w ' I B iJS.L> Wi^ s*:*r£: &fA Wm^'- m 'M- ^mmm Cornell University Library NK550 .L84 ++ Miscellanea graphica: 3 1924 030 686 962 olin Overs The original of this 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/cu31924030686962 m I. X' IT,-. c g u a B t3 t^ a 1 U .aC/f-^^t^J ■""'^>Q>n„ Yrtuki'NC\/yl'.Br..,o.k(;r. Mi^ttllnmu <§rapf)tta: REPRESENTATIONS OF ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, AND RENAISSANCE REMAINS IN THE POSSESSION OF Hortr HontifSfiorciug!). BEAM, ENGEAVEI), AND DESCPJBED, BY FREDERICK W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A., fTONOBAnv MEMBER OF TTT E yiJCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF N0R:\L\ND\, PIC-VRJpY, and PiiITIEnS. THE HISTORICAL mTRODUCTION BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A., F.S.A.. CORRESrONDINO WEWBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY CHAPMAN AND HALL, PICCADILLY. M.DCCC.IVII. ilist of iJlatcsJ. FRONTISPIECE, BOOK-COVER OF ITALIAN WORKMANSHIP. [This very lieautifiil work of the fifteenth century, here represciitotl uf the origiDal size, is remaik- ahle for tlie variety of artistic labor it displays. The c-enti-nl subject, represeutini,' Clnist castiog out devils, is chased in low-relief, witliin a suulceu panel. The figures of Truth anil Good Fortune, on each side, ai'e engraved and the lines filled with niello ; the hatched surface has been originally covered with the same material. The oblong compartments abo\"e and below are occupied by ornaments elaborately cliased in high-rehef. The cu'cular bosses, in each corner, ai'e filled "with translucid enamels, representing saints, and the arms of the cardinal for whom the work was constructed. Tlie whole is id silver; the entire border gilt.] TITLE-PAGE. JEWELED TRINKET-CASE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. [It is entirely composed of silver, jiartially gill, and inlaid with pri'cious stones; tin- lioui upon which the spinner is seated, is formed of various colored jiieces i;if ivor}". The basement forms a series of small drawers, ^\'hicb are lined ^\'ith loo]^ing glass or miniature puiintings. Tlie iiaiue of the maker, inscribed on one of them — " G. Van der Bosch, fecit" — would lead to tlie inference that it vias manufactured m Holland. The engraving is tlie full size of tlie original.] PLATE I. .JEWELS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. II. DECORATIVE VESSELS FOR THE TABLE. III. SHIELD OF CUIR-BOUILLI. IV. OBJECTS IN IVORY. V. JEWELS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. VI. NUREMBERG DRINKING CUPS. VII. EARLY HEAUMES. VIII. ANCIENT CHESSJIEN. IX. ENAMELED PLAQUES OP THE THIRTEENTH CENTURA , X. RINGS. XI. GERMAN DRINKING CUPS. XII. HUNTING AND WARDERS' HORNS, XIII, A MORSE OP THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY, XIV, DRINKING CUPS IN THE FORM OF BIRDS, XV, STIRRUPS. XVI. ROMAN DOMESTIC ALTAR. Hist of ^platrs. PLATE XVII. GOLD ORNAMENTS FOUND IN IRELAND. XVIII. IMPLEMENTS FOR THE TABLE. XIX. PIECES DE RENFORT. XX. COMBS. XXI. ALTAR FURNITURE. XXII. DRINKING CUPS. XXIII. DAGGERS. XXIV. IMPLEMENTS OF PUNISHMENT, XXV. ENAMELED ALMS-DISH OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. XXVI. WATCHES. XXVII. SWORDS, XXVIII. MEDIEVAL IVORY CARVINGS. XXIX. MEROVINGIAN BROOCHES. XXX. THE BELL OF ST. MURA. XXXI. GUNS. XXXII. ROMAN BRONZES. XXXIII, ANGLO-SAXON ORNABIENTS. XXXIV. DECORATIONS FOR THE PERSON. XXXV. HELMETS. XXXVI. STEEL CHAIR. XXXVII. SACRED UTENSILS. XXXVIII. .JEWELS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XXXIX. DECORATED ITALIAN ARMOUR. XL. DRINKING CUPS IN THE FORM OF ANIMALS. XLI. SILVER,-GILT SALTCELLAR. XLII. DECORATIVE DRINKING VESSELS. XLIII. ARMOUR OF A KNIGHT. XLIV. IVORY CASKETS. -0>^*9iC INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. The love of art seems to be a quality inseparable from human nature : although modified by the peculiar character and the degree of civilization of a people, it is never entirely absent. We find, indeed, that the least cultivated savages no sooner learn to make implements of utility than they seek to give them some kind of ornamentation. Hence the history of art is, in one point of view, the history of society itself; and it forms an interesting as well as a valuable illustration of social condition and social progress in all ages and countries. There could, perhaps, therefore be no better introduction to a series of monmnents of art like those represented in the engravings Avhich form the present volume, than an attempt to show in a brief compass their historical interest. We learn from their own Avriters, that those arts which shone at one period among the people of ancient Greece with unsurpassed splendour, had grown gradually out of attempts which were rude in the extreme, but ■which were still not more rude than the manners of the people who executed them. In those early ages, a log of wood hewn, or a stone chipped, into a very distant resemblance to the human form, served as a representation of a deity ; and, subsequently to this, for sculpture is an older art than drawing, it was found necessary, we are told, to append to each attempt at delineation, a verbal key to its meaning, in such inscriptions or subscriptions as " this is a man", or " this is a tree". As the refinement of art accompanied the progress of society in Greece, so, after her days of freedom were past, and the condition of the people began to retrograde, the arts also began soon to show signs of debasement. With the Romans, the arts at their best period were rather imitative than original ; but, though they never rose there to the same perfection as in Greece, they went through a similar scale of upward progress, and of decadence. Very early in the period of the empire tlie taste for simple elegance of form gave place to the love of profuse and meretri- cious ornamentation. The examples of Eoman work given in tlie present volume belong ap]iarcntly B PI. xxxii ti". i. » PI. xvi. ^ IXTRODUCTOEY ESSAY. to the age of the gradual decadence of Eoman art. The best of these is the ' 'h,;'i''"' bronze archer,^ which displays good art, though not belonging to the highest grade of art, and which, from the circumstances under which it was found, can ^V'^^''"' hardly be of a very early period. This and the bronze ploughman- have a particular interest for us, as being probably examples of Roman art as it existed in our island, both of them having been found in Britain. The lamp in the same ' plate'' represents the arts of the empire as modified under the influence of the Christians, and probably is of eastern workmanship : it is distinguished by fantastic forms, which are entirely devoid of elegance. The pagan altar,^ given on another plate, is suificiently debased in style, and cannot be ascribed to an early date. The arts of the Romans went on in decadence, but they did not die. The men whose business it was to practise them continued to exist, not only in Italy, but even in the towns of the provinces, after the latter had fallen under the dominion of the barbarians, and bequeathed their knowledge and their rules of practice from father to son, or from master to disciple, which were thus perpetuated throughout the middle ages, for a long time probably merely by oral teaching ; but at a later period, about the tvv'elfth and thirteenth centuries, when literature became more widely extended, they, or at least as much as remained of them, were reduced to writing, first, in the shape of memorial verses, and afterwards in regular treatises in prose. It is probably, in spite of all that has been said of their antiquity, to this period that we must ascribe such books on art as those which go under the names of Eraclius and Thcophilus. It is evident, from the language of these writers, that it was in their time still the tradition of the workmen that their arts were of Roman descent, — a curious proof of the involuntary consciousness of Eoman origin among the medieval manufacturing corporations. The older of these writers, the one who goes under the name of Eraclius, calls his book a treatise " On the colours and arts of the Romans" (Be Colorihus et Artibus Romanorum), and laments the low state into which artistic knowledge had fallen : " .Jam deeus ingenii quod plebs Roraana probatur Dccidit, ut pcriit sapientum cura senatum. Quis nunc lias artes inycstigare valcbit, Quas isti artifices, immensa mente potentes, Invcncre sibi, potens est ostendere nobis." It was tlins that the ancient practice of the arts did not die, although the know- ledge of them became more limited, and their character and forms became debased and modified by the less refined tastes of the various peoples who settled upon the ruins of the empire. Some of them, such as architecture and the various arts more immediately connected with it, were nearly unknown to the barbarians, and INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 6 the style of these contmucd for several centuries to be known by the epithet of Roman iRomammi opus): the modern French antiquaries have given to these arts, which were more evident imitations of Roman work, the title of Romanesque. Among the people who thus contributed towards modifying the character of Roman art in Western Europe were the Franks. That this people, who established themselves in the nortli of Gaul, under Clovis, towards the close of the fifth century, had arts peculiar to themselves, both in style and workmanship, we know from the numerous articles which are found in their graves of the pagan period, and from a comparison of them with those belonging to the other tribes of the Teutonic race. A plate of Frankish personal ornaments will be found in the present volume, the first article on which^ represents a form of fibula which ^ ^'.'