupy very fully the whole field. The workmanship, in spite 
 of its archaic stiffness, is very spirited and sharp in treatment. 
 The use of a large drill for the body of the amphora, and of 
 minute drills for the hair is plainly visible. The tail of the 
 Satyr is put in with delicate strokes of the diamond point'. 
 
 Plate I. no. 5 (described in the appendix) illustrates a Crystal 
 fine scarabaeoid in the Fitzwilliam collection, cut in rock ^'^'^'^f^- 
 
 aeoid. 
 
 crystal, with a figure of a nude hero fitting on his greaves, 
 dating about 500 B.C. 
 
 One of the finest gems which has ever been discovered, 
 dating from about 460 B.C., is now in a private collection 
 in Scotland ; see fig. 17. The design is a nude figure of 
 
 1 This Satyr has previously been published as a recumbent figure, but there 
 can be no doubt that Mr A. H. Smith (in his Catalogue of the British Museum 
 Gems, No. 289, page 63 and PI. e) has given it rightly in an ujDright position. 
 
26 GREEK GEMS OF [CHAP. II. 
 
 Scarab a youth with a bow ; he holds in his right hand an 
 ^"""^ arrow, and tries the sharpness of its point with the other 
 
 Fig. 17. Greek scarab-gem of the best period of art, and of the finest work- 
 manship : one and a half times the real size. 
 
 hand. He wears long hair, tied up behind his head like the 
 marble statues of athletes, which have recently been found 
 on the Athenian Acropolis among the debris caused by the 
 Persian sack of Athens. The general design of the figure 
 and the modelling of the nude flesh are magnificent in style, 
 combining truth to nature with nobility of treatment in a way 
 that could hardly be surpassed even in work on a much larger 
 scale. As an example of largeness of style combined with 
 extreme minuteness and accuracy of detail, nothing could 
 surpass this wonderful scarab. 
 Style of In both the last-mentioned gems the relief, as is usual in 
 
 "* work of this period, is rather shallow, but treated in the most 
 
 skilful way, with admirable spirit and delicacy of touch. 
 ^-This shallowness or, more correctly, flatness of relief (French 
 m^plat) is one of the characteristics of early Greek intaglio 
 and relief work of the best period. The figure is not treated 
 like a statue sawn in half and then applied to a background, 
 but, like the best Florentine reliefs of the 15th century, is 
 modelled with a peculiar delicacy of surface, and more relief 
 Shallow than actually exists is, as it were, suggested. In some cases 
 sinking. ^j^g edges of the design are, what is called " stilted," that is to 
 say the intaglio or relief outline is bounded by a flat rim at 
 right angles to the ground, as if the whole figure had been 
 slightly pushed out from behind, so that the depth of sinking 
 at the outline is nearly as deep as in the central part of the 
 figure. 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 THE FINKST PERIOD. 
 
 27 
 
 This delicacy of treatment i.s to be observed in gem 
 no. 10, as well as in no. 5 of the Fitzwilliam Catalogue. 
 
 Gems of the 5th century B.C., the finest period of Greek 
 art, are very scarce in comparison with those both of earlier 
 and later times. Work as fine as that on the most beautiful 
 Greek coins is extremely rare on gems of contemporary 
 workmanship. 
 
 In the British Museum collection which, though not the 
 largest, is on the whole the finest in the world, from its widely 
 representative character, the number of gems of this period 
 is comparatively small. Among the most notable are these — 
 no. 464, a very beautiful and noble bearded head of Zeus', cut 
 on a scarab of green jasper within a ' cable ' border — a work 
 of the finest style with a slight trace of archaic stiffness 
 or rather dignity. No. 555, cut on the section of a sard 
 cylinder, has a seated figure of a man draped below the 
 waist, playing on a lyre of triangular shape. 
 
 The general design and motive of this gem are very 
 beautiful, but the nude part of the figure is badly modelled 
 and the general proportions defective. 
 
 A more skilfully drawn design is on a fragment of a very 
 brilliant sard (No. 556), with a female draped figure seated in 
 a chair reading from a scroll, possibly a representation of the 
 poetess Sappho. In front of her, on a pedestal is a lyre : 
 the word GPQC is lightly scratched on the pedestal. The 
 lower part of the gem is missing. This is a work of extra- 
 ordinary grace and refinement of detail ; it appears not to 
 be later than about 400 B.C. ; the very faintly scratched 
 inscription must be a later addition, judging from the 
 rounded forms of the 6 and the C (2) and its slight, careless 
 execution.^ 
 
 Another gem of very great beauty, which seems to date 
 from the middle or latter part of the Sth century B.C., is 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Gems 
 ofith 
 century. 
 
 Head of 
 Ze^ls. 
 
 Mitsician, 
 
 Sappho 
 reading. 
 
 1 This gem is illustrated in fig. 25 at page 112. 
 
 ^ .Several gems with copies or replicas of this design exist, but none are as 
 apparently authentic and fine in execution as that in the British Museum. 
 
 A painted vase of the fifth century, found in Athens, has a picture of Sappho 
 reading one of her own poems from a scroll, very similar in design to the gem. 
 
28 
 
 ATTIC GEMS OF THE BEST PERIOD. [CHAP. II. 
 
 Lion and 
 staz. 
 
 Age of 
 Pheidias. 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Attic 
 stelae. 
 
 Sefulchral 
 subject ; 
 Plate I. 
 
 a scarabaeoid oi rock crystal (No. 125), with a lion devouring 
 a stag, within a ' cable ' border ; a work of remarkable 
 delicacy of execution : see fig. 18 on page 30. 
 
 No. 557, a fragmentary gem cut in chalcedony, has a figure 
 of a wounded centaur, which, as Mr A. S. Murray has pointed 
 out, is of special interest from its resemblance to the centaurs 
 on the metopes of the Parthenon, and probably dates from 
 about the same time. 
 
 On all these very beautiful gems the use of the diamond- 
 point rather than the drill is clearly visible ; see page 1 1 1. 
 
 Among the few gems which can be attributed to the age 
 of Pheidias and his pupils some are slight and even almost 
 rude in execution. 
 
 Careful work by a really skilful artist on a gem of this 
 time is rarely to be seen, but when it does occur it is an 
 object of very great delicacy and dignified beauty. 
 
 The Fitzwilliam collection possesses a very noble example 
 of this class (No. 10), which is of special interest from its 
 design being similar to that of some of the finest Athenian 
 sepulchral stelae, of which so many (though in most cases of 
 rather later date) have been found in the cemetery outside 
 the Dipylon Gate in the outer Cerameicus. The subject on 
 this gem, a large scarabaeoid of clouded chalcedony, is a nude 
 figure of a youth, leaning on his staff and caressing his dog- — 
 the dog and horse, man's most faithful animal companions, 
 being of frequent occurrence on the sepulchral reliefs of the 
 5th and 4th centuries B.C. In style this gem is of the 
 noblest type, with a slight trace of archaic flatness of 
 execution, but with the most skilful modelling of the nude 
 form, and remarkable grace in the whole design and pose 
 of the figure. 
 
 Another gem in the Fitzwilliam collection (see No. 11) of 
 rather later date, with the signature of its engraver, Dexamenos, 
 is also engraved with a subject which occurs very often on 
 the Athenian sepulchral stelae, namely, a lady seated, with an 
 attendant girl assisting to complete her mistress' toilet, very 
 like the beautiful sepulchral relief of Hegeso from the Dipylon 
 cemetery. This very important gem is described in the Cata- 
 
CHAP. II.] GEMS OF SICILY AND MAGNA GRAECIA. 
 
 29 
 
 logue below, where other examples of gems signed by the 
 same artist are mentioned ; see page viii. 
 
 Some of the most beautiful gems of this period, 5th and 
 4th century B.C., were produced by the engravers of Sicily 
 and Magna Graecia, where it appears to have been common 
 for the same artist to be an engraver of gems and also of 
 coin-dies. In style many of the finest coins of these districts 
 show clearly the touch and minute execution of detail which 
 come naturally to a man who is accustomed to work in a 
 harder material than either bronze or iron : as, for example, 
 that wonderful tetradrachm of Syracuse with, on the reverse, a 
 quadriga and above it a flying Victory holding a small tablet 
 or pinax, on which is engraved in microscopic letters the 
 artist's name, Euainetos, EYAINETO. 
 
 The same gem-like treatment is visible on the obverse 
 of another Syracusan tetradrachm with an almost full face of 
 Athene, on whose helmet is cut, in the most inconspicuous 
 way, the signature Eucleidas, EYKAEIAAZ. 
 
 One of the peculiarities of this most beautiful class of 
 coins is the frequency with which they bear the name 
 of their artist : see the list given by B. V. Head, Historia 
 Nmnorum, 1887, p. 785 ; and also a valuable monograph by 
 A. J. Evans, -'Horsemen" of Tarentum, 1889. A more recent 
 paper by Mr Evans is mentioned below, see page 90. 
 A good monograph on the signed coins of Sicily is that by 
 Rudolf Weil, Die Kiinstlerinschriften der Sicilischen Milnsen, 
 Berlin, 1884. The subject of signatures on gems and coins 
 is further discussed in Chapter VII. 
 
 A good many fine gems exist which reproduce various 
 coin-types of Magna Graecia and Sicily, as, for example, the 
 already mentioned gem, No. 125, in the British Museum, with 
 a lion devouring a stag; see fig. 18. This design occurs on 
 silver didrachms of Velia, in Lucania, with the signature 
 (more or less contracted) of the die-engraver 4>IAIZTIQN or, 
 with EPrON understood, <1>IAIITI0N02:. No. 356 in the 
 same collection, with Heracles and the Nemean lion, repro- 
 duces a coin-reverse of Heraklaea, also in Lucania ; and 
 No. 443 has the man-headed bull crowned by a Victory, 
 
 Engravers 
 of coins 
 and gems. 
 
 Signed 
 coins. 
 
 Gem-like 
 coins. 
 
 Coin 'types 
 on sterns. 
 
30 
 
 COMPARISON OF COINS AND GEMS. [CHAP. II. 
 
 which occurs on the well-known didrachms of Neapolis (the 
 modern Naples). The same connection between gems and 
 
 Fig. 1 8. Very fine work of the 5th century B.C. : one and a half times the 
 real size. Cf. the description of gem No. 7 in the Fitzwilliam Catalogue. 
 
 Copies 
 of coins. 
 
 Gems 
 objects of 
 hixtiry. 
 
 Coins of 
 Sicily. 
 
 coins is illustrated by a paste cameo in the British Museum, 
 No. 646, which, as Mr A. H. Smith points out in his cata- 
 logue, p. 97, is moulded from a tetradrachm of Syracuse with 
 the front face of Athene; see Brit. Mus. Cat. of Coins of 
 Syracuse, No. 199 : this is the coin mentioned above as 
 having the signature of the die-engraver Eukleidas. 
 
 The usual superiority of the coins, as compared with the 
 gems of Greece proper, during the best period of Greek art, 
 may possibly be due to the fact that the coins were intended 
 for public use, while the gems were objects of private luxury. 
 So in the case of architecture, painting and sculpture, we 
 find that all the chief efforts of the greatest artists were 
 devoted, during the great period of Athenian supremacy, to 
 the service of the State, not of private individuals. 
 
 In Magna Graecia and Sicily, on the other hand, personal 
 pomp and luxury were developed at an earlier time ; and 
 this may 'explain the frequently superior quality of the gems 
 of those countries. 
 
 It should also be observed that the art-development of 
 the Sicilian and Italian colonies was many years in advance 
 of that in the mother country. The magnificent Syracusan 
 decadrachms of Kimon and Euainetos, executed several years 
 before the close of the 5th century B.C., are in style quite as 
 advanced as the work of the artists of Attica fully half a 
 century later. 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 SIGNETS OF GOLD. 
 
 31 
 
 The soft beauty and richly decorative treatment of the 
 noble heads of Persephone and Arethusa on the obverses of 
 these coins, and the almost realistic treatment of the victorious 
 quadriga on the reverse, do not at all accord with the usual 
 notions of Greek art before 400 B.C. 
 
 A very magnificent kind of signet was also much used in 
 Magna Graecia during the 4th century B.C. — a massive ring 
 with a large flat bezel, all of gold, engraved like a gem with 
 designs of great beauty. 
 
 A splendid example in the British Museum has, engraved 
 in the gold, a copy of the quadriga on the silver decadrachms 
 of Syracuse. Examples of these gold signets signed with the 
 artist's name are mentioned below, see page 73. 
 
 The gem-room of the British Museum also contains two 
 extremely beautiful engraved signet-rings of gold, from tombs 
 in Magna Graecia (Castellani Collection). 
 
 One of these has a bezel of pointed oval form, on which is 
 cut a very beautiful female head of about 400 B.C. Another 
 has a figure of a youth on horseback, riding at full speed, a 
 marvel of spirited design and minute workmanship, cut with 
 as much sharpness of touch as if the material had been a hard 
 stone instead of soft, pure gold. 
 
 According to Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXII. 23) the use of 
 signet-rings made wholly of gold originated in Samothrace. 
 He says that they were not uncommon among the Romans 
 of his own time, but his statement that they were first used in 
 the reign of Claudius is obviously incorrect. In fact rings 
 wholly of gold are among the earliest known examples of 
 signets ; as, for example, the ring of " Cheops (Chufu)," who 
 built the great pyramid, dating about 3730 B.C., and those 
 found in the tombs of Mycenae, described at page 17. 
 
 The lists cut every five years on marble stelae, as inven- 
 tories of the sacred treasure of Athene, which was preserved 
 in the Parthenon at Athens, give some interesting examples 
 of gifts of gems, rings and other jewellery about the time of 
 the Peloponnesian war. 
 
 The wife of an Athenian called Kimon and a lady named 
 Dexilla dedicated many articles of jewellery ; among them 
 
 Gold 
 signets. 
 
 Engraving 
 on £[old. 
 
 Gold 
 signet of 
 Cheops. 
 
 Parthenon 
 treasure. 
 
32 
 
 PARTHENON TREASURE. 
 
 [CHAP. II. 
 
 Votive 
 gifts. 
 
 Gems and 
 rings. 
 
 Votive 
 gem. 
 
 were various gold and plated rings set with onyx, jasper and 
 coloured paste. The inscription runs thus — 'E7 Ki^aTia 
 TTOiiciXw, o KXetTft) 'Api(TTO...iov, Klficovo'i <yvvrj dveOrjKev... 
 [a<f)p]a'yl^ -^pvaovv SaKTvXiov ej^ovaa' Ae^iXXa dveOrjKSv... 
 a-(f)payl8e i5a[XtW Troi]Kl\a...ovv^ (T<f)payl<s j^pvdovv BaKTvXiov 
 e^a>v, cTcf)payl<; 'iacrTTK ■)(^pverovv SuktuKiov k)(ov(Ta, acppayi,'; 
 taa-TTi,'; 7repLKe^pvaa)/ji,evT], a(j}payl<i vaXivt] '!Tep[i,Ke')(^pva'\wfJ,ev'r) 
 ')(pv(Tovv BaKTvX[i,ov e')(^ov]aa, (Tcj)pay2Se<i Bvo dp<yv[pov<; BaKTvX]- 
 tou? '^^(pvaai, acl>paylBe<; vdXivai p||, o-^pa^t? irepL'y^pvao'i, 
 K.T.X.' "In a many-coloured (enamelled.'') casket, Kleito the 
 daughter of Aristo..., the wife of Kimon dedicated (the 
 following) ... A seal-ring of gold,...Dexilla dedicated... two 
 signets with paste gems of various colours [probably imitations 
 of onyx], an engraved onyx set in a gold ring, an engraved 
 jasper in a gold ring, an engraved jasper set in gold [or set in 
 metal plated with gold], an engraved gem made of paste set 
 in gold and mounted in a gold ring, two signets in silver 
 rings [probably the device was cut on a silver bezel], seven 
 engraved gems of paste, a signet plated with gold, &c." 
 
 In similar lists of other years the following gems and 
 rings occur — ovv^ p,eya<; TpayeXd<pov TrpLairi^ovro';, araOfiov 
 AAAhh. "a large onyx engraved with an ithyphallic antelope, 
 weighing 32 drachms," its great weight suggests that it was 
 possibly an oriental cylinder; BaKTvXioi aoh-qpol PHI, ''eight 
 iron rings ; " a(f)payiSe<; Xidcvai ')^pvaov<; BaKTvXLov<; e^ovaai, 
 nil, dvev BaKTvXicov p, "seven signets of stone in gold rings, 
 five without rings;" %pvo-o3 a<ppayLSe \\, "two gold signets," 
 meaning rings in which both hoop and bezel were of gold. 
 In the Parthenon inventories the word a<j)payl<; is used for an 
 engraved gem, the plain jewel being called XiOo';^, or else 
 mentioned simply as " a jasper," " an onyx." 
 
 In the Greek Anthologia (v. 205) we read of the Sorceress 
 Nice's gem being dedicated in the temple of Aphrodite. It 
 is described as an amethyst (e^ d/xedva-Tov yXuTTTrf) strung on 
 a cord made of purple wool, and set in a golden stand. The 
 
 ' See Bockh, Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener, Berlin, 1851, Vol. n. p. •263. 
 
 ^ In Greek of the best literary period the feminine y\ \Wos seems frequently a 
 
 poetic form : in later times it was more uniformly used to denote a. precious stone. 
 
CHAP. IT.] 
 
 GREEK LOVE OF GEMS. 
 
 33 
 
 device on it was the magic wheel, "vy^^ It was pro- 
 bably a large scarabaeoid or perhaps even an Oriental 
 engraved cylinder. 
 
 In later times, from the reign of Alexander downwards, 
 large collections of engraved gems {haKTvKioOrJKai) were made 
 by wealthy Greeks, such as Attains II. King of Pergamus, 
 159 — 138 B.C., and enormous prices were sometimes paid for 
 the work of a celebrated engraver. 
 
 The wearing of costly gems seems to have been very 
 common in certain Hellenic districts. Aelian ( Var. Hist. 
 XII. c. 30) tells us that in the Greek colony of Cyrene in 
 Northern Africa, even the poorest person wore a gem of the 
 value of 10 minae (about £4.0 to ^^50) and that "the gem- 
 engravers there were a marvel," though whether for their 
 number or their skill he does not explain. 
 
 The writer of the Apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus 
 (xxxviii. 27) who was probably a Jew of Palestine, men- 
 tions, among the craftsmen without whom " cannot a city be 
 inhabited," the makers of signets — " they that cut and grave 
 seals, and are diligent to make great variety," an interesting 
 testimony to the importance of this branch of artl 
 
 In some cases large numbers of rings were worn by ladies 
 of rank. For example when the tomb of a Queen of the 
 Chersonesus, at Nicopol in the Crimea, was opened, no less 
 than ten rings were found upon the fingers of the skeleton — 
 all of them fine Greek work of the 4th century B.C. ; see Camp. 
 Rend. Comm. Arch. 1864, p. 182, and PI. V. 
 
 The recumbent figure on an Etruscan terra-cotta sar- 
 cophagus in the Louvre has four rings on one hand, two of 
 them with very small hoops only reaching to the first joint of 
 
 Collections 
 of gems. 
 
 Gems in , 
 Cyrene. I 
 
 Ringsfro7n 
 Nicopol. 
 
 ' One form of the h]^% was a wheel on which a bird of the wryneck tribe was 
 fastened. If spun in one direction it inspired love, but revolved in the other 
 direction it caused hatred to be developed in the heart of the victim of the 
 magical spell; Pindar, Pyth. iv. 381 and Pliny, H. N. xi. 47, 107. The phrase 
 IXkclv ivyya iirl tivi meant "to set the wheel in motion in order to produce 
 the magical effect upon some one"; see Xenoph. Mem. in. ii, 17. 
 
 ^ The high estimation of Greek gems during the later period of art is borne 
 witness to by the number of epigrams on engraved gems which occur among the 
 collection of poems in the Greek Anlhologia. 
 
 M. 1, 
 
34 
 
 THE PARTS OF A SIGNET-RING. [CHAP. II. 
 
 Fuiida. 
 
 Bezel. 
 
 Cliaton. 
 
 Voting- 
 urns 
 sealed. 
 
 Counter- 
 seal. 
 
 the fingers. This explains the very small size of some ancient 
 rings both of Greek and Roman workmanship. 
 
 With regard to the names used for the various parts of a 
 signet-ring, it may be noted that, owing to the manner in 
 which the gold wire of a swivel ring frequently encloses and 
 frames its scarab, the name a(f>ep86vTj, Latin funda, was given 
 to that part of the ring which borders the gem, on account of 
 its resemblance to the stone in a sling : see Eur. Hippol. 876, 
 and Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 116 and 126. 
 
 The gem itself is ■>5fy]^o';, haKTvKiKT) ■xjrTJcfjo';, a<j)payl^ or j; 
 Xldo'; ; in Latin, gemma. In modern English the part of the 
 ring which bears the device, whether on metal or on a stone, 
 is called the bezel: the rest of the ring being the hoop, and its 
 thickened part near the bezel the shoulders. 
 
 In French the chaton is the whole bezel, while the word 
 collet is popularly, but not technically, used for the funda or 
 metal border which frames the gem. 
 
 With regard to the Greek use of signets, Professor Jebb has 
 kindly pointed out to me and explained the following inter- 
 esting passage in Isocrates, Or. xvii, § 33, 34, where two 
 different classes of sealing appear to be referred to. 
 
 The Voting-urns (yhpiaC), containing the names of the 
 Athenians who were eligible for the office of Judge in the 
 dramatic contests at the city Dionysia, were placed under the 
 charge of the rafxlai t(Sv lepwv 'x^p7]/j,dTa>v or Temple-wardens 
 for safe keeping on the Acropolis of Athens, most probably 
 in the treasure-chamber of the Parthenon. 
 
 For the sake of security each urn was sealed both by the 
 Prytanes and by the Choregi — aecrrjfiaa-fiivai, fxev rja-av virb 
 Twv irpvTavecov, KaTeacppayiafievai S' viro twv ■)(pp7)<ywv, mean- 
 ing. Professor Jebb suggests, that the urns were not only 
 sealed up by the Prytanes, perhaps with a sort of corporate 
 or common seal, but were also coitntersealed by each of the 
 Choregi with his own private signet {rr^pay'ii). 
 
 In a similar way, during mediaeval times, it was usual for 
 an official, such as a bishop or an abbot, to sign important 
 documents with his great seal of office and also with his secre- 
 tum or personal signet. 
 
35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Later Greek Gems and Etruscan Scarabs. 
 
 Though the Greeks highly appreciated the beauty of 
 engraved gems, and, at least from the time of Alexander, 
 gave large prices for the works of celebrated engravers, yet 
 it was among the Romans of the Imperial period that the Collectors 
 passion for collecting ancient gems, like that of buying other "J S™'-^- 
 costly works of art, rose to the highest pitch of extravagance. 
 
 Many of the wealthy Romans formed cabinets of engraved 
 gems, containing examples both of antique and contemporary 
 workmanship, but in either case the gems which were thought 
 worthy of the dactyliotheca were probably the work of Greek 
 not Roman artists. 
 
 Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 4) mentions the dedication by Ring of 
 the Emperor Augustus in the Temple of Concord in the oya-ates. 
 Roman Forum of a gold horn containing a sardonyx, popu- 
 larly supposed to be the original gem which Polycrates, 
 Tyrant of Samos, in vain threw into the sea to appease his ' 
 Nemesis : older records however tell us that this celebrated 
 stone, engraved by Theodorus of Samos, was an emerald ; see 
 Herod, in. 39 seq.' 
 
 Moreover the gem of Theodorus was engraved with a 
 device, which according to Clemens Alexandrinus was a lyre 
 — the ring being the royal signet of Polycrates and therefore 
 necessarily having an engraved device ; while Pliny tells us 
 {H. N. XXXVII. 8) that the sardonyx of Augustus was plain — 
 " intacta inlibataque est." The Temple of Concord contained 
 
 ^ See below, page 69, for a further account of the gem-engraver Theodorus. 
 
 3—2 
 
36 
 
 COLLECTIONS OF GEMS IN ROME. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Gems of 
 Scauriis. 
 
 Gems of 
 Pompey. 
 
 Caesar's 
 gems. 
 
 Gems in 
 the Temple 
 of Apollo. 
 
 Seals used 
 as locks. 
 
 an important collection of gems, among which the so-called 
 " ring of Polycrates " made, Pliny tells us, but a poor figure. 
 
 The earliest gem collector, Pliny says {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 
 1 1), was M. Aemilius Scaurus, the stepson of Sulla ; a man of 
 enormous wealth, whose temporary theatre, built during his 
 aedileship in 58 B.C., was one of the costliest and largest 
 buildings in Rome\ 
 
 The next collection of Greek gems in Rome was that 
 which had belonged to Mithradates, and was dedicated in the 
 Temple of Capitoline Jupiter by Pompey the Great, whose 
 victory and its consequent spoils created, Pliny says, the 
 taste for gem-collecting in Rome {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. I2)'''. 
 
 Pliny mentions that Julius Caesar gave a collection of 
 ring gems {dactyliothecd) to the Temple of Venus Genitrix, 
 which he built in the centre of his new Forum Julium. 
 Suetonius also tells us {J. Caes. 4.'/) that Julius Caesar was 
 always ready to give high prices for gems which were the 
 work of any of the famous old Greek engravers. 
 
 Marcellus, the favourite nephew of Augustus, dedicated 
 another collection of gems in the Temple of Apollo on the 
 Palatine Hill — the most magnificent of the many public 
 buildings with which Augustus enriched the city of Rome ; 
 see Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXVIL 11. 
 
 It was not, however, till comparatively late times that 
 engraved gems were regarded as objects to place in a collec- 
 tion of works of art or even to set in jewellery as personal 
 ornaments. Their real use was for long the purely practical 
 one, that of signets, either to give authority to a document, or 
 else, instead of a lock, to secure doors, box-lids and the like, 
 so that they could not be opened without the knowledge of 
 the owner who had affixed his seal ; see page 34. 
 
 Aristophanes {Thesmo. 424 — 428) has an amusing passage 
 referring to the custom of securing doors with a seal — 
 
 ' The splendours of the Theatre of Scaurus are described by Pliny in many 
 different passages ; see Hist. Nat. x.xxiv. 36, xxxvi. 50, 113 and 189. 
 
 ^ In the same way, according to Pliny [loc. cit.) the rage for pictures was the 
 result of the capture of Corinth by L. Mummius (146 B.C.), and the taste for other 
 luxuries, such as embossed silver plate, cloth of gold and bronze couches, was 
 brought about by the conquests of L. Scipio and Cn. Manlius. 
 
CHAP. III.] PRACTICAL USE OF SIGNETS. 
 
 37 
 
 TIpoTOV fiev ovv ^v aXk! virol^ai Trjv 6vpav, 
 Troi7]cTa/M6vaiat BuKrvXiov rpiw^oXov' 
 vvv 8' ovTO^ avTov<; aKOTpiyjr ¥iVpi7riS7]<; 
 iBlBa^e 6piTrr]he(TT e^y^eiv acfipayiSia 
 e^aylra/x.evov^' 
 
 Aristoph. 
 Thesino. 
 424 — 428. 
 
 The OpiTTr^heara cr(ppayL8ia appear to have been worm- 
 eaten bits of wood used as rude seals, because no two would 
 be exactly alike and the pattern made by the worms was too 
 complicated to allow of imitation. 
 
 An analogous contrivance was adopted by some of the 
 early Ottoman Sultans of Turkey, who both signed and 
 sealed their edicts by the single act of pressing the inked 
 palm of the hand on the document, so that the lines of the 
 skin printed off on the parchment or paper, forming a device 
 which no forger could possibly copy. The elaborate device 
 on modern Turkish coins is derived from the old hand- 
 printed signature of the mediaeval Sultans, though it has 
 since been partly modified into a sort of complicated mono- 
 gram of the Sultan's name. 
 
 Votive offerings dedicated in temples were in some cases 
 sealed with an impression of a signet in clay. During 
 Mr Flinders Petrie's recent excavations in Upper Egypt 
 examples of this were discovered ; as, e.g. a bronze votive 
 adze tied round with thread, the knot of which was sealed 
 with a clay impression of a scarab. 
 
 The scarabs of Egypt and the signet-gems of the Greeks 
 and Romans were also commonly employed to seal the 
 plaster stoppers of amphorae full of wine. Many examples 
 of these with the seal unbroken have been found in the Delta 
 and elsewhere in Egypt. 
 
 With regard to the use of signets in the wine-cellar, 
 Horace mentions as the test of a good-tempered house- 
 master — "Signo fracto non insanire lagenae," that he did not 
 go wild with passion even if he found that the seal of a wine- 
 jar had been broken. Pliny, in his treatise on finger-rings 
 [Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 26), refers to the same custom when he 
 says " nunc cibi quoque ac potus anulo vindicantur a rapina " 
 
 Wood 
 seals. 
 
 Hand 
 
 Sealed 
 offerings. 
 
 Sealed 
 wine-Jars. 
 
38 
 
 DIFFERENT SHAPES AND MODES [CHAP. III. 
 
 Work 
 on itgly 
 stones. 
 
 Scarab 
 form. 
 
 lliinmr 
 form of 
 gem. 
 
 Convex 
 gems. 
 
 This practical use as signets explains why in so many 
 cases among ancient Greek gems very beautiful work is 
 engraved upon an ugly stone, the markings of which interfere 
 with and obscure the design. The main object was that the 
 impression from the gem, rather than the stone itself, should 
 be beautiful. This is notably the case with the celebrated 
 head of Medusa from the Strozzi collection, now in the 
 British Museum, which is cut on a very opaque and much 
 mottled chalcedony, — a fact which is evidence in favour of 
 the antiquity of this beautiful gem, in spite of its style, which 
 certainly suggests the hand of an artist of the Renaissance, 
 rather than one of any classical period. 
 
 As has been already mentioned, until about the middle of 
 the 4th century B.C. Greek gems were usually cut in the 
 scarab or scarabaeoid form; the latter were frequently of 
 large size, especially when made of chalcedony, in which case 
 the old method of wearing the signet strung on a cord round 
 the neck still survived. After that, from the time of Alex- 
 ander downwards, the custom came in of having gems en- 
 graved on a thinner slice of stone ; and the brilliant varieties 
 of sard or carnelian became the favourite gem to work upon. 
 For the sard the thinner body of stone was an advantage, 
 making it more transparent and effective, whereas the older 
 scarabaeoid shape was best suited for the pale bluish or 
 milky chacedony, which looks poor if cut very thin. This 
 rule is not without many exceptions ; thin sard gems occur 
 of date much anterior to Alexander's time, and the use of 
 chalcedony was never given up either by Greek or Roman 
 gem-engravers. 
 
 Another common variety of shape, used mainly by the 
 Romans, was to have the side of the gem, on which the 
 design was cut, convex ; the plain back being flat. This form 
 is very common among Roman gems of Imperial times, and 
 it was often used for stones the colour of which requires an 
 extra thickness of body to bring out the full richness of tint, 
 as in the case of carbuncles and reddish sards. A less 
 common shape, largely used for mediaeval and modern gems, 
 was the reverse of the last, namely a convex back, with a flat 
 
CHAP. III.J 
 
 OF CUTTING GEMS. 
 
 39 
 
 face. Either of these forms is especially suited to the 
 carbuncle, which looks glassy and poor in colour if not 
 convex on one side'. 
 
 The modern name for this rounded form is en cabochon : 
 it is now only used for a few stones, such as opal, turquoise 
 and carbuncle ; transparent gems being almost always cut 
 with many facets. 
 
 The cabochon shape was used for all gems throughout the 
 middle ages, and it was not till the i6th century that the 
 faceted form was much used. In many cases the old rounded 
 form gives much greater beauty to a gem, especially to one in 
 which the chief beauty is colour rather than brilliance or 
 " fire." The diamond, on the other hand, if not cut in facets, 
 has little more beauty and effect than rock crystal. 
 
 Stones, such as the amethyst and the garnet, which often 
 look poor and tawdry when faceted, have great decorative 
 beauty when cut in the older fashion, and the modern system 
 is applied, with great want of taste on the part of jewellers, to 
 many stones which are quite spoilt by it. 
 
 Another advantage of the old system of cutting is that 
 flaws, which are destructive of the beauty of a faceted gem, 
 in many cases do little, if any, injury to a stone cut in 
 the cabochon form. 
 
 In Oriental countries the old method of shaping gems 
 still survives, and modern Indian jewellery of very great 
 beauty and decorative effect is often made with gems, which, 
 in the hands of a European jeweller, would be almost 
 valueless. 
 
 The only antique examples of faceting were those gems 
 in which the natural crystalline form was preserved, namely 
 the diamond which was too hard to cut, and the beryl which 
 in some cases had its natural hexagonal crystals polished ; 
 Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. "jS. The emerald also was often used in 
 its natural crystalline form. 
 
 Gems en 
 cabochon. 
 
 Gems in 
 facets. 
 
 Old and 
 
 modern 
 
 methods. 
 
 Oriental 
 ^ems. 
 
 Beiyl and 
 diavtond. 
 
 1 ' Carbuncle ' and ' garnet ' are different names for the same gem according to 
 the shape in which they are cut — the "carbuncle" being the stone en cabochon, 
 and the "garnet" cut with facets. 'Cabochon' is derived from the Portuguese 
 ' cabo,' a head. 
 
40 
 
 LATER STYLE. 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 Emerald 
 bought by 
 Ismenias. 
 
 Period of 
 Alexander. 
 
 Graeco- 
 Roman 
 gems. 
 
 Portraits 
 on gems. 
 
 With regard to the prices paid by the Greeks for fine 
 gems, we have little or no information. 
 
 Pliny {Hist. Nat. xxxviL 6) tells a story of how the flute- 
 player Ismenias', who lived in the time of Alexander the 
 Great, sent six gold staters to buy an emerald engraved with 
 a figure of the sea-nymph Amymone, and was disgusted to 
 have two staters returned to him with the gem, on the ground 
 that an insult had been offered to the emerald through its 
 price being beaten down. In this case however, as Mr King 
 remarks {Handbook of Gems, p. 196), the stone itself may 
 have been worth the greater part of the money, so that we 
 have no indication of what the value of the work on it may 
 have been. 
 
 According to Pliny, Greek musicians were specially given 
 to the extravagance of collecting and wearing many gems. 
 
 During the Alexandrine period and later the character of 
 Greek gems, like that of other works of art, changes very 
 much ; the type of figure becomes softer and more feminine 
 in beauty, Homeric scenes are no longer represented, and 
 deities such as Aphrodite or Dionysus, with subjects relating 
 to the theatre or musical contests, become the favourite 
 motives for representation. 
 
 Greek gems of this later period and good Graeco-Roman 
 work of the time of the early Roman Empire are usually 
 almost indistinguishable, either in workmanship or in subject. 
 This is frequently the case even with large sculpture in 
 marble', and with work so minute as that of the gem-engraver 
 it is harder still to arrive at any certainty. 
 
 With the time of Alexander portraits appear for the first 
 time on gems : a little earlier, that is, than the introduction 
 of coin-portraits, which commence with the Diadochi, Seleu- 
 cus I. King of Syria, and Ptolemy I. of Egypt. Lysimachus 
 
 ' Ismenias was the author of a work on precious stones. 
 
 ^ A striking example of this is to be seen in the reliefs on the throne of the 
 High Priest of Dionysus in the great theatre of Athens. The figures of Eros with 
 fighting cocks on the arms of the throne and the two Fauns on the back look 
 like the best Greek work of the 4th century B.C., and it is only the feeble 
 archaism of the pseudo- Assyrian relief on the front of the seat which betrays the 
 later origin of the whole. 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 PORTRAITS ON GEMS. 
 
 41 
 
 of Thrace used on his coins, instead of his own portrait, a 
 magnificent head of the deified Alexander, an idealized por- 
 trait of the noblest type. 
 
 Though Alexander never committed the impiety of placing 
 his own head in the place of that of a deity on his coins, he 
 employed the celebrated Pyrgoteles to engrave it upon gems 
 — using for that purpose an emerald, according to Pliny, 
 Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 8 ; see below, page 71. 
 
 The British Museum possesses two very fine portrait- 
 gems (Nos. 1526 and 1529) copied respectively from tetra- 
 drachms of Demetrius Poliorcetes and of a King of Pergamus. 
 Fig. 19 shows the latter, probably a portrait of Eumenes I., 
 263 — 241 B.C. 
 
 Portrait of 
 Alexander. 
 
 Pergamene 
 portrait. 
 
 Fig. 19. Very noble example of a Greek portrait gem of the 3rd century B.C., 
 cut on mottled chalcedony, very similar in style to the finest silver tetradrachms of 
 Pergamus; real size. 
 
 No. 1530 in the same collection is a copy in paste of the 
 coin-portrait on tetradrachms of the great Mithradates, 
 c. 90 B.C. ; which, again, seems to have been taken from a 
 large group of sculpture in bronze, probably a quadriga 
 driven by Mithradates ; hence the eager expression of the 
 face and the hair blown back by the wind. 
 
 In Roman Imperial times portraits were very frequently 
 cut on gems, especially that of the reigning Emperor, which 
 was commonly worn by his courtiers as a compliment to him. 
 
 Portrait heads of Greek philosophers were also very largely 
 worn by the Romans in their rings: Cicero {De Fin. V. i) 
 ridicules the Epicureans for their habit of using their master's 
 head as a signet. Heads of Socrates are specially common 
 on gems ; see No. 65 in the Fitzwilliam catalogue. 
 
 Coin 
 portrait. 
 
 Portraits 
 of the 
 Emperor. 
 
 Philo- 
 sophers. 
 
42 
 
 COPIES OF SCULPTURE 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 CouTtiers' 
 rings. 
 
 Apollo of 
 Kanachos. 
 
 Mars and 
 Venus. 
 
 Laocoon 
 group. 
 
 Pliny {Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 41) tells us that a portrait of 
 Claudius in a gold ring was worn as a sort of entrance ticket 
 by those privileged persons who had the right of access to 
 the Imperial presence. 
 
 The later Greek and Graeco-Roman gems are in many 
 cases of exceptional value and interest from the fact that 
 their device represents some important work of Greek sculp- 
 ture — in some cases one which can be identified by descrip- 
 tions as being some celebrated, but now lost statue or group. 
 Thus, for example, a gem in the British Museum (No. 720) 
 appears to be copied from the famous bronze statue of 
 Apollo holding a stag by its fore-legs at Branchidae by the 
 sculptor Kanachos of Sicyon, who worked in the early part 
 of the 5th century B.C.; see Proceed. Soc. Ant. 2nd series. 
 Vol. XI. p. 253'. 
 
 Another gem (Brit. Mus. No. 722) has a representation of 
 the Apollo Sauroctonos of Praxiteles, of which several ancient 
 copies exist both in bronze and marble ; and No. 790, a badly 
 cut gem of late Roman date, is interesting for its group of 
 Aphrodite and Ares with Eros at their feet — a noble Greek 
 design of probably the 3rd century B.C., of which more than 
 one Roman copy in marble still exists^ 
 
 Valuable evidence with regard to an important work of 
 art is given by the impression in wax from an ancient gem, 
 which was used as the private signet of Thomas Colyns, 
 Prior of Tywardreth in Cornwall from 1507 to 1539. A docu- 
 ment still exists sealed by the Prior with his signet-gem on 
 which was engraved a copy of the celebrated Laocoon group, 
 now in the Vatican. 
 
 The true position of the lost arms of Laocoon himself and 
 one of the sons is shown on this seal ; though the group itself 
 has been restored differently, in a way which very much 
 
 1 The finest extant representation of this celebrated statue is on an engraved 
 paste gem in the collection of Mr A. J. Evans at Oxford. 
 
 ^ This is the motive of the group to which the Aphrodite of Melos is sup- 
 posed by some writers to have belonged. The Capitoline Museum possesses a 
 rather ludicrous copy, in which the heads of Ares and Aphrodite are replaced by 
 those of Hadrian and his wife Sabina. 
 
on coins. 
 
 CHAP. III.] ON ANCIENT GEMS. 43 
 
 injures the general lines of the composition' ; stt Arck. Journ. Laocoon 
 XXIV. p. 45. It is, of course, possible that Prior Colyns' ^roup. 
 signet was copied from the then recently discovered Laocoon 
 group during the early part of the i6th century, but on the 
 whole it appears more probable that it was an antique gem. 
 
 A great many other instances might be quoted of antique 
 gems which are of value for their record of important works 
 of Greek art, now lost. 
 
 The same sort of evidence is frequently given by the Statues 
 reverse types of coins ; but unfortunately the greater number 
 of coins which illustrate ancient sculpture belong to a late 
 period of decadence, and are too coarsely executed to give an 
 accurate notion of the statues they represent ; a large number 
 of examples are given in a valuable work by Professor Gard- 
 ner and Dr Imhoof-Blumer, Numismatic Commentary on 
 Pausanias: first published in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, 
 1885 to 1887. 
 
 The importance of antique gems as giving us the designs Import- 
 of lost statues is eloquently pointed out by Professor Story- ™f/ 
 Maskelyne in his preface to the Catalogue of the Marlborough 
 Gems, 1870, p. xxiv. — " if we could but assemble in one collec- 
 tion the still extant gem-signets of the different ages and fami- 
 lies of man from the days of Urukh to those of the latest Sas- 
 anian kings, we should have a more complete representation 
 of the objects that stirred the minds and ruled the hearts of 
 men through all those many ages and changes of circum- 
 stance, than would be afforded by any other single form of 
 their arts — indeed we may perhaps with justice say, than by 
 all the other forms of these that remain to us combined." 
 
 It should, however, be observed that gems which bear Statues 
 designs copied from important works of sculpture are in most 
 cases productions of the Roman Imperial period, when the 
 decay of good taste and judgment allowed designs to be cut 
 on gems which were quite unsuited for such a purpose. 
 
 The reasons for this unsuitability are obvious ; in the first 
 
 ' The carefully devised pyramidical scheme of composition in the Laocoon 
 group is spoilt by the position of the restored arms, which straggle, as it were, 
 outside the proper bounding line of the composition. 
 
 on perns. 
 
44 
 
 SCARAB-GEMS FROM 
 
 [CHAP. III. 
 
 Requisites 
 of a gem 
 design. 
 
 place a design of high merit must be specially suited to the 
 scale on which it is meant to be executed, and therefore no 
 design could be greatly enlarged or diminished without a 
 serious loss of beauty and fitness. 
 
 Again, a gem design, being a variety of bas-relief, should 
 be most strictly kept to one plane, quite unlike the natural 
 composition of a piece of sculpture in the round ; and, last of 
 all, in copying a statue it was usually impossible to make the 
 design occupy the field of the gem in that complete way 
 which was thought so desirable by the engravers during the 
 best period of Greek art. 
 
 Etruscan 
 scarabs. 
 
 Foreign 
 imports. 
 
 Scarabs 
 used as 
 ornaments. 
 
 Jewelled 
 necklaces. 
 
 Gems from Etruscan Tombs. 
 
 This is a very large class and embraces gems of many 
 different kinds, extending over a long period, but the greater 
 number fall between the 6th and the 3rd century B.C. 
 
 Among the earlier gems a large number are foreign 
 imports, either of Phoenician or Greek workmanship. The 
 demand for engraved gems, mostly in the form of sard or 
 carnelian scarabs, must have been very great among the 
 wealthy and luxurious people of Etruria, whose gold jewellery 
 is of extraordinary beauty and magnificence. 
 
 These engraved scarabs were not used by the Etruscans 
 merely as signets, but were also employed in large numbers 
 as personal ornaments. 
 
 Almost all have some form of the " cable " border, and the 
 majority are cut in the scarab shape, perforated, with the 
 head and wing-cases of the beetle carefully shaped. In some 
 cases the original beetle form has been sliced off\ for conve- 
 nience of setting, occasionally leaving traces of the horizontal 
 perforation, found in all true scarabs. 
 
 Many of these sard scarabs from the tombs of Etruria are 
 strung in rows on necklaces, or used as pendants for bracelets 
 and ear-rings, in combination with the most exquisitely deli- 
 cate gold work. 
 
 1 The gem shown in fig. 22, page 107, is an example of this form, which 
 is commonly called the "cut scarab"- 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 ETRUSCAN TOMBS. 
 
 45 
 
 In addition to these imported Phoenician and Greek 
 scarabs, a certain number are evidently the work of the 
 Etruscans themselves, who appear to have been the most 
 skilful of craftsmen in all the arts, but endowed, like the 
 Romans, with very little power of original design. 
 
 Scarabs with Etruscan subjects very rarely occur; in almost 
 all cases, not only in style but in subject also, they are copied 
 from Greek gems ; favourite subjects being Homeric scenes, 
 heroes in council or battle, and single figures of legendary 
 Greeks of the heroic age, or occasionally athletes of contem- 
 porary times ; sirens, harpies, centaurs and other Greek 
 mythical subjects are not uncommon. 
 
 Not unfrequently these scarabs bear inscriptions in Etrus- 
 can characters, most commonly names to explain the subject 
 or person represented, as on the Greek vases of the 6th 
 century B.C. In some cases these names have been added 
 by the Etruscans on imported gems of Greek workmanship'. 
 
 No class of gem has been so extensively forged as these 
 Etruscan scarabs, especially during the present century, and 
 their manufacture still goes on with much skill in Rome and 
 other places in Italy. 
 
 There is an interesting treatise on these gems by Kohler, 
 Abhandlung iiber Kdfer-geinmen tmd Etrnskische Kunst, in 
 which Etruscan scarabs are divided into three classes. 
 
 I. From the 7th to the middle of the 5th century B.C. 
 gems of good style engraved on sards and other stones of 
 very fine quality, with heroic subjects, frequently taken from 
 the mythical stories of the Trojan and Theban wars. On 
 this class inscriptions are common, usually names to explain 
 the person or the scene which is represented. 
 
 II. From the middle of the 5th century to c. 280 B.C. 
 
 Native 
 
 Etruscan 
 
 scarabs. 
 
 Subjects 
 on scarabs. 
 
 Inscrip- 
 tions. 
 
 Kohler 
 on scarabs. 
 
 ' In the same way we see Etruscan and Latin inscriptions rudely cut on the 
 beautiful engraved bronze cistae of purely Hellenic workmanship. 
 
 The whole subject of Etruscan art has (more recently) been treated in a very 
 learned manner by Dr Helbig in various numbers of the Ann. dell' Inst. Cor. 
 Arch. Roma, see 1863, p. 356 and 1870, p. 5 : cf. Brunn, Annali 1866, p. 442. A 
 large number of Etruscan scarabs are published in the Bull. Inst. Cor. Arch. 1831, 
 p. 105, 1834, p. 116 ; 1839, p. 99. 
 