^^ ^^i-^- appears to have been peculiar to the Franks ; and, though fibula; of similar form have been found in England, the circumstances connected with them lead us to suppose that they had been imported. The last fibula on the same plate- is '-ib.,iig.5. probably Frankish; but, to judge from its superior correctness of design, of a much later date. The three disc-shaped fibulfe" display, in some respects, 'ib., tigs. considerable resemblance to Anglo-Saxon workmanship. Tlie Anglo-Saxons had established themselves in Britain before the conquests of the Franks in Gaul, and brought with them arts which resembled in general character those of the Franks, and were equally their own. A plate of Anglo- Saxon personal ornaments' is also given in the present volume, containing fibulse, -"I'l. xxxm. pendants, a hair-pin, and a buckle. The Anglo-Saxons are the only one of the Teutonic tribes that shared in the spoil of the Roman empire, who have left us any remains of their earlier literature. In the interesting poem of Beowulf, and in the few other fragments of primeval Saxon romance which have come down to us, the ancient poets dwell with pleasure on the beauty of the various objects which were displayed by the chiefs at their feasts. Among these are mentioned especially the drinking cups [Jtroden ealo-tvicge, the twisted ale-cup), and the vessels from which the liquor was poured. The armour also is spoken of as being adorned with costly ornaments ; and the beauty of the sword-hilts is often alluded to. liwam f sweord ge-worht, for whom that sword, irenna cyst, the costliest of irons, cerest wa3re, was first made, wreoj-^en-hylt and wyrm-ftih. with twisted hilt and variegated like a snake. Beoumlf, 1. 3-37.3. It was, indeed, natural enough that, in an early and insecure state of society, the only articles on which much expense was bestowed, should be ornaments of the 4 INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. person, and objects which, serving for occasional ostentation, might be deposited at other times in tire "treasure-house", and easily trussed up and carried away on the approach of danger. The epithets " twisted" and " variegated" describe very well the general character of the decoration of the numerous personal ornaments found in the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon graves, such as the fibula?, buckles, etc. They display great practical skill, both in working the metals and in forming and setting jewelry. The Anglo-Saxons, indeed, seem to have been especially eminent for the skill of their goldsmiths, and it is not improbable that most of the richer gold fibulfe found in the Frankish graves of tlie J^Ierovingian period were obtained from England. No labour was spared to give these an appearance which may fairly be termed variegated, and the elaborate filigree work, which is so charac- teristic of the Anglo-Saxon fibula of gold, might with equal justice be described by the epithet of " twisted." The richest of the Saxon ornamented articles are found, as is now generally known, in the graves of Kent ; and that district furnished the examples given in the plate in the present volume. It is a cuiious proof of the utility of studying the character of art, even among unrefined nations, that we find in this instance distinct variations, which not only mark the dictinc- tions of two peoples like the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, but which shew tliemselves in the subdivisions also, as in the case of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, the three tribes which joined in the formation of the English race. Without entering further into the subject here, it will be sufficient to state that, in one article alone, the fibula, the variation in the three grand divisions of the Anglo- Saxon race is very remarkable. The flat disc-like fibnlte, such as those given in the plate, belonged to the Jutislr population of Kent ; fibuhe of bronze or brass gilt, taking somewhat the form of a long cross, and generally covered with elaborate though rude ornament, were peculiar to all the branches of the Angle race in this island ; while other fibula', of the same materials as those of the Angles, but circular, and with raised rims that give them the shape of saucers, and with a different and rather more regular style of ornamentation, are found to characterize the remains of tlie Saxons in tlie Vv^est. The accompanying cut represents two of these saucer-shaped fibula-, which are now in the collection of Lord Londesborough, but which Avere found in tumuli on the high land bordering on the Thames, near Long Wittenham, in Oxfordshire. They are composed of bronze, the sunken surface of the ornaments being richly gilt. The first (fig. 1) exhibits in its centre a star shaped ornament, surrounded by a zig-zag or chevron ; the pin by which it was attached to the dress is in this example perfect, and INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 5 is shown in the side-view (fig. 2). The ornament on fig. 3 is much more elaborately conceived, and it also is strongly gilt. Another fibula, precisely 12 3 similar to it, was found along with it, a circumstance M'hich had been remarked by Mr. Wyhe as usually occurring in the Fairford graves, Avhich belonged to the same people, the West Saxons. The three other articles here represented were found with these fibulee. The first (fig. 4) shows the ordinary flat circular fibula of bronze, slightly washed with silver, i and decorated with a few incised circles and geometric lines. Fig. 5 is a remarkable stud of bronze, thickly plated with gold, and exhibiting in relief a figure which was probably intended for that of a bird. Fig. 6 is a buckle, belonging, no doubt, to a belt or girdle ; it is also thickly coated with gold, and chased in high relief, and it has in the centre a square garnet. Another garnet is placed on the hinge, and is enriched with two small open circles of gold. It is a remarkable i^eculiarity of this decoration, that the circles of gold are inserted in grooves cut for them in tlic garnet, into which they are fitted with the greatest exactitude and beauty. The buckle itself has been covered with a thin plate of silver, which is partly decayed and shows the substructure of bronze beneath. In the same graves were found cross- shaped fibulie of bronze, pins, beads, and rings, with the usual spears, knives, and umbos of shields, met with in the Saxon interments. It is peculiarly characteristic of Anglo-Saxon and Frankish ornamental work, that the artists were totally incapable of drawing with any degree of correctness figures of men or animals, of which the stud just described is a pertinent illustra- tion. When the Saxon workmen attempted to copy the figures on Eoman coins, or c 6 INTEODUC'TORY ESSAY. on any other articles of Roman work, tliey produced objects which it is difficult to identify with the originals, when we compare them Avith the Roman articles which' had served as models. Nevertheless, it is more than probable that the practice of Roman art in Britain had not been swept away by the Anglo-Saxon invasions, and that workmen who derived their instruction and knowledge from the Romans continued to live in the towns. It may perhaps be to them that we owe the rather numerous articles of indisputably Roman character, such as bronze bowls and other vessels, which are found in Anglo-Saxon graves, especially in Kent, mixed with the articles which are as evidently of pure Saxon workmanship. We can understand easily, however, how, under the circum- stances, the taste for simple elegance of form, which still characterized the Roman style in these articles, disappeared before the love of the Anglo-Saxons for profuse ornamentation without any appreciation of the elegance of form itself. On the Continent this was not equally the case ; for there the Roman influence was felt much stronger than in Britain ; and the conquerors, whether Franks, or Lombards, or Goths, emulous of the imperial pomp and magnificence, gave encouragement to what remained of Roman art in their eagerness to imitate them, and sent for Avorkmen in its various branches from the south of Gaul and from Italy, where of course it existed, however debased, in greater perfection than else- where. This influence was increased by the rising power of the church, which brought the various peoples who had conquered the provinces into more immediate intercourse with Rome itself. Not to mention other allusions to tlie employment of Roman artists of different kinds by the Merovingian monarchs, the reader will at once call to his recollection the story of St. Eligius, the favourite minister of king Dagobert. Eligius, who Avas celebrated for his skill as a gold- smith — a profession Avhich appears then to have included fine Avork in other metals as Avell as gold — gained the king's confidence by an act of honesty Avhich gives us some notion of the practice of the art at that time. It appears to have been the custom for those Avho Avanted a AVork of art executed to furnish the materials to the artist. Dagobert, knowing the fame of Eligius as a superior Avorkman in art, employed him to make a chair of state, or throne, and gave him, out of his own treasures, the gold Avhich he judged necessary for the purpose. We are led by the sequel of the story to suppose that it Avas the usual custom of the artists to require considerably more material than Avas necessary, and that they appropriated to themselves all that remained unused. Dao-obert's notions on this subject seem to have been sufficiently liberal, for, Avhen the Avork was done, Eligius produced, to his great astonishment and satisfaction, two chairs INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 7 instead of one. The Merovingian prince took Iiini into his own employ, placed him at the head of his mint, and made him his favourite minister. The Roman influence on art was soon seen in a superior knowledge of form, and in the more skilful and correct delineation of figures. The latter characteristic will be remarked in the fibula on the plate of Frankish ornaments already mentioned ;^ and which, for that reason, I suspect to belong to a later period than the other objects represented on the same plate, — perhaps as late even as the twelfth century. It may also be remarked, that a greater influence of Roman art is apparent in the works of the medieval artists in France, than in the style of art which prevailed in England during the whole Anglo-Saxon period. As we might expect, from the condition of society and the character of its movement, the practice of the arts soon fell under the immediate influence of the church ; and for a long time it was employed chiefly, if not almost exclusively, for ecclesiastical purposes. The first impulse of improvement given to art, among the Anglo-Saxons, appears to have come from the missionaries of Christianity during the earlier half of the seventh century. We know from the early historical and other writers that the Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics of the ages immediately following it, during the later half of the same century and the first part of the century following, brought over from the Continent not only objects of art, but foreign workmen ; and their labours seem to have produced in this country a considerable degree of enthusiasm. But from this time art in England, as in Gaul, — the new art, as we may term that which had been brought in by the ecclesiastics,— seems to have been looked upon as the exclusive property of the church ; and nearly all its monuments which have descended to us possess more or less of an ecclesiastical character. Under the infiuence of the enthusiasm just mentioned, the Anglo- Saxon ecclesiastical artists soon equalled, if they did not excel, those of the Continent ; and there are few examples of the illuminations of books of tlie seventh or eighth centuries which can be compared with the splendid copy of the Gospels known as the Durham Book, executed towards the close of the seventh century, and now preserved among the Cottonian Manuscripts in the British Museum. From this time we can trace by a few examples, chiefly of ecclesiastical art, and by notices in the Anglo-Saxon writers, the general outline of the progress of Anglo-Saxon art until the age of the Norman conquest ; and we can see that it preserved peculiarities which distinguished its style from that of the Continent. Some remains of the influence of the older and more purely Saxon style and workmanship may be recognized, for example, in the well-known ring of king Alfred, and in other similar articles. 8 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 1 IM. xvii, - 111., fic's. -■ H.., figs. ■; and (;. ^ T'l. XXK But tlie Anglo-Saxons were also giving an influence in style to, and perhaps also sometimes receiving it from, other peoples, who were even less refined than themselves. We have little reason for believing that the Celtic race in the far west was ever distinguished by anything approaching to a refined taste for art. Of what the Britons were capable, we can only judge by their coins, which are miserable copies of Greek originals, and display an utter want of the power of delineation ; and the purely Irish works of an early period, found in Ireland, are distinguished only by the richness of the material (usually solid gold, which appears then to have been found in that island in considerable quantities) ; but they show very few, and those very rude, attempts at ornamentation. They consist principally of collars' and armlets,- such as those represented in the plate of gold ornaments in the present volume. The two rings on the same plate" seem to me to be evidently not of Irish Avorkmanship. On the other hand, that remarkable monument of ecclesiastical art known as the bell of St. Mura,^ exhibits, I think, the strongest marks of Anglo-Saxon influence ; and its style may be compared with that of the ornamentation of the earlier ecclesiastical remains of the kingdom of Northvimbria, the church of which, we know from Bede, was, in the seventh century, in intimate connexion with that of Ireland. It may, indeed, possibly be Northumbrian work ; for the legend connected with it — according to which, it came from heaven — would seem to imply a conscious- ness that it was not of native manufacture. Another class of personal ornaments and fibulae, often of large size and profusely orna- mented, and not inelegant in form, though found in Ireland are evidently not Celtic, and belong certainly to a much later period than that of the objects of which we have just been speaking. Their form, which is pecu- liar, and which has been lately imitated with some success in modern brooches, will be best explained by the annexed engraving, which represents a fibula of this description recently purchased by Lord Londesborough. It is made of silver (weighing 4 oz. 6 grs.), and is ornamented v/ith six small bosses of brown amber. These fibulas, from their peculiarities of character, and from the circu.mstanccs INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 9 under which they have generally been found, have been ascribed, probably correctly, to the Irish Danes, and are believed to belong to the period extenchng from the tenth to the twelfth century. The example here given is said to have been found in an ancient crypt in the Danish town of Waterford. Examples of these fibulas have been found also in the north of England. Another class of objects, but of a totally different material, are believed to be examples of Scandinavian art, chiefly because they have been found in the north of Scotland ; but I think their northern origin has not yet been fully established. The use of ivory, for carved ornaments, seems to have become common in the later days of the Roman empire, and it continued to prevail extensively on the Continent during the middle ages. The Anglo-Saxons seem not to have been much acquainted with true ivory, for the only name they appear to have had for it in their language was ylpen-han, i.e., elephant's bone, which was a mere explanation of the Latin name. But the northern nations used for the same purposes another substance, or rather a similar substance, the tooth of one of the large fish which they included under the name of whale (the morse, or walrus). We do not know to what extent this substance was used among the Anglo-Saxons before the conquest, nor does any early v/riter mention the Anglo-Saxon name for it, which, however, was no doubt Imccles-han ; but in the early English poetry it is frequently alluded to under this name of whales-lone, and the comparison, " as white as whale's bone," continued to be in common use apparently long after the real nature of the allusion had been forgotten. A love song of the thirteenth century, in a collection edited by me for the Percy Society, speaks of — "A waj'lc ivJiijt as whalles hon, A grein in golde that godly shon, A tortlc tliat min lierte is on, in tounes trcwe." Specimens of Lyric Poetry, p. 38. And another lyric piece, in the same collection, tells us of the lady whom it celebrates, that her teeth resembled this substance:' — " Hire tcht aron u^hite use hon of whal, Evene set ant atled al, Ase hende mowe taken hcde." [lb., p. 32.) The earliest allusion to it yet noticed, is found in the Brut of Layamon, who wrote probably towards the close of the twelfth century. In the description of the subterranean dwelling which Locrine built for his mistress, Estrild, Layamon tells us that the doors were made of " whale's bone," i.e., of ivory — which shews, perhaps, that it was the only kind of ivory with which he was acquainted. D 10 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. makian an eor'S-hus, eatli and feier, ]>e walles of stone, ]ie durcn of whales bone. iPl. viii. make an earth-house (subterraneai house), beautiful and fair, the walls of stone, the doors of whales lone. Madden's Layamon, vol. i, p. 100. Among the earliest articles which are known to be of this material are the chess-men found in the Isle of Lewis, the greater portion of which are in the British Museum ; but a few, and those the more choice examples, were purchased by Lord Londesborough, and are figured in the present volume.