46 ETRUSCAN SCARABS. [CHAP. III. 
 
 scarabs with similar subjects, cut on less fine stones, and 
 without inscriptions. 
 Late III. Period of decadence, c. 280 B.C. to the time of Julius 
 
 Caesar, rudely cut figures, some almost wholly executed with 
 the drill', and cut on stones of poor quality. 
 
 This classification is not wholly satisfactory, and Kohler 
 does not sufficiently distinguish between imported gems and 
 those executed by native Etruscan artists. 
 
 * To this class Kohler would assign the drill-cut scarab shown in fig. 22, 
 page 107. 
 
47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Roman Gems. 
 As is the case with the other arts, the best "Roman gems" Greek 
 
 artists in 
 Rome. 
 
 are Greek either in design or workmanship, if not in both. 
 The finest gems under the Empire were produced by Greek 
 engravers, in some cases probably slaves or freedmen, or else 
 by Romans who were Greeks by training. 
 
 There are however a very large number of gems of inferior 
 style which can be called Roman in a fuller sense of the word. 
 Under the Republic the use of engraved gems by the Romans 
 seems to have been comparatively limited — partly, no doubt, 
 on account of sumptuary laws, written and unwritten, like 
 those which so strictly limited the jus annuli aurei during the 
 early days of Rome. 
 
 A very characteristic example of a Roman gem is that in The ring 
 a signet-ring (formerly in Lord Beverley's collection') which of^"P'^<>- 
 can be dated about the year 300 B.C. owing to its having been 
 found in the great peperino sarcophagus (now in the Vatican) 
 of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus who was consul in 298 
 B.C. This is a gold ring set with a sard on which is cut, in a 
 dry, wiry manner, a standing figure of Victory, winged and 
 holding a palm-branch. The same figure treated in a similar 
 way occurs on a very large number of Roman gems : No. 31 Plate II. 
 in the Fitzwilliam collection, engraved on chalcedony, is a 
 good typical example of the design, and of the style of the 
 early Roman gem-engravers generally. 
 
 1 This historical ring was Inherited, with the rest of Lord Beverley's gems, by 
 Mr Heber Percy, and has since been purchased by the Duke of Northumberland ; 
 it is preserved, with the rest of the Percy collection, at Alnwick Castle. 
 
48 
 
 SUBJECTS ENGRAVED 
 
 [chap. IV. 
 
 Deities 
 on gems. 
 
 Plate II. 
 
 Greek 
 types. 
 
 Latin 
 
 deities. 
 
 Portrait 
 gems. 
 
 The most frequently recurring subjects on Roman gems 
 of this class are figures of Jupiter enthroned (see Nos. 26 and 
 27, Fitzwilliam catalogue) Minerva, Juno and other deities 
 such as the Dioscuri, who were specially worshipped in Rome 
 and are represented on the earliest of the Roman denarii'. 
 Another very favourite subject is the goddess Roma, en- 
 throned — a type which was adapted from certain Greek 
 representations of Athene, as, for example, that on the 
 tetradrachms of Lysimachus with the head of the deified 
 Alexander on the obverse. 
 
 Most of the Roman deities are represented in forms 
 taken from Greek art — Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, the great 
 triad of early Latin worship, have the dress and the symbols 
 of Zeus, Hera and Athene : and it only rarely happens that 
 any deities are represented in a more native and un-Hellenic 
 fashion. One of these exceptional cases of a native Italian 
 deity, who sometimes occurs upon gems and coins of the 
 Republican period", is Juno Sospita with a serpent by her 
 side, wearing a head-dress made of goat's skin — the special 
 cultus-deity of Lanuvium. 
 
 Under the Roman empire, gems of all kinds, cut on a 
 great variety of stones, and with every degree of excellence of 
 workmanship, were extremely common. 
 
 Apart from the Graeco-Roman gems, which had little 
 or nothing about them that was really Roman, the finest 
 class is on the whole that with portrait heads either of the 
 Emperor or some member of the Imperial family, or else that 
 of the private owner of the gem ; a large number of this 
 latter class must have been engraved for wealthy Romans, 
 judging from the frequent occurrence of well executed portraits, 
 which cannot now be identified. Even these portraits of 
 Romans are in many cases evidently the work of Greek 
 artists, as their noble and refined treatment clearly shows. 
 
 "■ No. 33, with a standing figure of Minerva, and No. 49, with a bust of 
 Victory, both in the FitzwilUam collection, are good examples of Roman gems of 
 the Republican period ; they are illustrated on Plate II. 
 
 ^ For example the head of Juno Sospita or Sispita is a common obverse type on 
 denarii struck by monetarii of the Papia and Roscia families. 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 ON ROMAN GEMS. 
 
 49 
 
 One of the finest that now exists is the portrait of Julia, 
 Titus' daughter, by the engraver Euodos ; see below, page 74. 
 
 Among the recently acquired Carlisle gems in the British 
 Museum there is a magnificent intaglio on chalcedony with the 
 portrait head of an elderly, close-shaven Roman, with closely 
 cropped hair, somewhat similar in style to the so-called head 
 of Sextus Pompey, signed by Agathopous, in the Florentine 
 collection. This wonderful example of iconic art, though 
 noble and dignified in style, is treated with much minuteness 
 of detail and vivid realism. Even a pimple on the chin is 
 represented ; suggesting that the sturdy Roman, whose portrait 
 the gem shows us, had similar views to those held by Oliver 
 Cromwell with regard to the desirability of realistic truth in 
 portraiture. The Carlisle gem, like all the finest Roman 
 portraits, is thoroughly Greek in style, and is probably the 
 work of a Greek engraver of the first century B.C. 
 
 It may however be earlier than that, as the work both in 
 design and execution is quite equal to the finest portrait 
 heads on the coins of the Seleucid and Attalid Kings struck 
 between about 300 and 150 B.C. 
 
 In addition to the Roman taste for gems simply as works 
 of art, their old importance as signets still survived. Pliny 
 records {Hist. Nat. xxxvii. to) that the Emperor Augustus 
 used for his signet the figure of a Sphinx ; mainly on account 
 of the accident of his having inherited from his mother two 
 exactly similar gems with this device. Thus when Augustus 
 was abroad he could intrust the duplicate signet to his friends, 
 and so give them authority to issue any necessary edicts in 
 the Emperor's name. The Sphinx, cut in a very gem-like 
 manner, occurs on the reverse of a silver coin of the cistophorus 
 standard struck in Asia by Augustus ; and this coin very 
 probably shows us what his signet-gem was like. 
 
 The British Museum possesses a fine gem with the Sphinx 
 device (No. 476 in the Catalogue), which seems to have been 
 derived from the early coins of Chios. After a time, owing, 
 Pliny says {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 10), to jokes made on the 
 Sphinx-like obscurity of Augustus' edicts sealed with the 
 Sphinx signet, the Emperor changed the device of his seal, 
 
 M. 4 
 
 Carlisle 
 portrait 
 gem. 
 
 Gems as 
 si^iets. 
 
 Sphinx of 
 Augustus. 
 
so 
 
 THE SIGNET-RINGS 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Imperial 
 sifmets. 
 
 Frog 
 
 Pliny 
 on rings. 
 
 Jtis 
 annuli 
 
 and used instead a head of Alexander the Great, probably a 
 contemporary portrait by the famous Pyrgoteles. 
 
 Suetonius {Aug. 50) says that Augustus used, at different 
 times, three different signets, first the Sphinx, secondly the 
 head of Alexander, and lastly his own portrait engraved by 
 Dioscorides. This last signet was used after the death of 
 Augustus by subsequent Emperors, down to the time of 
 Pliny's writing his Historia Naturalis, with the one excep- 
 tion of Galba, who preferred to seal with his own signet, 
 on which was cut his family device — a dog standing on the 
 prow of a ship ; see Dio Cass. Li. 3. 
 
 Maecenas used as his official seal a gem engraved with a 
 frog, a device which was, as Pliny says, well known and much 
 dreaded on account of its association with edicts for the 
 imposition of taxes. 
 
 This device of a frog occurs on more than one of the 
 scarabs which have been found in Etruscan tombs. A good 
 example is in the British Museum, No. 474. 
 
 A very interesting account of Roman signet-rings' is given 
 by Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 8 to 36). He repeats the legend 
 about the earliest ring being that which Prometheus wore 
 after his liberation by Zeus, with a bit of the rock to which he 
 had been chained, set in a ring made of iron from his fetters, 
 thus saving Zeus from perjury, who had sworn that Pro- 
 metheus should remain for ever bound upon Mt Caucasus; 
 see Catull. LXIV. 295—298. 
 
 In early times (Pliny thinks) rings were but little worn 
 by the Romans ; among the statues of the kings on the 
 Capitoline Hill, those of Numa and Servius Tullius were the 
 only ones which had rings. The right of wearing gold rings 
 was very sparingly granted : at first only to Ambassadors 
 while abroad on state affairs, to whom a gold signet was 
 given at the public expense ; on his return to Rome the 
 Ambassador surrendered his gold signet and again wore the 
 usual iron ring of a Roman citizen. 
 
 By degrees i\iejus anmili aurei was granted to one official 
 
 1 On ancient rings, see the very learned treatise by Kirclimann, De Amclis, 
 Sleswick, 1657. 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 OF THE ROMANS. 
 
 51 
 
 after another; Senators and Consuls being the first to enjoy 
 the privilege. It then became the mark of the Equestrian 
 Order', and finally, under the later Roman Empire, the gold 
 ring became the mark of any man of free birth, a silver ring 
 being the badge of a freedman, and an iron ring that of 
 a slave. 
 
 Pliny remarks {Hist. Nat. xxxni. 23) that in his time 
 the iron rings of slaves were sometimes plated with gold, 
 " ferrum auro cingunt " : a form of signet of which a good 
 many examples have been found, owing to the protection 
 against rust which is afforded by the gold : otherwise iron 
 rings have usually perished from oxydization^ 
 
 With regard to the Roman names for rings, in addition to 
 annulus, Pliny says (Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 10) that the SaKTvXio'i 
 of the Greeks was called in Old Latin ungulus, and in later 
 times symbolum ; the latter word {avfi^oXov) referring more 
 strictly to the device on the signet : see Plant. Pseud. II. ii. 5 3 
 and IV. ii. 44. Another early Latin word was condalitim, 
 from k6vBvXo<; meaning the same as SuktiiXio'; ; see Plautus, 
 Trimcmmus, IV. 3, 7, where the word is not used as meaning 
 specially a slave's ring, since it was probably his master's 
 ring that the slave in the Play lost. A Comedy of Plautus 
 entitled Condalium was so named in imitation of Menander's 
 Drama called AaKTvXio'i. 
 
 The clay or wax impression from the signet was called 
 sigillum as well as symboluin: e.g. Cicero (Acad. II. 26, 85) 
 uses the phrase "sigilla annulo imprimere." The word signare 
 is used for the act of sealing, e.g. Ovid, Metam. IX. 566, 
 
 " Protinus impressa signat sua crimina gemma." 
 
 Many ancient gold rings, both Greek and Roman, are 
 made thin and hollow, so as to make the most show at the 
 least cost : they are unfortunately very liable to be crushed. 
 This is the kind of ring which the Roman Flamen Dialis 
 
 ' Hence the modius of gold rings sent to Carthage by Hannibal after the battle 
 of Cannae, in 216 B.C., or according to other writers three modii ; see Livy, 
 
 XXIII. Ii. 
 
 " The use of iron without any gem for betrothal rings still survived in Pliny's 
 time; Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 12. 
 
 4—2 
 
 Rings as 
 marks of 
 rank. 
 
 Plated 
 rings. 
 
 Names 
 for rings. 
 
 Impres- 
 sions of 
 sintets. 
 
 H0II01.V 
 rings. 
 
52 
 
 HOLLOW RINGS. 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 The 
 
 Flamen's 
 
 ring. 
 
 Poison 
 rin^s. 
 
 Theft of 
 gold. 
 
 Heavy 
 gold rings. 
 
 Subjects on 
 ^enis. 
 
 was obliged to wear, in accordance with the curious and 
 mysterious list of restrictions and duties which are recorded 
 by the celebrated mural painter and historian of Republican 
 Rome, Fabius Pictor (quoted by Aul. Gellius X. 15, § 5). He 
 says — " Item annulo uti, nisi pervio cassoque, fas non est." 
 These light rings of beaten, not cast gold are mentioned by 
 Ovid (A. A. in. 221)— 
 
 "Annulus ut fiat primo colliditur aurum." 
 
 The cavity in the ring was sometimes filled with poison, 
 so that the wearer could at any moment commit suicide : 
 a method adopted by Hannibal (Juv. Sat. x. 164), 
 
 " Cannarum vindex et tanti sanguinis ultor 
 Annulus.'' 
 
 In calling the ring "Cannarum vindex" Juvenal is pro- 
 bably alluding to the modius of gold rings, which Hannibal 
 collected from the slain equites at Cannae. 
 
 Pliny records {Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 14 and 15) that the 
 guardian {aedituus) of the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter killed 
 himself with his poison-ring, to avoid being tortured, when the 
 public store of gold, 2000 pounds in weight, was stolen from 
 its secret depository inside the throne of Jupiter. This hap- 
 pened during the third consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus, 
 whose colleague M. Licinius Crassus is supposed to have 
 been the robber. See also Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 25, where 
 Demosthenes is said to have killed himself with a similar ring. 
 
 In the same passage Pliny says that some people preferred 
 to have a valuable gem set in a light, hollow ring, so that it 
 might be less liable to injury from a chance fall. 
 
 Others, whose wealth was of recent date, prided them- 
 selves on the massive gold of their rings. Martial (xi. 47) 
 ridicules an upstart, who wore on his finger a sardonyx 
 set in a ring which contained a pound weight of gold ; 
 cf Mart. XIV. 123. 
 
 As a rule subjects from contemporary history were seldom 
 used for Roman gems, even during the later Republican 
 period, when such subjects were common on the reverses of 
 
CHAP. IV.] SIGNET DEVICES OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 S3 
 
 Pompey's 
 signet. 
 
 the denarii. Pliny, however, tells us {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 8) SuiUs 
 that Sulla used as his signet a gem engraved with the ^'-S'"^^- 
 surrender in io6 B.C. of the Numidian King Jugurtha. Sulla 
 also, according to Dion Cassius, used a gem with three 
 trophies in allusion to his triple victories : this device also 
 occurs on the reverse of one of his denarii. 
 
 The same signet device of three trophies was cut on the 
 ring of Pompey the Great, which Julius Caesar showed to the 
 incredulous Roman Senate as a proof of Pompey's defeat and 
 death; see Dion Cass. XLII. i8. 
 
 Another design, according to Plutarch, was sometimes 
 used by Pompey, namely a lion holding a sword (Xe'tui/ 
 ^i'4'VPV'i)- It is interesting to note that the reverse of a 
 rare gold coin struck by Marc Antony about 39 B.C. bears 
 the same subject — a lion holding in its upraised paw a short 
 sword or dagger, possibly copied from the famous signet of 
 Pompeius Magnus', who was one of the earliest Roman 
 collectors of engraved gems. 
 
 The Roman Emperors seem to have had special curators 
 of their gem cabinets. In the Columbarium of the Imperial 
 freedmen, outside the Porta Capena, a sepulchral inscription 
 was found over the ashes of "Julius Philargyrus libertus a 
 dactyliotheca Caesaris.'' Another official was the keeper of 
 the Imperial Signet, custus annuli, an office which was held in 
 the time of J. Caesar by the father of Trogus Pompeius 
 (Justin, XLIII. 5): "annuli curam habuisse" is the phrase 
 used by Trogus. 
 
 According to Capitolinus, the whole collection of gems 
 formed by Hadrian was sold by Marcus Aurelius, together 
 with other valuable works of art, by public auction in the 
 Forum of Trajan, to pay the expenses of the war with the 
 Marcomanni. 
 
 One of the most interesting collections of ancient rings is 
 that formed by the celebrated naturalist Waterton, the greater 
 part of which is now in the South Kensington Museum. 
 Among them are some magnificent examples of signets with 
 
 ' This curious coin is illustrated by Stevenson, Dictionary of Roman Coins, 
 London, 1889, p. 58. 
 
 Curators 
 of gems. 
 
 Keeper of 
 the Seal. 
 
 Inipe7 ial 
 collections. 
 
 S. Kens. 
 Mus. 
 
54 
 
 RINGS AND GEMS 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Waterton 
 rings. 
 
 Variety of 
 materials. 
 
 gems. 
 
 the bezel in gold, engraved with fine designs of Egyptian, 
 Greek and Etruscan workmanship. 
 
 The following are among the most remarkable ; a large 
 Egyptian gold ring of Ptolemaic date, which has a vesica- 
 shaped bezel with a minutely cut, seated figure of Isis 
 suckling the infant Horus. 
 
 A Greek ring of the finest period of art, 5th century B.C., 
 all of gold, has a very beautiful female head with no dis- 
 tinguishing attribute — possibly representing Hera, most ex- 
 quisitely cut on the gold bezel. 
 
 Another Greek ring of c. 400 B.C., which is wholly of 
 bronze, is remarkable for its fine patina and perfect state of 
 preservation. On the bezel is cut a seated female figure with 
 most gracefully designed drapery. 
 
 Among the Roman rings are examples in a great variety 
 of materials, gold, silver, bronze, lead, iron, amber, stone, 
 such as rock crystal or chalcedony, glass, ivory and even 
 enamelled pottery. 
 
 One curious ring is cut out of a piece of amber ; in it is 
 fixed a fine yellow paste intaglio with a head of Jupiter 
 Ammon. In many cases the bronze and iron rings have 
 their gem backed with bright metallic foil, in order that the 
 dark metal might not diminish the brilliance of the stone : 
 cf Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 106. Several of the rings are of 
 very small size, being intended only to reach to the first joint 
 of the finger : such rings have often wrongly been taken for 
 the rings of children. It is unfortunately very rare to find a 
 really fine gem in its original setting, most ancient rings 
 which now exist have engraved gems of rather poor design 
 and workmanship. 
 
 Under the Empire, as the old restrictions with regard to 
 wearing rings gradually passed away, an enormous quantity 
 of cheap gems seem to have been engraved. Among the 
 commonest subjects are single figures of the various deified 
 abstractions, which the Romans invented very freely, and 
 also adapted from the Greeks. 
 
 Figures of Sahts with her serpent, Fortuna with cornu- 
 copiae and rudder, Abundantia, Indulgentia, Felicitas, Bonus 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 55 
 
 Eventus and many others are constantly repeated on the Roman 
 inferior Roman gems, in exactly the same forms as on the 
 reverses of the Imperial denarii and aurei. The older deities, 
 such as Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Roma and others are no less 
 common, and have the same close relation to the reverse 
 types of coins. 
 
 Another favourite Roman device for signet-gems is some GrylH. 
 form of what is usually called a gryllus, a composite monster 
 made up with much ingenuity by joining together masks and 
 various animals : see No. 90 in the Fitzwilliam Catalogue. 
 
 According to Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXV. 114) the famous Autiphilos. 
 Graeco-Egyptian painter Antiphilos, who executed a number of 
 fine pictures which were brought to Rome to adorn the Por- 
 tions of Philip and that of Pompey in the Campus Martius, 
 also painted a ludicrous figure known as the Gryllus. Hence, 
 Pliny says, the name grylli was given to pictures of that 
 comic class. The word also means a grasshopper or a 
 cricket. It is still used in modern Italian for fanciful and 
 grotesque figures. 
 
 In the first century A.D., Pliny says (^Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 41), 
 the fashion came in to Rome of wearing gems engraved with 
 a figure of Harpocrates or some other Egyptian deity. Among 
 the many new sects which flourished under the Roman Empire, 
 that of the worship of Isis and Serapis was the most popular ; 
 and even as early as the time of Augustus it was an important 
 cult in Rome. A large number of Romano-Egyptian gems 
 now exist : see Nos. 104 and 105 in the Fitzwilliam Catalogue. 
 Figures of Horus or Harpocrates, the god of Silence, of which 
 No. 20 in the same collection is a good example, were much 
 used for signets, probably as a hint for discretion and silence 
 with regard to the contents of the letter or other document 
 that it was used to seal'. 
 
 Astrological gems, engraved with a lucky horoscope, were 
 also very largely used under the Roman Empire, when super- 
 stitions of all kinds were specially rife. 
 
 In the second and third centuries A.D. Mithraic and Gnostic 
 
 ^ A mediaeval analogy is the common type of seal engraved with the words 
 "lecta lege: tecta lege." 
 
 Egyptian 
 deities. 
 
 Plates I. 
 and II. 
 
 Astrologi- 
 cal gems. 
 
56 
 
 ROMAN GEMS. 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Talis- 
 mans. 
 
 Metallic 
 amulets. 
 
 Styles 
 of gem 
 engraving. 
 
 Coins set 
 in rinses. 
 
 types were very common ; especially gems engraved with the 
 mystic sun-god Abraxas and the Demiurgus Cnoubis : see 
 No. 1 06, Fitz. Mits. Cat. 
 
 These and many other devices were highly valued through- 
 out the Imperial period as having talismanic or magical 
 powers of protection and good luck ; — the power of the 
 talisman depending partly on the device, partly on the stone 
 it was cut upon, and lastly on the' season or planetary hour 
 when the gem was engraved. Such gems were called by the 
 Greeks TereXea-jjievoi or (papfiaKiTai, and amuleta by the 
 Romans; see Pliny, Hist. Nat XXXVII. 118, 
 
 In some cases metal signets of this class have a little dot 
 or pin of gold or silver let into the field ; the union of two 
 metals giving an additional talismanic virtue to the device. 
 This may possibly have originated in the accidental discovery 
 of the mysterious galvanic effect which is produced when two 
 adjacent metals are touched by the tongue. This would 
 naturally be noticed in those not uncommon rings which have 
 the bezel made of one metal and the hoop of another. 
 
 With regard to the style of Roman gems, the finest, both 
 in intaglio and in cameo, were produced under Greek influence, 
 if not by Greek artists, during the Augustan age. It is notice- 
 able, as has been already remarked, that in many cases fine 
 gems of the Roman Imperial period are engraved with copies 
 of statues, whereas during the best Greek time the designs 
 on gems were specially devised for glyptic purposes. During 
 the Flavian period the work was, as a rule, inferior in style 
 and coarser in execution'; but a few years later, in the time 
 of Hadrian, there was a remarkable revival both of good 
 taste and of technical skill, which came to a rather sudden 
 end about the close of the second century A.D. in the reign of 
 Septimius Severus. 
 
 After that, the decadence of gem engraving, like that of 
 the other arts, continued without intermission. Hence arose, 
 in the third or fourth century, the not uncommon fashion 
 of wearing in rings and other ornaments fine gold coins 
 
 ' The portrait of Julia tlie daugliter of Titus by Euodos, in the Paris Biblio- 
 theque, is a remarkable exception to this rule. 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 PERIOD OF DECADENCE. 
 
 57 
 
 Byzantind 
 period. 
 
 {aitrei) of the earlier Emperors, instead of a badly engraved Decadence. 
 contemporary gem, a custom which was imitated by people 
 of Celtic and Teutonic race in much later times. 
 
 This however did not bring the engraving of gems to an 
 end : the art still was largely practised, though the old skill 
 was lost, both in technique and design. 
 
 By the time of Constantine, at the beginning of the 4th 
 century, gem engraving in Rome had, like all the other arts, 
 sunk to its lowest ebb; and the craftsmen of Byzantium, 
 skilful as they were in enamelling and working in the precious 
 metals, seem not to have very largely developed the glyptic 
 art, even during the wonderful outburst of technical skill and 
 artistic excellence which took place in the time of Justinian, 
 in the early part of the 6th century A.D. 
 
 Christian gems of the Roman period are, as a rule, of very 
 poor workmanship. 
 
 The commonest subjects are Christ the good Shepherd, 
 represented after the old pagan types of Hermes Psycho- 
 pompos or Orpheus playing to the listening beasts — subjects 
 which frequently occur among the early Catacomb paintings. 
 
 The Christian monogram :5R, the dove and olive branch, and 
 other symbols of this kind were very often cut on gems of the 
 4th and 5th century. 
 
 A very fine Christian gem worked with exceptional 
 delicacy has a standing figure of a winged Victory' holding a 
 tall cross, a design copied from a not uncommon reverse on a 
 gold solidus of Honorius, c. 412 A.D. This gem is in Dr Drury 
 Fortnum's collection, one of the finest in the world for its 
 Christian gems and rings'"'. 
 
 Christian 
 gems. 
 
 Victory 
 or an^el. 
 
 ' It is interesting to note that the usual mediaeval representation of an angel 
 appears to have been derived, through many stages, from the winged Victory of 
 the Greeks. 
 
 ^ Dr Fortnum has written at various times many valuable papers on the 
 subject of Christian gems and rings, especially in the Archaeological Journal ; see 
 Vol. XXVI. p. 137; xxviii. p. 266; XXIX. p. 305; XXXIII. p. Ill, and xlii. 
 P' 159- 
 
58 
 
 LATE PERSIAN GEMS. 
 
 [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Sasanian 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Origin of 
 name. 
 
 Materials 
 andforjns 
 of gems. 
 
 Moslem 
 gems. 
 
 Sasanian Gems. 
 
 During the lowest period of artistic decadence in Rome, a 
 great many large but feebly cut gems were executed in Persia 
 under the successors of the Achaemenidae, from the third 
 century A.D. down to the Moslem conquest of Persia in 632. 
 The finest of these have portrait busts of the King, frequently 
 a Shapur or a Hormizd, or of the Queen, with name and titles 
 in Pehlevi characters. The name Sasanian is derived from 
 a man called Sasan, a supposed ancestor of Ardashir, the 
 first king of this dynasty, who began to reign about 212 A.D. 
 
 The Persian gems of this period are frequently large and 
 decorative in style, though poor in the details of the design 
 and coarsely cut. A great part of their beauty depends on 
 the fact that usually they are cut on carnelian, rock crystal, 
 amethyst or carbuncle of very fine and brilliant quality. In 
 most cases the gems are convex, either in front or at the back. 
 
 The conical and the scarabaeoid forms were used occasion- 
 ally in Persia, even at this late period, especially when the 
 material employed was chalcedony; No. 24 in the Fitzwilliam 
 Catalogue is an example of this, as it is also of a favourite 
 Sasanian class of subject — that of hunting scenes, the king 
 on horseback attacking lions, boars, stags and other animals. 
 Some large Sasanian intaglios are cut on unusual materials, 
 such as turquoise and lapis lazuli. Both these magnificently 
 coloured stones of very fine quality are largely found in 
 Persia. Persian lapis lazuli is the finest in the world. 
 
 In the year 632 A.D. the fanatical disciples of Mohammed 
 conquered the degenerate successors of the warlike Achae- 
 menidae, and thenceforth the signet-gems of the Persians 
 have been mostly engraved with names or pious sentences, 
 owing to the precept of the Koran which again introduced the 
 old Mosaic law forbidding the likeness of any living thing 
 to be represented. In later times the Persians adopted a 
 modified form of the Moslem Faith, and, to a large extent, 
 have ignored this prohibition — much to the horror of the 
 orthodox Sunni sects. 
 
59 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Cameo Gems. 
 
 In addition to the usual signet-gem with its device sunk Gems cut 
 {intaglio di cava), there were, especially under the Roman ^'^'"■"J- 
 Empire, a certain number of gems cut in relief, which were 
 intended, not for impressing seals, but for use as ornaments. 
 This is what is meant by the modern word cameo^, a name 
 which is probably of Arabic origin. Such works in relief 
 were included by the Greeks under the name -rviroi iyyeyXu- 
 fievoi, and were called by the Romans ectypae — words, which, Ectypae. 
 however, were applied to reliefs in metal and other materials 
 as well as to cameo gems. 
 
 Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 173) describes certain stones as 
 being especially suited for cameo cutting — "Gemmae quae ad 
 ectypas scalpturas aptantur.'' One of the earliest examples 
 of the mention of a ring-cameo by a classical author is in a 
 passage of Seneca {De Beneficiis, III. 26), who speaks of a man 
 wearing a cameo portrait of the Emperor — " Tiberii Caesaris 
 imaginem ectypam atque eminente gemma.'' 
 
 The oldest existing examples of cameos (not including Earliest 
 Egyptian work) are some curious gems of the 6th century B.C., 
 with a Gorgon's mask or other figure cut in very slight relief, 
 frequently on the back of a scarab instead of the usual beetle 
 form^ An example of this rare class of gems is mentioned 
 below at page 88, as being signed by its engraver. 
 
 ^ In mediaeval documents spelt also camahzttuvi^ chama/i, cainazit^ camahieu 
 and in many other ways. 
 
 ^ Two characteristic examples of early cameos are illustrated in the Journ. 
 Hell. Stud. vol. VI. p. ■285: see also Brit. Mus. Cat. p. 58. 
 
 cameos. 
 
6o 
 
 GREEK AND ROMAN 
 
 [chap. V. 
 
 Greek 
 cameos. , 
 
 Cameos 
 in sard. 
 
 Pkalerae 
 cameos. 
 
 Large 
 cameos. 
 
 Some very fine cameos of this kind were found in the 
 tombs at Kertch, dating about 400 B.C. or rather earher : for 
 example a gold swivel-ring with a scarab-shaped carnelian, 
 but having the back cut in relief, into the form of a sleeping 
 lion : the flat side has a running lion, in intaglio. 
 
 Another similar scarabaeoid, with a lion cameo on the 
 back, has on the reverse a trophy of arms : see Ant. du Bosph. 
 Cimmerien au Musee de I'Ermitage, PI. XVII. Nos. 8 and 11. 
 Another ring from a Kertch tomb is set with a cameo head of 
 Athene cut in deep red carnelian. It was found on the skeleton 
 hand of a lady who wore eight rings. 
 
 These early cameos are mostly cut in sard, carnelian or 
 some other stone of homogeneous colour, but the later cameos 
 of Roman date are mostly cut on some stratified stone, such 
 as the onyx or sardonyx, in order that the design might be 
 cut in one stratum, and be set off by having its background of 
 another colour. 
 
 One of the most important classes among the Roman 
 cameos are large, full-faced heads of Medusa or Jupiter, 
 carved in a thick piece of onyx or sardonyx, and used to 
 ornament the phalerae in the middle of the bronze cuirass of 
 an emperor or general of an army. The Medusa's head was 
 often inlaid in the aegis which formed a principal ornament 
 on the Imperial cuirass. A very beautiful example of this 
 was dredged up in the Tiber in Rome in 1886, and is now in 
 the possession of Dr John Evans, P.S.A. ; see Proceed. Soc. 
 Ant., vol. XI. 1887, p. 396. It is cut in bold relief on a very 
 
 thick piece of onyx, which measures about 3^^ inches across. 
 The British Museum possesses a very fine Gorgon's head cut 
 in high relief in a brilliant amethyst, which was probably a 
 similar ornament. 
 
 A few Roman cameos exist of very great size, Some as 
 much as from 10 to 12 inches square. The most famous are 
 the "Coronation of Augustus'' at Vienna', and the "Apotheosis 
 of Augustus" in the Paris Bibliotheque. Both are elaborate 
 
 ' The Vienna collection is specially rich in Roman cameos of great size : a 
 large circular cameo of an eagle is specially magnificent, measuring about 9 inches 
 in diameter, and very noble in design. 
 
CHAP, v.] 
 
 CAMEO GEMS. 
 
 6l 
 
 compositions, with many figures in two or three tiers, evidently 
 designed and executed by some very skilful Graeco-Roman 
 artist. 
 
 The Vienna cameo was bought by Rudolf II. for a sum 
 equal to i^io,000 in modern money. 
 
 The Apotheosis of Augustus was, according to a probably 
 correct tradition, given to the Treasury of the Sainte Chapellc 
 in Paris by Louis IX. shortly before the middle of the 13th 
 century. 
 
 In a Latin inventory of the precious objects in this 
 treasury dated 1341 it is described thus: — "Item, Unum 
 pulcherrimum camaut in cujus circuitu sunt plures reliquiae." 
 In later inventories it is called "le grand camahieu de France." 
 In 1343 Philip VI. lent it to the Pope, but in 1379 Charles V. 
 restored it to the Sainte Chapelle. This magnificent cameo 
 had been mounted in an elaborate frame of gold and ena- 
 melled work of Byzantine style, containing cavities, closed 
 with plates of rock-crystal, in which various relics were pre- 
 served; but unfortunately this beautiful frame-work was lost 
 in 1804, when a party of burglars broke into the Bibliotheque 
 and carried off many of its most precious objects, including a 
 priceless collection of large Roman medallions both in gold 
 and silver. 
 
 The cameo itself was recovered, but its setting and the 
 other objects in the precious metals perished in the melting 
 pot; see Revue ArcMo. V. 1848, p. 186. 
 
 Another historical cameo in the Bibliotheque is the so- 
 called "Apotheosis of Germanicus", with a figure crowned by 
 a Victory and borne up to Heaven on the back of an eagle, 
 the usual Roman way of representing the Apotheosis of an 
 Emperor or Prince. This large sardonyx gem was for many 
 centuries in the possession of the Abbey of Saint-Evre; but 
 in 1684 the monks sold it to Louis XIV. for his collection of 
 gems, which he was then transporting from Versailles to the 
 Palace of the Louvre. 
 
 The King gave the monks the enormous sum of 7,000 
 gold ecus for this cameo — equal in modern value to more 
 than double the number of pounds sterling. 
 
 Vienna 
 cameo. 
 
 ' ' Cameo of 
 France-^'* 
 
 Cameo of 
 Germa- 
 
62 
 
 GRAECO-ROMAN AND 
 
 [chap. V. 
 
 Cameo 
 Jupiter. 
 
 Cameo 
 cup. 
 
 Naples 
 patera. 
 
 A third cameo in the same collection in Paris also has 
 considerable historical interest\ 
 
 It was given to the Cathedral of Chartres in 1357 by King 
 Charles V., as is recorded in one of the inscriptions on the gold 
 enamelled frame which still surrounds the gem. This cameo, 
 which is cut in sardonyx, has a standing figure of Jupiter 
 holding a sceptre and thunder-bolt ; at his feet is an eagle, on 
 account of which the cameo was venerated in mediaeval times 
 as representing St John, the eagle being taken for the Evan- 
 gelist's symbol. 
 
 Till the Revolution in 1789 the cameo remained in the 
 Cathedral treasury at Chartres. 
 
 The so-called " cup of the Ptolemies " is also now in the 
 Paris collection. This is a large two-handled cantharus, cut 
 out of one immense nodule of sardonyx, and covered on the 
 outside with cameo reliefs of various Dionysiac figures and 
 symbols, of rich decorative effect, though not designed with 
 very good taste. It is a purely Roman design of the first or 
 second century A.D. 
 
 This very remarkable cup was given in the 9th century by 
 one of the Carlovingian Kings to the Abbey of St Denis, 
 where it was occasionally used as a chalice at Mass. 
 
 At the coronation of the Kings and Queens of France it 
 was an ancient custom for the Queen to take the "housel- 
 sip" of consecrated wine from this cup^ 
 
 Like the "Apotheosis of Augustus," this cameo-encrusted 
 cantharus was stolen in 1804, and then lost its elaborate gold 
 foot, though the cup itself was restored to the Biblioth^que, 
 when the burglars were arrested in Holland, whither they had 
 escaped with the non-meltable portion of their spoil. 
 
 On the whole the finest Graeco-Roman cameo in the 
 world is in the form of a large circular patera of translucent 
 agate, 8 inches in diameter, in the Museum of Naples. It has 
 
 ' See Chabouillet, Cat . des camces et pierres gravies de la Bibliothiqiie Impc'riale, 
 Paris, 1858, page i, no. 4. 
 
 ^ Long after the consecrated wine was, as a rule, withheld from the laity, the 
 sovereigns of France at their Coronation-Mass continued to receive the sacrament 
 in both kinds, an interesting survival of very primitive times when the offices of 
 King and Priest were held by the same man. 
 
CHAP, v.] 
 
 ROMAN CAMEOS. 
 
 63 
 
 a cameo relief on both sides ; one is a magnificent head of 
 Medusa, and on the reverse side is an allegorical subject 
 representing the Nile as the source of the fertility of Egypt. 
 Both in design and execution it is a work of remarkable 
 beauty, far superior in treatment to the more famous cameos 
 of Paris and Vienna. 
 
 It has unfortunately been damaged by having a hole 
 clumsily drilled through its centre ; otherwise it is perfect. 
 
 The British Museum possesses a very noble portrait-bust 
 of Augustus in profile (No. 1560) illustrated as frontispiece to 
 Mr A. H. Smith's Catalogue. 
 
 It is cut boldly, in a very good style, but without much 
 minuteness of detail, in a sardonyx of three layers measuring 
 5 inches in height. On the breast an aegis is represented 
 with central phalerae with the Medusa's head, like that in 
 Dr Evans' collection. 
 
 The most beautiful Roman cameos, which are usually of 
 much smaller size, are portrait-heads of Emperors, Empresses 
 and other members of the Imperial family. 
 
 One of the finest in the British Museum is a profile bust 
 of Julia, the daughter of Titus (No. 1607 Brit. Mus. Cat), ap- 
 parently copied from the celebrated intaglio signed by Euodos. 
 
 This cameo may, however, be the work of one of the very 
 skilful gem-engravers of the last century. 
 
 No. 43 in the Fitzwilliam Collection is a well designed, 
 but somewhat coarsely cut bust of Juno in onyx, dating 
 probably from the early period of the Roman Empire. 
 
 A few gems exist, caprices of the Roman engravers, 
 which combine intaglio and cameo ; as, for example, one in 
 the British Museum from the Blacas collection (No. 1568) 
 which has an intaglio portrait head of the Empress Livia 
 in the character of Ceres, surrounded by a border with the 
 symbols of the other chief deities cut in relief 
 
 Besides the use of large cameo heads for the phalerae 
 of Imperial armour, they were also made to ornament the 
 massive fibula or brooch which fastened the Emperor's cloak 
 {paludamentum) on one shoulder. They were also used in a 
 lavish and often tasteless way for many other ornamental 
 
 Cameo of 
 the Nile. 
 
 Head of 
 Augustus. 
 
 Cameo of 
 jfuiia. 
 
 Brooch 
 cameos. 
 
64 CAMEO ENGRAVING IN STONE AND PASTE. [CHAP. V. 
 
 Cameos on 
 armour. 
 
 Method 
 of cameo 
 cutting. 
 
 Cameos 
 of glass. 
 
 Final 
 tooling. 
 
 purposes by the purse-proud Romans. Tomb reliefs of the 
 3rd and 4th century A.D. sometimes show the cuirass studded 
 with five or six big cameos ; as, for example, the monument 
 of M. Caelius in the Museum at Bonn. A few of these large 
 cameos have additional life and transparency given to certain 
 parts of the relief by having a cavity cut out at the back, 
 so as to partially reduce the thickness of the translucent gem. 
 
 This is the case with the Medusa head in chalcedony 
 in the Marlborottgh Collection, No. 100, one of the finest 
 phalerae gems known. 
 
 On the whole the Roman love for cameos cut out of 
 stratified gems had a degrading influence on the glyptic art. 
 It was rather a tricky sort of ingenuity that was fostered by 
 the wish to have gems with the design worked out of three 
 or four layers of different colours, the background being one 
 colour, the flesh of the head another, the hair a third, and 
 perhaps a wreath round the head in a fourth, the uppermost 
 stratum. Great skill is often shown by the way in which the 
 artist has designed his subject to suit the successive layers of 
 varied colour, but he was usually seriously hampered by the 
 exigencies of the thin strata ; and work of this elaborate kind 
 has an awkward flatness of modelling, and necessarily a com- 
 plete want of graceful modulation in passing from one plane to 
 another of the relief However, cameos such as these are 
 showy and highly decorative at a distance, and that is what 
 Roman taste seems to have preferred in all branches of art. 
 
 Paste cameos : remarkable skill was shown by the 
 Roman glass-workers in their copies of large and elaborate 
 onyx cameos, executed in pastes of different colours fused 
 together so as to resemble the various strata of the onyx and 
 sardonyx. The difficulty of securely fusing the relief in 
 opaque white paste on to a ground of differently coloured 
 glass must have been very great. The finest of these paste 
 cameos have usually received, after the glass was cold, a good 
 deal of finishing work, executed with the various tools which 
 were used in cutting real onyx. Without these final touches 
 the relief was liable to be blunt and spiritless in effect. 
 
 A large number of cheap paste cameos, executed without 
 
CHAP, v.] 
 
 CAMEOS IN PASTE. 
 
 6S 
 
 any final tool-work, seem to have been made under the later 
 Roman Empire, with glass of two or more colours to imitate 
 the stratified gems such as onyx and sardonyx. 
 
 Several antique examples of these paste cameos were used, 
 about the year 1300, to decorate that magnificent painted and 
 enamelled retable, which was made for the high altar of 
 Westminster Abbey, and is still preserved in the south 
 ambulatory of the choir. 
 
 This mediaeval use of antique pastes and also of real 
 stones was very common, especially for retables, reliquaries, 
 and even rings. Many fine cameos {camahiitd), some of great 
 size, were among the numerous antique gems which Henry III. 
 used to decorate the magnificent gold shrine of Edward the 
 Confessor, and many other gems were hung round the shrine 
 as votive offerings. 
 
 Almost every mediaeval shrine or reliquary of any im- 
 portance was more or less enriched with antique gems, both 
 in cameo and intaglio. 
 
 One of the most important cameos in paste is in the 
 Vienna collection — a fine head of Augustus in blue glass, 
 with the signature of Herophilus the son of Dioskourides, 
 incised on the fields 
 
 The British Museum possesses a large fragment of a paste 
 cameo (from the Townley collection) of quite a different class 
 — not a copy of an engraved gem, but rather of the nature of 
 a relief for mural decoration. This magnificent slab or tablet 
 has in high relief a nude figure of a youth, representing Bonus 
 Eventus, which must have been (when complete) seven or 
 eight inches in height. 
 
 It is Greek in style, modelled with great skill and taste, 
 and is formed, not in a stratified material with differently 
 coloured layers, but in fine blue paste, speckled to imitate 
 lapis lazuli. It has first been formed in a mould, and has 
 afterwards been worked with the ordinary gem-engraver's 
 tools, exactly in the same way as if it had been a real piece of 
 lapis lazuli. In beauty of colour and in excellence of finish 
 it is quite as fine as if it were a real stone cameo. 
 
 ' This cameo is described below at page 76. 
 M. 5 
 
 Cameos on 
 mediaeval 
 shrines. 
 
 West- 
 minster 
 Abbey. 
 
 Cameo 
 tablet. 
 
66 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Inscriptions on Gems. 
 
 I. The Owner's Name: Egyptian scarabs, Assyrian 
 cylinders and a certain class of Phoenician gems very com- 
 monly have on them the name of their owner, in the first case 
 in hieroglyphs, in the second in cuneiform characters, and in 
 the last in the early characters, prototypes of the Greek and 
 Latin Alphabet, which were used in common by various 
 Semitic races, such as the Jews, the Phoenicians and the 
 Jewish people of Moab. One of the earliest of existing Semitic 
 signet. inscriptions (shown on fig. 20) is the name Haggai ben 
 
 Shebaniah, cut in two lines on a small gem found near 
 Samaria by the Palestine Exploration Society. The date 
 
 Fig. cjo. Signet of Semitic type, with no device except the owner's name in 
 Phoenician or Hebrew characters of the earliest form, dating from a time when 
 the same alphabet was used in common by the Jews, the Phoenicians and other 
 neighbouring Semitic races. The cut is nearly double the real size. 
 
 of this interesting signet is about the 9th or 8th century B.C. 
 The owner was probably a Jew\ Many Phoenician gems 
 
 1 The description of Aaron's breast-plate in the Book oi Exodus (xxviii. 17 to 
 21), specially records that its gems were engraved with the name of each tribe 
 "like the engravings of a signet," but these stones were, most probably, of Phoe- 
 nician workmanship, as was the whole Temple of Solomon with all its decorations 
 and fittings. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 OWNERS' NAMES ON GEMS. 
 
 67 
 
 Owners^ 
 names. 
 
 Scarab of 
 Semon. 
 
 with the owner's name have been found in various far distant 
 places : one was even discovered a few years ago on the south 
 coast of Ireland. 
 
 Owners' names rarely occur on Greek gems of the best 
 period ; and the earliest Greek gems — those of lenticular 
 form — date from before the introduction of writing among 
 the Greeks, and therefore have no sort of inscription. An 
 early example of a gem with the name of its Greek owner 
 is No. 4 in the Fitzwilliam Catalogue, the agate scarab of Plate I. 
 Phoenician type which is mentioned above at page 14 ; in 
 the field is cut, in characters of the early part of the 5th 
 century B.C., KPEONTIAA EMI, " I am the badge (or signet) 
 of Kreontidas,'' the word (Tr]iia (or aippa/yh) being understood. 
 
 In the Berlin Museum is a fine scarab in black jasper, 
 with a kneeling figure of a nude girl holding a hydria under 
 the jet of water which issues from the lion's head spout of a 
 fountain. On it is cut the owner's name " Semon,'' ZHMONOZ, 
 in characters of Ionian style. This very fine example of 
 archaic work was found in the Troad : its date is probably a 
 little earlier than the gem of Kreontidas, about the end of 
 the 6th century B.C. ; see Jahrhtch Arch. Inst. 1888, p. 116, 
 and Plate 3, No. 6. 
 
 An earlier example of this class of inscriptions is on a 
 very remarkable little scarab of the 6th century B.C. which is 
 published in an interesting paper on early Greek gems by 
 Rossbach, Archdol. Zeit. 1883, p. 311 seq. and Plate 16, No. 19. 
 On the underside of the scarab is the following inscription, 
 which occupies nearly the whole of the field, 0^P'^I05 ^Ml 
 $AN\A M^ M^ A/^Oir^ for @epcri,ai<; elfiu craixa' /j^v fJ,e avoiye, 
 " I am the device of Thersis ; do not open me." At the end 
 of the inscription is the ' device ' — a very small dolphin. 
 
 With these inscribed gems it is interesting to compare 
 that very curious electrum stater probably struck by a 
 Persian Satrap named Phanes, c. 600 B.C., with, on the obverse, 
 a stag feeding and the legend in coarsely cut retrograde charac- 
 ters ct^A/^HO^^ ^Ml 5BMA — meaning (according to Prof 
 Gardner) " I am the device or badge of Phanes\" 
 
 ' Professor Gardner is inclined to, attribute this remarkable stater to a Satrap 
 
 5—2 
 
 Scarab of 
 Thersis. 
 
 Stater of 
 Phanes. 
 
68 
 
 GEMS WITH NAMES OF OWNERS [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Names on 
 tombs. 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Names on 
 
 Roman 
 
 gems. 
 