^ There is every reason for ascribing these articles to the twelfth century, to which period the costume, and especially the form of the arms, belong ; and they appear to me to present the ruder characteristics of Anglo-Saxon art as modified by the influence of that which had then been introduced by the Normans. The character of the ornamentation of these curious objects, will be further understood by the accompanying engraving, which represents the backs of the two queens, and displays peculia- rities of head-dress of the period not observed elseAvhere. Another chessman in Lord Londesborough's Collection,- belonging to the fol- loAving century, and no doubt con- tinental work, is much more elaborate, and is made of ivory ; but of two supposed 'iii,,fis. 1. draughtsmen on the same plate, though closely resembling each other, the one^ is formed of the tooth of the walrus, while the other is made of bone. After the establishment of Christianity in this island, when the Anglo-Saxons no longer buried their dead in the old pagan manner with so many articles of personal ornament or of domestic use, we have scarcely any objects of an ornamental character left which are not ecclesiastical, or at least which have not been made by or for the clergy. It is probable, however, that secular art continued to exhibit the influence of the old Anglo-Saxon style to a far greater degree than clerical art, and this seems to be proved by the few Anglo-Saxon remains of this sort which are from time to time met with. Among the most curious of these, in many respects, are the fork and spoon found in Wiltshire and figured in the present volume.^ They are evidently works of the ninth century, and in style of ornament they may be compared with some of the jcAvelry from the Anglo-Saxon graves, with the chessmen just described, and even with the bell of - Pl.xxviii, &■'. 1. •1 PI. xviii l]gs.l&2 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 11 St. Mura and with some of the Dano-Irish fibulgc. These two articles are important in their bearing on a curious point of medieval manners. We know from a profusion of authorities that the people of the middle ages, like the Romans and Greeks, were ignorant of the use of forks at table in eating : they used a knife only to cut, and their fingers to handle the meat and convey it to the mouth. This practice Avas the cause that so much importance was placed in washing the hands before and after meals. Some of the early books of directions for behaviour at table give curious recommendations upon this subject. One of these, the old English " Boke of Kervynge," tells the carver, to whom also the use of a fork was unknown, that he should " set nevere on fysshe, flesche, beest, ne fowle, more than two fyngers and a thombe." Other directions, of a similar description, some of which prove that handkerchiefs were equal rarities, while they shew us the unrefined manners of our forefathers, leave no room for doubt that, during the whole period of the middle ages, people were totally ignorant of the use of the fork for the purpose of conveying the food to the mouth. Yet, in face of all this, we have here a fork of the ninth century ; and a fork, probably at least three centuries older, has been found in a Saxon grave, of the pagan period, at Harnham near Salisbury. Moreover, the mention of forks is by no means uncommon in the inventories of the princes and great feudal barons of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Edward I of England possessed a fork. These forks were usually made of gold or silver, or of some other material hardly less precious at that period ; and they are almost always coupled, as in our Anglo- Saxon example, with a spoon. Thus a spoon and fork of gold — in some instances adorned with precious stones — occur in the inventory of the Duke of Normandy, in 1363 ("2ine cuiller (Tor et une foiirchette, et aux deux bouts deux saphirs"); in the will of Queen Jeanne of France, in 1312 ('^une cuUiere et une fourchette d'or"); in the inventory of Charles V, in 1380 ("m«e cidllier et une fourchette d'or, oh il y a ij. halays et x. perles"), etc. It has been supposed that only great persons — and they, perhaps, only on great occasions — ate with forks; but this would give but an imperfect and unsatisfactory explanation of the matter ; and we can only suppose that the spoon and fork were used, not for eating, but for serving certain articles, such as sops in pottages, fruits, etc. The spoon and fork, usually of box-wood, Avith which salads are still served in France, will furnish an example in point. That this is the correct explanation is proved by one or two more direct allusions in the inventories just referred to. Thus Jean duke of Britany had two little pots, and a fork of silver for drawing sops ("z}'. pctiz gamcaux, et um forche T argent a trere soiipes"), inventory of 1306. In England, Piers Gaveston had three silver 12 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. II "gf^'^ 1 riM^ iliii' forks for eating pears ; probably for serving pears which had been baked (" trots furchestes (Targent pur mangier jjoires"), invent., 1313. At a later period the duchess of Orleans had a fork of gold, to take sops in wine {''une fourchette d'or pour madame la diichesse d' Orleans, a prendre la soiippe oh vin"), accounts of 1390; and the inventory of the dukes of Burgundy, in 1423, mentions more than one example of a fork for eating mulberries. There is no trace of the use of the fork in eating, according to the modern practice, till the close of the sixteenth century. One of the most curious articles of the Anglo-Saxon period, in the collection of Lord Londesborough, is a thin plate of lead, with an inscription in the Anglo- Saxon language, which has been supposed to be a book-cover. The best no- tion of this object will be given by the accompanying wood-cut, which represents it on a scale of just one- third of the size of the original. The gentleman from whom Lord Londes- borough purchased this article several years ago, had obtained it from a labourer who dug it up in the grounds of the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk. At the head is a Runic inscription, which is perhaps a title; but the characters are not easily decyphered. That which follows is written, with a sharp point, in good Anglo-Saxon characters of the latter end of the tenth century, and may be easily read ; it Ip eriy e hire &ki er AhehAis "Ic ^Elfric munc & mfesse-preost wearj, asend on .E>elredes djege cymnc.es fr ^Ifeage biscope, ^J.elwolde asfter-gengan, to sumum mynstre |;e is Cernl. >a bearn mode, ic treowege >urh Godes gife, >cet ic has .... . am me on "Which may be translated into English ; I, Alfric, monk and mass-priest, was sent in king Atheh-ed's time from Alfeah the INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 13 bishop, the successor of Athelwokl, to a certain monastery which is called Cernel. Then it came into my mind, 1 believe through God's grace, that I would this It is the commencement of Alfric's preface to his first collection of Anglo- Saxon homilies, which, as it stands in the manuscripts that have come down to us, contains some additional words that may very well have been added on an afterthought; so that this may have been the first sketch of the preface in question. One of the three rings, also of lead, which held this and the other leaves together, still remains ; and it is not impossible that, instead of being the cover of a book, it is one of the leaves of a table-book (for we know that such articles were sometimes made of lead), and that this table-book belonged to Alfric himself, and contained his first sketch of his preface. It might have been preserved by one of his disciples, who became a monk of Bury, as a memorial of affection for his teacher. It has been already remarked that the Anglo-Saxons, and, indeed, their neighbours on the Continent also, were much more skilful in ornamentation than in the delineation of form, and especially of the human figure. It is true that some of the drawings of men in manuscripts are tolerable, and even spirited, but they are never correct ; and when they attempted to draw the body without clothing, they failed ridiculously. They represented trees by certain conventional forms, which are almost too absurd for description ; and they scarcely ever show anything approaching to correct ideas of perspective. Yet, at the close of the tenth century, the art of drawing seems to have flourished in England more than in any other country of Western Europe. A very remarkable object, purchased recently by Lord Londesborough, furnishes a good illustration of the state of the art of design at this period. The inscriptions upon it show that its original purpose was to contain relics of saints ; and it does not appear to have had any other form than that which it offers at present, namely, that of a shallow box formed of thin plates of silver. The engraving given on the next page represents the front, or upper surface, in which there is a square opening in the centre, now occupied by a piece of marble, apparently verd antique. This marble appears to be set in a frame of wood, upon which the silver is mounted. On this front the figures are left white on a gilded ground. The middle of the upper compartment contains the figure of the Saviour, enthroned, within a circular auricle, and delivering the keys to St. Peter, who stands on his right hand, and the book to St. Paul, on his left. A peculiarity will at