 A similar phrase occurs on many Greek sepulchral inscrip- 
 tions, as, for example, some found in Cyprus with the name of 
 the dead person in the genitive followed by to crafxa r^ixl, 
 written in the peculiar Cypriote syllabic characters : see 
 your. Hell. Stud. Vol. XI., 1890, p. 67. 
 
 On Greek gems of the 4th century B.C. and later the 
 owner's name is rarely inscribed. The very fine 4th century 
 scarabaeoid by Dexamenos (No. 11, Fitzwilliam Catalogue) 
 bears the name Ml KHZ, possibly the name of the lady who 
 owned the gem^; see above, page 28. 
 
 On Roman gems both of the Republican and of the 
 Imperial period owners' names are very common. 
 
 Not unfrequently the Roman name is cut in Greek letters, 
 as in the case of the celebrated Diomede with the Palladium 
 by Felix., described below at page 75. The nominative and 
 possessive cases are both used for the owner's name on Greek 
 as well as on Roman gems. 
 
 Except the gem of Thersis, which has the word (rayua, no 
 word for ' gem ' or ' signet ' is added after the owner's name. 
 A head of Athene on a sard in the Barberini collection in 
 Rome has the inscription ATTOAAOAOTOY AI0O[S], "the 
 
 of Halicarnassus (where the coin was found) named Phanes, who in 525 B.C. 
 revolted against the Persian king Cambyses and joined the army of the Egyptian 
 Ifing Amasis ; see Herod, in. 4. 
 
 The form of the letters of the inscription is, however, clearly earlier in date 
 than 525 B.C., and the type — a stag — would suggest that the coin was struck 
 at Ephesus; see Head, Hist. Num., page 526. The only known example of this 
 stater is in the British Museum. 
 
 ' It is possible that this is a memorial gem, judging from the sepulchral cha- 
 racter of its design, in which case Mike may be the name of the deceased lady who 
 is represented on it. 
 
 This unusual female name Mike or Mika occurs on a votive relief, now in the 
 Central Museum of Athens, which represents the goddess Cybele, "the mother of 
 the gods," seated in a throne. At the sides of the relief are small figures of a 
 male and a female wor.shipper; and above them is the following dedicatory in- 
 scription-MANHI A^HTPI | KAI AMKA MHTPI GEflN, cut in 
 letters of about the middle of the fourth century B.C. or rather earlier; probably 
 the same date, that is, as the lady represented on the scarabaeoid of Dexamenos 
 in the Fitzwilliam Museum. 
 
 The relief is illustrated by Miss Harrison in her valuable work, the Mythology 
 and Myths of Athens, London, 1890, page 45. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 AND OF GEM-ENGRAVERS. 
 
 69 
 
 gem of Apollodotos," but this gem is of very doubtful 
 authenticity. 
 
 In some cases, when the name is in very small characters, 
 it is uncertain whether it is that of the engraver of the gem 
 or of the owner : the latter is, as a rule, not only in larger 
 letters than that of the artist, but is also placed in a more 
 conspicuous position. 
 
 2. The Artist's Name. To decide which are genuine 
 among the many so-called artists' signatures on ancient 
 gems is a very difficult problem, and one which has been dis- 
 cussed by various writers with very different conclusions. 
 
 In the first place it will be well to consider what record 
 we have in classical writers of the names of gem-engravers, 
 {SaKrvXioyXixpo^ or XiOoyXvcfjo';, Lat. geminarum scalptor). 
 
 The list is a short one. First comes the celebrated 
 Theodorus of Samos, one of the most distinguished architects 
 and sculptors in bronze and the precious metals of about the 
 middle of the 6th century B.C., who is frequently mentioned 
 as working in partnership with Rhoecus, or with Telecles, who 
 were also Samians, and probably near blood-relations of 
 Theodorus, though in what precise degree is very doubtful. 
 
 Theodorus appears to have been specially skilful in metal 
 work, and is mentioned as the inventor or improver of various 
 processes in the manipulation both of bronze and iron : see 
 Pausanias, viii. 14 § S ; x. 38 § 3 ; III. 12 § 8. 
 
 According to Pliny {Hist. Nat. VII. 57), Theodorus was the 
 inventor of various tools for working in wood, namely the 
 norma (set-square), libella (level), tornus (lathe), and clavis 
 (perhaps a vice) : all of which tools were certainly in use long 
 before the time of Theodorus; see also Pliny, Hist. Nat. 
 XXXV. 152'. 
 
 As a gem-engraver the fame of Theodorus rests chiefly 
 upon the celebrated engraved emerald, set in a gold ring 
 {a(j}p)jyh %/3Lio-o8€T09), which was one of the most valued 
 possessions of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, who was crucified 
 in 522 B.C. The whole story of the ring of Polycrates is told 
 
 ^ Pliny's statements as to the inventors of processes in the arts must always be 
 received with caution. In most cases they are obviously erroneous. 
 
 Artisti 
 names. 
 
 Theodorus 
 of Samos. 
 
 Ring of 
 Polycrates. 
 
^o 
 
 THEODORUS OF SAMOS 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Scarab of 
 Theodoriis. 
 
 at length by Herodotus, III. 38 seq. ; and is mentioned by 
 Pliny {Hist. Nat. xxxvil. 3 and 4) with reference to an uncut 
 sardonyx in the Temple of Concord in Rome, which was 
 popularly supposed to be the gem of this dramatic story : see 
 above, page 35. In another place {Hist. Nat. XXXIV. 83) 
 Pliny describes a bronze portrait statue by Theodorus of him- 
 self, holding in one hand a file or scraper {lima) the symbol of 
 his craft, and in the other " a quadriga and driver, so minute 
 that they were covered by the wings of a fly.'' 
 
 The real meaning of this impossible statement was pointed 
 out by Dr Benndorf {Zeitschrift fiir Oesterreich. Gymnasien, 
 1873, p. 401 sq.), namely, that it was simply a scarab-gem 
 engraved with a quadriga that the artist's statue held. 
 
 Most of Pliny's information comes at second or third 
 hand, and the blunder would easily be made'. 
 
 This story, rightly read, tends to show that Theodorus 
 regarded gem-engraving as an important branch of his art^, 
 since he represented himself holding a scarab-gem, as a 
 specimen of his skill. Most probably there was more than 
 one distinguished Samian artist called Theodorus, so that 
 the various inventions which are attributed to this name 
 should be referred in part at least to an earlier Theodorus 
 than the contemporary of Polycrates, possibly a grandfather 
 of the later artist, as the common Greek custom was to name 
 a son, not after his father, but after his grandfather — a very 
 fruitful source of confusion in the literary records of artists. 
 
 Another Samian gem-engraver of the first half of the 6th 
 century, about whom almost nothing is known, was Mnesar- 
 chus the father of the celebrated philosopher Pythagoras; see 
 Herod. IV. 95; and Aristotle quoted by Diog. Laertius, VIII. i. 
 
 The only gem-engravers mentioned by Pliny (see Hist. 
 
 Pyrgoteles. Nat. XXXVII. 8) are these — Pyrgoteles, who worked for 
 
 Alexander the Great, and was (according to the above 
 
 passage) the only engraver who was allowed to cut the 
 
 Mnesar- 
 chus. 
 
 1 Pliny mentions i^Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 43) another Quadriga covered by a fiy's 
 wings, the work of Myrmecides — possibly a similarly distorted statement. 
 
 ^ The art of gem-engraving was called daKTu\ioy\v<pla ; see Plato, Ak. i . 
 128 C. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 AND OTHER GEM-ENGRAVERS. 
 
 71 
 
 portrait of Alexander on an emerald — " vetuit in hac gemma 
 (zmaragdo) ab alio se scalpi quam a Pyrgotele." 
 
 In an earlier passage (Hist. Nat. VII. 125) Pliny seems to 
 say that Pyrgoteles was the only artist who was permitted to 
 make a marble statue of Alexander — " Idem hie Imperator 
 (Alexander) edixit, ne quis ipsum alius, quam Apelles, pin- 
 geret ; quam Pyrgoteles, sculperet ; quam Lysippus, ex aere 
 duceret;" cf Hor. Ep. II. i. 339. 
 
 Apuleius {Florid, lib. l) tells us that Alexander's edict was 
 that "solus Pyrgoteles caelamine excuderet:" a phrase that 
 could not apply to gem-engraving, but must mean hammered, 
 repouss6 work of some kind, probably in the precious metals. 
 
 With these conflicting statements all we can gather with 
 any degree of certainty is that Pyrgoteles was a gem-en- 
 graver, and that he had the monopoly of executing portraits 
 of Alexander in some form or material. 
 
 In the same passage {H. N. XXXVI. 8) Pliny names three 
 other distinguished gem-engravers as being subsequent in 
 date to Pyrgoteles — Apollonides'^ and Cronius, about whom 
 he tells us nothing, and Dioscurides, who engraved the por- 
 trait of Augustus, which subsequent emperors used as a 
 signet. 
 
 Pliny states {Hist. Nat. XXXV. 156) that the celebrated 
 sculptor Pasiteles, in the first century B.C., also practised the 
 art of scalptura, meaning probably gem-engraving. 
 
 The names of two other gem-engravers are known only 
 from epigrams preserved in the Greek Antlwlogia. Satyreius 
 who engraved a portrait of Arsinoe of Egypt on crystal; 
 Anth. IX. T76; and Tryphon, who cut on beryl a swimming 
 figure of Gallene ; Anth. IX. 544. 
 
 The number of existing gems which have what profess to 
 be artists' signatures is very large, but the great majority of 
 
 1 In the Devonshire collection there is a fragmentary intaglio on sard engraved 
 with a cow lying down, under which (in the exergue) is the signature ATTOAAfl- 
 NIAOY, in incised letters. It has been wrongly described by Dr Brunn and 
 others, as a cameo on onyx. 
 
 The inscription is not above suspicion, more especially as the Duke of Devon- 
 shire bought it from the notorious Baron Stosch, to whom he paid the enormous 
 sum of 1000 guineas, for the sake of the signature of the famous ApoUonides. 
 
 Pyrgoteles. 
 
 Portraits 
 of Alex- 
 ander. 
 
 Other 
 Artists. 
 
 Artists^ 
 simatiires. 
 
72 
 
 INSCRIBED GEMS WITH 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Forged 
 Artists' 
 names. 
 
 Gems of 
 Dexa- 
 
 these are certainly not genuine. In many cases both the 
 gem itself and the signature are forgeries, but a great many 
 genuine gems exist on which a signature has been added by 
 a modern hand. 
 
 Ever since the revival of interest in antique gems and 
 their engravers about the time of Lorenzo de' Medici (1449 — 
 1492), the value of a genuine stone has been enormously in- 
 creased by its possessing an artist's signature, and therefore 
 unscrupulous dealers ever since the 15th century have been 
 in the habit of adding the name of some real or supposed 
 glyptic artist on to the gems they wished to sell, whether they 
 were genuine antiques or modern forgeries. 
 
 This rage for artists' names on gems was specially pre- 
 valent during the eighteenth and the first half of the present 
 century. 
 
 In many cases the signature has been forged with great 
 skill, and owing to the mechanical process by which it is cut 
 and its minute scale, it is very frequently quite impossible to 
 decide whether a signature is genuine or not. 
 
 The most diversely different conclusions have been arrived 
 at by many archaeologists, such as Kohler, Stephani, Brunn, 
 Benndorf, Clarac, Chabouillet and Furtwangler, who have 
 written on the subject of signed gems'. Any absolute cer- 
 tainty on this matter is practically unattainable, and almost 
 the only signed gems, about which there can be no doubt, are 
 those which have been found by some trustworthy explorer 
 and have never passed through the hands of a dealer, such 
 gems, for example, as the two cranes of Dexanicnos^ found at 
 Kertch, the ancient Panticapaeum, and now in the Hermitage 
 
 ' A long list of gem-engravers, real and imaginary, is given by Clarac, Cata- 
 logue lies artistes de V antiquite , Paris, 1849 ; see also Brunn, Geschichte der Grie- 
 chischen ICitnstler, 1859, ^°^- "• PP- 444 — 637, and C. W. King, Antique Gems, 
 1866, pp. 211 to 238; and his Handbook of Engraved Gems, 1866, pp. 246 to 339, 
 where he gives the gist of Kohler's, Stephani's, and Brunn's treatises on the 
 subject. 
 
 The best recent treatise on signed gems is Furtwangler's Gemmen mit 
 Kiinstlerinsckriften in the "Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich Deutschen Archaologischen 
 Instituts," 1888, pp. 105 to 139, 193 to 224, and 297 to 325, Plates 3, 8, 10 
 and II, and 1889, p. 46. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 ARTISTS' SIGNATURES. 
 
 73 
 
 Signet of 
 Aihenades. 
 
 Museum at St Petersburg^. See page vii in the Appendix, 
 where the gems of Dexamenos are described. 
 
 Another signet found in a sarcophagus in one of the Gold 
 Kertch tombs has what is probably an engraver's signature. "•?^^-'' 
 This is a ring wholly of gold, on the bezel of which is cut a 
 figure of a Scythian noble clad in a tunic and close fitting 
 trousers with a Phrygian mitra on his head ; he is seated on 
 a chair, and holds an arrow in his hand. Like most of the 
 other Greek objects from Kertch it is fine work of the 4th 
 century B.C. In the field, in minute letters, is the name 
 Athenades [A]0HNAAHI. 
 
 It is now in the Hermitage collection at St Petersburg : 
 see Antiqu. du Bosp. Cimm. PI. 32, 14, and Compte Rendu, 
 1861, PI. VI. II. 
 
 The Museum in Naples contains a gold ring which was 
 found on the site of the ancient Capua. Like the last men- 
 tioned ring, it is wholly of metal, and has a large bezel of 
 mixed metal inlaid in the gold and engraved with a very 
 noble portrait head of a clean-shaven Roman of middle age, 
 of fine Greek workmanship of the Augustan period. 
 
 In the field behind the head, in very small characters, is Signet of 
 the signature of the engraver, Herakleidas, [HPJAKAEIAAC ;^^^^ 
 ETTOEI: see Bull. Inst. 1855, PL XXXif. It has been suggested 
 that the head is a portrait of M. J. Brutus. 
 
 Apart from the evidence of an ascertained provenance, 
 signets which have the engraving on a metal bezel can be 
 trusted far more safely than any engraving on stone^ ; 
 unless indeed the latter is set in a ring which is evidently 
 antique. 
 
 Even this test is not infallible, since in some cases gems 
 set in ancient rings have been recut, as is mentioned at page 
 
 ' Panticapaeum was a Greek colony in the Tauric Chersonesus (modern 
 Crimea) : the population was partly Scythian and partly Hellenic by race. Its 
 tombs have been most remarkable for their rich stores of objects of all kinds of 
 the finest Greek workmanship. 
 
 ''■ The reason of this is that the softer metal more readily shows signs of 
 age, and, except in the case of gold, usually takes a surface patina from 
 oxydization which a forger can hardly imitate. A hard stone, on the other hand, 
 remains unchanged by time, and may be free from all signs of wear. 
 
74 
 
 GEMS WITH 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Gem by 
 Euodos. 
 
 Nikander. 
 
 lOi, and ancient rings with plain gold bezels have had a 
 modern device cut upon them. 
 
 Again we may safely trust those signed gems which are 
 known to have existed in some royal or ecclesiastical treasury 
 from a period earlier than the date when forged inscriptions 
 began to be cut, earlier, that is, than the latter years of the 
 I Sth century. 
 
 One of the most notable examples of this is the celebrated 
 portrait of Julia the daughter of Titus on a large and brilliant 
 beryl or aquamarine, one of the noblest glyptic portraits in 
 the world. It is signed behind the head with the artist's 
 name Euodos, GYOAOC €170161, reversed on the gem. 
 
 The history of this magnificent gem can be traced back 
 for more than a thousand years. It was once in the possession 
 of Charlemagne, and was given by Charles the Bald to the 
 Abbey of St Denis, where it remained till the French Re- 
 volution, among the many gems which were attached as 
 ornaments to enrich a gold reliquary. It is now in the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, No. 2089; see page 270 in 
 Chabouillet's Catalogice. 
 
 Another signed portrait of Julia, of rather coarse work- 
 manship, very inferior to that by Euodos, exists in the Marl- 
 borough collection (No. 447). 
 
 It is cut on a splendid hyacinthine sard of which the upper 
 portion is broken away. 
 
 Behind the neck is the signature oi Nikander, NIKANAPOC 
 6TT0EI, of almost undoubted genuineness, though the gem 
 lacks the confirmation of so satisfactory a pedigree as that of 
 the work of Euodos. 
 
 Another signed gem in the Marlborough collection' (No. 
 341) certainly appears to be genuine, though its pedigree 
 does not go back further than the reign of Charles I., when it 
 formed part of the Earl of Arundel's collection. 
 
 It is a large dark sard, engraved with a seated figure of 
 Diomede holding the Palladium, and, on the right, is Ulysses 
 pointing to the prostrate body of the Trojan priestess. On 
 
 ' In 1875 the whole Marlborough collection of gems was sold for 35,000 
 guineas to Mr Bromielow of Battlesden Park in Bedfordshire. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 ARTISTS SIGNATURES. 
 
 75 
 
 Dioskou- 
 rides. 
 
 Diomede of 
 Lorenzo- 
 
 the square cippus on which Diomede sits is the signature of Gem by 
 the 2.xW?,t Felix, \n Greek letters *HAE enOiei ; and in the ^'^"' 
 field, over Diomede's head, is the name of the owner Calpurnius 
 Severus, in the genitive case, thus— KAAHOYPNIOY CEOYHPOY. 
 
 There are a great many replicas or copies of this gem 
 more or less varied ; either with the whole or part of the 
 design, and with various, probably in most cases, forged 
 artists' names, such as Solon and Gnaios. 
 
 Furtwangler however accepts as genuine a carnelian replica 
 of this design which is signed AIOCKOYPIAOY, in the Devon- 
 shire collection, first mentioned by Dandelot in 1716. This 
 has only the figure of Diomede seated on a cubical cipptis 
 with a sword in one hand and the Palladium in the other. In 
 front of him is a statuette on a tall stele. The signature is in 
 minute letters in the exergue; see Jahrbiich Arch. Inst. 1888, 
 p. 220 and PI. 8, No. 26. 
 
 By far the most beautiful of all the replicas of this noble 
 figure, ancient or modern, is one from the collection of 
 Lorenzo the Magnificent, with LAVR. MED. on the cubical 
 cippus on which Diomede sits. 
 
 It has a very wide margin all round, unlike the ancient 
 fashion of filling up the field as much as possible, and is 
 clearly a work of Lorenzo's own time by some unknown 
 artist of extraordinary skill : see page 125. 
 
 A variety of this design with Diomede rising from his 
 seat is known from paste copies only, the original now being 
 lost or out of sight ; in the exergue is the signature of Solon, 
 COAGON enOI6l, which may possibly be genuine. 
 
 The name ZOAQNOC on the celebrated chalcedony with 
 Medusa's head from the Strozzi collection, now in the British 
 Museum (No. 1256), is certainly not a genuine artist's sig- 
 nature. The same may be said of the head of Maecenas, 
 with a similar inscription, which was published by Fulvio 
 Orsini in 1580 as a portrait of the Athenian Solon. On the 
 last two gems the name, if not a modern addition, is probably 
 that of the owner. 
 
 Few gems have such a good pedigree as one which is Eutyches. 
 signed by Eutyches of Aegaeae, the son of Dioskourides. It 
 
 Strozzi 
 Medusa. 
 
76 
 
 GEMS OF DIOSKOURIDES 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Athene by 
 Mutyches. 
 
 Cameo by 
 
 Hero- 
 
 philus. 
 
 Hyllus. 
 
 is a very noble full-faced bust of Athene, deeply cut on 
 a large amethyst, evidently of the first century A.D., and 
 copied from a statue. In three vertical lines is inscribed in 
 minute characters — 
 
 eYTYXHC 
 AIOCKOYPIAOY 
 
 AireAioc en[oiei]. 
 
 " Eutyches of Aegaeae the son of Dioskourides made (this)." 
 Apart from internal evidence there is documentary proof of the 
 genuineness of this gem. The Comm. de' Rossi discovered 
 in the Vatican library, among the MS. writings of Cyriac of 
 Ancona, a description of this very gem written in 1445, with 
 the inscription given in full and a Latin translation of it ; see 
 Bull. Inst. 1878, p. 40 ; and King, Handbook of Gents, p. 284. 
 
 A gem exactly answering to this description exists among 
 the Marlborough collection (see Marl. Gems, Vol. II. No. 12), 
 and is probably the one mentioned by Cyriac : it has un- 
 fortunately lost the last four letters by re-polishing and 
 re-setting; see N. Story-Maskelyne, Marl. Cat. 1870, No. 81. 
 
 A large cameo in blue paste with a very fine laureated 
 head of Augustus in very high relief, in the Vienna collection, 
 is signed by Herophilus, another son of Dioskourides, 
 
 HPO*IAOC 
 AIOCKOPIA[OY]. 
 
 This gem also appears to have a good pedigree : it is in a 
 mediaeval setting, and is said to have belonged to a Church 
 in Germany many centuries ago. Father Wilhelm in his 
 LujcemburgiLm Romanum, written in the 17th century, de- 
 scribes this cameo as being then in the treasury of the Church 
 of Echternach. Drs Brunn and Furtwangler consider the 
 signature to be genuine, in spite of the unusual spelling of 
 " Dioskorides." 
 
 The name of a third son of Dioskourides called Hyllus 
 occurs on some antique gems. 
 
 A sardonyx cameo in the Berlin Museum with a finely 
 executed head of a young Faun has the signature thus — 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 AND HIS SONS. 
 
 n 
 
 YAAOC AIOCKOYPIAOY enOie. In most cases this name is 
 a modern forgery. Among the genuine examples may be 
 ranked a sard in the St Petersburg Museum with an intaglio 
 head of Apollo ; in ^o. field is the name ^l\l\Qi^. 
 
 This gem was formerly in the collection of Lorenzo de' 
 Medici, and bears his name LAVR. MED. cut in the usual 
 conspicuous fashion. 
 
 The Biblioth^que at Paris contains a very finely executed 
 intaglio on chalcedony, a bull advancing with lowered horns, 
 and decked out in Dionysiac ornaments. Above it, in the 
 field, is the name YAAOY, which may possibly be a genuine 
 artist's signature. 
 
 One or two other gems signed by Dioskourides have a 
 pedigree reaching sufficiently far back to, at least, diminish 
 the chance of either the engraved figure or the name being a 
 forgery. 
 
 The celebrated portrait on an amethyst of Maecenas (or 
 Solon as it has been called) in the Paris Bibliotheque, No. 
 2077, was known as far back as 1605. 
 
 It is a very nobly cut head, with the name AIOCKOYPIAOY 
 placed vertically behind it : see Chabouillet's Catalogue, p. 269. 
 
 Furtwangler, however, doubts whether this gem is the 
 identical one which was known in 1605, and suspects it of 
 being modern. 
 
 In the Marlborough collection there is a very fine front- 
 faced standing figure of Mercury wearing the chlamys and 
 petasus, cut on an orange sard, with the signature AIOCKOYPI- 
 AOY in rather large but lightly cut letters. This gem was 
 described in 1589 by Montjosieu in his Gallus Romae Hospes. 
 
 It is also mentioned by Spon as having previously be- 
 longed to Fulvio Orsini, the well known Roman archaeologist. 
 The design on this gem is obviously copied from a statue not 
 unlike the so called Phocion of the Vatican. 
 
 It has, as Dr Story-Maskelyne remarks in his Catalogue of 
 the Marlborough gems. No. 167, been unfortunately ruined by 
 repolishing the ' field.' A copy by Pichler is in the British 
 Museum, No. 2299. 
 
 Another gem which was once in Fulvio Orsini's collection, 
 
 Hyllns. 
 
 Dioskou- 
 rides. 
 
 Blenheim 
 Hermes. 
 
78 
 
 GEMS SIGNED BY 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Apollo- 
 iiios. 
 
 Dioskou- 
 rides. 
 
 Carlisle 
 Mercury. 
 
 and was described in 1589 by Montjosieu {pp. cii) is signed 
 by Apollonios ATTOAAQNIOY. It is a very beautiful figure of 
 Artemis standing, in profile, wearing a short chiton and resting 
 her hand on a cippus. It is evidently copied from a very fine 
 marble statue of Praxitelean type. Kohler supposes it to 
 be from the colossal Artemis of Anticyra by Praxiteles, but 
 the coin reverses of Anticyra, which probably show this 
 statue, represent a figure of different design; see Gardner 
 and Imhoof-Blumer, Numismatic Commentary on Pattsanias, 
 Plate Y, No. XVII. and page 1 24. 
 
 Another gem, the design on which is evidently copied 
 from a statue, bears the signature of Dioskourides. It is a 
 very fine sard with a standing figure of Mercury wearing 
 a chlamys, seen in profile, except the head which is turned 
 to the front. In one hand Mercury holds a dish containing 
 a ram's head, and in the other a caduceus. Behind, in small 
 letters, placed vertically, is the name AIOCKOYPIAOY. 
 
 This gem was for long in Lord Carlisle's collection ; but 
 has, in the present year 1890, been purchased, with the rest 
 of the Carlisle gems, by the British Museum. Neither the 
 engraving nor the signature have a very genuine look ; it 
 is a suspicious circumstance that it once belonged to Baron 
 Stosch, to whom the production of many forgeries is due. 
 
 The same design, but without the questionable signature, 
 occurs on another gem in the British Museum, No. 705 in 
 Mr Smith's Catalogue, which may possibly be a genuine 
 antique in spite of the unusual material it is engraved upon, 
 a soft stone of an opaque green colour. The Carlisle gem 
 may perhaps be a copy of this, executed (with the addition 
 of Dioskourides' name) for Baron Stosch ; it is cut on a 
 brilliant sard of fine golden tint, a kind of stone which was 
 frequently used by the engravers of the last century for their 
 best works. However, even if the Carlisle Mercury be a 
 modern production, it is certainly a very beautiful gem and 
 is the work of a most skilful artist. 
 
 Among the other gems which bear the name of Dios- 
 kourides the most genuine appears to be one which was found 
 in 1756 on the estate of the Duke of Bracciano near Rome. 
 
CHAP. VI.J DIOSKOURIDES AND PAMPHILOS. 
 
 79 
 
 It is a sard engraved with a beautiful full-faced head of a 
 female with long flowing ringlets and small horns over the 
 forehead — possibly representing lo. The signature AIOC- 
 KOYPIAOY is cut vertically in microscopic characters, in the 
 field at the side of the head ; see Jahrbuch Arch. Inst. 1888, 
 p. 222 and Plate 8, No. 25. 
 
 The British Museum possesses two gems of very minute 
 workmanship with a similar front-faced head of Julius Caesar, 
 one from the Riccardi collection on sard, and another on 
 jacinth from the Blacas collection. Both have what professes 
 to be the signature of Dioskourides. 
 
 The Blacas gem is certainly a modern work : the modelling 
 of the face is exaggerated and too minute in style, and the 
 name is wrongly spelt in two places AI0CK0PIA02! and has 
 the square sigma I instead of the rounded form C used by 
 Dioskourides. On the Riccardi gem the name is cut in the 
 right way AIOCKOYPIAOY; see Brunn, Griech. Kiinstler, II. 
 p. 497; Jahrbuch Arch. Inst. 1888, p. 301, and Plate II., Nos. 
 13 and 14; and Brit. Mus. Cat. Nos. 1557 and 1558'. 
 
 In addition to those already mentioned the following are 
 among the most important gems with artists' signatures, but 
 they are not in all cases free from suspicion. 
 
 Pamphilos ; on an amethyst in the Paris Bibliotheque 
 engraved with a seated figure of Achilles playing on a lyre, 
 with his arms placed around him, very pictorial in style. 
 
 By the lyre is cut vertically the name TTAM<t'IAOY; see 
 Chabouillet, Catalogue, No. 1815, p. 243. 
 
 A slightly modified replica of this, with the same inscrip- 
 tion is in the Devonshire collection ; and another, probably a 
 copy of the Paris gem, is in the British Museum (No. 2305). 
 This copy has been engraved on a genuine ancient gem, on 
 the back of which is cut the sacred Gnostic word lACO. 
 
 1 Another artist called Dioskourides from Samos, and of about the same date, 
 was a worker in mosaic. 
 
 A very minutely executed theatrical scene, with musicians playing and 
 dancing, worked in glass tesserae was found in Pompeii, with the inscription 
 AIOSKOYPIAHZ SAMIOS: EnOIHSE at the top of the picture; 
 see Real Museo Borbonico, Vol. IV. 1827, Plate 34. It is now in the Museum 
 at Naples. 
 
 Dioskou- 
 rides. 
 
 Portraits 
 of yidiiis 
 Caesar. 
 
 Pam- 
 philos. 
 
8o 
 
 GEMS WITH 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Pam- 
 philos. 
 
 opus. 
 
 Onesas. 
 
 Philemon. 
 
 The Paris amethyst was given to Louis XIV. by Professor 
 Fesch of Basle, so it cannot be a quite modern forgery. It is 
 possible that the inscription meant that the design was copied 
 from a painting by the famous Greek artist Pamphilus, as is 
 suggested by its picture-like style. 
 
 Agathopus ; a fine beryl or aqjimnarine in the Florence 
 collection (Uffizi gallery) is engraved with a very noble head 
 of a Roman, supposed to be Sextus Pompey, in the style of 
 the best Greek iconic heads, such as those on the tetradrachms 
 of Eumenes of Pergamus. Behind the head, in two hori- 
 zontal lines, is the signature ArAGOnOYC enoei. 
 
 This magnificent gem was known in the i6th century, 
 and in 1707 it was published by Maffei in his Gemine Antiche : 
 it is said to have been found near Rome, set in a massive 
 gold ring. The British Museum possesses a replica or copy 
 on sard of this portrait, with the signature and in addition the 
 letter L, which is supposed to be a mark of its having once 
 belonged to Lorenzo the Magnificent ; there is hardly suffi- 
 cient space in the field for Lorenzo's usual mark, LAVR. MED. 
 See Museum Florentinum, Vol. II. PI. I., fig. 2 ; and Brit. Mus. 
 Cat., No. 1552; cf also Kohler and Stephani, Gesammelte 
 Sckriften, 1850 — 3, p. 338. 
 
 Onesas; in the Florentine collection is a very fine laur- 
 eated head of the youthful Herakles on sard, with the lion's 
 skin over his shoulder : the upper part of the head is broken 
 away. In a horizontal line is the signature ONHCAC. 
 
 The hypercritical Kohler calls this a modern gem, but it 
 has all the appearance of being genuine. 
 
 As much cannot be said of another gem in the Florentine 
 museum with the inscription ONHCAC 6110161, a standing 
 figure of a Muse playing on a lyre, on paste. 
 
 Its wide margin and general style suggest that it is a work 
 of some early Renaissance artist. 
 
 It was known in the 17th century, and cannot therefore 
 be a quite modern forgery. 
 
 Philemon; in the Vienna collection is a fine sardonyx 
 gem engraved with a nude figure of a hero with a club, 
 standing in front of an archway, in which the corpse of 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 ARTISTS SIGNATURES. 
 
 the Minotaur is lying, representing Theseus at the door of 
 the Cretan labyrinth. 
 
 Behind Theseus is cut, in a vertical line, the inscription Philemon. 
 4>IAHM0N0C. 
 
 Both Kohler and Stephani consider this a modern gem, 
 not without reason : it is very pictorial in style. 
 
 A paste in the Strozzi collection with the head of an ivy- 
 wreathed Faun has the inscription *IAHMQN enOI[ei], but 
 this also is of doubtful genuineness. 
 
 Anteros ; another gem, about the authenticity of which Aniens. 
 very different opinions have been expressed, is an aqua- 
 marine in the Devonshire collection, with, in the exergue, 
 the inscription ANJePGOTOC. 
 
 The design represents Herakles staggering under the 
 weight of the slain Marathonian bull. 
 
 It is a very noble and beautiful work, certainly not of quite 
 modern date, but most probably copied from some ancient 
 terra cotta or marble relief by one of the ablest gem en- 
 gravers of the 1 6th century. 
 
 The same name occurs on the fragment of a very beautiful 
 onyx cameo now in the British Museum, among the Carlisle 
 collection. This fragment consists only of the upper part of 
 a subject which may possibly have been the Judgment of 
 Paris. Little more remains than the head of Paris wearing a 
 Phrygian cap and holding a veil away from his face in a very 
 feminine manner, and, on the other side, the head of a female 
 figure. The top of the cameo is occupied by the overhang- 
 ing branches of a tree, from which a quiver is suspended. At 
 the right hand side is the inscription in minute incised letters 
 ANTe...er... probably for ANTePQC enOIGI. 
 
 The comparatively small portion which is, unfortunately, 
 all that now exists of this remarkable cameo is of extraordi- 
 narily beautiful and minute workmanship, and the signature 
 appears to be perfectly genuine. 
 
 Teukros ; of rather similar style, and possibly of the same Teuh-os. 
 date as the Herakles and the bull, is an amethyst in the 
 Florentine collection with Omphale (or lole) standing in 
 front of Herakles who is seated on a rock. 
 
 M. 6 
 
 Cameo by 
 Anteros. 
 
82 
 
 INSCRIBED GEMS 
 
 [CHAP. VI. 
 
 Teiikros. The name TGYKPOY is cut vertically in very minute 
 
 characters, quite unlike the bold style in which an owner's 
 name was usually engraved on a signet. A great many 
 copies of this or a similar design exist. The sensuous 
 softness of the modelling of the nude forms is more like 
 the production of an artist of the Renaissance period than 
 that of an ancient engraver, even of the late Greek or 
 Graeco-Roman school. 
 
 Though they can hardly be accepted as genuine, the two 
 last mentioned gems are among the most skilful examples of 
 the glyptic art that any age has ever produced. 
 
 Moreover they are not slavish copies, but bear the impress 
 of real original power on the part of their engravers. 
 Aldus. Aulits ; probably no other artist's name, real or forged, 
 
 occurs on gems as frequently as the name of Aulus. It is 
 introduced on a large number of the Poniatowski forgeries, 
 e.g. on one in the Fitzwilliam collection, see page xxv. No. 1 1. 
 
 In many cases the name is clearly that of the owner, not 
 of the engraver, as for example, on a magnificeht fragment of 
 a sard in the British Museum with a head of Asklepios. In 
 front of it, on a tablet, is the name AYAOY in large characters'. 
 In fact, putting aside those gems on which the name is a 
 forgery, and those on which it stands for the owner, it is very 
 doubtful whether any would be left to prove that there was a 
 gem-engraver named Aulus. 
 Hellen. Hellen ; the name EAAHN or EAAHNOC occurs on various 
 
 gems of doubtful authenticity. Mr King has suggested that 
 this is one of the ways in which the celebrated gem-engraver 
 // Greco. Alessandro Cesati, known as il Greco, used to sign his works. 
 Alessandro was by birth a Cypriote and was one of the most 
 famous gem-cutters of the i6th century; see below, page 127. 
 
 It is also probable that the inscription AAEEANAPOC or, 
 AAEZA more or less contracted are other forms of the same 
 artist's signature. So also, perhaps, the name KOINTOZ 
 AAEEA, Quintus Alexander. 
 
 For example an onyx cameo in the Florentine museum 
 
 ^ This is the view taken by Stephani ; Gesaiii. Schrift. ni. p. 342; butKohlerin 
 his usual fashion rejects the gem altogether, quite without reason; see ib. p. lyg. 
 
CHAP. VI.] WITH artists' NAMES. 83 
 
 with a lion, Cupid and two female figures, signed AAEEANA . E, Cesati. 
 is known to have been engraved by Cesati. It is probably 
 the cameo mentioned by Vasari as one of Alessandro Cesati's 
 finest works. 
 
 In any case there is no real reason for including either of 
 the last two names among those which can fairly be assumed 
 to be signatures of artists. 
 
 Epitynchanus ; this name, which occurs on several important EpUyn- 
 
 .... . . , . , . chanus. 
 
 gems, may possibly be a genume artist s signature, at least in 
 some cases. Gems so inscribed are mostly portrait-heads, 
 such as Marcellus and Germanicus. A very beautiful sard- 
 onyx cameo in the British Museum with a head of a youthful 
 Roman, supposed to be Germanicus (No. 1589), has the 
 incised inscription 6TTITYrXA. 
 
 No. 1575 in the same collection is a fine amethyst intaglio 
 with a front face of a Roman lady, supposed to be Livia, the 
 wife of Augustus, in the character of Ceres. In the field is 
 the contracted name ETTIT. 
 
 What is possibly the same name, contracted to ETTI, occurs 
 on a fine carnelian in the Paris Biblioth^que, engraved with a 
 figure of Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus. As possessing 
 an artist's signature this gem is very doubtful, but the device 
 itself appears to be genuine, and the gem had been known 
 for a long time before 1854 when it passed into the Paris 
 collection \ 
 
 ^ See M. Hase's Edition of Leon Diacre, published in Paris in 1819. 
 
 6—2 
 
84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Inscriptions on Gems {continued). 
 
 Signed 
 cameos. 
 
 Cameo of 
 Athenion. 
 
 Paste 
 cameo. 
 
 Cameos with artists' names : in judging of these, if 
 the name, hke the rest of the design, is in relief we have the 
 advantage of knowing that it must have been cut by the 
 original engraver of the whole design, and cannot have been 
 added by a later hand ; so we are at least spared the double 
 difficulty of deciding, first whether the gem itself is genuine, 
 and secondly whether the name may not be a subsequent 
 addition by some forger. 
 
 In many cases the signatures on cameos are not in relief, 
 but are incised, like the name on an intaglio; all such 
 signatures must be regarded with some suspicion. 
 
 Among the most authentic signed cameos is a large 
 sardonyx in the Museum at Naples, with Zeus holding a 
 thunderbolt and driving a quadriga over the prostrate forms 
 of the conquered earth-born Giants. In the exergue is the 
 nameAGHNIQN in relief, in minute letters. The whole design 
 is clearly the work of a talented artist of the Augustan 
 period ; and even the sceptical Kohler throws no doubt -upon 
 its genuineness. That the name Athenion is that of the 
 engraver rather than of the owner of the cameo is suggested 
 by the minuteness of the characters. Moreover an owner's 
 name, which was a natural addition to an intaglio-signet, 
 would certainly be a less frequent addition in the case of 
 cameo gems. The same name (Athenion) occurs also on a 
 large fragment of a cameo in bine paste in the Berlin col- 
 lection, with a standing figure of a Roman General, supposed 
 to be Drusus the elder, in a triumphal quadriga. The name 
 
CHAP. VII.] CAMEOS WITH ARTISTS' NAMES. 
 
 85 
 
 A0HNIQN, in exactly similar letters to those on the Naples 
 .cameo, is placed in the exergue of the Berlin paste, which is, 
 no doubt, an ancient copy of a work of the same engraver 
 who cut the Destruction of the Titans by the thunderbolts 
 of Zeus. 
 
 In the Florentine collection there is a very good cameo 
 in sardonyx with Cupid riding on a lion and playing a lyre. 
 In the exergue is the signature in relief flPQTAPXOl ETTOEI, 
 which even Kohler admits to be genuine, placing it among 
 the five examples of signed gems which are the only ones he 
 accepts as ancient gem signatures. 
 
 Another very fine signed cameo was in the collection 
 of Lord Beverley, and is now in the possession of the Duke 
 of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle. It is a sardonyx with 
 a nude figure of Philoctetes in Lemnos, seated on the ground : 
 in his right hand he holds a bird's wing, using it to fan his 
 wounded foot, which is bound round with bandages. 
 
 In the upper part of the field is the name Boethos, 
 BOH0OY, cut in relief. 
 
 The design of this cameo is very skilfully contrived to fill 
 up the surface of the gem in the most complete way, and the 
 details are cut with great minuteness and naturalistic truth, 
 especially noticeable in the head and in the modelling of the 
 chest and ribs. 
 
 In spite of Stephani's opinion to the contrary, this cameo 
 bears all the marks of being a genuine antique work of the 
 Augustan age: see Annali Inst. 1881, p. 266. 
 
 Mr King has however suggested that the name Boethos 
 is not that of the engraver of the cameo, but that the 
 gem was copied from an embossed relief in silver by 
 the celebrated sculptor and caelator named Boethos, who is 
 mentioned by Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXIII. 155) as being one 
 of the principal Greek workers in the precious metals, and 
 (//■. N. XXXIV. 84) as being the sculptor of the boy struggling 
 with a goose, of which ancient replicas are now in the Vatican 
 Museum and elsewhere. However this may be, the motive 
 of this cameo is an early one. 
 
 It occurs on an intaglio of the scarab type, within a cable 
 
 Cameo of 
 
 Protar- 
 
 chos. 
 
 Cameo of 
 Boethos. 
 
 The Caela- 
 torBoethos. 
 
86 
 
 CAMEOS INSCRIBED WITH 
 
 [chap. VII. 
 
 Incised 
 names. 
 
 Dioskoit- 
 rides\ 
 
 Cellini. 
 
 border, in the British Museum; see Brit. Mus. Cat. No. 455 ; 
 and Annali Inst. 1857, P^- H., fig. 6\ 
 
 Although, as is remarked above, cameos on which the 
 engraver's signature is incised must be viewed with suspicion, 
 it cannot be said that in all cases such incised names are 
 modern forgeries. 
 
 More than one is accepted as genuine by Dr Brunn^ 
 as, for example, the paste head of Augustus signed by 
 Herophilos, mentioned above at page "jQ. The cameo of 
 Anteros (p. 81) is also an example of undoubted genuineness. 
 
 In the Berlin Museum there is a magnificent sardonyx 
 cameo with a figure of Hercules dragging Cerberus by his 
 chain, a most exquisitely modelled and minutely finished 
 work, with, in the exergiie, the name AIOCKOYPIAOY. 
 
 This cameo certainly was known in the i6th century : 
 part of the field is broken away and is now replaced in 
 plain gold. 
 
 With regard to the inotive of this cameo, an interesting 
 passage occurs in the Autobiography of the Florentine artist 
 Benvenuto Cellini, lib. I. cap. 27. Cellini tells us that during 
 his first stay in Rome (from 1524 to 1527) he was in the 
 habit of buying from the peasants large numbers of ancient 
 gems, which they found while digging in the vineyards in 
 and around Rome. Among these was the emerald with the 
 dolphins head, mentioned below at page 135, and a mag- 
 nificent head of Minerva on a large topaz. The finest of 
 them all was, Cellini says, a cameo with figures of Hercules 
 subduing Cerberus, which he showed to Michelangelo, who 
 remarked that it was the most wonderful piece of work he 
 had ever seen. 
 
 It is not impossible that the cameo described by Cellini 
 is the one now in the Berlin collection". 
 
 ' Both the cameo and the British Museum intaglio are described by Milani, 
 Mito di Filotete, p. 86, and PI. u. 
 
 ^ In his Gesch. der Griecli. Kiinstlei-, 1859, Vol. u. Dr Brunn discusses and 
 modifies the conclusions arrived at by Kohler and Stephani, Gesammclte Schriften, 
 1850-3, in which work almost all gem signatures are taken to be forgeries. 
 
 ^ II need hardly be said that Kohler refuses to accept this gem as a genuine 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 THE ARTIST'S NAME. 
 
 ^7 
 
 Cameos of 
 Sostratos. 
 
 In the Museum at Naples there is a very fine sardonyx 
 cameo engraved with a figure of Victory driving a biga, over 
 which is incised the inscription CfiCTPATOY. The gem once 
 belonged to Lorenzo de' Medici and has LAVR, MED. en- 
 graved under the horses of the biga. 
 
 Among the gems of the Carlisle collection, recently pur- 
 chased for the British Museum, is a fine onyx cameo with 
 Cupid leading a chariot drawn by two panthers. In the 
 exergue the name CQCTPATOY is incised in minute letters. 
 The same name occurs on a small, delicately cut intaglio 
 in the same collection, with a figure of a winged Victory 
 sacrificing a bull, on which she rests one knee. The name 
 CQCTPATOY is cut in the exergue in very small characters'. 
 Both these appear to be undoubtedly genuine examples of 
 an artist's signature. 
 
 If the truth could be known it would probably be found 
 that a large proportion of so-called artists' signatures on gems 
 of all sorts really are names of owners, more especially in the 
 case of signet gems, intaglios. Artists were much more likely 
 to introduce their own names on cameos for the reasons 
 which are indicated at pages 92 — 93. 
 
 If however the same name is found to be repeated on 
 several gems of similar date and style, as is the case with 
 the above-mentioned name Sostratos, we may fairly assume 
 that it is the genuine signature of an engraver. 
 
 Gem signatures, unlike artists' names on coins, are rarely 
 cut on part of the engraved device ; usually they are placed 
 in the field. There are however one or two possible excep- 
 tions to this rule, as, for example, the full faced head of the 
 dog Sirius, with a collar round his neck. Several replicas and Sirius 
 copies of this exist^: one of the finest is No. 270 in the Marl- 
 borough collection, engraved on a very beautiful oriental 
 carbuncle: it has TAIOC 6110161 on the collar'. 
 
 Owners' 
 names. 
 
 antique : in fact he denies the authenticity of all the signatures of Dioskourides : 
 see Gesamm. Schrift. in. p. 287. 
 
 1 This gem is published by Tassie, Plate XLV. No. 7760. 
 
 ^ One in the Berlin Museum, cut on rock crystal by Lorenzo Massini for Baron 
 Stosch, has the modern signature MACINOC (Masini) ETTOIEI. 
 
 ^ The signature on the Sirius gem in the Marlborough collection, and even 
 
88 
 
 artists' names on 
 
 [chap. VII. 
 
 Victory of 
 Onatas. 
 
 Dates of 
 
 signed 
 
 gems. 
 
 Gem of 
 Syrias. 
 
 The two similar gems in the British Museum, from the 
 Payne Knight and the Blacas collections (Nos. 1115 and 
 1 1 16), are without the signature. 
 
 A very beautiful and large chalcedony gem in the British 
 Museum {Brit. Mus. Cat. No. 1161), engraved with a figure 
 of Victory erecting a trophy, a somewhat similar design to 
 that on a Syracusan tetradrachm of Agathocles, has, on 
 the ribbon-like folds of a long flag attached to a spear, in 
 characters of somewhat indistinct form, what is possibly the 
 artist's name ONATA[I]' 
 
 The genuineness of this noble gem has been questioned, 
 but Furtwangler and other good authorities accept it as a 
 genuine Greek work of the early part of the 4th century B.C. 
 
 With regard to the dates when engraved gems most 
 frequently received the signature of the artist, it may be 
 remarked that this was very rarely done before the 4th cen- 
 tury B.C. In fact signed gems were very exceptional through- 
 out the whole of the autonomous Greek period ; by far the 
 majority of those which now exist are the work of Greek 
 engravers during the time of the Roman Empire, especially 
 the Augustan period. 
 
 There is however in the British Museum (No. 479 in Mr 
 A. H. Smith's Catalogue) one very remarkable signed gem 
 which apparently is not later than the middle or latter part 
 of the 6th century B.C. 
 
 It is one of those curious scarabaeoids which have on the 
 curved back a design carved in delicate relief — in this case a 
 Satyr's head — the earliest form of cameo, mentioned above at 
 page 59. 
 
 The device sunk on the flat or signet side of the scara- 
 baeoid is a standing figure of a bearded harp-player, and 
 round the edge of ih.e field is the inscription which Mr A. H. 
 Smith gives as WPIA^ ^POm^^'. 
 
 the gem itself is by no means above the suspicion of being the work of Natter, the 
 name is probably a blunder for FNAIOC- 
 
 ' Furtwangler is inclined to read the inscription N A I A ; see yahrbuch 
 Arch. Inst. 1888, p. 204. 
 
 ^ Others read the name of the artist, not as Surias, but as Dories, AO 1*1^5 ; 
 see Furtwangler, yahrbuch Arch. Inst. 1888, p. 196, and PI. 8, No. 1. 
 
CHAP. VII.] GEMS AND COINS. 89 
 
 This is a quite exceptional gem : almost no others occur 
 with an artist's signature till the 4th century B.C., to which 
 period the various signed gems found at Kertch evidently 
 belong ; see page 73. 
 
 In the case of Greek coins, artists' signatures were not 
 uncommon during the latter part of the 5th century B.C., but 
 the greater number belong to the first half of the 4th century. 
 
 On Roman coins artists' signatures are unknown. 
 
 On Greek z/aj^j painters' names were most common during Signed 
 the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., and till about the middle of the '"""'' 
 4th century. 
 
 After the time of Alexander artists' names on pottery 
 soon totally disappear. 
 
 Artists' Names on Coins. 
 
 As some guide to forming a judgment with regard to 
 signatures on gems it may be well to consider the somewhat 
 analogous case of coins which bear the artist's signature. 
 
 With very few exceptions, the coins on which artists' Signed 
 names occur are those of Sicily and Magna Graecia during 
 the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., especially coins of Syracuse, 
 Catana, Metapontum, Tarentum, Heraklaea, Velia, Thurium, 
 Camarina and a few others. The great decadrachms of 
 Syracuse, signed by Kimon and Euainetos, are among the 
 
 coins. 
 
 chief glories of numismatic art. 
 
 The name is usually in the nominative, the word ETTOIEI 
 being understood, though in some cases the genitive is used, 
 as if before EPfON ; and it is cut in very small characters — 
 sometimes of microscopic minuteness. As a rule the artist 
 inserts it in a way that makes it as little conspicuous as 
 possible, so as not to rival the importance of the type legend. 
 For this reason it is frequently introduced on some detail 
 of the design ; thus, for example, Kimon signs on a dolphin 
 under the main head on the obverse, or on the band which 
 binds the hair of Persephone. 
 
go 
 
 ARTISTS NAMES 
 
 [chap. VII. 
 
 Eukleidas. 
 
 Mr Evans 
 on signed 
 coins. 
 
 Kimon 
 the elder. 
 
 The name EYKAEIAAZ occurs among the ornaments of 
 Athene's helmet on a Syracusan tetradrachm : and in many 
 other cases the signature escapes all but the most minute 
 examination. In some examples the name is more con- 
 spicuous, though cut in microscopic characters, as on some 
 Syracusan reverses, which have a tablet inscribed EYAINETO 
 held by a flying Victory — possibly a sort of pattern or trial- 
 piece by this wonderful engraver. 
 
 Mr A. J. Evans, in his Horsemen of Tarentum, 1888, page 
 120, was the first to point out that, very frequently, when a 
 coin has the same name repeated twice, the signature in the 
 one case was, probably, introduced as that of the engraver of 
 the coin-die, and, in the other case, as that of the same 
 person, not in his quality of artist, but as the ap'yvpoKO'jro';, 
 or actual striker of the coin, as a guarantee for its being of the 
 requisite weight and purity of metal. 
 
 This very ingenious suggestion satisfactorily explains 
 what was previously a very puzzling problem. It may yet 
 be possible to discover some definite reason for these names 
 being sometimes in the nominative and sometimes in the 
 possessive case. 
 
 On many coins the artist's name is not given in full, as it 
 usually is on gems, but in a contracted form or with an 
 initial only. As Mr Evans has pointed out, the same coin- 
 engraver seems often to have worked for more than one city ; 
 coins of different colonies both in Magna Graecia and Sicily 
 occurring with the same signature. 
 
 A very interesting paper on the signed coins of Sicily and 
 Magna Graecia was recently read by Mr Evans before the 
 Numismatic Society in London, and will shortly be printed 
 in the Num. Chron., Vol. for 1890. Several examples of 
 hitherto unpublished coins with artists' names, in the pos- 
 session of the writer, were described in this paper ; among 
 them were the following — a tetradrachm of Himera with 
 the usual reverse, the nymph Himera sacrificing at an altar; 
 on the cornice of the altar, in letters of microscopic minute- 
 ness, is the signature KIMON. The remarkable thing about 
 this unique coin is that its style shows it to be not later 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 ON GREEK COINS. 
 
 91 
 
 Eziar- 
 chid as. 
 
 Exakes- 
 tidas. 
 
 than about 470 to 465 B.C., and therefore it suppHes an 
 example of a signed coin nearly half a century earlier than 
 any which had previously been known. 
 
 The artist who signs himself KIMON may possibly be the Kimon the 
 grandfather of the later KIMQN, whose name occurs on a 
 dolphin under the head of Persephone on one of the cele- 
 brated Syracusan decadrachms which were struck towards 
 the close of the 5th century, and also on other coins of the 
 same city. 
 
 Another signed coin, hitherto unpublished, was a Syra- 
 cusan tetradrachm with the artist's name EYAPXIAAS, a die- 
 engraver who worked in conjunction with the Syracusan 
 Phrygillos, who is mentioned below. 
 
 A new signature of EEAKEZTIAAZ occurs on a tetra- 
 drachm of Kamarina, not cut on the exergiial line, but on 
 a double pinax or diptych (tttu/cto? wlva^) held by a flying 
 Nike over the victorious quadriga on the reverse. 
 
 As a commentary on the gem-like style of the coins of 
 Sicily and Magna Graecia during the Sth and 4th centuries 
 B.C., it is worth while to notice that one very beautiful gem, 
 with a seated figure of Eros playing with astragali, has an 
 apparently authentic artist's signature <t>PYriAAOZ ; and that Phrygillos. 
 the same artist's name occurs on several very beautiful coins, 
 as, for example, on the obverse of a Syracusan tetradrachm 
 of a little before 400 B.C. with a head of Persephone. The 
 reverse type, a quadriga, has the signature of another artist, 
 who signs himself EY0, perhaps for Eu^y/io?. 
 
 It is quite possible that the gem with the figure of Eros 
 may be the work of the same Phrygillos who engraved the 
 Syracusan coin obverse ; Raoul Rochette and (more recently) 
 Furtwangler and Mr A. J. Evans have accepted this theory 1. 
 
 The very few artists' names that occur on coins outside of 
 Sicily and Magna Graecia are sometimes treated in a different 
 
 Eros of 
 Phrygillos. 
 
 1 See Furtwangler's Gemmen mii Kiinstlerinschriften, " Jahrbuch des Kais. 
 Deuts. Jnstit." 1888, Band ill. p. 197, PI. 8, No. 4. I have not been able to 
 ascertain who is now the possessor of the Eros of Phrygillos. 
 
 On Sicilian coins with artists' names, see Rudolf Weil, Die Kimstlerinschriften 
 der Sicilischen Miinzen; Berlin, 1884. 
 
92 
 
 SIGNED COINS. 
 
 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Theodoios. 
 
 Neuantos. 
 
 Pytho- 
 doros. 
 
 Coins of 
 Arcadia. 
 
 Signed 
 vases. 
 
 way, being cut in larger, more conspicuous characters, and 
 having, in two cases, the word ETTOEI (sic) after them. 
 
 A beautiful tetradrachm of Clazomene in Ionia (near 
 Smyrna) has a full-faced head of Apollo on the obverse, and 
 by it, in the field, in two straight lines, the signature 
 
 GEOAOTOZ 
 EnOEI. 
 
 The position of the head on the die is arranged so as to give 
 ample room for this inscription, which is by no means hidden 
 away, like most of the former class of signatures. 
 
 A similar inscription occurs on a much less beautiful 
 tetradrachm of Cydonia in Crete, which has on the obverse 
 a profile head of Ariadne, and in the field the signature 
 NEYANTOI EnOEI. 
 
 Both these remarkable coins are of about the middle of 
 the 4th century B.C. 
 
 A third Cretan coin, of the city of Aptera, near Cydonia, 
 has the signature r'Y0OAQ[POZ] in large letters, but without 
 the word hvoUi, which only occurs on the two last mentioned 
 coins. 
 
 Coins struck in the mainland of Greece very rarely bear 
 an artist's signature. The most notable examples are the 
 fine silver staters issued about the middle of the 4th century 
 B.C. by the Arcadian Federation. On the obverse is a noble 
 head of Zeus Lycaeos, and, on the reverse, a figure of Pan 
 seated on a rock, with the pedum or shepherd's crook in 
 his hand. On the rock, in minute characters, is the engraver's 
 signature OAYM. or more rarely XAPI.; see Head, Hist. Num. 
 page 373- 
 
 It may at first seem strange that artists' names should be 
 so rare on gems and coins, and so common upon Greek 
 vases — which belong to an inferior grade in the rank of the 
 lesser arts. The reason is probably this, the coin-type was 
 a thing of public importance and had a distinctly sacred 
 character, so it may usually have been thought presumptuous 
 for an artist to introduce his name in such a place*. Again, 
 
 ' The sacred character of the types on coins was the reason why portraits of 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 INSCRIBED GEMS. 
 
 93 
 
 the gem was meant for personal use as a signet, and most 
 men probably would have objected to another name than their 
 own being set on their seals ; unless the engraver were an 
 artist of such fame that his signature materially added to the 
 value of the gem, as appears to have sometimes been the case 
 in the Roman Imperial period. With painted pottery the 
 case was different : a maker's or painter's name could offend 
 nobody, and was, proportionally, of quite insignificant size, 
 in no way interfering with the painted pictures on the vase. 
 If however the gem were large and not intended for use as a 
 signet, such as the Julia of Enodos, or still more if it were a 
 cameo, there would be less reason to object to an artist's 
 name being inscribed upon it. 
 
 In all cases where the name on a gem is cut in large 
 letters, and is in the genitive, it may (if not a modern ad- 
 dition) be considered to be the name of the owner. Owners' 
 names in the nominative also occur, but not usually in minute 
 characters such as engravers used. A certain number of 
 gems exist which have the name of some distinguished 
 sculptor, such as Pheidias or Scopas : in most cases these are 
 obviously modern forgeries, but there may possibly be some 
 antique Roman examples in which a gem has a copy of some 
 piece of sculpture together with the name, not of the en- 
 graver of the gem, but of the sculptor of the original statue. 
 
 3. Explanatory words : on many Oriental cylinders, 
 in addition to the owner's name, an inscription explains who 
 are the gods or heroes engraved upon it. 
 
 So also Greek scarabs and scarabaeoids of the 6th and 5th 
 century B.C. have in some cases names cut by the side of the 
 figures on them to explain the subject, a very common 
 practice on the painted vases of the same period. 
 
 This is specially the case with the scarabs found in 
 Etruscan tombs, both those which are imports of Hellenic 
 workmanship and those which are native Etruscan imitations 
 of Greek designs ; see above, page 14. 
 
 Again, on Graeco-Roman and Roman gems which re- 
 living persons were not introduced till comparatively late times, after the death of 
 Alexander the Great. 
 
 Use of 
 mns. 
 
 Vases. 
 
 Owners'' 
 names. 
 
 Sculptors' 
 names. 
 
 Words on 
 scarabs. 
 
94 
 
 INSCRIPTIONS ON 
 
 [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Words of 
 explan- 
 ation. 
 
 Magic 
 words. 
 
 present some god or goddess the inscribe-d name of the deity 
 is frequently added. 
 
 This was specially necessary with the crowd of deified 
 abstractions which appear so often on coins and gems of the 
 Empire ; since in many cases it would be impossible to know 
 what subject was intended without a word of explanation, 
 such as Concordia, Miinificentia, Felicitas, Indulgentia, or the 
 like, the symbols and attributes used by the Roman artists 
 being not sufficiently numerous and varied to indicate, with- 
 out ambiguity, so large a collection of abstractions. 
 
 On the finest gems both of the Greek and the Graeco- 
 Roman period inscriptions of this class rarely occur — the 
 device being intended to tell its own story, and the artist 
 having sufficient skill to do so in a sufficiently intelligible 
 manner. 
 
 4. Talismanic INSCRIPTIONS occur frequently on the 
 later Roman gems used by the Mithraic, Gnostic and other 
 mystic sects. The magical word Abraxas^, and the names 
 of the three Gnostic Aeons, lAQ, COAOMON, CABAQ are of 
 specially common occurrence. 
 
 A great number of other mysterious combinations of 
 letters were cut on these talismanic stones. The Paris Biblio- 
 th^que contains a large and varied collection; see Chabouillet's 
 Catalogue, p. 282 seq.^ 
 
 A profession of the Divine Unity (like that of a modern 
 Moslem) is of frequent occurrence on gems of the second 
 century A.D. — 6IC 06OC CAPAllIC, and other similar phrases : 
 see Nos. 20 and 105, Fitzwilliam Catalogue. 
 
 In several places {H. N. XXXVII. [24 &c.) Pliny expresses 
 his contempt for the superstitious belief in the magical power 
 of gems, but nevertheless these mystic devices were very 
 popular under the late Empire, especially when one of the 
 favourite Roman cults arose out of a combination of the 
 
 ^ The meaning of the word Abraxas is explained in the Appendix; Cat. of 
 Fitz, Gems, No. 20. 
 
 ^ For information on this curious subject see Matter, Histoire du gnosticisme, 
 Paris, 1850; and C. W. King, The Gnostics and their remains, 2nd ed. London, 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 ENGRAVED GEMS. 
 
 95 
 
 Gnostic philosophy of Alexandria with the mystical Mithraic 
 worship of Persia. 
 
 5. Words of greeting and the like: these are common Words of 
 on gems of the Roman Imperial period, usually written in S""^''"'- 
 Greek: as, for example, XAIPE, EYTYXI, MNHMONEYE (see 
 No. no, Fitz. Cat),. 4>IAEI ME, ZHCAIC nOAAOIC eieCIN 
 and the like. 
 
 A curious onyx cameo in the Marlborough collection 
 (No. 643) appears to have been a love gift from a lady. It is 
 engraved with a hand pinching an ear and the inscription 
 
 MNHMONBYe MOY THC KAAHC YYXHC 
 eYTYXI C(jO*PONI 
 
 "Remember me, your pretty love. 
 Good luck to you, Sophronios." 
 
 Inscriptions such as this are frequently cut in cameo, 'and 
 occupy the whole field of the stone : they usually have the 
 letters cut in relief in the white stratum of an onyx, on a dark 
 ground. 
 
 Proverbial phrases sometimes occur on late Roman gems; Proverbs. 
 the following Philosophical maxim is specially common — 
 
 AeyovcTiv a OeKovaiv 
 
 Aeyercoaav 
 
 Ov fj,e\€i. fioi. 
 
 A free translation of this phrase is inscribed over the 
 doors of various houses in Scotland, built in the i6th and 
 17th centuries ; 
 
 'S;{)£g fiaff gatlr. 
 ®u6at sag tfteg .? 
 Hat t^ame sag. 
 
 An example in the Paris Bibliothtque has the following 
 addition at the end of this phrase 
 
 CY*IAeMe 
 CYM*EPICOI 
 
 meaning " Love me : it is for your advantage (to do so)." 
 
96 VOTIVE GEMS. [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Votive 6. Dedicatory inscriptions on gems are rare. An 
 
 ^^^' example is in the Marlborough collection, No. 256 — a very 
 
 large nicolo, with Astarte on a lion and the Dioscuri. In the 
 exergue \s cut AMMQNI02 ANE0HKE EH' AfAOQ, "Ammonios 
 dedicated this for a blessing." It is a gem of the late Empire, 
 probably of North African workmanship. 
 
 A sardonyx cameo of the Roman Imperial period, with 
 a male and female portrait head facing each other, in the 
 Hermitage Museum at St Petersburg, has, between the two 
 faces, the names AA't'HOC CYN APHOOONI, in incised letters. 
 This is probably a votive inscription, the cameo having been 
 dedicated in some temple, perhaps by a husband and wife\ 
 The Vir- In the middle ages this gem was preserved in the treasury 
 
 of the Abbey of St Germain-des-Prds, where it was revered 
 as having been the betrothal ring of St Joseph and the Virgin 
 Mary ; it is worn smooth with the kisses of thousands of 
 pilgrims. 
 
 When the Abbey was sacked, during the French Re- 
 volution, this venerated cameo was carried off and sold to 
 a Russian General, who presented it to the collection of the 
 Emperor of Russia. 
 
 ^ Some archaeologists explain this inscription as being the signature of two 
 joint gem-engravers, but the inscription seems to be later than the cameo itself, 
 and is larger and more conspicuous than is usually the case with artists' signatures 
 on gems. 
 
 gm s ring. 
 
97 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Characteristics of Ancient Gems. 
 
 Fine Greek or Graeco-Roman engraved gems are among 
 the most beautiful works of art that exist. They combine 
 noble design and exquisite, but not too minute, finish with 
 the greatest beauty of material, such as the rich, brilliantly 
 coloured sard or the sapphirine chalcedony with its exquisitely 
 soft, milky lustre. 
 
 The more brilliant varieties of sard glow with a sort of 
 internal lustre when held up to the light, and the device 
 engraved upon them comes out at once soft in effect, and 
 clear in outline, with a sort of beauty which hardly can be 
 rivalled in any other branch of art. 
 
 Small as gems are in scale, the Greek artist possessed the 
 rare secret of giving grandeur of effect without the aid of 
 great size ; and some of the most minute gem engravings 
 seem to have all the dignity of a large group or bust in 
 marble or bronze'. 
 
 As a rule the general design or composition of an antique 
 gem is very skilfully contrived to occupy as fully as possible 
 the " field " or flat surface of the stone, leaving the least 
 possible quantity of empty margin. In the gems of the 6th 
 century B.C. this principle is sometimes carried almost too far, 
 and the figures are occasionally bent into somewhat strained 
 
 ^ This grandeur of effect produced by work on the smallest scale is well exem- 
 plified by the wonderful "Siris bronzes" in the British Museum, and by the still 
 more beautiful heroic figure from the Lago di Bracciano, which is exhibited in the 
 same case; see A. S. Murray, Hist, of Greek Sculpture, 2nd ed. 1890, II., page 
 346, where the latter statuette is illustrated under the title "Bronze from 
 Tarentum.'' 
 
 M. 7 
 
 Beauty of 
 E^ems. 
 
 Grandeur 
 of style. 
 
98 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF 
 
 [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Skilful 
 composi- 
 tion. 
 
 Borders. 
 
 Modern 
 style. 
 
 Roman 
 style. 
 
 attitudes in order to bring them within and yet close up 
 to the curved Hmits of the " field." An example of this is 
 illustrated in fig. i6 at page 25. 
 
 But in the best work of the 5 th and 4th centuries B.C. the 
 highest amount of skill and taste is shown in designing the 
 composition so as to fall easily and gracefully within the 
 necessary limits^: see fig. 17 at page 26. Thus we find that 
 in the best class of gems with a guillodie border the most 
 projecting portion of the composition is often allowed to 
 encroach slightly upon the border, thus giving a look of 
 freedom to the whole, and making the border an essential 
 part, not a mere frame, to the design. In the finest gems 
 with a border in the Fitzwilliam collection this is the case : 
 see Nos. 5, 10 and 11 on Plate I. 
 
 In the early Greek painted vases of what is called the 
 Oriental style the same dislike to unoccupied spaces is to be 
 seen — the so-called horror vacui, which leads the painter to 
 fill up his ground by a seme pattern of rosettes, crosses and 
 other ornaments. 
 
 One of the most obvious differences between antique and 
 modern gems is this absence of margin or unoccupied space 
 in the former class. 
 
 Thus the exquisite Diomede with the Palladium from 
 Lorenzo de' Medici's collection, though in some respects very 
 Greek in style, being copied from an antique, is very unlike 
 an ancient gem in the wide extent of margin all round 
 the figure. 
 
 The Poniatowski forgeries have the same modern peculi- 
 arity ; see, for example, Modern Gems, No. 11 in the catalogue 
 of the Fitzwilliam gems in the Appendix. 
 
 In the case of Roman gems this rule does not apply ; the 
 device by no means invariably fills up the whole field. Far 
 less skill and taste are shown in adapting the design to the 
 shape and size of the gem. The same remark may be made 
 with regard to Roman coins, especially the reverses of aurei 
 
 1 In Greek coins of the best style we see the same fully occupied field, and 
 the same wonderful skill in suiting the design to the space. On Roman coins 
 these points are much less attended to by the die-cutters. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] 
 
 ANCIENT GEMS. 
 
 99 
 
 and denarii of the Imperial period, with a single standing 
 figure of some deity or deified abstraction, the scale of which 
 is frequently small in comparison to the whole circular field 
 of the coin, leaving a large proportion of unoccupied space 
 on each side of the figure. 
 
 Another noticeable point is that, while many modern 
 gems are pictorial in style, those of the ancients are rather 
 of a scidpturesqiie character — simple in composition, with very 
 few figures, seldom more than three during the best periods ; 
 and the whole design is treated strictly on one plane, like the 
 relief-sculpture of all good artists. The skilful treatment of 
 the 'relief with a certain monotony of surface, avoiding 
 excessive projection, is one of the chief characteristics of 
 good Greek work. 
 
 In gems of the Roman period the ' relief is often much 
 exaggerated, with an excessive roundness of form, very un- 
 like the flat relief of the 5th century B.C. In many cases 
 this excessive amount of projection suggests that the design 
 is a copy of some piece of sculpture in the round. 
 
 Apart from the details of the treatment, the whole design 
 of some gems of Imperial date shows that the gem-engraver 
 has copied some statue of large scale, regardless of the fact 
 that the design was quite unsuited for reproduction on a 
 minute scaled On fine Greek gems, on the contrary, the 
 design is exactly suited to the very stone it is cut upon, 
 seldom looking like a reduced copy of some larger work, 
 and still less like a reproduction of a statue. 
 
 All these rules are however quite useless for distinguishing 
 between ancient and modern gems when the work of a clever 
 forger is in question, a man who has carefully studied and 
 copied the characteristics of genuine antique gems. 
 
 The fact is that in no other class of art is it so difificult to 
 distinguish the genuine from the false ; partly because age 
 makes no alteration, gives no patina to a hard polished gem ; 
 and secondly, because, owing to the hardness of the material 
 
 Rovian 
 coins. 
 
 Simplicity 
 of treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Copies of 
 statues. 
 
 Tests for 
 gems. 
 
 ^ 'Relief is here used as referring, not to the intaglio itself, but to the impres- 
 sion from it. 
 
 ^ For examples of this, see page 78. 
 
 7—2 
 
lOO 
 
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ANCIENT [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Copies of 
 
 antique 
 
 sems. 
 
 Ficid re- 
 
 Original 
 polish. 
 
 Tests for 
 forgeries. 
 
 and the laborious method of working it, there is necessarily 
 something mechanical in the process of engraving a gem, 
 which diminishes the prominence of the artist's personal 
 peculiarities and touch. 
 
 Moreover many of the cleverest forgeries are copies of 
 some antique gem or paste, so there is nothing in the design 
 to betray a modern origin. Copies made by the most skilful 
 engravers of the last century, such as Natter, Pichler and 
 Burch, are often quite indistinguishable from antiques, es- 
 pecially when we remember that a highly polished, fresh- 
 looking surface is not always a proof that the gem is modern. 
 A large number of genuine antique gems have had their 
 flat field repolished in modern times, much, of course, to the 
 injury of the work. This unfortunate habit was specially 
 prevalent in the 17th and i8th centuries: many of the best 
 gems of the Marlborough and Devonshire collections have 
 been sadly spoilt by this reckless treatment. And again, 
 many gems, which have rested undisturbed in a tomb, still 
 have their original polish as fresh and brilliant as when the 
 stone was first cut. 
 
 The skilful forger is careful to use only such tools as 
 were in use among the ancients, and there are often no 
 means of deciding whether a wheel cut or a drill cavity in 
 a hard gem was made yesterday or more than two thousand 
 years ago, 
 
 A great number of different tests have been suggested 
 for the recognition of genuine and forged gems ; but the 
 imitation of none of these criteria presents any real difficulty 
 to a skilful and intelligent forger. Proofs of antiquity have 
 been said to be these — extensive use of the " diamond-point,'' 
 complete internal polish of the details of the design ; and 
 again internal polish which, though once complete, has been 
 slightly dulled, as if clouded by the human breath. 
 
 With a little extra trouble any modern engraver can 
 polish the whole of his design ; and a drawing-stump with 
 some diamond or emery powder will readily take off the 
 apparent freshness of the polish, and give the requisite 
 clouded look to the work. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] AND MODERN GEMS. lOI 
 
 A still better method of clouding the original polish has Tricks of 
 been recently adopted by the Roman forgers. A shower of 
 diamond dust is blown out of a small tube against the sunk 
 part of the intaglio ; a method which was suggested by the 
 " sand-blast " which is sometimes used on a large scale to drill 
 or carve stone for building purposes. 
 
 The more obvious signs of age, such as a worn surface, 
 covered with fine scratches, are given to modern gems in 
 many different ways. The most deceptive appearance of long 
 wear is produced by cramming the newly cut gem down a 
 turkey's throat, and leaving it for a few days to be shaken up 
 with the bits of stone and gravel which are contained in 
 the turkey's craw. 
 
 Freshly cut cameos readily take the marks of age, first by 
 the use of the ordinary rubbing and scratching processes, and 
 secondly by the use of a mixture of iron filings in acid, 
 which rapidly gives to the white layer of an onyx the dead, 
 glossless look which is frequently the result of great age. 
 
 Even the fact that a gem is seen to be in its original Set gems 
 antique ring-setting is no absolute security against fraud. 
 The present writer has seen in the work-shop of a Roman 
 intagliatore a skilful engraver at work on an antique gem 
 which had been found set in a massive gold signet-ring on 
 the skeleton hand of the occupant of an Etruscan tomb. 
 Without removing the gem from its setting the engraver 
 rapidly drilled out the very slight and shallow original design, 
 and produced another much more imposing intaglio, with a 
 very beautiful head, carefully copied from a Syracusan coin : 
 the subsequent treatment of the gem with emery and diamond 
 powder entirely removed its obvious look of freshness, and 
 the original setting remained as a false witness to the 
 antiquity of the work. 
 
 The result of all this is that in many cases no archae- 
 ologist, however learned, can attain to real certainty about 
 the age of a gem — a quite trustworthy criterion has yet to be 
 discovered. 
 
 Fortunately in most cases imitations of antique gems are 
 not the work of a forger who combines sufficient knowledge 
 
I02 
 
 CAMEOS RE-WORKED. 
 
 [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Gems 
 rC'Citt. 
 
 Pistrttcci. 
 
 Cameo 
 Flora. 
 
 St George 
 and the 
 dragon. 
 
 with the requisite skill, and a careful study of ancient gems 
 will save the student or collector from being deceived by any 
 except forgeries of the most skilful kind. 
 
 Among the most difficult cases to distinguish are those 
 gems, which, though originally antique, have been partially or 
 wholly re-cut by a modern hand. 
 
 In the last century, and even more recently, this was a 
 very common trick of the Italian dealers, especially in the 
 case of cameos. 
 
 A very large cameo on a magnificent sardonyx, now in the 
 St Petersburg collection, was wholly reworked early in this 
 century by Benvenuto Pistrucci, who (without any fraudulent 
 intention) executed much work of this kind for the Roman 
 dealers, when he was a young man working in Rome, about 
 the year 1804. The St Petersburg cameo represents a Roman 
 Emperor standing and being crowned by a female personifica- 
 tion of some city. The gem was originally very late Roman 
 work of the rudest execution. It is now well-cut work, which 
 appears to be of the style of the early empire. 
 
 Pistrucci, who was born in 1784, was the last of the really 
 distinguished gem-engravers of modern times. He was the 
 artist of the famous cameo head of Flora, a work of purely 
 modern design on a fragmentary onyx, which he executed for 
 a small sum for some unscrupulous dealer, who sold it for 
 ;£'500 to Payne Knight as an antique Greek gem'. Pistrucci 
 wrote a very interesting autobiography, in which he gives an 
 instructive account of how this and others of his early gems 
 were passed off by the Roman dealers as antiques ; see p. 147 
 of Dr Billing's Science of Gems, 1867, in which extracts from 
 this autobiography are published. Pistrucci was employed 
 as a die-cutter in London under George IV. and William IV. 
 He is the author of the fine group of St George and the 
 dragon which is still used on the English sovereigns and 
 crowns — a very happy contrast to the dies produced by more 
 recent artists. 
 
 1 Payne Knight's taste and knowledge are exemplified by the fact that he tried 
 hard to prevent the purchase for a comparatively trifling sum of the Elgin marbles 
 on the ground that they were inferior works of art, and of Roman Imperial date ! 
 
103 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Technique of Gem-engraving {SaKTv\ioyXv(l>ia or 
 
 XidovpyiK'ij). 
 
 The tools used by the ancient gem-engravers were mainly Tools for 
 of three different sorts, namely the drill, the wheel and the %;„„, 
 " diamond-point!' In using all these the gem itself was firmly 
 fixed in a bed of cement made of pitch and pounded pottery 
 {testae ttmsae). The tools were held in the engraver's hand, 
 who thus had a greater freedom of touch than a modern 
 gem-engraver, who usually works in the reverse way, having 
 his drills and wheels fixed, and the gem loose in his hand*. 
 
 I. The drill {Tpmavov, hence mod. Italian drepanoY The drill. 
 was worked in the old fashion, which still survives in the 
 East : the string of a small bow was wound round the stick 
 of the drill, which was made to revolve by moving the bow 
 rapidly backwards and forwards. The butt end of the drill 
 revolved inside a cap or tube, which the engraver held in his 
 hand, and so directed the point to the right place ; he could 
 not, of course, hold the drill by its revolving part. 
 
 It is only long practice that enables a workman to manage 
 successfully the difficult task of carrying on simultaneously a 
 distinct movement with each hand ; so in some cases, espe- 
 cially when working larger sculpture, an assistant worked the 
 
 ^ The word yKitjyuv is used by the Greeks for the process of engraving gems : 
 hence the modern phrase "glyptic art." In Latin scalpere has the same meaning, 
 but it is also used for other processes, such as carving in marble, equivalent, that is, 
 to the word sculpere; see Pliny, H. N. xxxvi. 15. 
 
 ^ The word rSpvos (Latin tornus) appears to be used for any revolving tool ; 
 thus it means both the drill and the wheel of the gem-engraver, as well as the 
 lathe used in many different crafts. 
 
104 USE OF THE DRILL [CHAP. IX. 
 
 bow, leaving the engraver free to direct the point of the drill. 
 This is indicated in some of the reliefs found in Egyptian 
 tombs which represent sculptors at work on statues of por- 
 phyry or granite, materials of such hardness that they could 
 only be worked by drills and emery. 
 
 Sculptor's A Roman sarcophagus, published by Bliimner, Technologie, 
 III. p. 220, has a very interesting relief showing a sculptor at 
 work on a lion's head which is one of the ornaments on a 
 fluted sarcophagus which he is carving. He holds in his 
 hand a pipe-drill which is made to revolve, not by a bow, but 
 by a cord which a boy assistant is pulling backwards and 
 forwards, the rpv-navla of Pollux, X. 146. 
 
 Drill In i88q — go Mr Flinders Petrie found in tombs in Upper 
 
 bows. 
 
 Egypt several examples of the bows used to work small drills. 
 
 They are of hard wood, about 14 inches long, slightly bent, 
 
 and have near each end a square hole in which the cord was 
 
 fastened. Exactly similar bows are commonly used even 
 
 now for drilling both in the East and elsewhere. 
 
 Fire drill. The word rpv-rravov also means an instrument used in 
 
 Tpimvm"" kindling fire ; the primitive method being to get a spark by 
 
 the friction of a drill of hard wood, worked with the bow so 
 
 as to bore a hole in a piece of softer wood ; cf Soph. Frag. 640. 
 
 Many of these " fire-sticks " have been found in Egypt, 
 
 with rows of drilled holes in them, each charred by the friction 
 
 of the drill. 
 
 The same method of getting fire by friction is still em- 
 ployed by various savage races, who work the drill both with 
 and without the bow. 
 Gem-cut- In gem-engraving the point of the drill, which cut into the 
 
 xaXKevrbv stone, was of soft metal, usually bronze, and varied in size from 
 rpiivanv. ^j^^t of an Ordinary pin to a good-sized knitting needle or even 
 larger. The actual cutting of the drill was done, not by the 
 metal, but by the fine emery powder (a/xvpL<;, Naxiuin) which, 
 mixed with oil, was kept constantly smeared upon it. The 
 minute particles of emery, which is a form of corundum, stick in 
 the soft metal under the pressure, and so give a steady cutting 
 surface. If hard steel were used the emery powder would 
 not adhere to the drill, and the cutting would go on much 
 
CHAP. IX.J 
 
 AND BOW. 
 
 lOS 
 
 slower\ Even wood or bone in connection with emery will 
 make an excellent drill. Some of the Hill-tribes of India even 
 now drill quartz-crystal with a piece of bamboo and emery or 
 sand and water, using the bow to make the drill revolve. 
 
 The drill and bow-string were not tools peculiar to the 
 gem-engraver, but were used in all the arts of carving and 
 sculpture from the ship-wright upwards. Drills on a large 
 scale, such as augers for boring planks, were worked by a cord 
 held by a man at each end, as is described by Homer {Od. 
 IX. 382 — 386) in the passage about Odysseus destroying the 
 eye of Polyphemus. A very interesting gem in the British 
 Museum (No. 305) a Greek scarab of the 5th century B.C., has 
 a well executed figure of a workman (shown in fig. 21), 
 probably a gem-engraver, using the bow-drill on some small 
 object fixed upon a table. 
 
 Wooden 
 drill. 
 
 Carpen- 
 ter's drill. 
 
 Gem-cutter 
 at work. 
 
 Fig. 2 1. Greek scarab of the 5th century B.C. showing a man working with 
 the bow and drill : double the real size. 
 
 Pliny (Hist. Nat. XXXVI. 54) speaks of the Naxium, or Emery. 
 emery of the island of Naxos, as being the best for cutting 
 and polishing gems ^ 
 
 He gives {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 200) an interesting list of 
 the different tools used in gem-engraving. Speaking of the 
 varying hardness of stones, he says, " tanta differentia est ut 
 aliae ferro scalpi non possint, aliae non nisi retunso, omnes 
 
 1 It is for this reason that modern diamond-cutters use, not a steel, but a 
 copper wheel for forming the facets when they are cutting a brilliant, rose- or 
 table-diamond. 
 
 "- The Naxian emery at the present day affords to the Greek government a 
 revenue of more than ^30, 000 a year. 
 
io6 
 
 THEOPHRASTUS ON THE 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Pliny on 
 gein-ctit- 
 ting. 
 
 Theophras- 
 tus on gem- 
 cuttins:. 
 
 Pliny 
 on Theo- 
 phrasius. 
 
 autem adamante : plurimum vero in iis terebrarum proficit 
 fervor." 
 
 His meaning appears to be this — " only the softest signet- 
 stones (such as steatite) can be engraved by the unaided iron 
 graver ; some require the (comparatively) blunt point of a 
 metal drill (used with emery). All stones can be cut with the 
 adamas-point, (that is by diamond or sapphire) ; but the tool 
 which is the most effective of all is the rapidly revolving drill." 
 
 Theophrastus makes the following statements with regard 
 to the engraving of gems — <fKv'KTo\ •yap evioi, Koi ropvevTol 
 Kai 7rpi<TT0i' Twv Se ovZe oXo)? aTTTeraL aihrjpiov' eviwv Se KaKW<; 
 Kol fjLoXK. De lap. I. In this passage he probably means to 
 say that gems are engraved either with the diamond-point 
 (r/XuTTTol) or with the wheel (Topvevrol) or are cut with saws 
 {irpiaToi); some are not even scratched by iron. Again at 
 § VII. he says eviat, he XlOol koI ra? TOiavra'; e')(ovai, Svva./jbei,<;, 
 619 TO fiT) '!raa')(ebv, axiTrep eiTrofiev, olov to /mtj yXv^eaOat ai- 
 Srjpioof, aXXd XWok erepoi'i yXvcjioVTaL. 
 
 ' OXtu? fxev Tj Kara Ta<; ipyaaiai; koI rwv /j,€i^6vo}v^ Xidcav 
 TToXXrj Siacpopd. ' AXXoi irpLcnoi 'yap, oi Se yXvTrrol KaOdirep 
 eh.e-)^67], Koi TopvevTol Tvy-^dvovcn., and further on, he adds, oi 
 Be ai.Srjpioi'; fiev yXv(f>ovTai dfi^Xeai Se. This paragraph, which 
 is unfortunately full of lacunae, seems to be the one from 
 which Pliny is quoting in the above mentioned passage, 
 H. N. XXXVII. 200. It is possible that the text of Theo- 
 phrastus might be amended and the lacunae partly filled up 
 by the help of this translation, which appears to be given by 
 Pliny from a more perfect codex than any which now exists. 
 The phrase "non nisi retunso" is clearly Pliny's rendering 
 of Theophrastus' o-t8?7p/ot? /xev, dp,^Xkab Se. Theophrastus 
 wrote his short treatise on gems about the year 315 B.C. 
 
 In most of the archaic gems, and again in those of the 
 period of Roman decadence, the use of the drill is very 
 conspicuous'; short curly hair of men or animals is often 
 
 1 In this passage the word fxei^bvuiv is probably corrupt, since the size of gems 
 has nothing to do with their relative hardness. 
 
 ^ The archaic glandular gem in the Fitzwilliam collection shows the use of the 
 drill clearly all over the body of the eagle : see Plate I. No. 2. 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 GEM-ENGRAVERS TOOLS. 
 
 107 
 
 represented by a series of close-set drill holes even in work of 
 a good period. 
 
 The general blocking out of the figures seems to have 
 been mainly done with the bow-drill, the final modelling and 
 details being put in afterwards with other tools. Some 
 ancient gems have never been carried further than the initial 
 drill-work, and look unfinished. 
 
 There are many of these among the 6th and 5th century 
 .scarabs in the British Museum ; such as No. 447, a red jasper 
 
 Mode of 
 using the 
 drill. 
 
 Fig. 22. Etruscan gem in red jasper, with three figures rudely blocked out 
 with the blunt drill (the "retunsum" of Pliny). The inscribed names [AFAjMeM- 
 vu]v, AAENeXaos and TTATpoR-Xos are probably a modern addition, the work of 
 some dealer, in order to enhance the selling value of the gem : real size. 
 
 scarab, which represents a standing hero between two seated 
 figures ; see fig. 22. 
 
 The same use of the drill can frequently be seen in Greek 
 coins, especially for the hair of men\ and very commonly in 
 the legends, the letters of which were formed by first drilling 
 in the iron die a small hole at the end of each straight stroke, 
 and then lines were cut joining the pairs of drill-holes^ 
 
 The emery drill on a larger scale was a very important 
 masons' and sculptors' tool in ancient Egypt and among the 
 early Greeks, as is mentioned above at page 104. 
 
 Drill-work 
 OP, coins. 
 
 1 This habit of representing hair of a crisp, curly sort by drill-holes seems to 
 have influenced the Greek vase painters of the best "red-figure" period. The 
 hair of .heroes on 5th century pottery is often represented by close set dots or 
 pellets of the fine creamy black enamel, giving a fine effect of texture and gloss by 
 the slight relief of the enamel dots. 
 
 ' For example the legends on the later tetradrachms of Athens with Magistrates' 
 names are very obviously formed in this way, the work being coarse in execution. 
 In better work the drilled terminations are less conspicuous. 
 
 A pebble with a hole drilled through it, i^^0os TeTpvn-qnivq, was used by the 
 Athenians at their judicial ballots for ■• vote of condemnation; the undrilled 
 stone, ^rirpo^ TrX-fiprji, being the sign of a vote of acquittal ; see Aeschin. XI. 34. 
 
io8 
 
 THE TUBULAR DRILL 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Tube- 
 drills. 
 
 Alabasti. 
 
 Tube-drill 
 zised for 
 zems. 
 
 Without it, it would have been impossible to work the 
 intensely hard basalts and granites of Egypt, or the con- 
 glomerate of Mycenae and Tiryns. 
 
 The tubular drill: for work on a larger scale a 
 tubular form of drill was used ; that is, a bronze tube, either 
 with loose emery powder, or else with minute crystals of 
 corundum set along the working edge of the tube. 
 
 This tubular drill was known in Egypt as early as about 
 4000 B.C. Within recent years its use has been revived for 
 blasting and quarrying hard rocks. If this tool had not been 
 re-invented the Alpine tunnels would have been practically 
 impossible. 
 
 The tubular drill was also used by the Greeks for such 
 purposes as hollowing out their alabaster perfume bottles 
 (aka^dcFToi,), and for many other similar processes. 
 
 For such minute work as gem-engraving the tubular drill 
 was rarely employed, but clear marks of its use are to be 
 seen on some of the archaic Greek lenticular gems, as, for 
 example on one, cut in carnelian, in the British Museum 
 (see fig. 23), which has a pillar-like object, probably a tall fire- 
 altar, between two rampant lions — very much like the relief 
 over the well-known "lion-gate" of the Acropolis of Mycenae. 
 
 ICallitna- 
 chus. 
 
 Fig. 23. Early lenticular gem in carnelian, which shows clearly the use of the 
 wheel and of two kinds of drills — the tubular and the solid drill ; real size. 
 Cf. gems in "E(prjiJ.epis, i888 — 9, Plate 10. 
 
 In this interesting gem (No. io6, Bj-ii. Mus. Cat) the eyes 
 of the lions and the terminations of the pillar are sunk with 
 minute tubular drills. The rest of the work is engraved with 
 the solid drill, and with the little wheel. 
 
 According to Pausanias (L 26 ad fin) Kallimachus, the 
 inventor of the Corinthian style, was the first to use the drill 
 for stone — \i6ov<i irpMro'; eTpvirrjo-e ; but this is, of course, a 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 AND THE WHEEL. 
 
 109 
 
 mistake. Drills were used in Egypt for hard stone nearly 
 4000 B.C., and in Greece many centuries before the time of 
 Kallimachus, whose golden lamp in the temple of Athene 
 Polias on the Acropolis must have been made after the 
 Persian invasion in 480 B.C.' 
 
 Another instrument used for straight cutting or slitting 
 was a wire strung on a bow. The spring of the bow kept the 
 wire taut while it was being drawn backwards and forwards 
 with the usual supply of emery and oil, thus cutting like a 
 saw into the gem. On a large scale this sort of wire saw 
 (serra) was used by the Romans in cutting the thin slabs of 
 coloured marble {crustae) used so much under the Empire for 
 wall decoration. For the softer marbles, sharp sand and 
 water were used instead of emery. 
 
 2. The wheel {t6pvo<s, rotulay-. this was a minute disc 
 of bronze which was set on a long, slender shaft of wood or 
 metal and worked with a bow and tube like the drill ; emery 
 and oil being applied to it in the same way. The wheel cut, 
 of course, at right angles to the shaft, not in the same 
 direction as the drill did. According to the direction in 
 which the workman moved the little wheel it could cut either 
 a long line or a broad sunk surface ". 
 
 In the early lenticular gems its use is specially visible, 
 and indeed to use the wheel for any other purpose than 
 blocking out the design requires exceptional skill on the part 
 of the operator ; otherwise it produces a very coarse and 
 clumsy style of work ; see fig. 24, which shows an early 
 lenticular gem cut in rock crystal. 
 
 Examples of obvious wheel-work among the Fitzwilliam 
 gems are the wings of the eagle on the glandular gem, Plate 
 I. No. 2 ; and the scarab of Kreontidas, Plate I. No. 4. The 
 wheel is largely used by modern gem-engravers in Italy, who 
 call it il rotellino. 
 
 Wire saw. 
 
 The wheel. 
 
 Early 
 •wheel- 
 work. 
 
 ' For further information about Kallimachus, see Vitruvius, iv. i. 10. 
 
 ^ The word tornus is also used for a lathe. 
 
 ^ This sort of wheel and the drill are both among the most important instru- 
 ments of the modern dentist ; but he uses hard steel, instead of copper and emery, 
 having a less refractory substance to deal with. 
 
no 
 
 THE WHEEL AND 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Wheddisc. Another kind of wheel was used in later times for quite a 
 
 different purpose, namely for cutting slices of gems, \iGo- 
 ■jTpLarr)^;. This was a very thin disc of metal, several inches 
 
 Ezechiel 
 on F^ems. 
 
 PagninPs 
 Version, 
 1527- 
 
 Polishing 
 process. 
 
 Stone 
 wheel. 
 
 Fig. 24. Rudely worked lenticular gem, which illustrates the use of the wheel, 
 the drill and the adamas- or diamond-point ; real size. This gem and that shown 
 in fig. 23 date possibly as early as 14 or 15 centuries B.C. 
 
 in diameter, which was fixed as it revolved, the stone being 
 pressed against its edge, like the circular saw of the modern 
 timber-merchant. In this case, as with the other wheel, the 
 actual cutting was done, not by the metal of the wheel, biit 
 by the emery and oil with which it was kept constantly 
 charged. 
 
 The Prophet Ezechiel in his lamentation for the doom of 
 the king of Tyre (xxviii. 13) gives a long list of precious 
 stones, followed by the words (translated in the Revised 
 Version) "the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes"; 
 and in one version of the Latin Bible " opera tympanorum 
 tuorum et foraminum tuorum." In his Numismatique des 
 Satrapies, p. 71, the Due de Luynes has made the interesting 
 suggestion that the tympana and foramina of Ezechiel are 
 really the ordinary tools of the gem-engraver, the "wheel" 
 and the "drill." The tympanum probably means, not the 
 cutting wheel, but a sort of revolving drum made of wood, 
 which, when covered with powdered haematite or ochre, was 
 used to polish the surfaces of gems, the process called 
 XidoTpL^iKfj by the Greeks. 
 