once be perceived in the keys, the wards of which are formed severally of the letters pe and tr, to represent petr' (or Petrus). Behind St. Peter stands a saint, E 14 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. whose pastoral staff shows him to have been a bishop ; and whose name is given in letters which, placed one under the other, form a vertical line of separation from the other subject, sSs blasivs, or St. Blaise. Another episcopal saint, on the other side, is stated to be scs nicolays, or St. Nicholas. On the left hand side of the central opening is represented Melchisedech, holding in his hand a cup surrounded by a nimbus. On the other side stands Aaron, crowned and holding the censer. In the compartment underneath, we see Abraham preparing to .ySc^^^m^^^&zl^r^/^^iiiitx^^ F.W.FAIRHOLT.dcZ HICDVNTjlREfi®VI/EsCIIOHANNIS-PAPTETClRlS.GI-PANGRRairiCIM^MRRT sacrifice his son Isaac, with a sword which in form and character resembles those of the Anglo-Saxons or Franks. The divine hand arrests him at the luoment of o-ivine the blow ; and in one of the trees, which are drawn in the conventional style above mentioned, the ram has become entangled, whicli is destined to serve as a substitute in the sacrifice. The back of this reliquary, which is represented in our second cut, differs from the front in having the ground silver, and the figures, circles, etc., gilt. The centre is occupied by the lamb, with its head in a cruciform nimbus ; and the whole inclosed in a circular band, which bears the inscription, -j- agnvs domini. INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. 15 instead of the more usual Agnus Dei. At the corners are the four virtues, crowned, and holding scrolls, and placed within similar circles, on which are inscribed their names : -|- ivsticia (Justice), + prvdencia (Prudence), + fortitvdo (Fortitude), and +temperancia (Temperance). The band of silver which forms the edges or sides of this curious reliquary bears on three sides the ornament represented in the slip underneath our second wood-cut, which is the upper edge. The lower edge, which is represented underneath the first cut, is occupied by an inscription which gives us the names of the saints whose relics were contained in it, and which, singularly enough, do not include those of the saints whose figures are engraved on the surface. This inscription is as follows : — • HIC CDVNTVR RELIQVIiE SCI lOHANNIS . PART . ET CIRIACI . PANCRACII . KILIANI . MART. i.e., "herein are contained the relics of St. John the Baptist, and of Ciriac, Pancratius, and Kilian, the martyrs." Fragments of the pretended bones, probably of these saints, were no doubt placed in the opening now occupied by the 16 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. piece of marble, and they were perhaps covered by a piece of glass or crystal. Beside the general style of this curious monument of art, there are several circumstances which would lead us to ascribe it to a date not later than the tenth century. The square crowns exactly like those represented upon it, are found in Anglo-Saxon works about that period. The head given in the annexed cut is that of king Edgar as he is represented in a MS. belonging, probably, to the latter end of the tenth century, or perhaps to the beginning of the eleventh. (MS. Cotton., Tiber. A. iii.) While Roman art was becoming degraded, as we have described it, in the west, it was passing through a similar course of decadence in the east, and assumed a character differing considerably in forms, and superior to it in elegance of ornament and correctness of design, but quite as far removed from the pure Roman, which has been designated by the title of byzantine. Byzantine art began to be brought to the west in the reign of Charlemagne ; but it never appears to have exerted much influence beyond Italy and the south of France. The profound disorganization of society in the tenth century was fatal to the arts on the Continent, and that period presents almost a blank in their history ; but in the eleventh century, after the mysterious terror Avhich hung over the thousandth year of the Christian era had been dispelled, they revived ; and from a variety of causes the progress of improvement was both rapid and great. The more frequent and intimate intercourse with Greece and Constantinople, as well as with the Arabs in Spain and in the east, brought with it new ideas ; and, which was still better, new impulses. This onward movement is, perhaps, most apparent in Normandy, which, under the cherishing government of its dukes, became richer and more prosperous than any of the states around. When the Normans came into England they found their art so much superior to that which they saw here, that they seem to have destroyed existing monuments for no other purpose than to substitute superior works of their own. Such, we know, was the case with the churches and other ecclesiastical buildings ; and the latter part of the eleventh and greater part of the twelfth centuries astonish us by the vast and continual process of destruction and reconstruction. The twelfth century itself was a period of great intellectual movement and development, which produced their full effect upon art. The artists of the twelfth century had a better perception of form, and there was more boldness as well as more grace in their compositions, than at any previous period of the middle ages. Art was still, however, monopolized in a great measure by the church, and INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 17 most of its monuments which remain to us from the twelfth century are ecclesias- tical. It is not until the thirteenth century that we find the laity gaining any extensive possession of it ; and the influence of the clergy continued to be great during the fourteenth, and only sank entirely in the fifteenth. From the earliest period of which we have been speaking, we find ornamentation of every description then known, lavished profusely upon the ecclesiastical insignia and upon the church furniture, as well as upon the dresses of the clergy. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the heads of some of the croziers of this period, which are frequently made of rich materials. The cut annexed represents one of these objects, belonging to the former period (the twelfth century), in the collection of Lord Londesbo- rough, which is represented here on a scale of about one-third of the size of the original. It is composed of bronze, gilt, and is adorned with stones alternately red, blue, and green. It is hardly necessary to say that the subject represented in the bend is the combat between St. Michael and the dragon. Dragons and serpents were favourite objects of ornamenta- tion at an early period, not only because they were closely connected with the popular superstitions, but because they were more easily turned into tolerably graceful curves by unskilful artists than most other objects ; and they held their position throughout the twelfth century, though they were giving way to the introduction of foliage, which announced a new influence on taste of the monuments of antiquity. But the foliage of this age was not a servile copy of Koman foliage. It was founded on the study of nature, — a sign that art was really on the point of regeneration, — and it was infinitely varied, both in kind of leaf and in arrangement. In the thirteenth century, the time at Avhich this character of ornament reached its greatest perfection, the favourite foliage among the English artists was the leaf of the oak. New, or at least improved, processes, as well as novelty of design, marked this revival of art ; and among those which assumed a great importance in and after the twelfth century, was that of enameling. Several methods of enameling were practised in the middle .ages, each of which possessed very distinctive charac- 18 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. tcristics. The simplest mode of the application of this process was to take a piece of flat metal (generally gold), surrounded with a raised rim, and to form in the space within this rim the outlines of the design with threads or thin bands of the same metal, rising to the same height as the rim itself The spaces between these bands were filled with the vitreous substance. This method of enamel was the one practised chiefly by the Franks and Anglo-Saxons. The French antiquaries distinguish this description of enamel by the title of cloisonne, or partition work. It fell into disuse on the adoption of another process, which possessed many advantages over the former, and which the French distinguish by the epithet champleve. In this, the outlines of the figures were still formed of metal, which rose to the surface of the enamel ; but instead of applying bands or threads to form them, the hollows for the reception of the enamel Avere cut into the surface of the metal itself, so as to leave the parts Avhicli were to form the outlines level with the original surface. The metal used for this description of enamel was usually copper or brass. This method of enameling appears to have, in truth, been older than the cloisonne enamel ; and we have some very early specimens of it. It is very curious that a Greek writer, who flourished at Rome at the beginning of the third century (the sophist Philostratus), ascribes to the " barbarians who live