 Another, quite different sort of wheel was used, not for 
 engraving the designs on gems, but merely for shaping 
 roughly the stone. 
 
 This was a wheel made of fine whetstone, such as the 
 black " Lydian jasper," shaped and fitted and supplied with 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 THE DIAMOND-POINT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 water exactly like an ordinary grindstone for sharpening Cotes. 
 knives, but on a much smaller scale. It was probably worked 
 with a treadle, like a lathe, and the gem was pressed against 
 it as it revolved. The flat field of a signet gem and its 
 rounded edges were probably, as a rule, formed with this 
 instrument, the polishing being done afterwards with dry 
 powdered ochre. 
 
 3. The diamond-point : this tool was not used with Adamas 
 
 the bow, but was held in the hand like a pencil, or like the ^°'^"'*' 
 " dry-point " of a modern etcher. 
 
 It consisted simply of a natural crystal of adamas, set in 
 a bronze or iron handle; see O. T. Jercm. xvii. i, "The sin of 
 Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a 
 diamond." Pliny describes this tool in his paragraph on 
 the adamas {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 60) under which name is in- 
 cluded both the true diamond and the white sapphire, which 
 comes next to it in hardness. 
 
 He says — "expetuntur hae (crustae, chips) scalptoribus, 
 ferroque includuntur nuUam non duritiam ex facili cavantes." 
 
 The truth is that whole crystals, not crustae, have the best 
 cutting power, and it is probably these that were mostly 
 used by gem-engravers'. 
 
 Less hard substances than the adamas were used some- 
 times in the same way. Herodotus (VII. 69) speaks of the 
 Aethiopians pointing their arrows with the same sort of hard 
 stone or flint that was used for engraving signets ; XiOo^ o'^i)? 
 7reiroi,7]/jjvo'; Tq> Koi ra? a(j)pr]ylSa<; yXv(j}ovaL The steatite 
 scarab-signets of Egypt are soft enough to be cut by obsidian 
 or flint. Many arrows tipped with these stones have been 
 found in Upper Egypt, and even in the tombs of Thebes. 
 
 Most of the details and all the artistic finish of a well 
 engraved gem was given by the use of the diamond-point, 
 which allowed an amount of freedom of touch in the artist's 
 hand far beyond what could be got with any of the other 
 more mechanical tools. It was however much more laborious 
 
 Flint 
 PTavers. 
 
 Finish 
 of geins. 
 
 ^ The modem glazier's diamond is always a. natural crystal; a splintered or 
 cut bit of diamond will readily scratch glass, but would not make the deep slit 
 which is necessary to divide a sheet of glass neatly. 
 
112 
 
 DIAMOND-POINT USED FOR GEMS [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Use of 
 diamond- 
 point. 
 
 Gems in 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
 to use it, and required great technical skill on the part of the 
 engraver. By working over and over the same place with 
 the point its scratchy lines could be got rid of, but on some 
 of the gems of finest style and period the artist has not 
 troubled to do this completely, and has left some of the 
 original lines in a way that adds to the spirited beauty of 
 the gem, though at a sacrifice of high finish. This is a point 
 in which the mediaeval or modern forger is specially liable to 
 fail ; he is usually too careful to leave no trace of the actual 
 tool-work. 
 
 The use of the diamond-point can be clearly traced in 
 one of the most graceful gems in the British Museum (No. 
 562), which has a figure of a girl dressed in a long chiton, 
 standing and holding a hydria. 
 
 The lines of the hair, the long straight folds of the 
 drapery, and even the hyd7'-ia in her hand are all executed 
 with the point: thus giving a sort of sketchy look to this 
 very beautiful design, which probably dates from the time 
 of Pheidias^ 
 
 Fig. 25. Greek gem with a head of Zeus, of very noble style, inscribed E E : 
 the use of the diamond-point in working the hair and beard is very distinct. 
 
 Head of 
 Zeus. 
 
 Another very beautiful gem in the British Museum (No. 
 464) illustrates the use of the diamond-point; see fig. 25. 
 This is a scarab of green jasper from the Blacas collection, 
 with a head of Zeus of most noble style, within a cable 
 border, dating from the first half of the 5th century B.C. 
 The delicate lines cut with the diamond-point are specially 
 visible in the working of the hair and beard of this head. 
 
 ' Among the Fitzwilliam gems, the use of the point is most visible on Nos. 6, 
 12 and 19, Plate I. 
 
CHAP. IX.J 
 
 AND THE FILE. 
 
 113 
 
 See also above, fig. 16 at page 25, in which the hairs of the 
 Satyr's tail are scratched in with the same instrument. 
 
 Something very similar to the style and touch of gem 
 engravings is to be seen in some of the finest Greek vase 
 paintings of the late black-figured style, dating from the 
 middle or latter part of the 6th century B.C. 
 
 The inner markings with incised lines on these black 
 figures are in many cases executed with a gem-like delicacy 
 and minuteness ; and it is very probable that the fine lines, 
 sharply and clearly cut through the hard black enamel, were 
 actually executed with the jewel-pointed tool of the glyptic 
 artist. This is specially noticeable in the delicate wavy 
 lines of the hair both of men and animals, and indeed in 
 all the "incised lines of such miniature work as that on 
 Mr Malcolm Macmillan's little vase from Thebes, mentioned 
 above at page 24. 
 
 Practical experiments on fragments of Greek pottery 
 have convinced the present writer of the great difficulty of 
 producing a perfectly clean line on the hard enamel with 
 any point of metal — even one of hard steel, such as the 
 Greeks did not possess. The diamond-point on the other 
 hand, which was a familiar tool to the ancient Greek, pro- 
 duces the cleanest lines with ease. 
 
 4. The file (lima). A very useful tool for smoothing 
 level surfaces on gems, such as the flat field of a signet, was 
 made by a mixture of emery and melted resin' ; when hard 
 this mixture has a very keen cutting power. This is probably 
 the tool that Maecenas alludes to in his letter to Horace — 
 
 " Ne.c quos Thynica lima perpolivit 
 Anellos, neque jaspios lapillos." Anth. Lat. I. p. 413. 
 
 As is mentioned above (see page 70) the lima was the tool 
 held by the statue of the bronze sculptor and gem-engraver 
 Theodoros as a symbol of his craft. 
 
 One form of lima, used for working in metal and also for 
 cutting the softer stones, such as steatite, was probably a file 
 made of iron, not unlike those which are now used. It would 
 
 1 The modem method is to mix melted shell-lac and diamond dust. 
 M. 8 
 
 Incised 
 lines on 
 
 vases. 
 
 Diamond- 
 point. 
 
 Thefile. 
 
114 
 
 TECHNIQUE OF GEMS 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Ring of 
 Hippias. 
 
 Method of 
 polishing. 
 
 Pastegems. 
 
 however be of no use for working the harder stones, such as 
 those of the quartz class, and still less those of more refractory 
 kind ; see page 157, where a table of the relative hardness of 
 gem-stones is given. 
 
 Apuleius, in a curious passage near the beginning of the 
 second book of his Florida, mentions the use of the lima and 
 the tornus by the Sophist Hippias, who wore a gold ring set 
 with an engraved gem, entirely the work of his own hands, 
 both stone and setting. 
 
 5. The FINAL POLISH. After the sunk design of an en- 
 graved gem was completed, it was necessary, both for the 
 sake of its beauty, and also to prevent the wax or clay of the 
 seal from adhering to it (see Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 104), to 
 polish, as completely as possible, the internal sunk part. 
 
 This was done in a laborious way by working the finest 
 powder of some metallic oxide such as haematite, or ochreous 
 earth, into all the depressions of the work with a soft point of 
 wood, a bird's quill, or some other yielding and slightly elastic 
 substance. The flat field of a gem was polished with much 
 greater ease by rubbing it on the surface of woollen stuff 
 sprinkled at first with emery and then finally with the finer 
 powdered ochre. The revolving drum {tympanum) already 
 mentioned was used for this purpose. 
 
 The TECHNIQUE OF "PASTE" GEMS. Paste, which is 
 only another word for the finest sort of glass, was made with 
 great skill by most classical nations — especially by the Phoe- 
 nicians, the Greeks and the Romans. In splendour of colour, 
 in luminous texture, in hardness and durability, the ancient 
 pastes are very superior to those made in modern times. One 
 reason is that modern pastes or false jewels are largely com- 
 posed of oxide of lead, the object being to increase the " fire'' 
 or lustre of the paste, though at the expense of its hardness 
 and durability. 
 
 In ancient times, before the modern custom of faceting 
 jewels had been invented, fine deep colour was the first requi- 
 site, and sparkle or lustre was but little regarded*. 
 
 ' The materials used in making ancient pastes are mentioned below, see 
 page I6.S- 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 AND PASTES. 
 
 "5 
 
 In making a paste signet the process was this — a mould 
 was made from an engraved gem by pressing it against a 
 mixture of clay which had been ground in a mortar, together 
 with a large proportion of finely powdered pottery, till it 
 was a perfectly smooth, plastic and homogeneous mass. The 
 clay mould, with the impression of the original intaglio in 
 relief, was very carefully baked in a potter's kiln, and then a 
 red-hot lump of the glass or paste, in a soft pasty state, was 
 gently pressed upon the mould till it received the complete 
 imprint of the original gem. If done carefully, by a skilful 
 glass-worker, the result was an almost exact facsimile of the 
 original intaglio. 
 
 When it had cooled, its ragged edges and the rough back 
 were cut smooth and polished by the lapidary's wheel and 
 emery powder, till it was ready for setting in a ring. 
 
 In the British Museum there is a large colourless paste 
 (No. 1518) with a portrait head of Aristippus, which has never 
 had its edges cut smooth : it is still surrounded by a ragged 
 border, just as it came from the mould'. 
 
 Among the fine collection of terra-cotta objects from 
 Tarentum, which were presented by Mr A. J. Evans to the 
 Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, are included a number of 
 clay moulds for making paste gems. These are simply lumps 
 of clay on which, while soft, an engraved gem has been 
 impressed, giving the device in relief: this relief of course 
 would be again reversed when the soft glass was pressed into 
 the clay mould, thus forming a paste intaglio. 
 
 Among these moulds are two standing figures of Dionysus, 
 two of a winged Victory writing on a shield, and more than 
 one of Eros. 
 
 In some cases antique pastes have been made, not by any 
 moulding process, but by using the ordinary tools of the gem- 
 engraver ; treating, that is, the paste exactly as if it had been 
 a real jewel. One of the finest examples of this kind of paste 
 
 of pastes. 
 
 Wheel 
 work. 
 
 Clay 
 moulds. 
 
 Engraved 
 pastes. 
 
 ' An account of the making of paste gems is given by Heraclius in his treatise 
 De Artibus Romanorum, written in the 9th century. 
 
 A M.S. of this work, in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, was published 
 by Raspe, London, 1783. 
 
 8—2 
 
ii6 
 
 PASTE INTAGLIOS 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Paste of 
 Gnaios. 
 
 Paste Sca- 
 rabaeoids. 
 
 Foil 
 backing. 
 
 is No. 621 in the Marlborough collection (Story-Maskelyne's 
 Catalogue, 1870) engraved with a standing figure of an athlete 
 of the Diadumenos type, with the name FNAIOY, probably 
 that of the owner of the gem, partly obliterated by repolish- 
 ing. The quality of this paste, which once belonged to Pope 
 Clement VI 1 1., is so fine that it has usually been described as 
 a jacinth or beryl of exceptional beauty, even by experts such 
 as the gem-engraver Natter. 
 
 Occasionally a combination of both processes was used, 
 the paste being first cast and then its device worked over and 
 sharpened by the use of tools — a somewhat analogous process 
 to that employed by Greek and Roman moneyers, who fre- 
 quently first cast and then struck coins in high relief 
 
 Many scarabaeoids of colourless paste, too large for 
 rings, have been found within recent years in Cyprus and 
 elsewhere in Greece. Nos. 8 and 9 in the Fitzwilliam collec- 
 tion are examples of these : the combination of moulding in 
 the device, with cutting on the edges and back, is very 
 obvious in these two pastes. 
 
 Paste signets {(T<ppa'y2Se<i vaXwai) seem to have been made 
 in great numbers for the poorer classes, both among the 
 Greeks and the Romans of the Empire. As a rule they were 
 not mounted in gold rings, but in silver, bronze or iron — in 
 many cases the inferior metals were plated with gold'. The 
 signets which cost only 3 obols (Aristoph. Tkesin. 424 ; see 
 p. 37) were probably paste copies, set in bronze. 
 
 Paste gems very frequently were set with a backing of 
 polished metal foil, which, by reflecting the light through the 
 paste, gave it increased brilliance and depth of colour. 
 
 The same method of setting was often adopted for real 
 stones: Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVii. 106) speaking of one sort 
 of sard, says " argenteis bratteis sublinuntur " ; while sards of 
 a different colour " brattea aurea sublinuntur." At Hist. Nat. 
 XXXVII, 126, Pliny describes two methods of setting gems, 
 either with an open bezel, or with a backing of gold-coloured 
 
 ^ In England and France, during the 14th and 15th centuries, it was usual for 
 the jewellers' guild in each town to have a rule prohibiting its members from 
 setting paste gems in real gold, or real gems in plated metal. 
 
CHAP. IX.] AND CAMEOS. I ly 
 
 foil — " hae funda includuntur perspicuae, ceteris subicitur auri- 
 chalcum." 
 
 A colourless paste or crystal was sometimes made to False 
 imitate a carbuncle by backing it with a crimson foil. Many ^""^' 
 other tricks were known to the ancient jewellers, and Pliny 
 gives various directions how to tell true from false gems by 
 testing their weight, hardness and apparent feeling of cold- 
 ness, all of which qualities are greater in a real stone than in 
 a paste: see Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 98 and 128 and 198. At 
 § 197 Pliny warns his readers against sham sardonyxes, made 
 by cementing together three slices of different coloured stones 
 so as to produce the three layers of the natural gem. 
 
 In most cases, however, paste gems must have been sold 
 as honest copies : as works of art they frequently have great 
 merit, both from the sharpness of their impression and from 
 the splendour of their colour. 
 
 In the tombs of various parts of Cyprus a considerable Rings 
 number of large rings have been found made wholly of glass, cvims 
 The hoop of the ring is usually of colourless glass, and the 
 bezel is filled with a large paste brilliantly coloured green or 
 crimson to imitate an emerald or a carbuncle ; they are not 
 engraved with any device, but have a plain convex surface. 
 These false jewels were fixed in the hollow prepared for them 
 with a little fine cement, which in many cases has perished 
 and allowed the coloured paste to fall out. 
 
 These rings are very decorative in effect, owing to the 
 magnificent deep colour of their imitation jewels. The collec- 
 tion of glass from Cyprus in the Fitzwilliam Museum contains 
 many fine examples of these rings, especially one with a large 
 paste emerald still in its place. 
 
 In Roman times paste cameos were very frequently made; Paste 
 the commoner sort being merely casts, like the signet or 
 . intaglio paste, but the finest are all worked over and finished 
 with the gem engraver's tools. 
 
 The Portland Vase is the most magnificent example of 
 what may be called a paste cameo on a large scale. In it 
 and similar glass vases there was no moulding : the whole 
 work was done exactly as if the artist had been cutting an 
 
ii8 
 
 GLASS VESSELS 
 
 [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Portland 
 vase. 
 
 glass. 
 
 Feats of 
 skill. 
 
 Late Ro- 
 man glass. 
 
 onyx. That is to say, it was first completed as a deep blue 
 vase, completely covered and the blue surface hidden by 
 an opaque layer of white glass ; and then, when it was quite 
 cold, the engraver set to work and cut and drilled away the 
 white upper layer — modelling his figures in the white layer 
 and cutting down to and exposing the blue body of the vase 
 to form the ground of his reliefs'. An excellent description 
 of the Portland Vase is given by Mr A. H. Smith in his 
 Catalogue of the Gems in the British Museum, p. 225 seq. 
 
 Among the many examples of Greek art of the 4th 
 century B.C. which have been found in the tombs of Kertch 
 are some elaborate glass cups, which are specially notable 
 for their having the artist's name on them, followed by the 
 
 word enoiei. 
 
 Cameo work on glass vessels, like that on the Portland 
 Vase, was not uncommon in Egypt during the later Ptolemaic 
 period and in Rome under the early Empire; it was usually 
 very beautiful both in design and execution. 
 
 It is essentially gem-engraver's work, and in some cases 
 shows almost miraculous skill in the way the workman has 
 undercut his design in the brittle glass. 
 
 The most wonderful feats of skill in this direction belong 
 to the time of extreme artistic decadence, when the Romans 
 took pleasure in seeing the most lavish waste of an artist's 
 labour, owing to his working in some material which was 
 utterly unsuited to his design. Hence the Roman love for 
 statues in porphyry, or even obsidian and rock crystal with 
 other costly absurdities of that kind. 
 
 Amazing examples of this skilful use of the gem-engraver's 
 tools are to be seen in some cups of greenish glass, which 
 have, on the outside, in a ruby red layer, an open net-work of 
 linked rings, all cut out of the solid glass, and under-cut, so 
 that, with the exception of a few slender pins of glass, the 
 inner cup is quite free from its net-work covering. Several 
 cups of this pattern have been found at various places ; all of 
 course more or less broken. Usually they have the owner's 
 
 '- Martial (xiv. 94) mentions this liind of work, which he calls toreumata vitri, 
 that is glass worked with the gem-engraver's tools. 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 CUT IN RELIEF. 
 
 119 
 
 Cup of 
 Maxi- 
 
 Pliny I 
 glass. 
 
 name in large letters along the top — each letter in red glass 
 being under-cut and joined to the pale green cup beneath 
 only by two or three of the slender pin-like supports. 
 
 The best preserved of these wonderful cups is in the 
 Strasburg Museum ; it bears the name of the Emperor 
 " Maximianus Herculeus Augustus," who was put to death by 
 Constantine's orders at Massilia in 310 A.D. This gives the 
 date of these goblets covered with the wheel and drill-cut 
 net-work. 
 
 Pliny gives {Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 190 to 199) a very interest- 
 ing account of the glass-maker's art. 
 
 At § 193 he mentions the three principal methods of 
 working ornamental glass. After the materials were fused 
 together into a " frit," (he says) " ex massis rursus funditur in 
 officinis tinguiturque, et aliud flatu figuratur, aliud torno 
 teritur, aliud argenti modo caelatur," that is, " after remelting 
 in the furnace, and adding the colouring matter, some of the 
 glass is formed by blowing, some of it is cut on a ivlieel, and 
 some of it is worked in relief like silver plate.'' Examples 
 of ancient glass shaped with emery on the gem-cutter's 
 wheel or lathe are not uncommon, and the term caelatitra 
 would naturally be applied to work in relief such as the 
 Portland Vase\ 
 
 Among the gems in the Fitzwilliam collection. No. 37 
 is a good example of a gem, cast from a well-executed 
 head of Hermes, in paste skilfully coloured to resemble a fine 
 golden sard. 
 
 Metal signets (haKTvXioi a.'^'qi^oi or aXiQoi) : those Bezels of 
 rings which have the device sunk in a metal bezel were 
 formed in various ways. The finest have the design cut with 
 tools in the same way as if they had been of stone. Examples 
 of these, signed by the artist, are described above at page "j^. 
 Others, especially the gold Etruscan rings, have the device 
 
 Plate II. 
 
 metal. 
 
 1 One curious class of Roman pottery, usually in the form of bowls of coarse 
 "Samian ware," is ornamented by simple patterns deeply cut with the lapidary's 
 stone wheel on the hard clay, after it had been fired in the kiln. The British 
 Museum (Romano-British department) possesses many examples of these wheel-cut 
 bowls from various British sites; but they are probably of Gaulish workmanship. 
 
I20 METAL SIGNETS. [CHAP. IX. 
 
 stamped from a die on a thin plate of gold, which was then 
 soldered by the goldsmith into its place on the ring. 
 Cast rings. A third method, used for the cheaper class of bronze 
 
 rings, was to cast the bezel in a relief mould ; but this plan 
 left the impression blunt and spiritless, unless afterwards 
 touched up by tooling'. 
 
 ' On the technique of gem-engraving as practised in the first half of the eight- 
 eenth century, see Natter, Traiti de la mcthode de graver en pierres fines. On the 
 whole Natter was perhaps the most skilful of all copyists of antique gems. In 
 some cases he certainly forged the names of ancient artists, but not unfrequently, 
 he signed his own work YAPOYi 'Natter' meaning a 'water-snake' in German. 
 
121 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Gems in Mediaeval Times. 
 
 Owing to the extreme decadence of the glyptic art during F>ynch 
 the early middle ages many of the French kings and 
 Emperors of the West, from Charlemagne downwards, fre- 
 quently used antique gems for their royal signets. Charle- 
 magne himself sealed his edicts with a portrait head of 
 Marcus Aurelius. Louis I., on a document of 8i6 A.D., has 
 imprinted as his seal a head of Antoninus Pius. 
 
 The same practice was adopted by various English kings 
 before the Norman Conquest, such as Ofta King of Mercia 
 and several others. 
 
 The legend on these seals is added on the gold border 
 which frames the ancient gem. 
 
 In most cases the gem itself is now lost, but we have im- 
 pressions of them on countless early charters. Some of these 
 impressions are from gems of very fine workmanship, dating 
 from as early as the times of the Diadochi, but more frequently 
 they are inferior works of late Roman date. One of the finest 
 of these gems, known from its impression on a charter in the 
 British Museum, was used as the royal signet of Odo or 
 Eudes, who was King of France from 888 to 898 A.D. It 
 is a noble contemporary portrait head of Seleucus IV., 
 King of Syria, who reigned between 187 and 176 B.C.; see 
 Arch. Joiirn. XI. p. 261. 
 
 There were however a certain number of large signets Crystal 
 
 SI ^jxcts 
 
 and other intaglios engraved on rock crystals by artists of '^ 
 the Byzantino-Rhenish school for the early Emperors of the 
 West. Impressions exist of a signet of Lothaire I. (840 — 
 
 Seals on 
 charters. 
 
122 
 
 ROYAL SIGNETS AND 
 
 [chap. X. 
 
 Signet of 
 Lothaire. 
 
 Papal 
 rin^. 
 
 Bishops' 
 rings. 
 
 855 A.D.), with a full-faced bust of the Emperor, very rudely- 
 cut Another of the same Emperor's signets still exists, set 
 in the gold foot of an altar-cross in the Cathedral of Aix- 
 la-Chapelle. It has a profile portrait of Lothaire in a helmet, 
 and round the rim of the crystal itself is engraved the 
 inscription ^ XPE • ADIVVA • HLOTHARIVM • REG., 
 "O Christ help King Lothaire'." At the same time large 
 intaglios were cut in rock crystal for various decorative 
 purposes ; to ornament gold shrines or reliquaries, and for 
 personal jewellery. The British Museum possesses one of 
 the finest examples of this — a large circular intaglio cut in 
 very brilliant crystal, which was worn as a morse or cope- 
 brooch by the Abbot of Vezor. 
 
 It is minutely engraved with Biblical subjects and is 
 inscribed LOTHARIVS ■ REX • ME • FIERI • FECIT. 
 
 During the mediaeval period the use of seals or signets 
 was no less important than in classical times. Part of the 
 ceremony during the consecration of a Pope, a cardinal 
 or a bishop consisted in investing him with an official ring. 
 That used at the installation of a Pope has been for many 
 centuries known as "the fisherman's ring,'' from its device, 
 a figure of St Peter fishing from a boat, cut on the gold 
 bezel. Hence the heading often placed at the beginning of 
 Papal Briefs and other documents " Sub Annulo Piscatoris." 
 In many cases, especially during the loth to the 13th 
 centuries, when the art of gem engraving was almost extinct, 
 episcopal signets were in the form of a gold ring set with an 
 ancient Greek or more commonly a Roman gem. 
 
 These were frequently selected with a device to which 
 a fanciful Christian meaning might be given, such as the 
 head of Jupiter which was used by the Benedictine monks 
 of Durham as a portrait of St Oswald ; it was set in a 
 gold mount on which was inscribed ^ CAPVT • SANCTI 
 OSWALDI ■ REGIS • ; another example is the three-headed 
 gryllus monster used as his signet by Archbishop Roger, 
 
 1 It is illustrated in Vol. i. of Cahier et Martin, Melanges iT Archiologie : see 
 also Arch. Journ. xviii. p. 111. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 EPISCOPAL RINGS. 
 
 123 
 
 with the legend added ^ CAPVT • NOSTRV ■ TRINITAS • 
 EST ; see Vetusta Monumenia, Vol. I., PL 59'. 
 
 For many centuries after the fall of the Western Empire 
 the belief in magical signet-gems survived, and, to some 
 extent, it lasted throughout the Middle Ages. Even the most 
 orthodox Prelates of the Church did not wholly disbelieve in 
 the magic of gems. Many Bishops used for their episcopal 
 ring of office an Abraxas gem; as for example Seffrid, Bishop 
 of Chichester from 1125 to 1151, whose gold ring, set with 
 an Abraxas jasper, was found in his coffin, and passed into 
 the Waterton collection; see Arch. Jour. XX. p. 224 — 238. 
 In the present year 1890, when the tomb of Hubert Walter, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury from 1193 to 1205, was opened, 
 his gold ring was found set with a plasma on which was 
 cut the Cnoubis lion-serpent^, like No. 106 in the Fitzwilliam 
 collection. 
 
 In the 15th century, together with the revival of classical 
 learning, there was a fresh outburst of superstitious belief in 
 the magic efficacy of engraved gems, even among the most 
 enlightened scholars of the age, such as Lorenzo the Magnifi- 
 cent, Pico della Mirandola, Pope Leo X., and many others. 
 
 Throughout the Middle Ages, as is mentioned above, 
 great numbers of antique gems, and especially cameos, were 
 used to decorate the most costly of the gold reliquaries. The 
 celebrated beryl intaglio of Julia by Euodos, mentioned at 
 page 74, was for many centuries one of the many gems which 
 decorated a gold shrine in the Treasury of the Abbey of 
 St Denis, near Paris. This magnificent gem was set face 
 downwards on a backing of brilliant gold foil, and thus pre- 
 sented the appearance of a translucent relief This method 
 of setting engraved gems was frequently practised by the 
 
 Magical 
 
 Belief in 
 magic. 
 
 Gems on 
 shrines. 
 
 ' For further information on this class of signet, see Arch, jfourn. Vol. xx. 
 p. 224 ; and Proceed. Soc. Ant. Vol. XIII. 2nd Series, 1890, p. 45 : cf. also King, 
 Antique Gems and Rings, 1872, p. 386. 
 
 ^ The crozier of the same prelate had its knop set round with four antique gems, 
 of late Roman work, coarsely cut. The three which still remain in the crozier are 
 these — I, a seated figure of Ceres on red jasper ; 2, a hand holding three ears of 
 wheat, on carnelian; and 3, a stag, also on carnelian. 
 
124 
 
 ANTIQUE GEMS AND 
 
 [chap. X. 
 
 Metal 
 seals. 
 
 Mediaeval 
 gems. 
 
 Revival of 
 gem en- 
 graving. 
 
 Donatella. 
 
 mediaeval jewellers, and if the stone is a very transparent 
 one the effect is very soft and beautiful. 
 
 Several of the numerous antique gems which studded the 
 famous chasse of the Three Kings of Cologne were set in this 
 manner on foil, face downwards. 
 
 In spite of the great decadence of technical skill the art 
 of gem-engraving never wholly died out, though for many 
 centuries it was but rarely practised, partly owing to the use 
 of signets made wholly of silver or bronze\ If an engraved 
 gem was used, it was usually an ancient Roman one, set in 
 a metal collar on which the necessary inscription was cut. 
 There are however a few gems engraved in the 14th century 
 in existence, of very fair workmanship; as, for example the 
 signet of Charles V. of France, a minutely cut full face on a 
 spinel-ruby, set in a gold ring, on which is inscribed Tel il nest, 
 " there is none such as he." This very signet is described in 
 the royal inventory made in 1379. It is now in the Marl- 
 borough collection. No. 583: it is illustrated by King, Hand- 
 book of Gems, p. 128, No. 2, but is wrongly named in the text. 
 In the same work (at page 122) King quotes Scipio Am- 
 mirato {Hist. Flor. p. 741) as mentioning the forging of the 
 signet of Carlo di Durazzo in 1378 by a clever engraver of 
 gems — " Peruzzi, il quale era singolare intagliatore di pietre." 
 The great revival of gem-engraving did not, however, begin 
 till the time of Lorenzo de' Medici in the latter part of the 
 15 th century. 
 
 So also with regard to collections of ancient gems, although 
 our mediaeval forefathers showed considerable powers of ap- 
 preciating their beauty, yet it was not till the 15th century that 
 gems were studied or collected with any real enthusiasm. 
 Vasari tells us that the great Florentine sculptor Donatello, 
 who died in 1466, was an ardent admirer of ancient gems and 
 coins, and that he took antique cameos and coins for his 
 models when he carved that noble series of medallion reliefs 
 which still exists in the Palazzo de' Medici (or Riccardi) in 
 Florence. 
 
 See Chabouillet, Glyptiqiie du Moyen Age, Rev. Arch. 1854, p. 550. 
 
CHAP. X.] ENGRAVERS OF THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 125 
 
 The earliest example we have recorded of a real collection 
 of ancient gems, since classical times, is that of the Venetian 
 Paul II. (Barbo), who was Pope from 1464 to 1471. 
 
 He is said to have paid large sums for Greek and Roman 
 gems of all kinds — cameos and intaglios — both for his 
 cabinet of gems, and also to set in the numerous rings with 
 which he used to load his fingers. 
 
 Piero de' Medici, who died in 1469, formed a small col- 
 lection of gems, which were inherited by his son Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, who also acquired the collection of Pope Paul II., 
 thus obtaining the nucleus of what afterwards became the 
 large and important dactyliotheca Mediceana, which un- 
 fortunately was dispersed in the century after Lorenzo's 
 death. 
 
 When Lorenzo de' Medici himself began to collect gems, 
 soon after 1469 when he became ruler of Florence, he showed 
 a special love for cameos and intaglios of large size, and was 
 eager to buy, not only antique specimens, but also the works 
 of the very able Italian artists of his own time. 
 
 One of the most beautiful gems that any age has ever 
 produced is the copy, on a large sard, in intaglio of the 
 Diomede with the Palladium (mentioned at page 75), which 
 was executed for Lorenzo de' Medici ; the mark LAVR. MED. 
 is cut on the cippus upon which Diomede is seated. 
 
 This magnificent gem, which is a more perfect work of art 
 than any of the antique examples of this subject, is obviously 
 the work of a 15th century artist, having a wide margin 
 round the figure and other signs of post-classical date. 
 
 Whether they were cameos or intaglios, ancient or con- 
 temporary, Lorenzo the Magnificent had all his most im- 
 portant gems engraved with his own name in large letters 
 thus, LAVR. MED. 
 
 Many gems, especially cameos, with Lorenzo's name 
 exist in various collections : most of these, if not antique, are 
 executed in a classical manner, but one or two fine gems are 
 in the style of contemporary Florentine art, and look as if 
 they were the work of pupils of Donatello, while others 
 resemble the style of Antonio Pollaiuolo. 
 
 Paul II. 
 
 Piero de' 
 Medici. 
 
 Lorenzo de' 
 Medici. 
 
 Diomede of 
 Lorenzo. 
 
 Lorenzo's 
 mark. 
 
126 
 
 GEM-ENGRAVERS 
 
 [CHAP. X. 
 
 Delle Car- 
 niuole. 
 
 Lorenzo's 
 ens[ravers. 
 
 Leo X. 
 
 Vasari. 
 
 Fop pa. 
 
 One of the ablest engravers who worked for Lorenzo de' 
 Medici was Giovanni, surnamed "delle Carniuole" for his 
 skill in cutting carnelian gems. 
 
 The fine intaglio portrait of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, 
 now in the Uffizi collection, is one of his most celebrated 
 works, very noble in style, and full of life-like vigour and 
 realistic truth. 
 
 Others of Lorenzo's gems were engraved by Francesco 
 Francia the famous Bolognese painter and goldsmith, by 
 Marco Moretti, by Domenico (called) de' Cammei, and by 
 Leonardo da Milano ; the last two were both natives of 
 Milan, and were greatly famed for their portrait heads. 
 
 Camillo Leonardo, in his Speculum lapiduin, a work on gems 
 published at Venice in 1502, mentions four artists as being 
 the chief gem-engravers of his time ; these were Anichini of 
 Ferrara, Giovanni Maria of Mantua, Tagliacarne of Genoa 
 and Leonardo of Milan, who worked for Lorenzo. 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici's love for gems was inherited by his 
 son Pope Leo X. and also by various other Popes of the 
 1 6th century, most of whom were liberal patrons to all skilful 
 intagliatori — a very numerous class in Italy at that time. 
 
 An interesting chapter in Vasari's Vite dei pittori &c. 
 (Part II. Vol. I. page 285 seq. in the edition of 1568) is devoted 
 to the gem-engravers of the Renaissance. Vasari specially 
 praises the works of Piero Maria da Pescia, who engraved 
 both coin-dies and gems for Leo X.', Valerio dei Belli (il 
 Vicentino) famed for large crystal intaglios, who lived from 
 1468 to 1546, Giovanni da Castel Bolognese, 1496 — 1553, 
 Matteo dal Massaro, who died c. 1548, Alessandro Cesati (il 
 Greco) a native of Cyprus^ Giov. Antonio de' Rossi and 
 various other engravers who lived and worked in Milan. In 
 another chapter Vasari mentions Ambrogio Foppa (il Cara- 
 
 ' See Archiv. Star. Ital. 3rd Series, Vol. iil. Part I. p. 221; and Fitz. Mas. 
 Cat. page xxiii, No. 1 . 
 
 ^ See page 82, for an account of the way in which Alessandro Cesati signed his 
 gems. 
 
 For a general account of the gem-engravers of the Renaissance see Mariette, 
 Pierres Gravies, Vol. I. p. 114 seq. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 OF THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 127 
 
 dosso), a famous Milanese sculptor and goldsnnith, as being 
 also remarkable for his skill in gem engraving. Most of these 
 artists were also cutters of dies for coins and medals, and 
 workers in gold and silver. 
 
 The portrait of Pope Paul III. (Farnese), on a medal by 
 Alessandro Cesati, is a very beautiful work ; it was enthusi- 
 astically admired by Michelangelo. The reverse of this medal, 
 with a nude figure of Ganymede pouring water on a lily plant, 
 is a work of extraordinary skill, and strongly classical feeling 
 in the modelling of the nude. In this respect it curiously 
 resembles the figure of Eros on the celebrated gem signed by 
 Phrygillus, especially in the soft, melting contours of the flesh 
 and its delicate grace of pose. 
 
 Many others of the medals, both cast and struck by 
 Italian artists of this time and during the previous century, 
 are works of the very highest artistic excellence, quite 
 equalling in merit the best productions of the ancient Greek 
 engravers of coin portraits. The earliest and on the whole 
 the greatest of this class of Medallists was the Veronese 
 painter Vittore Pisanello, who died about 145 1, but he does 
 not seem to have practised the art of gem-engraving. His 
 medals, like nearly all those of the 15th century, were not 
 struck from dies, but were cast from a wax model by the cire 
 perdiLe process, and he had therefore no need to learn the 
 difficult art of sinking his design in a hard material such as a 
 steel die or a gem. 
 
 In the i6th century, medals were mostly struck and so 
 came naturally within the scope of the gem-engraver's craft, 
 whereas under the older system the large cast medals could 
 be produced by any sculptor in bronze, or even by a painter 
 such as Pisanello, if he could model his design in wax. 
 
 The celebrated Benvenuto Cellini (1500 to 1571) was a 
 skilful engraver of gems and coin-dies as well as a sculptor 
 and a goldsmith. Like most of the Italian gem-engravers of 
 the 1 6th century he devoted himself to the cutting of cameos 
 rather than intaglios. 
 
 After Cellini's time the art of gem-engraving in Italy 
 shared in the general decadence of all the arts from painting 
 and sculpture downwards. 
 
 Aless. 
 Cesati. 
 
 Medals of 
 Italy. 
 
 Pisano of 
 Verona. 
 
 Wax 
 casting. 
 
 Cellini. 
 
128 
 
 DECADENCE OF GEM-ENGRAVING. [CHAP. X. 
 
 Forged 
 gems. 
 
 Old collec- 
 tions. 
 
 There still were many engravers who possessed great 
 technical skill, but their designs rapidly deteriorated in point 
 of style or became mere servile imitations of the gems of 
 classical times. 
 
 Thus there gradually grew up a class of clever engravers 
 who, if not intentional forgers of antique gems, yet produced 
 works which were so carefully and skilfully imitated from 
 ancient examples that they were frequently sold for very high 
 prices as being genuine antiques. 
 
 Deception of this kind was then easier than it would be 
 now, owing to the low standard of archaeological knowledge 
 and criticism which was then prevalent — a state of things 
 which lasted till the early part of the present century. Thus 
 it happens that most famous old collections of gems, such as 
 those of the Dukes of Devonshire and Marlborough, which 
 were formed by various wealthy collectors at a great cost 
 during the 17th and i8th centuries, usually contain a large 
 proportion of professedly antique gems which really date 
 from modern times. At present the more advanced state of 
 the science of engraved gems enables collectors to buy with 
 greater judgment and with less risk of being deceived by 
 unscrupulous dealers. 
 
129 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Materials used for Antique Gems. 
 
 Our chief literary sources of knowledge about the precious 
 stones known to the ancients are a treatise by Theophrastus, 
 ■rrepl XiOwv, written about 315 B.C., and the 37th Book of 
 Pliny's Natural History, which is mainly a compilation from 
 Theophrastus and various other authors. 
 
 As a rule antique gems are rarely engraved on really fine 
 and costly stones. 
 
 Mr Story-Maskelyne has remarked, in his Catalogue of 
 the Marlborough collection, that if we have to decide which 
 of two gems is the original, and which the copy, it will 
 usually be found that the modern one is on the finer stone of 
 the two. 
 
 On the whole the sard is the most beautiful material 
 which is commonly used for ancient engraved gems, though it 
 is hardly of sufficient value to rank as one of the so-called 
 " precious stones." 
 
 A well engraved design on a clear orange or golden-tinted 
 sard combines beauty of nature and beauty of art in a quite 
 unrivalled manner. 
 
 The following are the chief stones used in ancient times 
 for engraved gems and other decorative purposes. 
 
 First of all in value comes the adamas, Greek aSaytta?, 
 " unconquered"; it is described by Theophrastus, Lap. 19, 
 and by Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 55 to 60. 
 
 Neither the Greeks nor the Romans had any really scien- 
 tific knowledge of precious stones, and we usually find that 
 more than one kind of gem is classed under the same name. 
 M. 9 
 
 Writers 
 on gems. 
 
 Quality of 
 stones. 
 
 Adamas. 
 
I30 
 
 WHITE SAPPHIRE OR 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 Adamas. 
 
 Tests for 
 Adamas. 
 
 True 
 diamond. 
 
 Bronze 
 statuette. 
 
 Diamond 
 eyes. 
 
 The word adamas is certainly used both for the diamond 
 and for the white sapphire. 
 
 In one place (H. N. XXXVII. 56) Pliny seems to describe 
 the double pyramidical shape of the natural crystal of the 
 true diamond when he says the adamas is formed " ut si duo 
 turbines latissimis suis partibus jungantur." 
 
 But when he goes on to say (§ 57) that the adamas will 
 not break if struck by a hammer on the anvil, and that it 
 will stand the test of fire, he is certainly speaking of another 
 and very different stone. 
 
 The diamond is easily broken along planes of cleavage 
 parallel to the natural faces of its crystal, and, being composed 
 of pure carbon, it is the only gem that is combustible. 
 
 The mistaken application of these two tests has caused 
 the destruction of a great many newly found diamonds even 
 in the present century'. 
 
 It is fairly certain that in ancient times it was considered 
 impossible to cut or polish the true diamond on account of its 
 excessive hardness. In those rare cases in which a true 
 diamond occurs in an ancient work of art it is in its natural 
 crystalline form, unworked by the lapidary. 
 
 Examples of its use are very rare. 
 
 The most remarkable case, probably unique in Hellenic 
 art, is a very beautiful bronze statuette in the British Museum, 
 about seven inches high, of the finest archaistic work, probably 
 of the latter part of the 5th century B.C. The motive of this 
 figure is similar to the numerous marble archaic female statues, 
 which have been found on the Acropolis of Athens, among 
 the broken fragments resulting from the Persian sack in 
 480 B.C.; see Mrs Mitchell, Ancient Sculpture, p. 280. 
 
 With one hand the lady holds up her long chiton ; in the 
 other hand, outstretched, was a bud or flower. Minute natural 
 crystals of diamond are fixed in the pupils of the eyes, giving 
 a wonderful look of life and spirit to this masterpiece of 
 Greek plastic art. 
 
 ^ Recent examples of newly found diamonds being destroyed in this way in the 
 United States are given by G. F. Kunz, Gems of North America, New York, 1890. 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 DIAMOND (ADAMAS). 
 
 131 
 
 The crystals are so minute that without a close inspection 
 they might easily pass unnoticed '. 
 
 Perhaps the only other known examples of antique 
 diamonds are those in a few rare Roman rings of a late 
 Imperial period. 
 
 The Waterton collection of rings contained one of these, 
 with a diamond octahedral crystal set in a gold ring, sur- 
 rounded with a border of pierced open work, dating probably 
 from the 4th or Sth century A.D. 
 
 It was not till the latter part of the 1 5th century A.D. that 
 the discovery was made that a diamond could be cut and 
 polished with its own powder. Till that time, throughout the 
 Middle Ages, the natural crystal was used uncut, as it was in 
 classical times. 
 
 The well known badge of the Florentine Medici family is 
 an example of this : it consists of three ostrich feathers passed 
 through a ring in which is set a natural pyramidical crystal of 
 diamond. 
 
 The adamas of the Vulgate is translated " diamond " in 
 the Authorised Version of the Old Testament {Exodus, xxxix. 
 10 — 13), where the list of the twelve gems on Aaron's breast- 
 plate is given. 
 
 But this stone cannot have been the true diamond, as on 
 it was engraved the name of a Tribe, " like the engraving of a 
 signet," a feat which was quite beyond the power of any 
 ancient engraver, even the skilful Phoenician who probably 
 cut and engraved the gems on the Jewish High Priest's 
 " rational." 
 
 Ezechiel, xxviii. 13, gives the following list of gems 
 (English Version) " sard, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, 
 sapphire, emerald, carbuncle." Here again the word "diamond" 
 is probably wrongly used for some other hard, colourless 
 stone: cf Apocalypse of St John, xxi. 19 to 21. 
 
 In most cases, it seems probable, by the word adamas is 
 rneant the white sapphire, a stone which comes next to the 
 diamond in point of hardness. 
 
 ^ This wonderful statuette is said to have been found at Verona, but it appears 
 to be of the finest Attic workmanship. 
 
 9—2 
 
 Diamond 
 rings. 
 
 Medici 
 badge. 
 
 Aaron's 
 breast- 
 plate. 
 
 Ezechiel's 
 list. 
 
1 32 SAPPHIRE [CHAP. XI. 
 
 The jewel-set tool mentioned by Pliny {H. N. XXXVII. 60) 
 may have been set either with splinters of the true diamond 
 or of the sapphire. 
 Sapphire. The modern SAPPHIRE is probably the HYACINTHUS, 
 
 vdKivdo<i, of classical authors; Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 126. 
 Solinus truly says that only the diamond will scratch it. The 
 sappirus is quite a different stone, as is mentioned below. 
 
 The true sapphire is a pure crystalline form of corundum, 
 an oxide of aluminium, Al^O^ of a fine blue colour. 
 
 It is very rarely used for ancient gems, partly, no doubt, 
 on account of its extreme hardness, which makes it very 
 difficult to engrave. The few really antique examples of 
 work on the sapphire are mostly of the Imperial Roman 
 period ; it appears to have been very rarely used by the 
 Greeks, except as an ornament for jewellery. 
 
 The Marlborough collection contains one of the most 
 beautiful engraved sapphires in existence, a Medusa head in 
 full face, of the first or second century A.D., finely cut on a 
 pale blue stone ; No. 98, Marl. Cat. 
 
 No. 485 in the same collection is a good contemporary 
 portrait of Caracalla on a large sapphire of good quality. 
 Star- The star-sapphire, when held in a strong light, shows inside 
 
 '■ it the figure of a six-rayed star, the result of its peculiar 
 crystalline structure. 
 
 This is probably the astrion of Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 
 132), an Indian gem which he describes thus — "huic intus a 
 centre stella lucet fulgore pleno lunae." 
 
 A variety of this was the asteria (§ 131) found in Carmania 
 and in India : the latter kind, Pliny says, is difficult to 
 cut or engrave. 
 
 It is doubtful whether any ancient examples exist of the 
 use of this stone for engraved gems. 
 Ruby. The RUBY is chemically the same as the sapphire, only 
 
 with different colouring matter. 
 
 The finest examples have the tint of pigeon.s' blood. The 
 ruby appears to be one of several precious stones which were 
 included under the name avdpa^ and carbunculiis, a red-hot 
 coal ; Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 92 to 98. 
 
 sa-. 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 AND RUBY. 
 
 133 
 
 Value 
 of ruby. 
 
 Atitique 
 rubies. 
 
 Theophrastus speaks of quite a small dvdpa^ being worth 
 as much as 40 gold staters, so he is probably speaking of the 
 ruby, not of the carbuncle. 
 
 At the present day a fine large ruby is worth much more 
 than a diamond of the same size ; whereas rubies and diamonds 
 of less than one carat in weight are of about the same value. 
 
 In the i6th century, according to Benvenuto Cellini, a 
 ruby of one carat was worth eight times as much as a 
 diamond of the same weight'. 
 
 Antique gems engraved on the ruby are very rare, even 
 more so than engraved sapphires, but it was occasionally used 
 in Roman Imperial times for small cameo heads. In the 
 Devonshire collection there is a very late Roman figure of 
 Venus Victrix cut in intaglio on a ruby of very great beauty, 
 but, with very few exceptions, engraved gems on the true 
 ruby are either of mediaeval or modern date. 
 
 Nearly all that Pliny writes under the heading carbunculus 
 seems to refer to the garnet or carbuncle. 
 
 Possibly Pliny means to describe the ruby {H. N. XXXVII. 
 99) where he mentions anthracitis...fossilis carbonibus similis, 
 like a red-hot coal, the dv6pa^ of Theophrastus. Pliny's 
 method of classifying gems according to their colour makes it 
 specially difficult to be certain what stone he is describing in 
 each case. 
 
 The same gem has frequently many different colours ; and 
 very different gems have almost the same tint in some cases. 
 Thus, for example, the pure crystalline form of corundicm 
 may be blue, red, yellow or colourless, giving to the gem the 
 names respectively of sapphire, ruby, Oriental topaz and white 
 sapphire. Again the ruby and the carbuncle may be of almost 
 exactly the same tint. 
 
 Emery, <j\xvpi<i, Naxium, is an impure semi-crystalline Emery. 
 variety of corundum, of which the ruby and sapphire are the 
 purer crystalline forms. That from the island of Naxos was 
 
 "Avdpa^. 
 
 1 Cellini in his Trattato deW Orificeria, published in Florence in 1568, cap. i. 
 gives the following value for fine stones of one carat weight ; ruby, 800 gold scudi ; 
 emerald, 400; diamond, 100; sapphire, 10. The gold scudo was then about 
 equal in purchasing value to a modem sovereign. 
 
134 
 
 CORUNDUM AND EMERALD. 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 Emirald. 
 
 Relief to 
 the eyes. 
 
 Naxiiim. considered the best, hence the name which Pliny gives it 
 {H. N. XXXVI. 54) "signis e marmore poliendis gemmisque 
 etiam scalpendis atque limandis Naxium diu placuit ante 
 alia" ; see also H. N. xxxvil. 109. 
 
 Its use for gem-engraving is mentioned above at page 104. 
 Another variety of coruiidum from Cyprus, called Cyprium, 
 was used for grinding down and polishing gems — " ita vocan- 
 tur cotes in Cypro insula genitae"; Hist. Nat. XXXVI. 54. 
 
 Emerald, aiiapa^ho^; ; Theophrastus, Lap. 23 ; and Pliny 
 H. N. xxxvii. 62 to 75. 
 
 In point of value Pliny ranks the emerald third ; the 
 adamas coming first, and the pearl {margarita) second. 
 
 Pliny tells us (§ 63) that the green of the emerald is so 
 refreshing to the eyes that gem-engravers were in the habit of 
 keeping an emerald by them to look at, as a rest for their 
 eyes during the intervals of their trying labour'. Pliny also 
 states (§ 64) that the Emperor Nero used an emerald in some 
 way to help him to see the gladiatorial fights — " gladiatorum 
 pugnas spectabat in smaragdo"; but it is difficult to understand 
 what is the precise meaning of Pliny's phrase. Judging from 
 the context the emerald was used, not as a lens to look 
 through, but as a mirror in which the scene was reflected. 
 The emerald is the bright green variety of the beryl, which 
 consists of silicate of aluminium and glucina, crystallised in 
 hexagonal form. The sea-green variety is the aquamarine of 
 modern jewellers. 
 
 As Pliny mentions (§ 6"]^, the emerald is specially liable 
 to defects in the form of flaws and cloudiness ; in fact a 
 large and yet quite flawless emerald is never to be seen. 
 
 Pliny mentions a great many varieties of the smaragdus, 
 
 evidently including several different green stones under this 
 
 name. Quoting Theophrastus {Lap. 23) he mentions (§ 74 
 
 Large and § 75) various columns and obelisks of considerable size, 
 
 emeralds. which were said to be made of smaragdus, but were more 
 
 probably of green glass ; as, for example, the column in the 
 
 Varieties 
 of beryl. 
 
 ^ In a previous passage (xxix. 38) Pliny says that a green scarabaeus beetle 
 was used by gem-engravers for the same purpose — "gemmaram scalptores contuitu 
 eorum (scarabaeorum) acquiescunt.'' 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 ANTIQUE EMERALDS. 
 
 I3S 
 
 Phoenician temple of Baal at Tyre, which is also described 
 by Herodotus, il. 44, Pliny also tells us, on the authority of 
 Apion, that in the great Egyptian labyrinth (in the Fayftm) 
 there was a statue of Serapis made of smaragdus, which was 
 about fourteen feet high. 
 
 Antique gems on emerald are not common, but some 
 fine examples do exist dating from the time of the Roman 
 Empire : as a rule, Pliny says, the emerald was worn un- 
 engraved, Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 64. At § 6, however, he 
 mentions a Greek emerald gem, engraved with a figure 
 of Amymone, which was sold for four gold staters in the 
 4th century B.C. (see above, page 40) ; but engraved emeralds 
 of pre-Roman date are now almost, if not quite unknown. 
 One of the finest examples of the use of the emerald is a 
 cameo of Medusa's head in the Devonshire collection, cut 
 on a large stone, probably about the time of Hadrian. 
 
 Most of the ancient engraved emeralds which now exist 
 are stones of poor quality, but Benvenuto Cellini tells us of 
 one, dug up near Rome, which he bought from a peasant, 
 which must have been a stone of remarkable beauty : see 
 Cellini's Autobiog. lib. I. cap. 27. 
 
 This emerald was engraved with a dolphin's head, but 
 it was chiefly valuable for the beauty of the stone. When 
 set in a ring it was sold for a very high price, several hundred 
 scudi, in modern value equal to as many pounds. 
 
 If engraved with an eagle or the scarabaeus beetle, the 
 emerald was supposed to possess certain magical virtues ; 
 see Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 124. 
 
 Though the emerald was so rarely employed for the 
 engraved gems of the Greeks, yet it was often used, chiefly 
 for pendants, to decorate gold jewellery. Small emeralds 
 frequently occur in the form of necklace beads, mixed with 
 beads of amethyst and rock crystal, forming a most beautiful 
 combination of colour. 
 
 In many cases these emeralds are not cut ; the natural 
 hexagonal form of the crystal is preserved, and nothing is 
 done to the gem except that a hole is drilled through its 
 axis for the insertion of the gold wire which holds it. 
 
 Antique 
 emeralds. 
 
 Ceilings 
 emerald. 
 
 virtues. 
 
 Greek \ 
 jeweller^. 
 
136 
 
 EMERALD AND BERYL. 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 Greek 
 emeralds. 
 
 Skill of 
 ancient 
 jewellers. 
 
 Beryl. 
 
 Indian 
 beryl. 
 
 A very beautiful gold sceptre of the most elaborate work- 
 manship, in the gem-room of the British Museum, has its 
 top formed in the shape of a flower with outer gold petals 
 and a central boss, which consists of a large rounded emerald 
 or perhaps a paste — not fine in quality, but very beautiful 
 and magnificent in eff"ect. Most of the emeralds used by the 
 Greeks are very full of flaws, and would be despised by a 
 tasteless modern jeweller, but, used with the wonderful skill 
 and good taste of an ancient gold-worker, they are as deco- 
 rative in effect as if they were of the most flawless and 
 costly kind. 
 
 The same remark may be made with regard to all the 
 jewellery of the Greeks, Etruscans and other classical races : 
 the most beautiful results were gained by the old goldsmiths 
 even when they had to use gems which would now be 
 rejected as valueless. A stone pale in colour and full of 
 flaws, which would have little beauty if cut in facets, when 
 cut in the old cabochon form and set in the exquisitely 
 delicate pure gold-work of the ancient jewellers becomes 
 a gem of the highest decorative value. No modern art is 
 in a more hopelessly degraded state than that of the jeweller. 
 
 The BERYL, ^ijpvXXo<;, is, as Pliny rightly states {Hist. 
 Nat. XXXVII. "]() to 79), of the same nature as the emerald. 
 As a jewel it was, he tells us, sometimes used uncut, the 
 natural hexagonal faces of its crystal being simply polished. 
 
 The most valued variety was the aquajnarine — " qui viri- 
 ditatem maris puri imitantur " ; and next to that the chryso- 
 beryl, chrysoberulli, of a brilliant golden tint, and the chryso- 
 prasus, golden, but with a tinge of leek green. 
 
 According to Pliny (§ 78) the beryl was a specially 
 favourite gem in India, where it was frequently worn, not 
 set in gold, but perforated and strung upon an elephant's 
 bristle. If the stone were of the finest quality it was not 
 drilled, but was set between two bosses of gold ; in which 
 case, we are told, the Indians " preferred beryls of cylindrical 
 form, rather than the usual shape used for gems." Like the 
 emerald, the beryl is usually not free from flaws. 
 
 The Indians, Pliny tells us (§ 79), had discovered a way 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 JEWELLERS TRICKS. 
 
 137 
 
 to imitate various gems and especially the beryl by staining Stained 
 rock crystal. This trick is still practised, especially by the "y^'"^- 
 German lapidaries, who heat the crystal red hot, and then 
 plunge it into a bath of cold dyeing matter. The sudden 
 change of temperature fills the crystals with minute cracks 
 into which the colouring matter soaks, and so stains even 
 the interior of the crystal, though in an imperfect and uneven 
 way. Many other tricks of the lapidary were practised in 
 ancient times, such as heating the pale yellow topaz and 
 thus changing its tint to pink. Onyxes and agates are imi- False 
 tated by first boiling chalcedony in honey and water, and '^''^ "' 
 then treating it with acid or with heat. The honey, which 
 has soaked into the pores of the chalcedony to a certain 
 depth, is permanently darkened by the acid ; and thus a 
 stone with layers of two different colours is formed. Sards 
 can be turned into sardonyxes simply by laying the stone 
 on a hot iron, thus forming a whitish opaque layer on the 
 heated surface. 
 
 Various tricks of this kind are mentioned by Pliny (Hist. Tricks of 
 Nat. XXXVII. 79, 98, 19s, and 197): in the last passage he dealers. 
 describes a different sort of fraud, still commonly used, the 
 manufacture, that is, of a sardonyx, with beautifully even 
 layers, by fastening together slices of three diff"erent stones. 
 Another clever trick, which is still practised, is the backing a 
 paste gem with a thin slice of genuine stone, so that a 
 suspicious purchaser finds the back of the suspected paste 
 will stand the test of a file without being scratched. The 
 paste so treated is sold ready set in a ring, so that the 
 junction of the true stone and the paste is concealed. 
 
 The beryl is not a common stone among ancient engraved Ancient 
 gems even during the Roman period, but it is far less rare ^'^ 
 than the sapphire or emerald. The finest example known is 
 the celebrated portrait of Julia by Euodos, now among the 
 collection in the Bibliotheque of Paris ; see page 74. 
 
 In tint this magnificent beryl approaches that of the 
 aquamarine : it is a stone of special purity and most brilliant 
 lustre, and was one of the most valued gems of the treasury 
 of the Abbey of St Denis. 
 
138 
 
 CARBUNCLE 
 
 [CHAP. XI. 
 
 Carbuncle. 
 
 False 
 carbuncle. 
 
 Foiled 
 carbuncle. 
 
 Sasanian 
 carbuncles. 
 
 As a rule antique engraved beryls are very pale in tint, 
 often with a faint bluish tinge, but very pure and lustrous, so 
 that the work on them has a specially beautiful effect when 
 the gem is held up to the light, and the design seen by 
 the transmitted rays. 
 
 The CARBUNCLE or GARNET is one of the stones to which 
 Pliny gives the name carbimculus : Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 92 to 
 98 \ At present the name "carbuncle" is given to the gem 
 when cut en cabochon or rounded ; if cut in facets it is the 
 " garnet." This fine flame-coloured stone is a silicate of 
 aluminium and calcium together with small quantities of iron, 
 which give its colour ; it varies in tint from a deep ruby red 
 to a pale pink. 
 
 Pliny remarks (§ 98) that the carbuncle can be very 
 successfully imitated in paste, but the imitations, like paste 
 copies of other gems, can be distinguished by their inferior 
 hardness — '' cote deprehenduntur, sicut aliae gemmae, fictis 
 enim mollior materia fragilisque est"; the pastes also are 
 lighter than the real stones, and are less cold to the touch, 
 see Hist. Nat xxxvn. 128. 
 
 The carbuncle is not an uncommon stone among the en- 
 graved gems of the Roman Imperial period, and it often 
 bears very fine work. When found in its original setting it is 
 frequently backed by gold or silver foil {brattea anrea vel 
 argentea) which much increases its beauty''. As a rule the 
 surface of the carbuncle, where the design is cut, is convex, 
 and in some cases the back of the gem is hollowed into a 
 concave form, to give greater brilliance and transparency to 
 the stone. 
 
 Gems of the Sasanian class are not uncommonly en- 
 graved on large and very fine Oriental carbuncles, probably 
 brought from India. 
 
 The carbuncle is also largely used for Greek and Etruscan 
 jewellery. Gold necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings and the like 
 are studded with plain cabochon-cut carbuncles backed with 
 
 ^ The word carbunculus is also used to denote a red variety of sand (arena) ; 
 see Vitruv. 11. vi. 6. 
 
 ^ On the use of foil-backing, see page 116 — 117. 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 OR. GARNET. 
 
 139 
 
 brilliant gold-foil ; the bright yellow of the surrounding gold 
 and the deep red of the gem give a very effective and 
 beautiful contrast of colour. 
 
 The gem-room of the British Museum contains some of 
 the finest known examples of this elaborate kind of jewellery: 
 many of them, from the Castellani collection, were found in 
 Etruscan tombs, but the most magnificent example came 
 from Olbia in Sardinia' 
 
 Oriental carbuncles are often of very great size. Pliny 
 tells us {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 95) that drinking-cups holding 
 one sextariiis were sometimes cut out of an Indian carbuncle. 
 Examples of such cups from India still exist : the Hope 
 collection of gems (now dispersed) contained a cup of 
 considerable size hollowed out of a carbuncle of great beauty, 
 and another is preserved in the Mayer collection in Liverpool. 
 
 Greek 
 carbuncles. 
 
 Oriental 
 carbuncle. 
 
 ' Small pieces of garnet cut into thin slices and backed with gold foil are very 
 commonly used in the cloisonne jewellery of Saxon and other Teutonic races. 
 
140 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Materials used for Gems (continued). 
 
 Silicon Gems of the SILICON family. 
 
 ^^""' By far the greater number of antique gems, especially 
 
 those of pre-Roman times, are engraved on some one of the 
 many forms of silicon which exist in great abundance in 
 almost every part of the world. The most familiar examples 
 of this mineral are rock crystal or quartz, a pure form of 
 silica or oxide of silicon, and common flint, which is the same 
 substance in an amorphous form, coloured by various slight 
 impurities, especially oxide of iron. 
 
 These silicon stones are specially suited to the gem- 
 engraver on account of their toughness, absence of grain, and 
 sufficient but not excessive hardness, which makes them 
 comparatively easy to work, and at the same time but little 
 liable to injury from wear or fracture. 
 
 The silicon minerals may be divided into the three following 
 classes according to their structure — 
 
 Quartz I. CRYSTALLINE stones: such as colourless rock or quartz 
 
 crysta . crystal, sometimes known as Brighton or Irish diamonds and 
 other similar names. Slight traces of metallic oxides give 
 various colours to quartz crystal, which is then known by 
 different names, according to its tint : purple crystals are 
 called amethyst, pale yellow is citrine, orange yellow Cairn- 
 gorm or Scotch topaz, leek green is called prase : other varieties 
 are called rose quartz or smoky quartz according to their 
 colour. 
 
 Aventtirine is quartz crystal filled with minute specks of 
 mica, looking like gold dust. 
 
CHAP. XII.J SILICON GEMS. ROCK CRYSTAL. 
 
 141 
 
 Rock 
 crystal. 
 
 Source of 
 crystal. 
 
 II. CrYPTO-CRYSTALLINE or AMORPHOUS: the most 
 important varieties of this class are sard, carnelian, chalcedony, 
 
 jasper, bloodstone, heliotrope, plasma, and opal. 
 
 III. Stratified stones: this class includes all the 
 varieties of agate, onyx, sardonyx and nicolo. 
 
 I. Rock crystal is the purest form of silica, SiO^ ; its 
 Greek name KpvcrTaWo<} means in the first place ice, it is 
 only used by late writers (e.g. Strabo, p. 717) to mean crystal. 
 
 According to Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 23) rock crystal is 
 sinaply a form of ice, which has been permanently frozen by 
 excessive cold, and is only found where there is abundance of 
 rain-water and snow ; hence, he says, it is abundant in the 
 Alps. Nevertheless Pliny mentions various places, such as 
 Cyprus, where snow and extreme cold are little known, as 
 being among the principal sources of crystal. The largest 
 block of crystal known to Pliny was one weighing about 1 50 
 pounds, which was dedicated by Livia Augusta in the temple 
 of Capitoline Jupiter in Rome. In modern times much 
 larger blocks of crystal have been found ; one in the Museum 
 at Milan weighs no less than 870 pounds. 
 
 Cups and other vessels cut out of large blocks of crystal Crystal 
 were specially valued by the Romans of the Empire. 
 
 Pliny mentions {H. N. XXXVII. 29) a single bowl for 
 which 150,000 sesterces were paid by a Roman lady; and 
 Nero, in his last moments of despair, shattered to pieces two 
 crystal cylices, in order that no one else might possess them. 
 
 The coldness of crystal, Pliny tells us (§ 30), made it 
 specially suitable for iced drinks ; while cups of amber were 
 best for warm drinks, and vmrrhine^ cups were equally suit- 
 able for both. One curious use of crystal is mentioned by 
 Pliny (§ 28) : who says that a crystal ball, used as a burning 
 glass, is the best instrument for surgical cautery. 
 
 In some cases, under the later Empire, crystal was used 
 for the nude parts of sculpture on a large scale, such as the 
 face and hands, in spite of its being remarkably unsuited for 
 such a purpose. 
 
 ' Murrhina was probably the beautiful purple translucent form of fluor spar, 
 known in Derbyshire, where it is largely found, by the name of "blue John.'' 
 
 cups. 
 
 Burning 
 Hass. 
 
142 
 
 CRYSTALLINE SILICA 
 
 [CHAP. XII. 
 
 Crystal 
 sculpture. 
 
 Crystal 
 gems. 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Amethyst. 
 
 Phalerae. 
 
 In the gem-room of the British Museum there is a large 
 fragment of a crystal hand from some life-sized statue. The 
 translucent obsidian, a natural glass of volcanic origin, was 
 also used in the same way by late Roman sculptors. 
 
 Under the Byzantine Emperors crystal vases of great 
 beauty were made, especially wine-jugs, covered externally 
 with decorative foliage and animals in relief. 
 
 In early times rock crystal was not unfrequently used for 
 signets, especially for the cylinders and cones of Assyria and 
 Babylon. 
 
 Crystal also occurs among the lenticular so-called "Island 
 gems," and occasionally among gems of the finest period. 
 The Fitzwilliam Museum (Catalogue, No. 5) possesses a very 
 fine scarabaeoid gem of about 500 B.C. with a warrior putting 
 on his greaves, cut in the purest and most brilliant crystal. 
 
 Among Greek gems of a later period rock crystal is not 
 common, but under the later Roman Empire, especially 
 during the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., it is frequently used for 
 large coarsely cut intaglios, probably intended, not for signets, 
 but for decorative purposes. 
 
 It is also sometimes used for the large heads in relief 
 which ornamented the phalerae on the cuirass of the Emperor 
 or some high official ; see Suet. Atig. 25. 
 
 The AMETHYST, a purple variety of rock crystal, is the 
 d/jLedvcTTov of Theophrastus, Lap. 30 to 31 : it is described by 
 Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 121 to 124. Its name was derived 
 from the supposed power of this gem to enable its wearer to 
 drink freely without the usual consequences (a, priv. and 
 fie9vcro<i), a superstition which Pliny derides (§ 124) as an idle 
 invention of the Magi. For Greek gems of the best periods 
 amethyst was very rarely used, but it is not an uncommon 
 stone for gems of the Roman period ; it is also sometimes 
 used for Assyrian cylinders, and early scarab gems. 
 
 Phalerae cameo heads of the Imperial period are often cut 
 out of large amethysts, and are very magnificent in effect. 
 
 1 Examples of these crystal jugs, almost identical in design, dating probably 
 from the 8th or 9th century A. D., are to be seen in the South Kensington Museum, 
 the Bargello Museum in Florence, and in the Treasury of St Mark at Venice. 
 
CHAP. XII.] AND CRYPTO-CRYSTALLINE SILICA. 
 
 143 
 
 Like the carbuncle, its effect is best when the stone is cut Amethyst. 
 in a convex form {en cabochon) and is set with a backing 
 of highly polished metallic foil. 
 
 The amethyst varies very much in depth of colour, ranging 
 from the deepest to the palest tint of purple ; antique gems 
 are usually cut on one of the pale varieties. In early jewellery 
 the amethyst is largely used, especially for necklace beads of 
 various forms. 
 
 Rock crystal of other colours was sometimes used by the Citrine. 
 Romans for engraved gems, especially the yellow citrine, of 
 which No. 29 among the Fitzwilliam gems is an example. It 
 is probably the chrysolithus of Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 126. 
 
 The prase is not uncommon, the prasiiis of Pliny {Hist. Prase. 
 Nat. XXXVII. 113) derived from nrpaaivo'i, leek-green: fine 
 specimens are very beautiful in colour, and often bear good 
 work of the Imperial period, especially portrait heads of 
 Emperors and Empresses. 
 
 II. Among the second class of silicon gems, those which 
 are crypto-crystalline in structure, by far the most common as 
 a material for ancient gems is the SARD. Sard. 
 
 As Pliny says {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 106), " nee fuit alia 
 gemma apud antiquos usu frequentior." 
 
 The sard, the a-dpBiov of Theophrastus, Lap. 30 (Latin 
 sarda) is described by Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 105 and 106. 
 According to him it was so called from being largely found 
 near Sardes in Lydia ; but it is more probable that it is 
 derived from a Persian word meaning ' yellow.' 
 
 The sard varies in colour from a pale golden yellow to a 
 reddish orange : the name carnelian is frequently given to a Cameiian. 
 class of gems identical in chemical composition and closely 
 resembling the sard, but which are less perfectly transparent 
 and of a deeper red in colour. 
 
 In point of structure the sard differs from the carnelian in 
 several respects : it is both tougher and harder and its fracture 
 shows a slightly crystalline structure, while the carnelian is 
 more completely amorphous and its fractured surface is more 
 smooth and glistening than that of the sard, in that respect 
 approaching nearer to chalcedony. 
 
144 
 
 SARD, CHALCEDONY 
 
 [chap. XII. 
 
 Beauty of 
 sard. 
 
 Early use 
 of sard. 
 
 Sardoine. 
 
 Chalce- 
 dony. 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Jasper. 
 
 No gem shows the engraving on it, when held up to the 
 light, to as much advantage as does a fine sard. 
 
 The best examples are brilliantly transparent, and very 
 fine in colour : perhaps the most beautiful are those which 
 are of a golden yellow tint. 
 
 Both the sard and the carnelian are very commonly used 
 for engraved gems of all periods, including the cylinders of 
 Assyria, and the scarabs of the Phoenicians, the early Greeks 
 and the Etruscans. According to Pliny, signets made of sard, 
 as well as those of sardonyx, had the advantage that the wax 
 did not adhere to them when an impression was made : see 
 H. N. XXXVII. 104 and 105. He also tells us that certain 
 kinds of sard were usually backed with gold or silver foil. 
 
 According to Theophrastus {Lap. 30) the sard was of two 
 principal kinds ; the female, of transparent red tint, and the 
 male, of a brownish colour. 
 
 The latter is now commonly known as the sardoine ; it is 
 sometimes very dark in tint, almost black, unless it is held up 
 to the light, when it appears of a deep translucent red. It 
 occurs more commonly among Roman than among Greek 
 engraved gems. 
 
 Chalcedony was also a very favourite stone for gem- 
 engravers of all periods, especially those of early times. The 
 most beautiful sort of chalcedony is of a semi-translucent 
 milky white or pale blue tint ; fine examples of the latter are 
 called sapphirine chalcedotiy : gems No. 7 and 11 in the Fitz- 
 william collection are good examples of this quality of stone. 
 Other kinds of chalcedony are of a translucent brown tint, 
 such as No. 10 in the same catalogue. Other colours occur, 
 but all specimens of chalcedony are to some extent translu- 
 cent. If quite opaque the stone would come under the head 
 of one of the varieties of jasper. 
 
 Jasper, laa-irL^, is an almost equally common material for 
 antique signets, especially the Assyrian cylinders and the 
 early lenticular and scarab gems. It is also common among 
 gems of the later Roman Empire. 
 
 The iaspis of Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 115) denotes 
 specially the green varieties ol jasper, and includes the trans- 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 AND JASPER. 
 
 H5 
 
 Colours of 
 jasper. 
 
 lucent kind which is now known as plasma — '' viret et saepe Jasper and 
 tralucet iaspis." Pliny tells us that one fine variety of jasper ^ """"' 
 was called a<^pa<yi<;, as being Kar i^o'x^^v the signet-stone ; 
 see JI. N. XXXVII. 17. 
 
 Jasper signets of the finest quality, he says, were set open 
 in rings ; that is, they were not backed with gold, but merely 
 framed in a gold border — " praestantiores funda cluduntur ut 
 sint patentes ab utraque parte, nee praeter margines quicquam 
 auro amplectente." The meaning of the word funda (a^ev- 
 Sovrf) has been explained above, see page 34. 
 
 The jasper used for gems is most commonly either the 
 green or the red variety, but it also occurs of many other 
 colours, yellow, brown, grey, white and black. The black 
 jasper, known as Lydian stone, was used by goldsmiths as a 
 touch-stone, coticula, to show the quality of gold by the 
 colour of its streak marked upon the stone : see Pliny, Hist. 
 Nat. XXXIII. 126. The red jasper appears to be what Pliny 
 in one passage calls haematites {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 169) ; but 
 he elsewhere uses the same word for what is now called red 
 haeifiatite, an oxide of iron ; see H. N. XXXVI. 129. 
 
 The red jasper used for cylinders and gems is frequently Redjasper. 
 of the most brilliant blood-red tint. In Roman times it was 
 believed to have occult virtues, especially when engraved with 
 a figure of Serapis or some other Egyptian or Persian deity. 
 As Pliny tells us " Totus oriens pro amuleto gestare eas 
 traditur," H. N. XXXVII. 118. The same magical qualities Amulets. 
 were also attributed to the green jasper, on which figures of 
 Horus or Harpocrates were frequently engraved during the 
 Imperial period : see gems No. 20 and 105 in the Fitzwilliam 
 Catalogue. 
 
 The iasponyx, mentioned by Pliny in the last named laspo7iyx. 
 passage, was a stratified .onyx, in which one of the layers 
 resembled jasper ; just as the sardonyx was a combination of 
 the onyx and the sard. ' 
 
 The plasma, as is mentioned above, is a translucent Prasina. 
 variety of the green jasper : the word plasma is a corruption 
 oi prasina, leek-green. 
 
 Roman Imperial gems of very good workmanship some- 
 M. 10 
 
146 
 
 JASPER, OPAL, 
 
 [chap. XII. 
 
 Plasma. times occur on plasma of a beautiful emerald tint, usually 
 mottled with markings of a deeper green : one of remarkable 
 beauty in the British Museum is engraved with a bust of 
 Severus, very well executed considering its late date, and of 
 very fine colour : No. 1627, Brit. Mus. Cat. 
 
 Bloodstone. The BLOODSTONE is a variety of green jasper, studded 
 
 with specks of red, like drops of blood. 
 
 Akin to this is the HELIOTROPIUM of Pliny {Hist. Nat. 
 XXXVII. 165) which is a variety of translucent green plasma 
 with similar crimson spots, "porraceo colore, sanguineis venis 
 distincta." 
 
 Both these stones were used by the late Roman gem- 
 engravers, but not very commonly. Among the Greeks they 
 were scarcely ever used for signet-stones. 
 
 Opal. The OPAL is a very beautiful form of silica, which derives 
 
 its magnificent colours, not from the presence of any pigment, 
 but from its laminated structure, which gives brilliant pris- 
 matic colours by breaking up the rays of light. The opal is 
 described by Pliny {H. N. XXXVII. 80 to 84) as being next in 
 value to the eme^'ald. Enormous prices were paid by the 
 Romans of the Empire for fine specimens of this gem. A 
 large opal, mentioned by Pliny as being valued at two million 
 sesterces, was the cause of its owner the Senator Nonius 
 being proscribed and driven into exile by Marc Antony who 
 coveted the possession of the gem. Though very beautiful 
 as a jewel, the opal was quite unsuited to receive engraving, 
 and was not used for signets, though there are a few Roman 
 examples of its use for cameos. 
 
 III. Among the third, the stratified class of silicon stones, 
 the most important are the following — 
 
 Onyx. The ONYX, hvvxt-ov, from ovv^ a finger-nail, Theoph. Lap. 2 ; 
 
 and Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 90 to 91. According to Sudines, 
 quoted by Pliny, its name was derived from the fact that the 
 onyx had one stratum resembling the human finger-nail, com- 
 bined with one or more layers coloured like sard ox jasper. 
 
 It should be observed that the word onyx is also used by 
 Pliny to mean a quite different substance, namely Oriental 
 alabaster ; see Hist. Nat. XXXVI. 59 to 61. 
 
 Value of 
 opal. 
 
CHAP. XII.] ONYX AND AGATE. 147 
 
 Under the Roman Empire the onyx was a very favourite Onyx. 
 stone for signets, although an unstratified gem is really more 
 suited for intaglio work. In the number and colour of its 
 layers the onyx varies very much ; like other stratified gems 
 it was well suited for cameos, especially if it consisted of one 
 white stratum on a brown or dark red one : the figures, being 
 cut in the upper layer, appear in white on a dark background 
 with very good effect, if skilfully treated. 
 
 As a rule the stratified forms of silica occur in nodules Nodwks 
 with more or less concentric layers formed round a nucleus, 
 and it was therefore by no means easy for the gem-engraver 
 to get hold of a sufficiently large piece with fairly level 
 strata. In some cases large cameos were built up by joining 
 together several pieces of onyx, as is the case with the 
 celebrated Odescalchi cameo, six inches high by five wide, 
 with busts of a Roman Emperor and his wife, or Mars 
 and Roma. In this case the junctions are cleverly arranged 
 so as to be concealed by the edges of dress, armour or 
 necklaces \ 
 
 The word AGATE is now used in a rather vague way to Agate. 
 denote almost any chalcedonic stone with strongly marked 
 layers of deposit. 
 
 According to Pliny the achates {d'y^drr]';) was once highly 
 valued, but in his time had fallen greatly in value. Its name 
 was derived from the river Achates in Sicily, where fine 
 specimens of it were found : Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 1 39. 
 
 Pliny mentions a great many different varieties of agate, 
 each with its special name descriptive of the markings on it, 
 such as iaspackates, smaragdachates, haemachates, dendrachates 
 and the like. 
 
 Most of these stones, according to the Magi, had some 
 occult virtue. 
 
 A variety of onyx, which was much used under the Roman Nkoh. 
 Empire, is the nicolo as it is now called — a corruption of the 
 Italian diminutive of onyx, onycolo. It has a bluish white 
 layer on a dark brown ground. This is probably the Egyptian 
 
 ' The Odescalchi cameo is now in the Hermitage Museum at St Petersburg : 
 it was formerly taken for a work of Ptolemaic date. 
 
 10 — 2 
 
148 
 
 SARDONYX. 
 
 [CHAP. XII. 
 
 Sardonyx, 
 
 Sardonyx 
 beads. 
 
 Value of 
 Zems. 
 
 gem called Aegyptilla by Pliny {H. N. xxxvil. 148), who 
 describes it as being formed " in nigra radice, caerulea facie." 
 
 The SARDONYX was the most highly valued form, of onyx ; 
 it is described by Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 85 to 89. 
 
 The name aapSow^, sardonyches, was derived from the 
 stone having one layer like a sard superimposed on the strata 
 of an ordinary onyx. 
 
 Thus, the true sardonyx may consist of strata of various 
 numbers and colours, the essential point being that one of 
 these layers should be of the colour and appearance of a sard. 
 
 Lucian {Dea Syr. 32) who mentions the 'ZapBmo'i ovv^, 
 " Sardinian onyx,'' was probably misled by not understanding 
 the real meaning of aapSovv^. 
 
 One of the earliest instances of this gem being named by 
 any Greek writer is in Plato's Phacdo, 1 10 D, where reference 
 is made to the fine colours o{ emerald, sardonyx 2.x\.A jasper. 
 
 According to Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 88) the sardonyx, 
 like the sard, is one of the very few gems to which the wax 
 does not adhere when it is used as a signet. 
 
 The finest kinds of sardonyx and of onyx were imported 
 from Arabia and India, where, as Pliny tells us, this stone was 
 commonly drilled by the natives, and worn, in the form of 
 beads or cylinders, round the neck. 
 
 Antique gems, especially large Roman cameos, often have 
 remains of a drilled hole through them ; no doubt on account 
 of the use of the stone on a necklace, before it came into the 
 hands of the Roman engraver. 
 
 The sardonyx was but little used for Greek gems ; like all 
 stratified stones it is more suited for cameos than for signets. 
 The Romans however used it commonly for both purposes. 
 
 Demostratus, quoted by Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 85), 
 tells us that Scipio Africanus the Elder was the first Roman 
 who used the sardonyx for his signet, and that ever since that 
 time it was very highly valued in Rome, coming next to the 
 opal in point of costliness. 
 
 Pliny arranges the principal gems in the following order 
 of value — I, Adamas ; 2, Pearl; 3, Emerald; 4, Opal; 
 5, Sardonyx. This however refers, not to their value for 
 
CHAP. XII.] TOPAZUS AND TURQUOISE. 
 
 149 
 
 Sardonyx 
 nems. 
 
 engraving, but as decorative jewels. As stones to engrave 
 upon, the sard and the sardonyx would probably rank first. 
 
 The importance of the sardonyx as a signet-gem is men- 
 tioned by Juvenal {Sat. Xlli. 138), 
 
 " arguit ipsorum quos littera gemmaque princeps 
 sardonychum, loculis quae custoditur eburnis:" 
 
 See also Juvenal, Sat. vii. 145 
 
 " Ideo conducta PauUus agebat 
 sardonyche." 
 
 The Emperor Claudius made the sardonyx specially 
 fashionable, that and the emerald being his favourite gems. 
 
 This concludes the list of Silicon gems. 
 
 The TOPAZUS of Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 107 to 109) is Topazus. 
 certainly not the brilliant yellow gem which is now called the 
 topaz. Pliny's topazus was a green stone, often of large size, 
 and soft enough to be cut with the file and to be injured by 
 wear: § 109. Possibly under this name Pliny includes the 
 modern chrysolite and the peridot, a gem of a fine yellowish- 
 green tint. 
 
 The statue, six feet high, made of topazus, which, according 
 to Pliny, was dedicated in honour of Arsinoe, the wife of 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the " Golden Temple " in Egypt, 
 was probably an instance of the use of paste or glass, like the 
 " emerald " column in the Tyrian temple of Baal. It is how- 
 ever doubtful whether the name topazus was not sometimes 
 used for an opaque stone, since Pliny speaks of the green 
 turquoise as closely resembHng it. 
 
 The CALLAINA of Pliny {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. no to 112) 
 appears to be the green variety of the turquoise. 
 
 The finest examples are said to be of an emerald colour. 
 It was specially found in the Caucasus, and in Persia, where it 
 is still very largely used for decorative purposes. 
 
 Pliny remarks that the callaina is injured by contact with 
 oil, a fact that is true with regard to all turquoises. It is, he 
 says, improved by being set in gold more than any other 
 stone, and is easily counterfeited in paste. 
 
 The blue turquoise is evidently the stone which Pliny calls Callais. 
 
 Glass 
 statues. 
 
 Green tur- 
 quoise. 
 
ISO 
 
 TURQUOISE, LAPIS LAZULI 
 
 [chap. XII. 
 
 Blue tur- 
 quoise. 
 
 Turquoise 
 cameos. 
 
 Lapis 
 lazuli. 
 
 Cyanos. 
 
 CALLAIS [Hist. Nat. xxxviL 151) — "callais sappirum imi- 
 tatur," that is, it resembles lapis lazuli in colour. 
 
 The turquoise is a hydrated phosphate of alumina, which 
 derives its splendid blue or green colour chiefly from copper, 
 but also from iron or manganese: it does not occur in a 
 crystalline form, but is as hard as feldspar and takes a very 
 high polish. 
 
 It appears not to have been used for Greek gems, but 
 some fine cameos of Roman Imperial date are cut in it. 
 
 A very good example is No. 403 in the Marlborough 
 collection, with heads of Livia and the young Tiberius cut in 
 relief in a large green turquoise, which seems to have been 
 valued by the Romans more than the blue variety. Probably 
 the only ancient intaglios of turquoise are of Sasanian 
 workmanship. 
 
 The SAPPiRUS of Pliny {Hist. Nat. xxxvil. 120) is not 
 what is now called the sapphire, but is the opaque lapis 
 lazuli, from which the fine ultramarine blue used in painting 
 was manufactured. 
 
 Theophrastus {Lap. 23) calls it aaiTt^e.Lpo<i Kvavrj, and 
 describes it as being speckled with gold. 
 
 Lapis lazuli is a compound mineral of the Hailynite class, 
 consisting of a silicate and sulphate of calcium, sodium and 
 aluminium. It is of a magnificent deep blue colour usually 
 mottled with white, and contains gold-like specks of iron 
 pyrites. 
 
 It appears also to have been known by the name cyanos 
 {Kvavo'i). Pliny describes cyanus as being called " a colore 
 caeruleo," and mentions its gold specks — -inest ei aliquando et 
 aureus pulvis qualis sappiris"; H. N. XXXVII. 119. 
 
 Theophrastus {Lap. 55) mentions natural and artificial 
 Kvavo%. The former came specially from Scythia and from 
 Cyprus :. the artificial kind was a product of Egypt, where it 
 was invented at a very early period. Theophrastus also 
 records that a certain quantity of Kvavo<i formed part of the 
 annual tribute paid by the Phoenicians : see also Pliny, Hist. 
 Nat. xxxvn. 119. 
 
 Many examples still exist of Egyptian scarabs and signets 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 AND MAGNETITE. 
 
 ISI 
 
 Artificial 
 cyanos. 
 
 Lapis 
 
 of other forms made of this artificial cyanos, which is an 
 alkaline silicate, coloured a deep blue with carbonate of 
 copper : the same compound was used as a pigment from 
 very early times, as for example in the paintings of Egypt 
 and those at Mycenae and Tiryns. 
 
 In Camiros and elsewhere in Rhodes and other Greek 
 islands signets of this artificial cyanos have been found in the 
 shape of rams' and lions' heads, pierced for suspension, with 
 the signet-device cut on the flat underside. This artificial 
 cyanos, when used as a pigment, is called caeruleum by Pliny, 
 H. N. XXXIII. 1 6 1, who says that the best quality came from 
 Egypt, where it had been invented by one of the kings. 
 
 The real sappirus or lapis lazuli was not unfrequently used 
 for Egyptian scarabs and for Assyrian cylinders. 
 
 During the Greek period, except in Egypt under the 
 Ptolemies, it was rarely used by gem-engravers, but it was not 
 uncommon for the gems of the Roman Empire. 
 
 A good many well-cut intaglios and cameos in sappirus, of 
 late Roman workmanship, still exist, though it is not really 
 suited for the purpose of signets, on account of its inferior 
 hardness and the great difficulty of finding a piece that is 
 homogeneous in colour, most lapis lazuli having its deep 
 blue much broken up by white. 
 
 Pliny refers to this when he says it is " inutilis scalpturis 
 intervenientibus crystallinis centris," Hist. Nat. XXXVI. 120. 
 Sasanian gems are occasionally cut upon very fine pieces of 
 Persian lapis lazuli. 
 
 Magnetite (Latin magnes) is a hard metallic oxide of 
 iron, FeOFe^Og, almost black in colour, with a strong 
 metallic lustre when polished. It frequently has the power 
 of attracting iron and then is known as natural loadstone. 
 
 According to Pliny, who describes the magnes {Hist. Nat. 
 XXXVI. 126 to 128), it was called by the Greeks sideritis, from 
 its power of attracting iron, (rihripo<;; the name magnes, 
 according to Nicander, was derived from a shepherd called 
 Magnes, who accidentally discovered it by feeling the iron 
 nails in his boots stick to the stones on which he was walking. 
 
 Haematite is another ore of iron, a sesqui-oxide, very Haematite. 
 
 Magnetite. 
 
152 
 
 HAEMATITE, STEATITE, 
 
 [CHAP. XII. 
 
 Early 
 signets. 
 
 Haematite, similar to magnetite except that it is of a deep red tint like 
 blood, and does not attract iron ; it is described by Pliny 
 {Hist. Nat. XXXVI. 1 29) \ 
 
 Haematite, finely powdered, was used by the gem-en- 
 gravers to give the final polish to their work. It was also 
 largely used for medicinal purposes. 
 
 Magnetite and haematite are both used very frequently 
 for Assyrian cylinders, for the so-called Hittite gems, and for 
 other signets of an early period. 
 
 Among the later Greeks these stones were rarely used, 
 but they are not uncommon among the gems of the later 
 Roman Empire. Fine specimens are very hard and close in 
 grain, and have, when polished, almost the lustre and colour 
 of steel. Both magnetite and haematite sometimes occur in 
 the form of crystals. 
 
 Magnetite was also used for necklace beads and similar 
 decorative purposes by the Egyptians, Phoenicians and other 
 early Oriental races. 
 Steatite. STEATITE, or soapstone, is a silicate of magnesia ; though 
 
 not ranking among the hard stones usually used for ancient 
 gems, it was an important material in early times. It was 
 specially used for Egyptian scarabs, and not unfrequently for 
 Assyrian cylinders and signets of the " Hittite," Phoenician 
 and early lenticular classes. The softness of steatite, and the 
 consequent ease with which it was worked, made it a favourite 
 material for early races who had no harder substance to 
 engrave with than flint or obsidian. For the same reason 
 serpentine and limestones of various colours were commonly 
 used for the primitive " Hittite " gems. 
 Granite. GRANITES and BASALTS of various colours were occasion- 
 
 ally used for some of the same early classes of signets for 
 which the softer steatite was employed, especially for Egyptian 
 scarabs and Oriental cylinders. 
 
 The very fine, hard greenish-grey basalt of Egypt was 
 very suitable for a signet-stone, being very close in grain and 
 
 ^ Pliny's use of the word haematitis to mean red jasper is mentioned above, 
 page 145. 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 BASALT AND PASTE. 
 
 153 
 
 Paste 
 gems. 
 
 even in texture. It was sometimes used for this purpose in Basalt. 
 Egypt as late as the Ptolemaic period. 
 
 Examples of the green basalt of Mt Taygetus being 
 used for lenticular gems are mentioned above at page 20. 
 This beautiful stone is an almost pure form of feldspar, 
 coloured by a minute proportion of carbonate of copper \ 
 
 Paste gems, gemmae fictitiae or vitreae, were made by the 
 Greeks and Romans with very great skill. The material 
 of which they were composed was a pure, hard glass, without 
 any admixture of lead — what is now called "flint glass," a pure 
 alcaline silicate with the addition of lime. Roman pastes 
 usually contain, in lOO parts, about 70 of silica, 18 of soda, 
 8 of lime, 2 of aluinina, and small quantities of metallic oxides, 
 to which the colour is due. Modern pastes are usually made 
 with nearly 50 per cent, of oxide of lead ; and they are there- 
 fore much softer and more liable to decomposition than the 
 old ones. A fragment of an antique paste will scratch a 
 modern one, as easily as rock crystal will scratch flint glass. 
 
 The colours of ancient pastes are often very magnificent, 
 especially the ruby red, the sapphire blue, the emerald green 
 and the orange yellow. Ancient pastes in Italy are often 
 bought by jewellers to sell, when cut in facets, as real gems. 
 The chief pigments used to colour the ancient pastes were 
 various metallic oxides and salts. Blue, green and ruby red 
 were produced by different oxides and salts of copper. 
 
 Manganese produced an amethyst-purple. Another blue 
 was given by cobalt; yellow was produced by carbon. 
 
 Opaque white, used in making the white stratum of 
 imitation onyx, was produced by oxide of tin. The various 
 colours used for glass are mentioned by Pliny, Hist. Nat. 
 XXXVI. 198. 
 
 Pliny gives directions for distinguishing between pastes 
 and real gems {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 198 to 200) ; the chief 
 of these tests depend on the superior hardness, weight and 
 coldness of the trlie gems. 
 
 A splinter of obsidian (natural volcanic glass) or a file 
 
 Colours of 
 pastes. 
 
 Tests for 
 ^enis. 
 
 1 On the precious stones of the Greeks and Romans see Corsi, Pietre antiche, 
 Rome, 1845, pp. 268 — 292. 
 
154 
 
 FALSE GEMS. 
 
 [CHAP. XII. 
 
 Tests for 
 paste. 
 
 Crystal 
 glass. 
 
 Amber. 
 
 will, he tells us, scratch a paste, but will not touch a real 
 stone: unfortunately, he goes on to say, dealers in gems 
 {mangones gemmaruiti) usually will not allow purchasers to 
 put their stones to the scratching test (limae probationem) ; 
 and if they did, there was always the risk of deception by 
 means of the slice of real stone fitted at the back of the 
 paste ; see above, page 137. 
 
 Another test, mentioned by Pliny, is the presence of air 
 bubbles in the body of the paste : there are however some 
 very fine examples of antique pastes, such as that in the 
 Marlborough collection, described above at page 116, in 
 which no bubbles are visible'. 
 
 Such pastes are very rare ; in most cases a careful exami- 
 nation will detect minute bubbles in ancient imitations of 
 gems, even though in colour and purity of " water " the 
 paste may be quite equal to a fine example of a genuine 
 stone. In fact, in point of richness and beauty of colour 
 antique pastes are, on the whole, superior to the genuine 
 stones which were used by the gem-engravers. 
 
 Colourless paste or glass was made to imitate rock-crystal, 
 especially in the form of cups and bowls : these, Pliny says 
 {Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 29), were imitated with wonderful skill, so 
 that it was difficult to distinguish between the real crystal 
 and the glass ; yet, he remarks, the excellence of the imita- 
 tions did nothing to diminish the price of the genuine crystal : 
 see also Hist. Nat. XXXVI. 198 and 195 : in the latter passage 
 Pliny tells us that Nero paid no less than 6000 sesterces 
 for two small cups of glass, probably examples of elaborate 
 cutting with the lapidary's tools, such as those mentioned at 
 page 118. 
 
 Amber : a considerable section of Book XXXVII. (30 to 
 S3) is devoted by Pliny to a description of amber, sucinum. 
 
 1 A great deal of the superior beauty of ancient glass is due to the presence of 
 these minute air-bubbles, each of which catches the Hght and radiates it out from 
 the body of the glass, thus making it internally luminous, not merely transparent. 
 
 The absence of air-bubbles in modern stained glass is one reason of its being 
 so much less beautiful than the glass of mediaeval times, which has the same 
 peculiarity as the pastes of the classical period. 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 AMBER. 
 
 155 
 
 Fossil 
 gum. 
 