near the ocean", a process of art which must indicate the practice of enameling, and which seems to shew that it was not then known elsewhere. " They spread their colours", he says, " on heated brass, to which they adhere, and become hard like stone, so as to make the design durable." (Philostrat., Icon., lib. i, c. 28.) This would seem to intimate the cliamfleve process ; and it is a singular coincidence that the beautiful vase of the Roman period, found in one of the Bartlow Hills in Essex, was enameled precisely in this manner ; and that several examples of similar work, of the Gallo- Roman period, have been found in France. It has been supposed, therefore, that this method of enamel was invented in the west while the cloisonne enamel is believed to be of eastern origin. In the twelfth century the artists of Limoges began to be so celebrated for their skill in enameling upon copper gilt, by the champleve process, that they soon established a monopoly of the practice, and Limoges work became famous throughout Europe. Meanwhile another process had arisen in Italy, applied chiefly to the precious metals, and calculated to give freer scope to the art of design, which was much cramped in the champleve enamels. This consisted in engraving the subject to be represented in slight relief, and covering it with a thin coat of transparent enamel, which gave it almost the appearance of a fine painting. In the course of the fourteenth century this method of enamelino- was INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 19 introduced into France and Flanders ; and it very soon came into great favour. When tlie enamelers of Limoges saw that their champleve work was going out of fashion, they set to work to discover some new modification of the process ; and they at last invented the modern art of painting in enamel, which was brought to great perfection in the course of the fifteenth century. Other processes of engraving on the surface of metals appeared contemporarily with the enamels, and from a remote age. The artists of an early period were acquainted with the practice of incrusting one metal into another ; and knives of Anglo-Saxon workmanship have been found, the blades of which were ornamented with threads of gold in a manner which resembled what was at a later period called damasquinerie. Another process, which was more closely connected with that of enameling, consisted in executing the subject, in line-engraving, on the surface of silver, and afterwards filling up the lines with a black enamel, which they called in Latin nigellum. This name was given also to the work itself, and has been preserved in its Italianized form of niello. Documents of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries prove that this process was then well known ; and it appears to have been used especially as a sort of contrast to the too great richness of the other modes of ornamentation in articles which were displayed on sorrowful or very solemn occasions. The impressions which the artists of niello were in the habit of taking on paper from their work, after it was engraved, to prove its correctness, gave the first idea of the modern art of engraving on copper or steel for the purpose of printing. The cliampleve process of enameling was used very extensively for the ornamentation of the various articles of church furniture. In the year 1220, the church of Wokingham, in Berkshire, possessed a processional cross of Limoges work {"-crux processionalis de opere Lemovicensi"), as we learn from one of the reo-isters of Salisbury. The pyx, or vessel for holding the consecrated wafer, was frequently ornamented with enamel of Limoges. Even in the orders of the bishops in England, during the thirteenth century, it is recommended that the pyx should be of Limoges work. A very beautiful example of the enameled pyx is engraved in the present volume ■} it is of copper gilt, and appears to be early thirteenth century work. Sometimes these objects assume fantastic forms, of which we have also an example in the present volume," namely an enameled pyx =Pi.xxxvii, tig. :i. in the rather rude form of a dove, which appears to be a work of the twelfth century. The dove, no doubt, was intended to have a religious signification. The following cut represents a portion of another pyx (in the collection of Lord Londesborough), which has been ascribed to the earlier part of the twelfth I ri. xxi, lis.-. 20 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. iri.xxxvii, ti-. 1. II.., tig. 4. ' PI. sxi, fi-~. 1 i: i century. It is of brass, or bronze, thickly gilt, but without enamel. The figures represent three soldiers keeping watch over the tomb in which the body of the Saviour — supposed to be contained in the consecrated wafer — was laid. This curious object was found in the course of the alter- ations made in the Temple church some years ago, and was formerly in the collection of the late Mr. Crofton Croker. Reliquaries were often richly enameled. A curious example is given in the present volume,^ in \vliich the vessel for containing the reliques is made in the form of a figure of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus in her arms. It resembles the early Limoges work in being made of copper gilt, and enameled by the champleve process ; but it is believed to be Byzantine, and of the twelfth century. As a work of art it is of inferior design, and has nothing of the style of western art at that period. The small enameled escutcheon of the thirteenth century, given on the same plate," is believed also to have been attached to a reliquary. A register of the deans of Salisbury, in the earlier half of the thirteenth century, speaks of a pyx of Limoges work as containing the eucharists, and hanging over the altar in the church of Hurst, in Berkshire ("ji:>ms dcpendens sufcr cdtare cum eudiaristia, tie opere Levomicensi"). The enamelers of Limoges were employed largely in the fabrication of the various articles of furniture for the altar. Among these were candlesticks, which are of various dimensions, and often extremely elegant. Examples of these enameled candlesticks will be found in the present volume.'' The early ecclesiastical inventories speak not unfrcquently of coffers of Limoges work, of which many examples are also preserved, orna- mented usually with figures of saints, or with similar subjects. Bowls and dishes for various purposes were ornamented in the same manner. At the be'j-innino- of the thirteenth century a prior of Ptochester gave to the cathedral basins of Limoges enamel (''haciiios dc Limoijes"). Foulc|ues, bishop of Toulouse, possessed, in 1231, two basins of this description [''dm hacini qui sunt de opere Lemovitico") ; INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 21 and a canon of Amiens gave to his church, in the year 1258, two basins of Limoges work, and a comb for the use of the priest {''duo pelves de opere Lemovicensi et pecten ad usimi presbyteri"). The enameled dish engraved in the present volume Ms supposed to have been used for an almsdish. Various other ' ri- x-^v. articles of the same description of work are mentioned in the early ecclesiastical inventories, etc., from which we are quoting. A charter of donation to a church in Italy, in the year 1197, enumerates, among other things, two tablets of brass, gilt, of Limoges work (''duas tahidas ccreas super auratas de labor e Limogice"). Two interesting tablets, or plaques, of this description, boldly enameled by the champleve process, and belonging apparently to the thirteenth century, will be found in the present collection.^ They probably belonged to the ornamentation '- pi. ix. or furniture of an altar. The mention of these tablets and plaques leads us very naturally to speak of another and very numerous class of ecclesiastical works of art, consisting of folding tablets carved or painted with religious subjects, and knoAvn by the names of diptychs, triptychs, etc. It is a class of articles which we have certainly derived from the Byzantine church, and they are said to have originated in the periods of triumph of the eastern iconoclasts. When the law, or the imperial edict, proscribed the use of images, those of the clergy and monks who were attached to the old custom obtained privately small copies of the forbidden pictures, executed in carving or painting, on tablets which could be folded up together, and more easily carried about or concealed. They have received their name from objects similar in form, though used for different purposes, which were in use under the Roman emperors. When the rule of the iconoclastic emperors had ceased, the use of these diptychs or triptychs (according to the number of folds) had become universal, and it was continued through subsequent ages. Travellers and pilgrims carried them with them in their wanderings, that they might always have with them the holy images, before Avhich they knelt in prayer several times in the day ; and devout people kept them in their private houses for the same purpose. When made of larger dimensions, they wei'e not unfrequently used on the altars in churches. The material of the ecclesiastical diptychs and triptychs was usually, like the articles which bore the same name among the Romans, ivory. In the only example given in the present volume' (a triptych of 'ri'^>-^vii French manufacture, of the fourteenth century), the ivory tablets are mounted in a frame of copper gilt, the lower part of which, or foot, is enameled. The ivory carving, in this instance, has been supposed to be of older date than the metal frames ; but the inscription would seem to contradict this opinion. G 22 INTHODUCTORY ESSAY. 