 Electrum. 
 
 though it does not properly come under the head of precious Amber. 
 stones, and was much too soft to engrave for use as a signet. 
 
 Roman finger-rings cut out of amber have occasionally 
 been found, but these had an engraved gem or paste set 
 in the bezel. It was also used for cameos, especially for 
 those which were set in honorary /.^«/e;'i3;^, for drinking-cups 
 and even for statuettes, for which large prices were given'. 
 
 According to Pliny (§ 51) amber could be stained to 
 imitate various gems, and more especially the amethyst. 
 
 His account of its origin is quite correct, Hist. Nat. 
 XXXVII. 42 ; amber is a fossil gum, which has exuded from 
 a tree of the pine tribe — an extinct conifer, which modern 
 botanists call Pinites Succinifer. The name sucinum was 
 derived from sucus (arboris), " tree-sap." 
 
 Amber was the rjXeKTpov of the Greeks (Plato, Tim. 80 C)^; 
 it was used in the early prehistoric period by almost all the 
 races of Europe, and is found in tombs of the bronze and 
 iron age over a very wide area. Homer {Od. XV. 460) 
 mentions a gold necklace, with pendants of amber, which 
 was offered for sale to the Queen of Syra by a Phoenician 
 trading-captain. Throughout the Greek period it was largely 
 used as an ornament in all sorts of gold jewellery. 
 
 In Pliny's time amber necklaces were commonly worn 
 by the women of the North of Italy beyond the river Po. 
 The curious electric properties of amber are noticed by Pliny 
 (§ 48), who speaks of it attracting, when rubbed, bits of chaff 
 and straw, as the magnet attracts iron filings. 
 
 Most of the amber used in Europe came from the shores 
 of the Baltic, but it was also found in the Red Sea and in 
 certain parts of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The existence of very early trading routes from the North 
 to the South of Europe is indicated by the frequent discovery 
 of amber from the Baltic- in the prehistoric tombs of various 
 southern localities. 
 
 Baltic 
 amber. 
 
 1 At Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 49, Pliny remarks that an amber statuette of a man 
 often cost as much money as would have purchased a living slave. 
 
 ^ The word ^Xenrpov also means an alloy of gold and silver, such as was largely 
 used for the early coinages of Western Asia Minor, especially Lydia and Ionia. 
 
IS6 
 
 CHOICE OF STONES. 
 
 [chap. XII. 
 
 Lyncu- 
 rium. 
 
 Choice of 
 stones. 
 
 Magic 
 virtues. 
 
 A variety of amber called lyncurium is mentioned by 
 Pliny, § 52; he says that it could be used for engraving 
 like a gem, but that is probably an error. 
 
 With regard to the choice of special stones for the engrav- 
 ing of certain subjects, it may be observed that in Roman 
 times and even among the later Greeks stones of certain 
 colours were sometimes selected by the engraver with a refer- 
 ence to the subject he was about to cut on it. 
 
 Thus the green beryl or aquamarine was considered suitable 
 for nymphs or deities of the sea, and the green jasper for 
 pastoral scenes, such as cattle feeding. 
 
 Several of the epigrams on engraved gems in the Greek 
 Anthologia refer to this fitness of colour and material to 
 the subject cut on the stone. 
 
 Other stones were selected for mystic religious reasons ; 
 as, for example, the blood-red jasper, which was commonly 
 used for heads and figures of the Graeco-Egyptian deities 
 Serapis and Horus. 
 
 It would not, however, be safe to press this point very far. 
 It was probably quite an exceptional thing for the colour of 
 a gem to have any allusion to the subject which was engraved 
 upon it. 
 
CHAP. XII.] 157 
 
 The comparative hardness of gems. 
 
 The following table indicates the dififerent degrees of 
 hardness of the stones used for engraved gems, with the 
 addition of some others for the sake of comparison. The 
 number opposite each represents its hardness according to the 
 scale now adopted by mineralogists generally. 
 
 1. talc, lowest degree of hardness ; 
 
 2. crystals of gypsum ; 
 2\. amber ; 
 
 3. transparent calcite and steatite , 
 
 4. fiuor-spar (jnurrkina) ; 
 5 to 5^. lapis lazuli ; 
 
 5^ to 6. opal ; 
 
 6. turquoise, and feldspar such as green basalt and red 
 porphyry ; 
 
 6\. haematite, magnetite ^nA peridot ; 
 
 7. rock-crystal, including the coloured varieties, such as 
 amethyst: the other varieties of the silicon gems, 
 such as chalcedony, sard and onyx, are slightly less 
 hard than the crystalline forms ; 
 
 7 to l\. carbuncle or garnet ; 
 
 7^ to 8. beryl in all forms, such as emerald and the sea- 
 green aquarnarine ; 
 
 8. topaz ; 
 
 9. sapphire, ruby and other crystalline forms of alumina; 
 
 10. diamond, the hardest of all known substances. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGRAVED GEMS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 BY 
 
 J. HENRY MIDDLETON 
 
 DIRECTOR 'OF THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART, 
 AND FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 189I 
 
CATALOGUE OF THE ENGRAVED GEMS IN 
 THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM'. 
 
 1. Archaic glandular gem; stag with curved horns, 
 running ; below are two branches : rude archaic work on green 
 chalcedony, pierced lengthways ; date possibly 8th century B.C. 
 or even earlier. 
 
 2. Eagle flying, holding a serpent in his beak and with Plate I. 
 one claw ; fine glandular gem, of green chalcedony, pierced ; 
 similar in type to No. i, but of better execution ; probably 
 
 of the 7th century B.C. 
 
 A similar eagle flying with a serpent in his beak occurs on 
 various early silver coins of Chalcis in Euboea ; see Zeitschrift 
 filr Numismatik, Vol. III. pp. 216 and 217: and Numismatic 
 Chronicle for 1890, PI. III. No. 23. 
 
 The eagle and serpent is also a frequent type on coins of 
 Elis of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. ; see Head, Coins of 
 the Ancients, Plate 14, Nos. 26 to 28. The eagle bearing a 
 serpent, hare or some other animal, was commonly regarded 
 as an omen of victory sent by Zeus; see Homer, //. XII. 218. 
 In his letter to the High Priest Onias, Areius King of Sparta 
 states that his royal signet is an eagle bearing a serpent in 
 its claws; see Josephus, Ant. Jud. XII. 5. It was a common 
 practice for the writer of a letter, both among the later 
 Greeks and the Romans, to mention at the end of it, what 
 
 ' All are from Colonel Leake's collection except Nos. 3, 3*, 4, 8, 42, and the 
 Ponlatowski gem, the last in the Catalogue. 
 Unless described as cameos, all are intaglios. 
 
 M. II 
 
IV 
 
 PHOENICIAN AND EARLY [APP. 
 
 was the design on its seal, as a guard against forgery and to 
 prevent the letter from being tampered with in any way. 
 
 Plate I. 3. Phoenician scarabaeoid of blue paste, surface corroded, 
 
 found at Camiros in the island of Rhodes. 
 
 The design represents an enthroned deity holding up a 
 cup ; behind is the kneeling figure of a worshipper ; in front 
 is an Egyptian cartouche containing illegible hieroglyphs. 
 This is a very characteristic example of Phoenician work, 
 with figures of half Egyptian and half Assyrian type : given 
 by Prof. Middleton. Other paste scarabaeoids of the same 
 type from Camiros are now in the British Museum, Nos. 140 
 and 141 in Mr Smith's Catalogue. 
 
 3*. Phoenician scarab of dark ^r^^z/ajr/^r engraved with 
 a design of Egyptian style, two seated figures of the hawk- 
 headed deity Chonsu, also called Nefer-hetep, each holding a 
 lotus-tipped sceptre, between them is the sacred Egyptian 
 asp ; above is the winged sun-disc, emblem of the god Ra. 
 This is a good typical example of a Phoenician signet of the 
 5th or 4th century B.C. It is much worn with use. 
 
 Plate I. 4. Scarab of Phoenician style in red agate, the underside 
 
 engraved with the sacred beetle of Egypt with outspread 
 wings, within a " cable border." In the field is the inscription, 
 in letters of the sth century B.C. — KPEONTIAA ^Ml. meaning 
 " I am the signet or device (cr^/ia) of Kreontidas." Examples 
 of early gems with the names of owners are mentioned above 
 at page 6"]. The inscription is not reversed, but is to be read 
 on the gem itself, which may possibly be older than the date 
 of Kreontidas ; the style of cutting of the letters suggests 
 that the name is an addition by a different hand from that of 
 the original engraver of the scarab. This very interesting 
 gem was discovered in 1840 in a Greek tomb in the island of 
 Aegina, probably the tomb of Kreontidas. It passed at once 
 into the possession of Mr George Finlay, the well-known 
 historian of mediaeval and modern Greece, who described it 
 in a paper published in the Bull Inst. Corr. Arch. 1 840, pp. 
 140, 141. At his death it became the property of Mr W. 
 Finlay, who in 1877 bequeathed it by will to the Fitzwilliam 
 Museum. The device is a favourite one on Phoenician 
 
APP.] GREEK GEMS. V 
 
 scarabs; TUny, Hist. Nat. XXXVII. 124, mentions the super- 
 stition that the scarabaeus beetle, engraved on an emerald, 
 had certain magical virtues. 
 
 5. Scarabaeoid, pierced; a Greek hero, nude, wearing Plate i. 
 only a Corinthian helmet, is about to fit a greave {K.v'r)jxii) 
 
 upon his leg. With both hands he bends the bronze apart ; 
 the Greek greaves having no means of fastening except the 
 spring of the metal. This is well shown on the leg from a 
 colossal bronze statue, now in the British Museum, on which 
 the bronze greave is carefully represented, and modelled to 
 imitate the muscles of the leg itself; see Jour. Hell. Stud. 
 Vol. VII. p. 189 and Plate LXIX. This very fine gem, of about 
 500 B.C., is remarkable for its spirited drawing and very skilful 
 treatment of the nude figure. In style it resembles the pedi- 
 ment sculpture from the temple in Aegina. 
 
 It is surrounded by a "cable border," part of which has 
 been ground away at some time, probably by a jeweller in 
 setting the gem. 
 
 The stone is rock crystal of great purity and brilliance, 
 possibly from Mount Taygetus in Laconia. Col. Leake 
 obtained it in the Peloponnese. Gems of this period are 
 rarely cut on colourless rock crystal, though it is often used 
 for Assyrian cylinders, and sometimes for the early lenticular 
 gems. No. 435 in the British Museum has the same subject, 
 though treated rather differently. 
 
 6. Female figure, wearing long chiton and himation, stands Plate I. 
 before a small altar of fire, holding in one hand a patera 
 containing some offering, and in the other hand a small 
 oenochoe or wine jug. Fine Greek work of c. 480 — 450 B.C., 
 
 or possibly archaistic work of later date, very minutely cut 
 on a thin slice of burnt agate. 
 
 7. A maneless lion or lioness, which has sprung upon the Plate I. 
 back of a bull, and is fixing its teeth in the bull's shoulders ; 
 
 very fine Greek work of the 5th century B.C., noble in style, 
 broadly modelled and very spirited in design. A large 
 scarabaeoid of fine sapphirine chalcedony, pierced for sus- 
 pension. 
 
 In early Greek art, that is from the pre-historic "Mycenae 
 
 II— 2 
 
vi GREEK GEMS OF [APP. 
 
 period" down to the 5th century B.C., the lion occurs very 
 frequently; more especially on vases of the so-called "Oriental 
 style" with encircling bands of animals. Bands with lions 
 attacking bulls are very common. Herodotus, Vll. 126, tells 
 us that certain districts of Thrace were full of lions and 
 wild bulls, and in the previous section, VII. 125, he records 
 that, during the Persian invasion of Thrace, many of the 
 camels used as beasts of burden in the army of Xerxes were 
 killed by lions : cf. also Aristotle, Hist. A nim. VI. 31. 
 
 In later times the lion became extinct even in the moun- 
 tainous regions of Thrace, and hence, probably, the reason of 
 its becoming comparatively rare in Greek art. A somewhat 
 similar design to that on this noble gem occurs on silver 
 coins of the 6th century B.C. struck at the Thracian Acanthus; 
 see Head, Coins of the Ancients, Plate IV. 7. 
 
 The same subject, on a colossal scale, is repeated in more 
 than one early limestone {poros) group recently discovered on 
 the Acropolis of Athens, and now preserved in the Acropolis 
 Museum. 
 
 8. A cow with head turned back towards its calf, which 
 is sucking ; a fine early Greek design, similar to that on coins 
 of the 5th century struck at Dyrrhachium in Illyria, and in 
 the Island of Corcyra, during the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., 
 and elsewhere. Large scarabaeoid of almost colourless paste, 
 pierced : the surface of the paste is corroded by decom- 
 position. 
 
 In Oriental cults the cow and calf were frequently used 
 as types of the Nature Goddess, Astarte, whom the early 
 Greeks associated with Hera. 
 
 9. Head of Herakles, bearded, with short curly hair, 
 apparently of the 4th century B.C. 
 
 Large scarabaeoid in almost colourless glass or paste, 
 pierced, like No. 8. Both these paste gems have been formed 
 in the usual way by pressing a lump of hot, soft glass into a 
 mould : the' edges, back and ground of the front were then 
 cut into shape on a lapidary's wheel. 
 
 This scarabaeoid and No. 8 were probably pendants of a 
 necklace, as they are far too large for rings. 
 
APP.] THE BEST PERIOD. vii 
 
 10. A youth, nude, leaning on a jagged staff, bends Plate I. 
 downwards to caress his dog, which looks up affectionately at 
 
 his master ; within a cable border. A gem of exceptionally 
 beautiful design and workmanship, of the best period of 
 Greek art, the middle or latter half of the 5 th century B.C. 
 The modelling of the nude form is extremely skilful, and the 
 details are most minutely worked. Gems of this date are 
 very rare, especially examples as large and carefully executed 
 as this. A scarabaeoid of clouded chalcedony, of a yellowish 
 brown tint, pierced. 
 
 The design on this remarkable gem is similar to that on 
 some of the sepulchral stelae of Athens, dating a little before 
 and after 400 B.C. ; most of these are reliefs of life size or 
 near it, and were found in the cemetery outside the Dipylon of 
 Athens. Another gem with almost exactly the same design, 
 but slightly inferior workmanship, was found in a tomb in 
 Cyprus by Cesnola, and is illustrated in his Cyprus, 1877, 
 Plate XXXIX. No. 6. 
 
 Another subject which occurs on the Attic stelae is en- 
 graved on a gem in the British Museum (No. 473), which 
 bears the nude figure of a youth, seated, and holding his oil- 
 flask ready for the bath. 
 
 11. An Athenian lady, wearing the chiton poderes and Plate I. 
 its girdle with the himation across her knees and a veil 
 
 over her head, is seated in a chair with lathe-turned legs ; 
 with one hand she raises a corner of her veil. In front of 
 her stands an attendant girl, wearing the long chiton and 
 over it the short chitoniskos ; she holds in one hand a wreath, 
 and in the other a mirror which she presents to her mistress. 
 In the field at the top is the inscription MIKHZ, probably the 
 lady's name; at the side, behind the seated figure, in very 
 minute letters, is the name AEZAMEN02, the signature of 
 the gem-engraver, cut so as to be read on the stone itself. 
 A scarabaeoid of fine sapphirine chalcedony, pierced; a "cable" 
 border surrounds the whole design ; see above, page 68. 
 
 This gem is a very large and beautiful example of Athenian 
 work of the 4th century, probably before 350 B.C. Its design, 
 like that of No. 10, is precisely the same as those on some 
 
viii GEMS OF DEXAMENOS [APP. 
 
 sepulchral reliefs from the Dipylon Cemetery of Athens. 
 Toilet scenes in one form or another are among the most 
 frequently recurring subjects on the tomb-stelae of Attica. 
 It may be that this beautiful gem was engraved and worn in 
 memory of a dead wife or sister. In addition to its great 
 beauty as a work of art and the comparatively large size of 
 the composition, the fact of its being signed by the artist 
 makes this gem one of the most important examples of the 
 kind in the world. Genuine artists' signatures on gems are 
 extremely rare, though forged ones are common enough, and 
 it is a remarkable coincidence that two of the very few other 
 gems, which, like this, have an artist's name of undoubted 
 genuineness, are both signed with the same name Dexamenos ; 
 see Newton, Essays on Archaeology, 1880, p. 396. One of these 
 is a minutely executed representation of a crane ilying, with 
 the inscription in microscopic letters — AEHAMENOZ ETTOIE, 
 XIO2:, "Dexamenos of Chios made (me)." The other gem 
 has a standing crane, with the name AEHAMENOZ alone, as 
 on the Fitzwilliam scarabaeoid. 
 
 Both these gems with cranes were found, together with 
 other objects of Attic workmanship dating probably from 
 the first half of the 4th century B.C., in one of the numerous 
 tombs which have been opened at Kertch in the Crimea, the 
 ancient Panticapaeum. They are now in the Hermitage 
 Museum at St Petersburg, and are illustrated in the Compte- 
 rendu de la Commiss. Arch., 1861, Plate VI., No. 10; and ib. 
 1865, PL III., No. 40. 
 
 The coincidence of date, the minute workmanship, and 
 the close similarity of the letters in the inscriptions make it 
 highly probable that both the gems from Kertch and that in 
 the Fitzwilliam Museum are the work of the same Chian 
 artist. It is very improbable that there should have been 
 at the same date more than one gem-engraver of the same 
 name and of such exceptional ability as was the artist of the 
 Fitzwilliam and the Kertch gems. 
 
 A fourth gem, with the signature AEEAMENOI ETTOIE, 
 exists in a private collection in Athens ; it is a male bearded 
 head, apparently a portrait : see Compte-rendu de la Conim. 
 
APP.] AND OTHER GREEK GEMS. ix 
 
 Arch., 1868, Plate I., No. 12: it is said to have been found 
 at Kara in Attica, but its genuineness is doubtful. It was 
 not known till after the discovery of the gems by Dexamenos 
 in the Kertch cemetery, and its inscription may very possibly 
 have been copied from the one with the flying crane. The 
 Fitzwilliam scarabaeoid, on the other hand, was in the pos- 
 session of Colonel Leake long before the other gems of 
 Dexamenos had been discovered, and its genuineness cannot 
 be suspected. 
 
 On the various gems by Dexamenos, see Furtwangler, 
 JahrbucJi Arch. Inst., 1888, p. 199 to 204. 
 
 12. A female figure, fully draped, stands talking with a Plate i. 
 nude youth, who leans upon his staff — possibly Electra and 
 Orestes ; of good Greek style, but careless workmanship, on 
 
 a fine orange sard. In point of technique this gem is an 
 interesting example of the extensive use of the diamond- 
 point, especially in the drapery of the female, and in the 
 hair of both figures. 
 
 13. Scarabaeoid: « 5«// w«//§z«^.' fine Greek work of the Plate I. 
 5th or 4th century B.C. On a convex bluish white chalcedony 
 
 with brown patches. 
 
 14. Bull standing ; behind is a cow facing in the opposite Plate I. 
 direction; well and minutely executed on banded chalcedony ; 
 possibly Greek work of the 4th century B.C. 
 
 15. A true scarab in carnelian, pierced, the device on it 
 is a Siren, standing, playing on the double flutes. The 
 Siren is represented as a human figure with bird's feet, tail 
 and wings ; a similar figure occurs on a curious four-lobed 
 pendant gem in the British Museum, No. 549 in Mr A. H. 
 Smith's Catalogue. Scarabs of this type are often found in 
 Etruscan tombs, being either Greek imports or native copies 
 of Greek designs. Forgeries of modern date are also very 
 common ; the Fitzwilliam example may perhaps be one of 
 these. It is set as a seal in a modern gold mount. 
 
 16. Man on horseback, with spear, pursuing a stag with Plate I. 
 branching horns which is already wounded with another 
 spear. The hunter wears a curious hood over his head with 
 horn-like projections at the back ; the rest of his dress is not 
 
X GEMS OF THE [APP. 
 
 very distinct, but it appears to consist of trousers and a short 
 tunic. He sits on a large fringed saddle-cloth, and appears 
 from his costume to be of semi-barbarian type, not unlike 
 some of the figures of Scythians represented on objects of 
 Greek workmanship found in the tombs of Kertch. It is 
 a well executed design, possibly of northern Greek workman- 
 ship. The horse closely resembles that on coins of various 
 Macedonian kings. 
 
 This important gem is a large scarabaeoid of clouded 
 chalcedony, with agate layers at the back : it is pierced for 
 suspension. Set in a modern seal-mount. 
 
 17. Fragment of a large and very fine gem with a profile 
 male head ; only the back of the head with its crisp curls 
 remains : probably of the 4th century B.C. ; engraved on sar- 
 donyx with a raised border in a white layer. 
 
 18. Fragment of a large gem of good later Greek style, 
 probably 3rd century B.C. The subject appears to be Pegasus 
 or some other winged horse trampling on a serpent, but only 
 the front portion remains ; the rider and most of the horse 
 are wholly lost. Cut on a fine orange yellow sard. 
 
 Plate I. 19. Artemis m long chiton, with scarf-like drapery float- 
 
 ing behind her, is walking, holding a dead fawn by the fore- 
 legs, and in her other hand a bow and two arrows; she wears 
 shoes tied with a knot above the ancle. Work of good style, 
 probably copied from some statue of Praxitelean type, cut on 
 a deep orange sard. 
 
 Plate I. 20. Horus (the Greek Harpocrates) seated on a lotus flower, 
 
 with one finger pointing to his lips, and in the other hand a 
 flail, on dark green jasper. Good work of the Ptolemaic period 
 of Egyptian style, probably of the 3rd century B.C. On the 
 back, in much later characters, is rudely scratched the mystic 
 word ABPACAH, added by some Gnostic owner. 
 
 The letters of djBpacrd^ or dj3pa^d<; (as Greek numerals) 
 make up the number 365. According to the Gnostic creed 
 there were 365 orders of angels, each of which occupied a 
 separate heaven; each heaven being superior to the one below 
 and inferior to the one above it. It was especially the 
 followers of the Gnostic Basilides who used this mystic word, 
 
APP.] GREEK PERIOD. xi 
 
 denoting the whole Hierarchy of Heaven, and also the 
 supreme Ruler of the universe. The Abraxas deity is fre- 
 quently symbolised by a human figure with a cock's head and 
 serpent legs; this type is intimately connected with the sun- 
 god Mithras. The name and symbol of Abraxas were 
 supposed to have great talismanic powers, protecting the 
 wearer from disease, accident and misfortune generally. Its 
 medical virtues, when cut on the right stone, were very highly 
 valued, and believed in for many centuries; to a great extent 
 even throughout the mediaeval period. See above, page 123. 
 
 21. Aphrodite, ^12X1 nude, leaning against a short pillar; Plate II. 
 she holds a helmet in one hand, and a long staff or spear in 
 
 the other; against the pillar a round shield is set. It is 
 engraved with great delicacy and minuteness on black jasper. 
 This figure, like No. 19, is probably taken from some cele- 
 brated Greek statue ; the design occurs very frequently on 
 gems ; the collection in the Paris Bibliotheque contains no 
 less than nineteen examples. 
 
 22. Eros, as a graceful winged youth, seated on a rock, Plate li. 
 holds up a wreath; his torch is stuck into the ground before 
 
 him : fine Graeco-Roman work on sardoine, minutely executed 
 with much taste and skill. 
 
 23. Aphrodite, fully draped in chiton and himation, stands 
 leaning against a short pillar. In one hand she holds a bird, 
 probably meant for a dove, with the other hand she raises a 
 corner of her himation : very rude work, mostly done with a 
 coarse wheel, on a large, slightly striated carnelian. This 
 gem, though of very poor workmanship, is of interest as being 
 probably a copy of some celebrated Greek statue. 
 
 24. Hunting scene in two tiers ; at the top, a horseman, 
 riding at full speed, aims an arrow at a lion which approaches 
 him. Below, a similar horseman aims a long spear at a wild 
 boar. Both of the hunters wear a tight tunic and trousers, 
 and on their heads a hood of Oriental fashion. Instead of a 
 saddle the horses have a large fringed cloth over their backs, 
 and their long tails are tied up with a knot. 
 
 Persian work, of the Sasanian period, about the 4th cen- 
 tury A.D., on a large scarabaeoid of clouded cJialcedony, pierced. 
 
xii GRAECO-ROMAN AND [APP. 
 
 25. Silenus mask, full face, of Greek workmanship, very 
 minutely cut on nicolo : set in a modern ring, on which 
 is engraved the word " Epirus," i.e. the district where Col. 
 Leake bought the gem. 
 
 26. Enthroned figure of Jupiter, extending one hand 
 over a small fire-altar ; in the other hand he holds the long 
 sceptre or hasta piira. Early Roman work on fine opaline 
 chalcedony : in a modern ring. 
 
 Plate. II. 27. Jupiter enthroned holding in one hand the hasta pura, 
 
 and in the other a small figure of Victory bearing a wreath : 
 at his feet an eagle. Roman work on a carrielian, in modern 
 ring setting. 
 
 This design, which is common on Roman gems and on 
 the reverses of Imperial denarii, is derived originally from the 
 celebrated gold and ivory statue of Zeus at Olympia by 
 Pheidias, which is copied on the reverses of various Greek 
 coins, such as the tetradrachms of Alexander the Great. 
 
 28. Standing figure of Bacchus, nude, pouring wine from 
 a cantharus to his panther ; with the other hand he holds the 
 thyrsus : rude Roman work. 
 
 This is a very common design on Graeco-Roman and 
 Roman gems : e.g. two gems in the British Museum ; Nos. 
 945 and 946 in Mr A. H. Smith's catalogue : Nos. 62 and 63 
 in the Fitzwilliam collection have the same subject. Striated, 
 bluish chalcedony, in modern setting. 
 
 29. Winged Victory, half draped, resting one foot on a 
 rock ; she points to her face with one hand, and in the other 
 holds a palm branch. Roman work on a pale topaz or citrine 
 with both sides cut en cabochon. In modern ring setting. 
 
 30. Winged Victory holding in one hand a wreath, and 
 in the other a palm branch : rude Roman work, probably of 
 Republican date, on a very pale sard : in modern ring setting. 
 
 Plate II. 31. Winged Victory with wreath and palm branch, as on 
 
 No. 30. Roman work of the Republican period on fine 
 chalcedony , in modern ring setting. 
 
 This fine gem much resembles the sard set in a gold ring, 
 which was found in 1780 on the skeleton hand of Cornelius 
 Lucius Scipio Barbatus, consul in 298 B.C., whose sarcophagus 
 
APP.] ROMAN GEMS. xiii 
 
 is in the Vatican. This ring passed into Lord Beverley's 
 collection, and is now in the possession of the Duke of 
 Northumberland. It is of great value, not only from its 
 historical interest, but also as being a dated example of early 
 Roman glyptic art, which helps to fix the period of other 
 similar gems. See above, page 47. 
 
 32. Profile bust of Diana with a crescent on her head, Plate n. 
 between busts of Castor and Pollux, each with a star over his 
 
 head. The Dioscuri wear the usual pileus or egg-shaped cap 
 encircled by a wreath, and a chlamys over the shoulder ; their 
 heads are very similar to those on silver coins of Bruttii of 
 the 3rd century B.C. ; see Brit. Mus. Cat. of Greek Coins of 
 Italy, No. 8, p. 320. 
 
 Fine sapphirine chalcedony, in modern seal setting inscribed 
 " Morea,'' where Col. Leake bought it. 
 
 33. Minerva standing, wearing the long chiton and a Plate II. 
 helmet ; she holds one hand extended, and in the other her 
 
 spear and shield. Very good Roman work on a deep red 
 carnelian, in modern ring setting. 
 
 The original of this design appears to have been the 
 Athene Parthenos of Pheidias : it is a common subject on 
 Roman gems : the extended hand usually holds a statuette of 
 Victory, which on this gem is omitted. The design seems 
 copied, not directly from the statue, but from the representa- 
 tion on various Greek coins. 
 
 34. Nude figure of Bonus Eventus, standing : with one 
 hand he pours a libation on to a small fire-altar : in the other 
 hand he holds two ears of wheat. Roman work of the first 
 century A.D. on a nicolo-onyx. This design is common on 
 reverses of Imperial denarii during the 1st and 2nd century 
 A.D. In a modern ring setting. 
 
 35. A chariot drawn by two ants : the driver is a rabbit, 
 who holds the rein in one paw and a whip in the other. 
 Roman work of early Imperial date, on a carnelian, in modern 
 ring setting. This fanciful type of design occurs frequently 
 on Roman gems, and also among the wall paintings of 
 Pompeii, possibly in some cases with a satirical meaning. 
 
 36. Nude hero with crested helmet, and sword slung Plate II. 
 
xiv GEMS AND RINGS [APP. 
 
 round him, kneeling on one knee ; he works with a graver 
 and hammer (?) on a metal cuirass. Rather coarse Graeco- 
 Roman work on a fine transparent chalcedony. Acquired by 
 Col. Leake in the Peloponnese. In modern ring setting, on 
 which is engraved " Morea." 
 Plate n. 37. Profile bust of Hermes wearing a small petasus and 
 
 chlamys fastened on the shoulder with a fibula; of good Greek 
 style. Paste, imitating orange sard : in modern seal setting. 
 
 38. Profile portrait of beardless youth with long hair. 
 In the style of good Roman work of early Imperial date, 
 in fine red jasper. In modern seal setting; the gem itself 
 may possibly be a modern copy. 
 
 39. Cameo head of Medusa, very rude work in onyx of 
 two layers ; the back is roughly shaped by flaking off chips : 
 in modern ring setting. The cameo also is perhaps modern. 
 
 40. Portions of two gold ear-rings of very beautiful Greek 
 workmanship : one is in the shape of a lion's head skilfully 
 modelled : on the shank is a delicate scroll pattern formed 
 in that minute granulated work, which the Greek jewellers 
 executed with such wonderful skill. The other is a pendant, 
 with a miniature figure of Eros, a marvel of minute execution : 
 it was acquired by Col. Leake at Pella. Gold ear-rings, with 
 an exactly similar figure of Eros, were found by Cesnola 
 in a tomb in Cyprus; see Cesnola, Salaminia, 1884, p. 41, 
 
 fig- 39- 
 
 41. Ring wholly in glass, probably of Greek workman- 
 ship : the bezel is of orange-yellow paste with a thin layer 
 of white under it to imitate sardonyx ; the rest of the ring 
 is of a pale purple paste. Obtained by Col. Leake in 
 Thessaly. 
 
 42. Ring-shaped bead of magnetite: on it is rudely cut 
 a man driving a spear through a lion : Assyrian work of 
 early date. Given by Prof Middleton ; bought at Beyrout. 
 
 43. Large cameo head of Hera, wearing a steplianos, 
 in very high relief on an onyx of two layers, opaque white on 
 a transparent chalcedony layer. Graeco-Roman work of good 
 style, but coarse execution, said to have been obtained by 
 Captain George Keppell " near Kula." In his Narrative of a 
 
APP.] OF VARIOUS DATES. XV 
 
 journey from India to England, 1827, Vol. II. p. 226, Captain 
 Keppell mentions his visit to an eminence called Kula Noo, 
 in Tartary, near the town of Kuba on the banks of the river 
 Deli, which rises in the Caucasus and runs into the Caspian 
 Sea ; he does not, however, mention this cameo. 
 
 In modern gold setting inscribed " Ruins near Kula." 
 
 44. Large ring, wholly of silver, with large oval bezel on 
 which is soldered in relief in gold letters the inscription 
 ATTYAAZ — probably the owner's name. This ring is clearly 
 of late date ; Dr Waldstein has suggested that it may possibly 
 bear the name of Attila, the great general of the Huns and 
 Goths, 434 — 454 A.D. in spite of the spelling 'ArruXa? instead 
 of the usual 'AxTtXa? or 'ATT»;Xa? : see Journ. Hellen. Stud. 
 IV., p. 162. On the inside of the hoop some recent sacri- 
 legious hand has cut the word " Thessaly " in large letters, 
 a record of the district where it was bought by Col. Leake. 
 
 45. The goddess Roma, in stola, pallium, and helmet, 
 seated on a heap of armour, holding a spear in one hand 
 and in the other a small figure of Victory bearing a wreath. 
 In the field behind, Q. MAX. cut so as to read on the gem 
 itself Early Roman work on carnelian. This common type 
 of the goddess Roma is derived from the Greek Athene, as 
 represented on such coins as the tetradrachms of Lysimachus 
 struck c. 300 B.C., with the deified head of Alexander on the 
 obverse. Mr King suggests in his Catalogue (Case II., No. 28) 
 that this was the signet of the celebrated Quintus Fabius 
 Maximus, one of the earliest Roman conquerors of the 
 Greeks, but the name was too common for any certainty as to 
 the ownership of this special gem. 
 
 46. A seated figure of Roma (like that on No. 45) 
 with sword and spear, holding Victory in her outstretched 
 hand. Coarse Roman work on an orange sard, deeply cut. 
 
 47. Minute figure of A thene advancing, holding spear and 
 shield : orange sard, a fine Greek design, which probably 
 represents some important statue. 
 
 48. Mars in short chiton and crested helmet stands, 
 holding a spear in one hand ; with the other hand he supports 
 a round shield, resting it on the ground. 
 
XVI 
 
 ROMAN GEMS. 
 
 [APP. 
 
 Bold Roman work on carnelian, chipped on one side. 
 
 Plate 11^ 49. Bust in profile of the winged Victory; behind her is 
 
 a palm-branch. Very fine early Roman work on chalcedony; 
 chipped. The hair, wing and palm-branch are executed in a 
 stiff but very delicate way with the diamond or corundum 
 point: it is a very interesting example of the best sort of 
 Roman work during the later Republican period. The same 
 design occurs on several denarii of the Republic, and on the 
 obverse of both gold and copper coins struck by Julius 
 Caesar in 45 B.C., with the legend C. CAESAR DIC. TER. 
 
 Plate II. 50. Bust of Diana in profile, with bow and quiver slung 
 
 across her shoulder. Her chiton is fastened with a fibula on 
 the shoulder. Round the head, in coarsely formed Greek 
 letters, the owner's name 0PETTTOC, cut so as to be read on 
 the impression. 
 
 Good Graeco-Roman work on carnelian. 
 51. Feinale head in profile of the Amazon type; behind 
 is a double axe, in front the inscription FELICI S..., part 
 broken away. 
 
 Fine Graeco-Roman work on grey jasper. 
 
 Plate II. 52. Venus Fz'rfnlir leaning against a cippus, with drapery 
 
 round the lower part of the body: in one hand she holds a 
 hasta pura or long sceptre, and in the other hand a helmet. 
 On the ground in front is a cuirass. Coarse Graeco-Roman 
 work on a convex striated agate. This design is probably 
 copied from some well-known Greek statue. 
 
 Plate 11. 53. A cornu-copiae, dolphin and trident grou^ped crosswise 
 
 in a very graceful way. Very fine Roman work of the time 
 of the early Empire on a dull semi-opaque sard ; possibly the 
 symbol of some general who, like M. Agrippa, was remark- 
 able for success both by sea and by land. 
 
 54. Nude figure of Ganymede seated on a rock : he gives 
 Jove's eagle drink out of a patera. Graceful design, poorly 
 executed on a small carnelian. It is probably a Roman copy 
 of some fine Greek design. 
 
 Plate II. 55. A Tritoti holding a trident, represented as a male 
 
 figure with fish-tails in serpentine coils instead of legs. Good 
 Roman work of early Imperial date on a yellowish chalcedony. 
 
APP.] ROMAN GEMS. xvii 
 
 56. Cupid standing; in one hand a torch, with which he Plate II. 
 singes a butterfly held in the other hand : symboHcal of the 
 
 hot fever of love. A Roman design on very fine red jasper. 
 The same design occurs among the " Marlborough Gems " 
 (No. 142 in Mr Story-Maskelyne's Catalogue), and it is 
 repeated on many other gems. 
 
 57. Minute figure of Fortuna standing, holding in one 
 hand a cornu-copiae and in the other hand a rudder ; a 
 frequent design on Roman denarii of Imperial date. On 
 red jasper. 
 
 58. Roma seated on a heap of armour: very rude Roman 
 work on an orange sard. 
 
 59. Vtdcan seated, working with a hammer on a helmet 
 placed on an anvil : very rude Roman work on mixed jasper 
 and chalcedony. 
 
 60. Mercury standing with the caduceus in one hand, and 
 in the other a purse and a cock: in the field is a scorpion and 
 a goat. Rude Roman work on carnelian. This is a not un- 
 common type of astrological gem, representing its owner's 
 fortunate horoscope: cf. Marlborotigk Gems, No. 172 in Story- 
 Maskelyne's Catalogue, London, 1870. 
 
 61. Mercury standing, with the caduceus in one hand and 
 a purse in the other: very rude Roman work on yellow sard: 
 a very common subject both for gems and for sculptured 
 reliefs of the Imperial period. 
 
 62. Bacchus with the thyrsus in one hand and in the 
 other a cantharus: at his feet a panther: rude Roman work 
 on sard: cf. No. 28. 
 
 63. Minute figure of Bacchus holding the thyrsus and a 
 cantharus, with the panther at his feet (like No. 62): the 
 whole figure is enclosed by a vine. Poor Roman work on 
 amethyst, a stone which was supposed to give its wearer the 
 power of drinking large quantities of wine without his becoming 
 intoxicated: hence its name from d-fiedvao<;. Pliny {Hist. 
 Nat. XXXVII. 124) expresses his disbelief in this superstition. 
 
 Dionysiac subjects were very frequently engraved on the 
 amethyst, especially during the Roman Imperial period. 
 
 64. Winged figure of Nemesis in stola and pallium, Plate II. 
 
xviii GRAECO-ROMAN AND [APP. 
 
 standing holding a caduceus over a conical object like the 
 ■meta of a circus. The Romans had no very fixed method of 
 representing Nemesis : on gold and silver coins of Claudius, 
 she is represented as a winged woman holding a caduceus, 
 with a serpent on the ground. On other coins she appears 
 with different symbols. 
 
 Very rude Roman work on a convex orange sard ; the 
 use of the drill-point and the wheel is very evident, owing to 
 the want of skill of the engraver. 
 
 65. Portrait of Socrates, of the usual Silenus type, on 
 carnelian. Graeco-Roman work, if not a modern imitation : 
 broken across : in Mr King's Catalogue the fragments are 
 numbered separately 12 and 46 in Case I. 
 Plau II. 66. Profile portrait of Nero, laureated, executed in a 
 
 fairly good, bold style on cartielian. 
 
 67. Very rude profile head with radiated crown, perhaps 
 representing Apollo Helios : coarsest kind of Roman work on 
 carnelian. 
 
 68. Head of the youthful Hercules, rudely worked, the 
 hair executed with the drill-point. On red jasper, broken at 
 the bottom. 
 
 69. Silenus seated on a rock, plays the lyre in front of a 
 small shrine set on a rock : behind him is a wreath with long 
 streaming fillets. Rude Roman work on orange sard. No. 
 993 in the British Museum has the same subject. 
 
 70. A goat standing under a tree: in the field, on the 
 other side, is a lizard. Roman work, very well and delicately 
 executed on the convex surface of a sardonyx. A very 
 remarkable example of minute work. 
 
 71. A Faun seated on a crate or basket ; in front of him 
 is a goat, which he caresses with one hand : in the other hand 
 he holds a river-rush. Delicate Roman work on sard. The 
 same design occurs on a gem in the British Museum, 
 No. 1056. 
 
 Plate II. 72. A hippocamp or sea-horse, swimming. Fine Roman 
 
 work on a convex carnelian, deeply cut ; edge chipped. 
 
 Plate II. 73- A ,^(7^^^ standing to graze; above it, a star within a 
 
 crescent : very fine Roman work on carnelian. As Mr King 
 
APP.] ROMAN GEMS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 suggests (Cat. p. 14, No. 26) this may be the portrait of a 
 favourite race-horse ; the star and crescent being the owner's 
 badge, which was frequently branded on the horse's skin. 
 
 74. A lion zaalkmg under a tree, holding some object in Plate II. 
 its mouth. Very fine and minutely executed Roman work on 
 
 white jasper mottled with pink ; the colour has been altered 
 by fire. 
 
 75. Hound rimning at full speed ; in the field above is a 
 curved knobbed stick, such as was used to knock over small 
 game. Coarse Roman work on olive green plasma. 
 
 76. Crab holding in its claws a shell ; very minute work 
 on sard. This design occurs frequently on Roman gems : in 
 some cases the crab holds a fish or a shrimp in its claws. 
 
 TJ. An ajtt, rudely cut on an onyx of four layers. 
 
 78. A hoimd attacking a rabbit; above them is a flying 
 eagle : rude Roman work on yellow jasper. The same subject 
 occurs on many gems of Imperial date, e.g. one in the British 
 Museum, No. 1958 in the Catalogue. 
 
 79. A cock, holding in its claw an ear of wheat ; Roman 
 work, cleverly executed on a very small chrysoprase or plasma 
 of pale emerald green colour. 
 
 80. Cupid riding on a dolphin : coarse Roman work on 
 carnelian. 
 
 81. A satyr and a goat on its hind legs, dancing face to 
 face : behind the satyr is an ear of bearded wheat : Roman 
 work on a sard. About a third of the gem is missing. The 
 design is one which occurs in Pompeian paintings. 
 
 82. A wolf or bitch giving suck to an infant : above is an 
 eagle with outspread wings. The animal resembles the "wolf 
 of the Capitol " suckling Romulus and Remus : possibly one 
 of the twins was omitted on the gem for want of space ; or 
 perhaps the subject is that which occurs on coins of Cydonia 
 in Crete, having, on the obverse, the infant Miletus (the brother 
 of Cydon the founder of Cydonia) suckled by a wolf Rude 
 Roman work on a fine sard. 
 
 83. The eagle of Jupiter standing with outspread wings. 
 Coarse Roman work on a sardonyx with roughly chipped 
 back. 
 
 M. 12 
 
XX GRAECO-ROMAN AND [APP. 
 
 84. A bull walking, on yellow paste, a cast of a good 
 gem. 
 
 85. A winged male figure, nude, in crested helmet, armed 
 with spear, sword and shield. Coarse work on a pale yellow 
 sard: chipped. 
 
 86. Cupid sitting on the ground with his hands bound 
 behind him ; a butterfly hovers in front of him : symbolical 
 design. Fine Roman work on sard. 
 
 87. Cupid with a hound in a leash : very coarse Roman 
 work on dark green quartz crystal, ox plasma. 
 
 88. Profile head of a youth on sard, coarsely cut : part 
 broken away. 
 
 89. Head of Pan, with small horns : in the field below is 
 his syrinx (pan-pipes): Roman work on red jasper, chipped: 
 cf the small head of Pan on late Macedonian tetradrachms. 
 
 go. Gryllus: a parrot standing on a branch : its body is 
 made up of a Tragic and a Comic mask : Roman work on 
 convex chalcedony. 
 
 Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXV. 1 14, uses the word gryllus for a 
 class of grotesque figures first used in painting by Antiphilus 
 of Alexandria. The word also means a cricket, but with 
 regard to gems is used to express any grotesque monster 
 which is made up of several masks or portions of other 
 animals. 
 
 91. Comic mask: Roman work on dark olive-green 
 plasma, slightly executed. 
 
 92. Comic mask : Roman work on a convex orange sard. 
 
 93. Comic mask : Roman work on yeWow jasper. 
 
 94. Bearded male head and female head, cor\]omed: Roman 
 work on sard, possibly representing Jupiter and Juno. 
 
 95. Scarabaeoid vi'ith. a rude representation of some sort 
 of shrine (.'') deeply cut on the convex surface of a fine piece 
 of very transparent chalcedony. 
 
 96. Three horsemen wearing high crested helmets : two 
 riding side by side, the third galloping in the opposite 
 direction. Roman work, minutely cut on carnelian. 
 
 97. Seated female figure with one hand extended over a 
 small circular altar placed in front of a rock, on which stands 
 
APP.] ROMAN GEMS. xxi 
 
 a small shrine ; a tree grows out of the rock : rude Roman 
 work on sard. 
 
 98. Female figure pouring a libation Q.) on to a small 
 circular altar at the foot of a tree. On the other side of the 
 tree a female, seated in a chair, holds an infant on her knee : 
 very minutely executed : broken in two places ; part of the 
 seated figure is missing. This design possibly represents the 
 fostering of the infant Zeus by the Nymphs Adrasteia and 
 Ida, daughters of Melisseus, in the island of Crete. Good 
 Roman work on dark red carnelian. 
 
 99. A nude male figure wearing on his head a petasus, 
 stands holding in his arms a stag with curved horns : below 
 a small figure reaches up towards the stag. Behind the 
 principal" figure is the word AVCTVS. The lower part, 
 about a third of the gem, is missing : rude Roman work on 
 orange sard. 
 
 100. Two male figures wearing tunics standing, between 
 them an infant is kneeling on the ground : minute, but poor 
 Roman work on carnelian; broken. Mr King in his Cata- 
 logue, Case I, No. 42, explains this subject as representing 
 " Diomede and Ulysses debating about the fate of Astyanax"; 
 but the gem belongs to a late period when subjects of that 
 class were no longer selected. 
 
 loi. Nicde female figure stooping towards a large vase Plate II. 
 which stands at the foot of a column : behind her is a tree 
 and on the other side a warrior in full armour, with sword 
 and round shield : on orange sard ; the upper part broken 
 away. Coarse work very deeply cut. Subject doubtful : a 
 gem in the British Museum (No. 1463) has a similar design. 
 
 102. Full-faced bust of Mercury, wearing the petasus and 
 holding a caduceus : coarse Roman work on dark carnelian : 
 the marks of the drill and wheel are very conspicuous. 
 
 103. Biist of Harpocrates with his finger on his lip ; very 
 rudely cut on chalcedony : late Roman work. 
 
 104. Profile bust of Jupiter Serapis with the modius on 
 
 H 
 his head ; in the field the letters K . Very good Graeco- 
 
 Ae 
 
 12 — 2 
 
xxii ROMANO-EGYPTIAN AND [APP. 
 
 Roman work on sard: it has been reduced in size to fit in 
 a small ring-bezel. 
 Plate II. 105. Eagle with outspread wings ; and above, a small bust 
 
 of Serapis with radiated head ; round it is the legend 6IC 
 ZeYC CAPAniC, "One God Serapis." Good Roman work of 
 the second century A.D. on red jasper. This type of gem is 
 common; varieties of the inscription are 6IC 06OC CAPATTIC, 
 and eiC ZQN OeOC, attestations of the Divine Unity, like 
 that of the modern Moslems. 
 