1 PI. xiii. From the furniture of the altar, the love of ornamentation was soon carried to the persons of the ecclesiastics themselves, whose robes assumed an extraordi- nary character of magnificence. This was displayed more especially in the mitres of the bishops, which, as Avell as some of the more conspicuous parts of the dress, Avere now covered with gems and jewels of immense value. One of the personal ornaments of ecclesiastics which received the greatest display of ornamentation, was the large brooch used to fasten the cope over the breast, which was called usually a morse (in Latin morsiis, derived from the verb mordeo, to bite, and applied with a similar idea to that which gave the name mordaunt to an appendage of the buckle). The old descriptions of some of these articles give us a wonderful notion of their elaborate richness. The inventory of the jewels, etc., belonging to the church of St. Paul's, in London, includes a morse which had belonged to Peter of Blois, which Avas of gold, and covered with cameos and other large stones and pearls (" morsus Petri de Bloijs, triplioriatus de miro, cum Jcamahidis et aliis magnis lapidibus et perils"). Another inventory, made in France in 1380, speaks of a morse which was adorned with eighteen rubies (balaf/s), four large emeralds, eight small ones, and four large and twenty-six small pearls. With these descriptions may be compared the fine morse in the collection of Lord Londes- borough, which is so richly ornamented that it has been thought worthy to be engraved in the present volume,^ the full size of the original. The material which forms the base is silver gilt; and, like those just mentioned, it is covered with rubies, sapphires, and other stones. We learn from the old inventories that these rich accessories were often mounted upon metal of less value, and that this metal itself was merely a thin plaque spread upon a disc of wood. Among the miscellaneous articles in Lord Londesborough's collec- tion is a curious circular plaque of silver, chased, partly gilt, and apparently belonging to the latter part of the fourteenth century. The sculpture which covers it, as given in the accom- panying cut, represents the popular subject of the offering of the three kings, with the scene of the INTRODUCTOKY ESSAY. 23 shepherds in the background. This object is beheved to have formed the centre of a morse. Towards the twelfth century, ivory, a substance which had continued more or less in use from the time of the Romans, began to be used much more extensively, because it lent itself freely to the great improvement which was already beginning to shew itself in the art of sculpture. We have seen that this substance w^as used especially for the diptychs and triptychs of the ecclesiastics. During the twelfth century, too, it was taking the place of enameled metal for the construction of the small coffers, or caskets, in which the ecclesiastics locked up their jewelry and smaller articles of value, and in which relics were sometimes preserved. Many of these early ecclesiastical coffers still exist, usually covered with sculptured figures of saints or other religious subjects, which are sometimes executed with considerable taste and skill. These ivory caskets were amongst the first objects in which art began to be secularized ; and in the secular examples w'e find the sculpture superior in general character to that of the ecclesiastical caskets, for the simple reason that the artists were tied down less to conventional forms and to conventional methods of treating them. In the secular caskets, the saints' legends and religious subjects gave way to scenes from the medieval romances, to subjects which embraced more or less of domestic sentiment, and to fanciful and grotesque ornament. The character of these subjects and ornaments leaves no room for doubt that the earlier ivory caskets, which are not absolutely of ecclesiastical character, were intended for the use of the ladies, for locking up their jewelry, money, and other articles which required no great space, and yet Avere valuable in the eyes of the possessors. Sometimes the whole surface of the casket is covered with a series of consecutive scenes from one romance, as from that of Tristan ; in other instances, they are favourite scenes from different romances, but present generally more or less of an amorous character. Two very fine examples of these secular ivory caskets are engraved in the present volume. One of them^ is of the fourteenth century, and, from the fleurs-de-lis which are ^ pi. xUv, scattered over it, must have been made for some member of the royal family of France. The other^ is of a later date and different style, the latter marking the earlier period of the renaissance. It must not be supposed that the presence of subjects of a religious character necessarily proves the caskets to have been intended for ecclesiastical purposes, as we find from early inventories that ladies possessed caskets with religious subjects carved upon them; but these appear generally to have been taken from legends of saints, such as St. Margaret, who were especially held up for the imitation of ladies, or whom ladies were in the tiL'. 1. : lb., 1 ri. iv fig. 0. 24 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. liabit of choosing for their particular patrons. These secular caskets with religious subjects appear in general to have belonged to the earlier period after the ornamental ivory caskets came into general use for domestic purposes. The subjects from the romances were popular as the ornaments of caskets from the middle of the thirteenth century to the latter end of the fourteenth, when they began to be succeeded by mere ornamentation, such as scroll-work, foliage, arabesque, etc. After this latter date, ivory itself began to give place to metals of different kinds, to carved wood, and even to embossed leather ; and the later caskets are more frequently made of this than of any other material. Ivory was, indeed, then employed for other objects, and those of much greater variety than could be here conveniently enumerated. This enlarged employment of ivory had been increasing continually since it began to be adopted for articles of domestic use. It was employed in small ornamental boxes and cases, of which we have an example in the present volume,^ which belongs to the fourteenth century, and is ornamented with a hunting scene. Another description of articles which were usually made of ivory, and which were especially remarkable for the spirited sculptures that adorned them, Avere the cases of mirrors. The subjects of these, also, were usually taken from the romances, or presented amatory allegories, as in one of the examples given in the = lb., fig. 5. present volume.^ A subject of frequent recurrence on these ivory mirror covers, was of a mixed amatory and allegorical character — the storming of the castle of love. The castle was defended by ladies, who employed roses and other liowers for weapons, and who were usually attacked with similar weapons by their chivalrous assailants. The resistance is not represented as successful ; and, in fact, some of the defenders are generally represented as not very sincere in their resistance. It was the courtly sentiment of the middle ages. A very good example of this curious subject will be found in Lord Londesborough's collection, and is engraved in the present volume f the ladies are represented in it as throwing open their castle gates, and courageously encountering their assailants. Another class of objects, often elaborately ornamented, and belonging more especially to the toilette of the ladies, were combs. Two substances were in common use for highly ornamental combs, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, ivory and box-wood ; and it is difficult to say to which the preference was given, for in some of the examples now existing the carvings of the early combs of box are executed in the most exquisite style, and are even superior to almost anything we know in ivory. The subjects carved on the combs belong generally to the same classes as those on the coffers and mirror covers ; a few are religious, but more ■ I'l.xxviii fig. -2. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 25 are taken from the romances, or represent popular scenes. The two ivory combs engraved in the present vohune^ are of rather a late date, the latter end of the ' n. xx, figs. li--i. fifteenth century; that of box-wood,^ the subject of which is of a somewhat ^i)i.,fis.3, satirical character, belongs perhaps to an earlier period. Although it would be taking up unnecessary space here to attempt anything like an enumeration of the various descriptions of articles in which ivory was employed in the fifteenth and subsequent centuries, one object in this volume deserves particular attention, the elegant little sceptre, or main-de-justice, as it was termed, which appears, from the inscription upon it, to have been made for Louis XII, king of France (1498-151.5).