 106. Gnostic scarabaeoid on green plasma: on the front 
 the late Egyptian sun-god Cnoubis, represented as a serpent 
 with lion's head surrounded by rays of light. On the back 
 is the hieroglyphic symbol S^$ surrounded by the legend 
 XNDVBIC. The whole is a common type of Egyptian gem 
 during the Roman Gnostic period, 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. 
 The name of this deity is written variously as XN0Y4>IZ, 
 XNOYMIZ and KN|-|ft>: he appears to be a late development 
 of the early Egyptian deity Chnemu, the World-Creator or 
 Moulder. He is called " Maker of all things that exist, 
 Creator of things that are, the origin of evolutions, the father 
 of fathers and mother of mothers." He is also " Father of 
 the gods, moulder of men, begotten of the gods, maker of 
 Heaven and Earth and Hell, of water and mountain." 
 
 In later times Chnemu became associated or identified 
 with the sun-god Ra and with Osiris. With the Gnostics 
 he was a form of Hor-Apollo — the Demiurgos or Spirit 
 which "pervades the universe." This note I owe to Mr E. 
 A. W. Budge. The medical properties of this design when 
 engraved on a green jasper or plasma {jaspis) are explained 
 by Galen, De Simp. Med. IX. See above, page 145. 
 
 107. A cornu-copiae and a small globe : coarse Roman 
 work in banded chalcedony. 
 
 108. A cornu-copiae, a cock, and a stalk of bearded wheat. 
 Minute Roman work in brilliant amethyst. 
 
 109. A human-headed loctist, walking with a pole across 
 his shoulder, from which are hung a hare, a rabbit and a 
 lobster ; in the field a serpent and a scorpion. Fanciful 
 
APP.] OTHER LATE GEMS. 
 
 XXllI 
 
 Roman work of the first century A.D. on a banded agate. 
 A talismanic gem with magical properties. 
 
 no. A hattd extended: round it the legend MNHMONEYE, 
 on sard ; a common type of Roman memorial gem ; in many 
 cases the hand is pinching an ear, which the Romans re- 
 garded as the seat of memory ; cf Virgil, Eel. VI. 3 to 4, 
 Cynthius aureni vellit. 
 
 111. A grotesque nude figure, walking with a staff, and 
 bearing on his back a dead crane ; probably referring to 
 the old story of the battle of the Pygmies and the cranes. 
 Minute Roman work on carnelian, if antique. 
 
 112. A man with a mattock breaks up the ground at the 
 foot of a cross, on sard: of doubtful antiquity. 
 
 I 
 
 113. A rude fialm-branch : by it the letters 6 : the rest 
 
 CA 
 of the inscription is broken away : late Roman work on dark 
 carnelian. The inscription was perhaps meant for Tt^ctoi'? viKa. 
 
 1 14. A dolphin set in a basin on a tall pedestal in the 
 form of a twisted column : the whole is apparently a fountain. 
 Coarse late work on carnelian. 
 
 115. Male figure standing by a cippus : very rudely cut 
 on a small pink amethyst. 
 
 116. Scarab cut in a fine emerald-coloured plasma; a 
 bead from a necklace with no engraved device. 
 
 117. Two fragments ; j-ar^/ and three-banded <5r§"«^^. 
 
 Modern Gems. 
 
 I. Copy in dark red paste of the celebrated signet of 
 Michelangelo in the Bibliotheque in Paris: No. 2337 in M. 
 Chabouillet's Catalogue. 
 
 The original was engraved for Michelangelo by his 
 friend Piero Maria da Pescia, who worked in Rome for 
 Leo X., and was one of the ablest intagliatori of the Renais- 
 sance\ The boy fishing in the exergue is a rebus of the 
 artist's name Pescia, derived from his birth-place, a small 
 town of that name in Tuscany. The main design represents 
 
 ' See above, page 126. 
 
xxiv MODERN GEMS. [APP. 
 
 a Bacchanalian festival, and contains no less than eleven 
 figures — one of the greatest marvels of microscopic work- 
 manship that has ever been produced. A great many paste 
 copies of this wonderful gem exist. The original was bought 
 by Louis XIV., with the rest of the important Lauthier 
 collection, and so it passed into the Bibliotheque Royale, 
 where it is still preserved. In the last century it had a 
 very narrow escape of being stolen. The Curator of the 
 Bibliotheque was exhibiting the royal gems to the Baron 
 Stosch, an enthusiastic collector of engraved stones, when 
 suddenly the Curator observed that Michelangelo's signet- 
 gem had vanished, after a suspicious movement on the part 
 of the Baron. The Curator immediately sent for an emetic, 
 and forced Baron Stosch to swallow it ; with the fortunate 
 result that in a few minutes the gem was heard to fall into 
 the basin provided for the purpose ; see Des Brosses, Lettres 
 sur ritalie, II. p. 27 '. 
 
 2. Female head in profile in the white layer of an onyx. 
 
 3. Female full face, w&2inng a diadem and necklace; on 
 grey jasper. 
 
 4. Profile bust of a bearded man wearing a turban, on a 
 very fine bloodstone ; i.e. green jasper with red spots. 
 
 5. Peasant blowing a cow-horn, on sard. 
 
 6. Male Bacchanal with a thyrsus, dancing, on banded 
 sard. 
 
 7. Eagle's head on dark green chalcedony. 
 
 8. Head of M. Agrippa ; cameo on onyx, good modern 
 work. 
 
 9. A veiled lady standing, holding an urn ; cameo on 
 sardonyx. A poor modern work, probably meant to represent 
 Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus. 
 
 ' Baron Stosch, who was a Hanoverian spy on the Pretender's doings abroad, 
 had a large collection of engraved gems, including some genuine antiques and 
 many forgeries ; a very interesting catalogue was made of them by Winckel- 
 mann, printed at Florence in 1760. Stosch died in 1757: he is the Annius 
 of Pope's satire — 
 
 "False as his gems, and cankered as his coins." 
 
 The Stosch gems are now in the Berlin collection, which contains more than 
 5000 gems, antique and modern. 
 
APP.] PONIATOWSKI COLLECTION. xxv 
 
 10. Head of Ariadne with ivy wreath; small cameo on 
 onyx of three strata, one jasper layer between two of chalcedony. 
 
 11. Gem from the Poniatowski collection. Large figure 
 of Venus, half draped, seated on a rock, and balancing a 
 stick on one finger. Cupid flying upward grasps at the 
 stick. In the exergue is the name AYAOY : on a fine large 
 carnelian, cut to an octagon shape and mounted as a ring. 
 What is possibly the original of this design exists in the 
 British Museum, No. 2296, cut on a hirnt chalcedony, a fine 
 gem of the later Renaissance period, inscribed AYAOC, not 
 AYAOY as on the Poniatowski copy. This is an excep- 
 tionally fine specimen of the celebrated Poniatowski gems, 
 which were engraved early in this century by various clever 
 artists, such as Pichler Junr., Girometti, Cerbara and others, 
 and passed off as antiques by Prince Poniatowski, who died 
 in 1833. Most of them have, like this gem, the name of a 
 supposed ancient gem-engraver: this particular name Aldus 
 occurs on many of them. The very graceful design on this 
 gem seems originally to have been taken from some Roman 
 wall-painting ; the execution is very skilful and the design is 
 essentially pictorial in character. As modern works of art 
 many of the Poniatowski gems have considerable merit, but 
 in style they are very unlike ancient gems. The fact that 
 they were generally accepted as antiques in the early part of 
 this century is a striking example of the low state of archaeo- 
 logical knowledge at that time. The nucleus of Prince 
 Poniatowski's collection consisted of about 150 ancient gems 
 inherited from his uncle Stanislaus, King of Poland ; by the 
 help of modern engravers the Prince increased his collection 
 to no less than 3000 gems. The forged artists' names were 
 mostly added by one clever engraver named Dies. The 
 whole collection was dispersed in 1839. ^^ one time single 
 examples of the Poniatowski gems were valued at as much as 
 a thousand pounds, but after their spurious nature was dis- 
 covered they seldom fetched more than from three to four 
 pounds each, although, in many cases, they were really worth 
 far more as exceptionally fine specimens of modern gem- 
 engraving. 
 
XXVI AUTOTYPE PLATES. 
 
 PLATE I. AND II. 
 
 The following Plates are reproductions by the autotype 
 process of the most important of the gems in the Fitzwilliam 
 Collection. 
 
 As they are taken from impressions of the gems in 
 plaster, they represent the design as it appears on the seal 
 made by the gem ; not as it is on the intaglio itself. 
 
 For the sake of clearness each gem is enlarged, in linear 
 dimensions, to one and a half times its real size, and also 
 because a reproduction of the same linear dimensions in 
 piano of a rounded surface not only appears but really is 
 smaller than the original. The higher the relief, the greater 
 the loss of visible surface when it is represented in piano. 
 
 Plate I. contains examples of work of the earlier periods, 
 ranging from glandular gems of pre-historic times down to 
 gems of late Greek or Graeco-Roman style. 
 
 Plate II. contains other examples of Graeco-Roman work, 
 together with Roman gems from the period of the Republic 
 down to that of the later Empire. 
 
 Though on the whole the process employed in these 
 Plates is a fairly satisfactory one, yet it must be remembered 
 that much of the delicate beauty and refinement of modelling 
 in the best of the gems is necessarily lost in the process of 
 reproduction. 
 
 The numbers on the Plates refer to the numbering of the 
 gems in the preceding Catalogue. 
 
ERRATUM. 
 In the description Plate 1 for "Roman" read "Greek" 
 
Plate 1. 
 
 7?^ . 
 
 
 gP 
 
 
 5EMS OF THE ROMAN PERIOD. 
 
I'LAii; II. 
 
 GEMS OF THE ROMAN PERIOD, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aaron's breastplate, Gems on, 66 note, 
 
 131 
 Abraxas the mystic sun-god, 56 ; the 
 
 word, engraved on gems, 94, Ajyp. 
 
 X, xi 
 Abundantia, Figure of, on gems, 54 
 Achilles playing the lyre, on a gem, 79 
 Acropolis of Athens, Discoveries on, 
 
 15, 26 
 Adamas, The, 129 — 131 
 Aegaeae, Eutyches of, 75 
 Aegina, Phoenician scarab found in the 
 
 Island of, 14, 15, App. iv 
 Agate, 147; large cameo patera of, 62 
 Agathopus, Gem signed by, 80 
 Agrippina, on modern cameo, App. xxiv 
 Alexander, Head of, on gems, 41; on 
 
 coins of Lysimachus, ib.; used for 
 
 signet by Augustus, 50 
 Alexandres, Name of, on gems, 82, 83 
 Ambassadors, Gold rings worn by, 50 
 Amber, 154 — 156; rings made of, 155; 
 
 use in prehistoric times, ib. 
 Amethyst, The, 142, 143 
 Amulet gems, 145 
 Amymone, Figure of, on emerald gem, 
 
 40, 135 
 Anichini, gem -engraver, 126 
 Ant, Representation of an, App. xix; 
 
 chariot drawn by two ants, App. xiii 
 Antaradus in Phoenicia, "Hittite" sig- 
 net found at, 10 
 Anteros, Gems signed by, 81 
 Antiphanes, Passage from, on scarab 
 
 ornaments, 21 
 
 Antiphilos the Graeco-Egyptian painter, 
 inventor of the gryllus, 55 
 
 Antoninus Pius, Portrait head of, used 
 as a seal by Louis I., 121 
 
 Anthrax, 132 
 
 Aphrodite represented on gems, 40, 
 App. xi 
 
 Apollo, Bronze statue of, by Kanachos, 
 copied on gems, 42 
 
 Apollo Helios, Probable representation 
 of, App. xviii 
 
 Apollo Sauroctonos, Representation of, 
 on gems, 42 
 
 ApoUodotos, Gem of, 68, 69 
 
 Apollonides, gem-engraver, 71 
 
 ApoUonios, Gem signed by, 78 
 
 Apotheosis of Augustus, 61 ; of Ger- 
 manicus, ib. 
 
 Aptera, Coin of, 92 
 
 Aquamarine, variety of beryl, 136 
 
 Arcadia, Signed coins of, 92 
 
 Archaic glandular gems, 18 — i\,App. iii 
 
 Areius, King of Sparta, Signet of, men- 
 tioned in a letter, App. iii 
 
 Ariadne, Head of, 92, App. xxv 
 
 Aristippus, Head of, 115 
 
 Aristophanes, Passage from, on the cus- 
 tom of securing doors with a seal, 36, 
 3 7 ; on magic rings, 2 3 
 
 Artaxerxes, name of various Sasanian 
 kings, 58 
 
 Artemis, Figure of, on gem, 77 — 78, 
 App. x 
 
 Ashmolean museum. Gems in, 10, 13 
 
 Asklepios, Head of, on gem, 82 
 
xxvm 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Assyria, Signets of, 2 — 6 
 Astrion, 132 
 Astrological gems, 55 
 Athenades, Signet signed by, 73 
 Athene, Head of, 60, 68 ; bust of, 76 ; 
 
 figure of, App. xv 
 Athenion, Cameo signed by, 84, 85 
 Attalus II., King of Pergamus, Collec- 
 tion of engraved gems made by, 33 
 Attulas, Name of, on ring, App. xv 
 Augustus, Sardonyx of, 34; Apotheosis 
 of, 61; portrait bust of, 63; head of, 
 on cameos, 65, 76, 86; the Sphynx, 
 head of Alexander the Great, and his 
 ovifn portrait used as signet by, 49, 50 
 Aulus, Name of, on gems, 82, App. xxv 
 Austria, Eagle of, taken from Oriental 
 device, ti — 12 
 
 Babylonian cylinder, Figure of an early, 
 
 4; cylinders, produced under Darius 
 
 and Xerxes, 5 
 Bacchanal, App. xxiv 
 Bacchus, Figure of, App. xii, xvii 
 Baphion, Lenticular gems discovered at, 
 
 20, 21 
 Basalt, 152, 153; gems made of, 20 
 Bead, Ring-shaped, App. xiv 
 Bean-shaped gems, 18 
 Belli, Valerio dei, gem-engraver, 126 
 Beryl, The, 136—138 
 Betrothal ring of St Joseph and the 
 
 Virgin, Supposed, 96 
 Beverley, Lord, Scipio's ring formerly in 
 
 the possession of, 47, App. xiii 
 Bezel, Meaning of the word, 34 
 Bloodstone, The, 146 
 Boethos, Cameo signed by, 85 
 Bonus Eventus, Figure of, 54, App. xiii 
 Bow and arrow, Hero with, iigured, 26 
 Bow and drill. Illustration of a man 
 
 working with, 105 
 Bracelet, Signet worn as, 3 
 Brutus, Portrait -head of, on ring, 73 
 Bull, on gem with name of Hyllus, 77 ; 
 
 attacked by lion, App. v; and cow, 
 
 App. ix ; walking, App. xx 
 
 Cable or guilloche border, 1 5 
 
 Cabochon form of gems, 39 
 
 Caesar, Julius, Gift of ring-gems to the 
 temple of Venus Genitrix by, 36; 
 head of, on gem, 79 ; Victory on coin 
 of, App. xvi 
 
 Callaina, The, 149 
 
 Callais, The, 150 
 
 Calpurnius Severus, Gem of, 74, 75 
 
 Cameo gems, 59 — 65 
 
 Cameos with artists' names, 84 — 8g 
 
 Camiros, Gem in the Fitzwilliam Mu- 
 seum from, 13, App. iv; glass cylin- 
 ders found in the tombs of, 5 
 
 Cannae, Gold rings from, 52 
 
 Capua, Gold ring found on the site of 
 the ancient, 73 
 
 Caracalla, Portrait of, on sapphire, 132 
 
 Carbuncle, The, 138, 139; cups of, 
 
 139 
 Carlisle gems in the British Museum, 
 
 49, 78, 81, 87 
 Castel Bolognese, G. da, gem-engraver 
 
 of the Renaissance, 126 
 Castor and Pollux, Busts of, App. xii 
 Cellini, Benvenuto, 86, 127, 133 note; 
 
 gem bought by, 135 
 Centaur, Figure of a wounded, on Greek 
 
 gem, 28 
 Cesati, Aless., gem-engraver, 82, 83, 
 
 126, 127 
 Chalcedony, 144 
 Chariot drawn by two ants represented 
 
 on gem, App. xiii 
 Charles V. , King of France, Signet of, 
 
 124; cameo given to Chartres Cathe- 
 dral by, 62 
 Chaton, Meaning of, 34 
 Cheops, Ring of, 31 
 Chersonesus, Rings found on the fingers 
 
 of a Queen of the, 33 
 Cherubim and palm-tree, 3 
 Chester collection of signets, 10, 11 
 Chios, Sphinx on coins of, 49 
 Christian gems. Devices on, 57 
 Claudius, Portrait of, on rings, 42 
 Clay seals, 5, 6, 27 
 Clazomene, Tetradrachm of, 92 
 
INDEX. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 Cnoubis, Representation of, on Egyp- 
 tian gem, 56, App. xxii 
 
 Coclc, Representation of a, App. xix 
 
 Coins, Portraits on, 40, 41 ; Artists' names 
 on, §9 — 96 
 
 Cologne, Gems on shrine at, 124 
 
 Colyns, Thomas, Prior of Tywardreth, 
 Signet of, 42, 43 
 
 Comic mask, App. xx 
 
 Concord, Collection of gems in the 
 Temple of, 35, 36 
 
 Concordia, Figure of, on gems, 94 
 
 Condalium, Meaning of, 5 1 
 
 Conical Signets, 6; figures of, 7 — 9; 
 how worn, 8, 9 
 
 Constantine, Decadence in time of, 57 
 
 Comu-copiae, App. xvi, xxii 
 
 Corundum (emery), 133 — 134 
 
 Cow, on gem by Apollonides, 71 note; 
 on gem in Fitzwilliam Museum, Afp. 
 vi 
 
 Crab on a gem, App. xix 
 
 Crete, Signed coins of, 92 
 
 Cronius, gem-engraver, 71 
 
 Crystal, Quartz, used for gems, 25, 142, 
 App. v; stained to imitate jewels, 
 137; cups made of, 141 — 142; used 
 for cautery, 141 
 
 Crystalline silica, 140 — 142 
 
 Cupid, Figures of, on gems, 85, App. 
 xvii, xix, XX 
 
 Custos annuli, Office of, 53 
 
 Cyanos, real and artificial, 150, 151 
 
 Cydonia, Tetradrachm of, 92 
 
 Cylinder, Early Babylonian, figured, 4 
 
 Cylinders, i — 16; materials of, 2, 3; 
 worn as bracelets and necklaces, 3, 
 5 ; general use of, ib. ; how engraved, 
 3, 4; their inscriptions, 4; Babylo- 
 nian, produced under Darius and 
 Xerxes, 5 ; found in the tombs of 
 Camiros, ib. 
 
 Cyprus, Glass rings from tombs of, 117 
 
 Cyrene, Gems lavishly worn in the 
 Greek colony of, 33 
 
 Cyriac of Ancona, Ancient gem de- 
 scribed by, 76 
 
 Dactyliothecae, 33, 36 
 
 Darius, Babylonian cylinders produced 
 
 under, 5 
 Dedicatory inscriptions on gems, 96 
 Dexamenos, Gems signed by, 28, 72, 
 
 App, vii — ix 
 Dexilla, Dedication of articles of jewel- 
 lery by, in the Parthenon, 31 — 32 
 Diamond (adamas), 129 — 131 
 Diamond, Eyes of, in Greek statuette, 
 
 1 30 ; set in Roman rings, 131 
 Diamond-Point, The, in — 113 
 Diana, Bust of, on gem, App. xiii, xvi 
 Diomede, Figure of, 68, 74, 75, 98, 125 
 Diomede and Ulysses, Figures of, 74, 
 
 App. xxi 
 Dionysus, Representations of, 24, 40, 
 
 115, App. xvii 
 Dioscuri figured on Roman gems, 48 ; 
 
 App. xiii 
 Dioskourides, Gems signed by, 71, 75 — 
 
 79, 86; mosaic signed by, 79 note 
 Divine Unity, Profession of the, on 
 
 gems, 94 
 Dolphin, Representation of a, 67, 135, 
 
 App. xxiii 
 Domenico de' Cammei, gem-engraver, 
 
 of the Renaissance, 126 
 Donatello, admirer of ancient gems, 124 
 Drill, The gem-engraver's, 103 — 109 
 Drill-cut scarab, figured, 107 
 
 Eagle represented on jasper, App. xxii; 
 Emperor borne by, 6 1 ; Jupiter and 
 the, 62 ; head of, on chalcedony, 
 App. xxiv ; flying, on a glandular 
 gem, App. iii 
 
 Ear-ripgs, Gold, App. xiv 
 
 Ectypae, Cameos, 59 
 
 Egypt, Cylinders used as signets in, 5; 
 their materials, ib.; clay seals found 
 in, 6; Scarabs of, used for sealing 
 bottles, 37; and offerings, 27 
 
 Electra, Probable representation of, on 
 gem, App. ix 
 
 Emerald, The, 134 — 136; ring of Poly- 
 crates, 35, 69; portrait of Alexander 
 on, 71; dolphin on, 135; used by 
 
XXX 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Nero in theatre, 134 ; by gem- 
 engravers as rest for their eyes, ib. 
 Emery, Use of, 104, 107 — 108; best, 
 
 from Naxos, 105, 133 
 Epicurus, Portraits of on gems, 41 
 Episcopal rings, 122 — 123; crozier set 
 
 with gems, 123 
 Epitynchanus, Gems signed by, 83 
 Eros, Figure of, on gem by Phrygillos, 
 91; App. xi; on ear-rings, App. xiv 
 Etruscan tombs. Gems from, 44 — 46; 
 scarab with rude drill-work figured, 
 107; scarabs, 35 — 46 
 Euainetos, Coins by, 30, 89, 90 
 Euarchides, Coin signed by, 91 
 Eucleidas, Coins signed by, 90 
 Eumenes I., Portrait head of, 41 
 Euodos, Portrait of Julia by, 49, 63, 
 
 74. 123. '37 
 Euphrates Valley, Cylinder signets used 
 
 primarily by the races of the, 3 
 Eutyches, Gem signed by, 75, 76 
 Evans, A. J., on signed coins, 90 
 Exakestidas, Coin signed by, 91 
 Explanatory words on gems, 93 
 Ezechiel's list of gems, no, 131 
 
 Facet-cut gems, 39 
 
 Fauns on gems, 24, App. xviii 
 
 Felicitas, Figure of, on gems, 54 
 
 Felix, Gem signed by, 75 
 
 File, Use of the, 113, 114; used to test 
 gems, 137 
 
 Fire drill, 104 
 
 Fitzwilliam Museum, Catalogue of en- 
 graved gems in the, App. iii — xxv 
 
 Flamen Dialis, Hollow ring worn by 
 the, 51, 52 
 
 Foiled gems, 116, 138; and pastes, 116 
 
 Foppa, Arab., gem-engraver, 126 
 
 Forgeries of gems, 99 — 102 ; of artists' 
 signatures, 72; of stones, 117, 154 
 
 Fortnum, Dr Drury, Collection of Chris- 
 tian rings of, 57 
 
 Fortuna, Minute figure of, App. xvii 
 
 Francia, Francesco, the painter. Gems 
 engraved by, 126 
 
 Frog engraved on seals, So 
 
 Funda, Meaning of, 34 
 
 Gaios, Gem with name of, 87 
 Gallene, Swimming figure of, 7 1 
 Galvanic rings, 56 
 
 Ganymede, Figure of, 127, App. xvi 
 
 Garnet, The, 138 
 
 Gem-engravers, Tools used by the 
 ancient, 103 — 114; names of, 66 — 93 
 
 Gem-engraving, The technique of, 
 103 — 120 
 
 Gems, Antique, Materials used for, 
 129 — 156; characteristics of ancient, 
 97 — 102; in mediaeval times, i2r — 
 128; of the Silicon family, 140; en- 
 graved gems treated as personal orna- 
 ments, I ; greetings on, 95 ; artists' 
 names on, 72 — 75, 98 — 102 ; compara- 
 tive hardness of, 157; inscriptions on, 
 66 — 89; polishing of, 114; variety of 
 shapes of, 38, 39 
 
 Germanicus, The Apotheosis of, 61 ; 
 Head of, on gem, 83 
 
 Gistubar, Figure of, strangling a lion, 
 on a Babylonian cylinder, 4 
 
 Glandes, sling-bullets, 18 
 
 Glandular gems, 18 — 21, App. iii 
 
 Glass rings, 117, App. xiv 
 
 Glass, Various methods of working, 119 
 
 Gnaios, Signature of, on gem, 75 
 
 Gnostic Aeons, Names of the three, on 
 gems, 94 
 
 Gnostic belief concerning the Orders of 
 Angels, App. x, xi 
 
 Goat, Representation of a, App. xviii 
 
 Gold signets, 17, 31, 73, 119 — 120; 
 among Parthenon treasure, 32 
 
 Gold, Store of, in throne of Jupiter, 52 
 
 Gorgon's head on cameos, 59, 60 
 
 Granites, 152 
 
 Greaves, Method of fitting, shown on 
 gem, 25, App. V 
 
 Greco, II, 82, 126 
 
 Greece, Common practice of wearing 
 gems in, 33 , 
 
 Greek coins. Indication of Magistrates' 
 names on, 24; with artists' names, 89 
 —93 
 
INDEX. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 Greek gems, 17 — 42; subjects on, 24; 
 
 signet-gems, badge of owner on, 
 
 use of the Signet, 22, 23, 37 
 
 vases. Warriors badges on, 24 
 
 Greetings inscribed on gems, 95 
 Gryllus, Figure of a, Ap/i. xx ; used for 
 
 Roman signet-gems, 55 
 Guilloche border on gems and coins, 15 
 
 Hadrian, Sale of the collection of gems 
 
 formed by, 53 
 Haematite, 145, 151, 152 
 Haggai, Gem of, 66 
 Hand, A, extended, -App. xxiii 
 Hardness of gems, Table of, 157 
 Harpocrates, Figure of, on gems, 55; 
 
 Bust of, App. xxi 
 Hea-bani figured on cylinders, 4 no^e 
 Heliotrope, The, r46 
 Hellen, Name of, engraved on gems, 82 
 Hera, Possible representation of, on 
 
 ring, 54 ; cameo head of, App. xiv, xv 
 Heraklaea, Bronze tables of, 23 — 24; 
 
 coin of, 29 
 Herakleidas, Ring signed by, 73 
 Herakles, Representations of, 24, 80, 
 
 81, App. vi 
 Heraldry of ancients, 19 — 20 
 Hercules and Cerberus on cameo, 86 ; 
 
 head of, App. xviii 
 Hero with bow and arrow figured, 26 
 Herodotus on signet-cutting, in 
 Hermes, 77, 78, 119; bust of, App. xiv 
 Hermes Psychopompos on gems, 57 
 Herophilos, Cameo signed by, 86 
 Himera, Representation of the Nymph, 
 
 on tetradrachm, 90 
 Hippias, Signet-ring made by the Soph- 
 ist, 114 
 Hippocamp, Representation of, on a 
 
 gem, App. xviii 
 Hittite Signets, 6, 7, 10, 12; how worn, 
 
 7 ; their devices, 1 1 
 Horse, Representation of a, on a gem, 
 
 App. xviii, xix 
 Horsemen, Three, figured on camelian, 
 
 App. XX 
 
 Horus, Figure of, used for signets, 55 ; 
 
 representation of, App. a 
 Hound, Running, App. xix 
 Hunting scenes, represented on gems, 
 
 App. X and xi; on gold signet from 
 
 Mycenae, 17 
 Hyacinthus, The, 132 
 Hyllus, Gems signed by, 76, 77 
 
 Indulgentia, Figure of, on ring, 54 
 
 Inscriptions on gems, 66 — 89 
 
 Inscriptions, Talismanic, 94 
 
 lo. Head of, on gem signed by Dios- 
 kourides, 79 
 
 Iron rings, 5 1 ; used in Rome for be- 
 trothal, 51 no/e 
 
 Isis, Figure of, on ring, 54; worship of, 
 in Rome, 55 
 
 Island gems, 18; their dates, 20; de- 
 signs, il).; their material, 21 
 
 scarabs, 12 ; their material, ii.; 
 
 devices, 18, 19 
 
 Ismenias, Emerald bought by, 40 
 
 Isocrates on use of seals, 34 
 
 Jasper, 144, 145 
 Jewellers' tricks, 117, 154 
 Jewellery, Greek, 135, 136, 138 
 Jugurtha, Engraving of the surrender 
 
 of, used as a signet by Sulla, 53 
 Julia, Signed portrait of, by Euodos, 49, 
 
 63. 74. "3. 137 
 Juno, Figure of, 48, 55 ; bust of, 63 
 Jupiter, Figure of, on gems, 48, 55, 62, 
 
 App. xii ; eagle of, Apfi. xix ; head of, 
 
 60 ; head of, used as a portrait of St 
 
 Oswald, 122 
 Jupiter Ammon, Head of, on ring, 
 
 54 
 Jupiter Capitolinus, Gems in temple of, 
 
 35. 36 
 Jupiter Serapis, Bust of, App. xxi, xxii 
 Jus annuli aurei, 50 — 5 1 
 
 Kallimachus, said to have first drilled 
 
 stone, 108 
 Kamarina represented on coin, 91 
 Kanachos the sculptor, 42 
 
XXXll 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Kertch, Gems &c. found in tombs at, 
 
 60, 72, 73, App. viii, X 
 Kimon, Coins by, 30, 8g — 91 
 King, C. W., List of works of, Pref. x 
 Kleito, Dedication of jewels by, in the 
 
 Parthenon, 31 — 32 
 Kohler, Treatise of, on scarabs, 45 
 Kreontidas, Name of, on scarab gem, 
 
 67, App. iv 
 
 Laocoon, True position of the lost arms 
 of, 42, 43 ; represented on a gem, 42 
 
 Lapis lazuli, 150, 151; imitation of, in 
 paste, 65 
 
 Leake, Col., Collection of gems and 
 other works of art of, Pref. ix, x 
 
 Lenticular gems, 18 — 21 ; ditto in col- 
 lection of Mr A. J. Evans, 20; ditto 
 showing the use of the wheel, 1 10 
 
 Leo X., gem-collector, 126 
 
 Leonardo, Camillo, author of a work 
 on gems, 126 
 
 Leonardo da Milano, gem-engraver of 
 the Renaissance, 126 
 
 Letters, Precautions in seals of, 11 — 23 ; 
 inscription on seal of, 67 
 
 Lima, a gem-engraver's tool, 113 
 
 Lion, Maneless, on gem, App. v, vi; 
 representation of a, App. xix; com- 
 mon in early Greek art, App. v — vi 
 
 Lion and Stag on Greek gem, 28, 30 
 
 Livia, Figure of, on gem, 63, 83 ; block 
 of crystal dedicated by, 141 ; cameo 
 head of, on turquoise, 1 50 
 
 Locust, Human-headed, App. xxii, xxiii 
 
 Lothaire I., Crystal signet of, 121, 122 
 
 Louis L, Ancient gem used as signet 
 by, 121 
 
 Louis IX., Cameo given by, 61 
 
 Luynes, Due de. Collection of scarab 
 gems made by the, 16 
 
 Lyncurium, variety of amber, 156 
 
 Lysimachus, Head of Alexander used 
 on the coins of, 40, 41 
 
 Maecenas, Head of, 75,77; official seal 
 
 of, 6° 
 
 Maenads on gems, 24 
 
 Magi, Superstitions of the, 142 
 Magic wheel (fuy^), 33 
 Magical gems, 123 
 Magistrates' names on coins, 24 
 Magna Graecia, Gold signet-rings from 
 
 tombs in, 31 ; ditto signed by their 
 
 engravers, 73 
 Magnes, natural loadstone, 1 5 1 
 Magnetite, 151, 152 
 Man on horseback represented on gem, 
 
 App. ix, X 
 Marc Antony, Device on gold coin 
 
 struck by, 53; opal coveted by, 146 
 Marcellus, Dedication of gems in the 
 
 temple of Apollo by, 36 
 Marcus Aurelius, Portrait head of, used 
 
 as seal by Charlemagne, 121 
 Maria, Giovanni, gem-engraver, 126 
 Marlborough gems, 74 note; modern 
 
 gems among, 128 
 Mars, Representation of, App. xv 
 Massaro, Matteodal, gem-engraver, 126 
 Maximianus Herculeus Augustus, Glass 
 
 cup bearing the name of, 119 
 Mediaeval use of ancient gems, 121 — 
 
 123; gem-engravers, 124 — 127; col- 
 lections of gems, 124 
 Medici Family, Badge of the, 131 
 Medici, Lorenzo de'. Name of, on gems, 
 
 77, So; as a gem-collector, 125 — 126 
 Medici, Piero de'. Gems of, 125 
 Medusa, Figure of, on cameo, 63; head 
 
 of, 38, 60, 64, 132, 135, App. xiv ; 
 
 Forged artist's signature on gem with 
 
 head of, 75 
 Melos, Aphrodite of, 42 note 
 Mercury, Figure of, 77, 78, App. xvii; 
 
 bust of, App. xxi 
 Metal signets, 17, 73, 119 — 120 
 Michelangelo, Copy of the signet of, 
 
 App. xxiii, xxiv 
 Mike, Gem of, 68, App. vii 
 Minerva, Head of, on cameo, 86 ; 
 
 figure of, 48, 55, App. xiii 
 Mithradates, Collection of Greek gems 
 
 in Rome formerly belonging to, 36 ; 
 
 coin portrait of, 41 
 Mnesarchus the gem-engraver, 70 
 
INDEX. 
 
 XXXlll 
 
 Moretti, Marco, gem-engraver, 126 
 
 Moslem signets, 58 
 
 Moulds for paste gems, 115 
 
 Muse playing on lyre, signed by Onesas, 
 
 at Florence, 80 
 Mycenae, gems found in, 17, 18 ; their 
 
 devices, ib. ; gold signets from, 1 7 
 
 Naples, Patera cameo at, 62, 63; gold 
 
 signet at, 73 ; signed cameo at, 84 
 Naxium, emery, 133 
 Nemesis, Winged figure of, Apf. xvii, 
 
 xviii 
 Nero, Portrait of, Aj>p. xviii; emerald 
 
 used by, in theatre, 134 
 Neuantos, Coin signed by, gi 
 Nico, Dedication of gem of, in the 
 
 temple of Aphrodite, 32, 33 
 Nicolo, variety of onyx, 147 
 Nikander, Gem signed by, 74 
 
 Obsidian, used for statues, 142; to test 
 
 gems, 153 
 Odo, King of France, Signet used by, 
 
 121 
 Offa, King of Mercia, Signet of, 121 
 Onatas, Gem signed by, 88 
 Onesas, Gem signed by, 80 
 Opal, The, 146 
 Onyx, The, 146, 147 
 Orestes, Probable representation of, on 
 
 gem, App. ix 
 
 Pacorus, King of Parthia, Engraved 
 
 portrait of, on gem, 23 
 Palm-branch, App. xxiii 
 Pamphilos, Signature of, on amethyst, 
 
 79—80 
 Pan, Figure of, on coin, 92; head of, 
 
 on jasper, App. xx 
 Papal rings, 122 
 Paris, Inventory of precious objects in 
 
 the Sainte Chapelle at, 61 ; gems in 
 
 the Biblioth^que in, 61, 62, 74, 77, 
 
 79, 83; signet of Michelangelo in, 
 
 App. xxiii — xxiv 
 Paris, Judgment of, cameo signed by 
 
 Anteros, 81 
 
 Parthenon, Gems deposited in the 
 
 treasury of, 31 — 32 
 Pasiteles, sculptor and gem-engraver, 71 
 Paste cameos, 64, 65 
 Paste gems. The technique of, 114 — 
 
 119; how to distinguish them from 
 real gems, 153, 154; materials of, 
 
 153; made to imitate crystal, 154; 
 
 bubbles in, ib. 
 Paul II., Collection of gems of, 125 
 Paul III., Pope, Portrait of, 127 
 Pebbles, Gems shaped like, 18 — 19; 
 
 used for voting, 107 note 
 Pegasus, Probable representation of, on 
 
 gem, App. X 
 Persephone, Head of, on coin, 91 
 Perseus represented on gems, 24 
 Persian gems, 6, 7, 58 
 Peruzzi, a mediaeval gem-engraver, 124 
 Pescia, Piero Maria da, gem-engraver, 
 
 126, App. xxiii 
 Phalerae cameos, 60, 62, 63, 142 
 Phanes, Coin of, 67 
 Pharaoh's signet, i 
 Pheidias, Gems of the age of, 28; forged 
 
 name of, on gems, 93 ; Athene of, 
 
 copied on gems, App. xiii 
 Philemon, Signature of, on gem, 80, 81 
 Philistion, Coins signed by, 29 
 Philoctetes, Figure of, on cameo, 85 
 Phoenician gems, 12 — 16; devices on 
 
 scarabs, 13 — 15; scarab figured, 14; 
 
 scarabaeoid, App. iv 
 Phrygillos, Gem and coins v^ith signa- 
 ture of, 91 
 Pisanello, painter and medallist, 127 
 Piscatoris, Sub annulo, 122 
 Pistrucci, Benvenuto, 102 
 Plasma, 145 
 
 Plautus, Passage from, on use of signet- 
 impressions, 22 
 Pliny on gem-cutting, 106 
 Poison rings, 52 
 Polish of gems, 114 
 Polycrates, Signet of, 35, 36, 69, 70 
 Pompey, Devices on the signets of, 53 
 Poniatovi'ski collection. Gem from, App. 
 
 XXV ; its history, ib. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Portland Vase, 117, ri8 
 Portraits on gems, 40, 41 
 Pottery, disc-stamps used on, 6 ; incised 
 lines on, cut with diamond-point, 
 113; ornamented with wheel-cut 
 patterns, 1 19 note 
 Prase, 143 
 
 Prometheus, Legend of the ring of, 50 
 Protarchos, Cameo inscribed by, 85 
 Proverbial phrases on gems, 95 
 "Ptolemies, Cup of the," 6-2 
 Pyrgoteles, gem-engraver, 41, 70, 71 
 Pythodorus, Coin signed by, 9'2 
 
 Quartz crystal, 140 — 143 
 
 Ra, The Sun-god, 1, -i 
 Renaissance, Gem-engravers of, 126 
 Rings, Glass, 117, App. xiv; gold, 17, 
 
 73. "9 
 Rings, Large numbers of, worn by ladies 
 
 of rank, 33 ; of the Romans described 
 
 by Pliny, 50 
 Rock crystal, 141 — 143 
 Roger, Ahp., Signet used by, 122, 123 
 Roma, Figure of, 55, App. xv, xvii 
 Roman denarii. Magistrate indicated 
 
 on, 24 
 
 gems, 47 — 57; subjects figured 
 
 on, 48 
 
 names for rings, 51 
 
 use of gems as signets, 49 
 
 Romans, Rings seldom worn by the, in 
 
 ancient times, 50 
 
 Signet-gems of the, used for 
 
 seahng plaster stoppers of bottles, 37 
 
 Rossi, Giov. Ant. de', gem-engraver, 
 
 126 
 Rotellino of gem-engravers, 109 
 Ruby, The, 132, 133 
 
 Saladin, Badge of, 1 1 
 Salus, Figure of, on gems, 54 
 Samothrace, Use of gold signet-rings 
 
 said to have originated in, 31 
 Sapor or Shapur, Portrait of, on Sasanian 
 
 gems, 58 
 
 Sapphire, The, 132; white, 131 
 Sappho, Representation of, on Greek 
 
 gem, 27; on vase, ib. note 
 Sappirus, 150 
 Sard used for ancient engraved gems, 
 
 "9' 14.^—144 
 
 Sardoine, 144; gem with Eros cut in, 
 App. xi 
 
 Sardonyx, The, 148, 149; made up of 
 three stones, 137 
 
 Sargon I., Cylinder of, 4; date of, 5 
 
 Sasanian gems, 58 ; App. xi — xii 
 
 Satyr, A, represented on gem, 24, App. 
 xix; head of a, on cameo, 88 
 
 and wine-cup represented on a 
 
 Greek scarab, 25 
 
 Satyreius, gem-engraver, 71 
 
 Savonarola, Fra Girolamo, Portrait of, 
 by G. delle Carniuole, 1 26 
 
 Saw, used for cutting marble, 109 
 
 Scarabaeoids in Fitzwilliam Museum, 
 App. iv — viii 
 
 Scarabaeus beetle, 1, 2, 2 note, App. 
 iv — V 
 
 Scarabs, I — 16; set as rings, 1,2; worn 
 round the neck, 2 ; as charms, 1 note; 
 materials of, 2; collection of, in the 
 Fitzwilliam Museum, 2 note; date of 
 the oldest, 2 ; used as ornaments by 
 the Greeks, 21, 22; used for sealing 
 plaster stoppers of bottles, 37 
 
 Scaurus, M. Aemilius, the earliest Ro- 
 man gem-coUector, 36 
 
 Sceptre, Gold, in the British Museum, 
 136 
 
 Scipio Africanus the elder. Sardonyx 
 worn by, 148 
 
 Scipio, Ring of, 47, App. xii 
 
 Scopas, Forged name of, on gems, 93 
 
 Sculptor using a drill, represented on 
 Roman relief, 104 
 
 Seal, Passage from Aristophanes on 
 the custom of securing doors with a, 
 36, 37; used to secure voting-urns, 
 34; ditto wine-jars, 37 
 
 Seflfrid, Bp. of Chichester, Abraxas 
 gem used by, 123 
 
 Seleucus IV., King of Syria, Portrait 
 
INDEX. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 head of, used as a seal by Odo, King 
 
 of France, 121 
 Semites, Cylinder signets used by the, 3 
 Semitic inscription on figured gem, 66 
 Semon, Inscription on gem of, 67 
 Serapis, Worship of, 55; "emerald" 
 
 statue of, 135; bust of, App. xxii 
 Severus, Portrait of, on plasma, 146 
 Sicilian colonies, Early art-develop- 
 ment of the, 30, 31 
 Sicily, Gems and coins produced by 
 
 the engravers of, 29 ; coins of, with 
 
 artists' names, 89 
 Sigillum, Meaning of, 51 
 Signatures of gem-engravers, 69 — 93 
 Signet-gems used for sealing plaster 
 
 stoppers of bottles, 37 
 Signet-ring, Names used for the various 
 
 parts of a, 34 
 Signets, I — 16; Use of, in wine-cellars, 
 
 37; conical, 6; cubical, 10; circular, 
 
 11; handled, 9; figured, 10 
 Silenus, Representation of, App. xviii 
 Silenus mask, App. xii 
 Silicon stones, 140 — 149 
 Siren, Device of a, on gem, App. ix 
 Sirius, Head of, on gem, 87 
 Smaragdus, 134 — 136 
 Socrates, Head of, on gems, 41, App. 
 
 xviii 
 Solon, Law of, with regard to gems, 11 
 Solon, Name of, on gem, 75 
 Sospita, Juno, on coins and gems, 48 
 Sostratos, Cameo signed by, 87 
 South Kensington Museum, Waterton 
 
 collection of rings in the, 53, 54 
 Sphynx used for a signet, 49 
 Stanislaus, Kitig of Poland, Gems of, 
 
 App. XXV 
 Star-sapphire, 132 
 Statues represented on gems, 42, 77, 
 
 99 ; cut in crystal, obsidian &c., 
 
 141 — 142 
 Steatite, 152; used for earliest scarabs, 
 
 2 ; and for Island gems, 2 1 
 Stelae, Attic, gems with similar designs, 
 
 25, App. vii 
 Stratified stones, 141 
 
 M. 
 
 Sulla, Signet used by, 53 
 Surias, Gem signed by, 88, 89 
 Symbolum, Meaning of, 51 ; use of, 22 
 
 Tagliacanie, gem-engraver, 126 
 Talismanic inscriptions, 94; rings, 23 
 Taygetus, Mt., Basalt from, used for 
 
 gems, 20 ; rock crystal from, App. v 
 Tests for gems, 153 — 154; for adamas, 
 
 130; to distinguish ancient from 
 
 modern gems, 98 — 102 
 Teukros, Name of, cut on gem, 82 
 Tharros, Scarabs from, 14 — 16 
 Thebes, Heraldic shield devices on vase 
 
 from, 24 
 Theodoras of Samos, 35, 69, 70 
 Theodotos, Coin signed by, 92 
 Theophrastus on gem-cutting, 106 
 Thersis, Gem of, 67, 68 
 Theseus represented on gems, 24, 80 — 8 1 
 Threptos, Name of, on gem, App. xvi 
 Tools, invented by Theodorus, 69; of 
 
 gem-engravers, 103 — 120 ; used by 
 
 the Sophist Hippias, 114 
 Topazus, The, 149; statues of, ib. 
 Tomus, a gem-engraver's tool, 103 note, 
 
 109; a joiner's tool, 69 
 Trajan, Gems sold by, 53 
 Triton, Representation of a, App. xvi 
 Tryphon, gem-engraver, 71 
 Tubular drill, used for gems, 108 
 Turkey, Manner of signing edicts by 
 
 the Ottoman Sultans of, 37 
 Turquoise, The, 149 — 150 
 Tympanum of gem-cutters, no 
 
 Ulysses figured on gem, 74 
 Ungulus, Meaning of, j i 
 
 Vasari on gem-engravers, S3, 126 
 Vases, Warriors' badges on Greek, 24 ; 
 
 artists' names on, 93; incised lines 
 
 on, 113 
 Velia, Coin of, copied on gem, 29 — 30 
 Venus, Figure of, on gem, App. xxv 
 Venus Victrix, Figure of, 133, App. xvi 
 Victory, Figures of, 47, 57, 87, 88, 115, 
 
 App. xii, xiii, xv, xvi 
 
 13 
 
XXXVl 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Vienna, Great cameo of, 6i ; cameo of 
 
 Herophilus at, 76 
 Voting-urns sealed up with signets, 34 
 Votive offerings sealed with clay, 37 
 Vulcan, Representation of, App. xvii 
 
 Walter, Abp., Gold ring of, 123 
 Waterton collection of rings in the 
 
 South Kensington Museum, 53, 54 
 Westminster Abbey, Ancient gems in, 
 
 65 
 Wheel, The gem-engraver's, 109 — iii 
 Wine-cellar, Use of signets in, 37 
 Wolf represented on sard, App. xix 
 
 Xerxes, Babylonian cylinders produced 
 under, 5 
 
 Youth caressing his dog on gem, as on 
 Attic stelae, App. vii 
 
 Zeus destroying the Giants, cameo at 
 Naples, 84; head of, on a scarab of 
 the finest style, 27, 112 
 Zeus, Fostering of the infant, App. xxi 
 Zeus Lycaeos, Head of, on coin, 92 
 Zeus Serapis, Head of, on gems, 55, 
 App. xxii 
 
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