^^ = H. IV. lig.i. It is hardly necessary to remark that bone and wood were carved with much skill in the middle ages, and that they w^ere extensively used for objects, which, in the case of bone, were less valuable, or, in that of wood, more cumbersome than those we have been describing. But there is one substance which deserves a more particular notice on account of the great use which was made of it, and the almost infinite variety of articles for which it was employed. This was leather, which, after undergoing a process of boiling, was moulded into the forms required, and stamped with whatever designs were intended to be given to it, and then restored to different degrees of hardness. It was called, from the process through which it had passed, ciiir-hoidlU, or boiled leather. The hardness given to this substance is sometimes quite extraordinary ; and hence it was commonly employed to make skull-caps and coats of defence for the soldiery, and even for regular defensive armour. It was also used extensively for boxes, and especially for cases and sheaths, for bowls and dishes, for drinking-cups, and for many other purposes. In the fourteenth century especially it was used for making shoes, which, as we see from specimens that have been preserved, were so delicately punched, stamped, and variously ornamented, that it is difficult to imagine the exact character of the processes by which they were made. In later times, the manufacture of cuir-houilli degenerated rapidly, until it was only used for making sheaths of swords, knives, etc., pencases, and other similar articles. The only article formed of cuir-hoidlU engraved in the present collection, belongs to rather a late period, the sixteenth century ; but it is very remarkable both in character and execution.* It is a leather shield, very elaborately ornamented, and * n.ni. embellished with the story of Perseus and Andromeda and other classical legends. While speaking of the materials used in mediteval art, we must not overlook one, of a semi-fabulous character, which, though not itself a material of ornament, H 26 INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. was sometimes combined with tlie ornamentation of other materials. The legend of the unicorn (or licorne, as it was called in old French) Avas derived from a remote antiquity; but it underwent some modifications in its passage to the middle ages. According to this legend, which was not absolutely disbelieved even in the sixteenth century, the unicorn was the wildest and fiercest of all animals. Its natural enemy was the elephant, which appears to have been the only animal on which it would condescend to make war. But in spite of its savage character the unicorn became instantly tame and gentle in the presence of a pure maiden. The method, therefore, of entrapping it was thus. A perfect maiden was taken into the woods which it frequented, and left by herself, while the hunters lay concealed near at hand. The unicorn was soon attracted to the spot, laid its head in the maiden's breast, and fell asleep ; in which condition it was surprised by the hunters and slain. The adventure was a perilous one, for it entailed certain death on the maiden who was not pure, and on those who accompanied her. The object of the hunters was to obtain possession of the unicorn's horn, which was an article of great value ; for, according to the general belief, it was a sovereign protection against all poisons. In fact, the presence of poison in liquid or in substance, was, according to the popular opinion, instantly betrayed by the slightest touch of the unicorn's horn. It was therefore considered a matter of great importance to possess even a small portion of this useful substance in ages when the art of poisoning was carried to the utmost degree of perfection, and when nobody was safe from it ; but it was at the same time an article of rarity, and therefore of great price, and could be bought only by princes or great barons. The possession of an entire horn was a circumstance of which even monarchs might be proud. It v/as more usually cut into pieces, and these pieces were mounted in various ways, and formed what were called proofs [esprcuves) or touching-pieces [tmischcs), with which the wines or other liquors, and the different viands, were touched, to try if there was poison in them, before the guests would venture to taste them. Among the treasures of the dukes of Burgundy, in 1391, was a unicorn " proof", mounted in gold, and attached by a chain and ring (" une espreuvc d'lme imicorne, cnchassw en or, a une chesnetc et nn anelct au hout"). Charles VI of France possessed, in 1399, a piece of a unicorn's horn three feet long. Among the treasures of the dukes of Burgundy, in 1105, there was a piece of unicorn to put in the Avine-pot ; and another inventory of the house of Burgundy, made in 1116, mentions a touching-piece, in which a piece of unicorn was placed, to touch monseigneur's meat (" une tousche, en quoy a estc mis une 'piece (le Uchorne, pour toimJder la viandc cle monscie/neur"). In 1-120, the dukes of INTKODUCTOUY ESSAY. 27 Burgundy possessed a unicorn's horn seven feet and a half long. The inventory of the plate, etc., of Anne of Britany, queen of France, made in 1498, speaks of a , unicorn's horn belonging to that princess, which measured more than six feet. Philippe de Commines tells us that when, a few years before this last mentioned date, the house of Pietro de Medici, at Florence, was plundered, a unicorn's horn was taken away, which was worth six or seven thousand ducats, " besides two great pieces of another"; and we are told, by Brantome, of a great lord, so late as the sixteenth century, who, having sold his estates for fifty thousand ecus, agreed to take a unicorn's horn in part payment, at the value of five thousand ecus, and the other forty-five thousand in money. A unicorn's horn, six feet and a half long, was preserved in the sanctuary of St. Denis, with great respect, until the revolution of '93. Nevertheless, it is certain that the virtues of the unicorns' horns, which were so much valued in the middle ages, were merely imaginary, for it has been ascertained that they were nothing but the horn or tusk of a fish, the narwhal or sea-unicorn of the northern seas (the monodon monoceros), which Avas obtained by the merchants who communicated with those parts, and passed upon the public as the horn of the fabulous animal. This horn was sometimes formed into cups and other vessels for the table, from which the possessors drank in a feeling of perfect security. The treasury of the dukes of Burgundy contained, in 1467, an aiguiere, or water-jug, of unicorn, set with gold and pearls ; a goblet of unicorn, mounted in gold and ena- meled ; and a sword with its pommel of unicorn : and a later inventory of the dukes of Burgundy enumerates other goblets of unicorn. The accompanying cut repre- sents a drinking-cup in the collection of Lord Londes- borough, which is formed of the supposed horn of the unicorn, mounted in silver gilt. Its date is given in an inscription beneath the foot, ^'- Hunyadi Janos, 1444." The general development in art which we have noticed as characterizing the twelfth century, was still more apparent in Italy than in the west, because there the power and wealth of the merchant princes gave greater encouragement to it on one hand, and the character of society allowed it greater freedom ; -while on the other the artists had more of the purer monuments of Roman art remaining to contemplate and to study. In the thirteenth century the foundations of the great schools of Italian art were already laid, and the artists of Italy had become 28 INTRODUCTOKY ESSAY. celebrated, and they were often brought to perform works of importance in France and Germany, and even in England. The eifect of their example may be traced in other works besides those which they executed themselves ; and from that time we observe a marked improvement, especially in sculpture. After the thirteenth century, too, art of a superior character began to be applied far more extensively to a great variety of articles which had not been much ornamented before ; and this practice went on increasing. But the general character of the forms and design still continued to be distinctly mediaeval ; and that character was preserved until the latter half of the fifteenth century. The new impulse again came from Italy. There, although the practice of art had been constantly improving, an extraordinary movement was suddenly created in it, about the middle of that century, by a combination of causes, among which that most to be remarked was the extensive migration of scholars and artists from Greece, driven away by the conquests of the Turks. It was, in fact, the day-break of modern art ; and a few years afterwards Europe witnessed the glory of the great Italian masters. The wars in Italy which followed, made the French acquainted with the arts and artists of that country, and the taste for them was brought to France, and soon took root there. It travelled onward from thence to England ; but it made its Avay more slowly into Germany, where the middle ages still held possession of people's minds. In Italy, mediaeval art had ceased to exist ; and it was dying in France, to give place to that revival of purer artistic taste, which has received the name of the renaissance. During the first period of the renaissance, the practice of the arts in France was exercised chiefly by Italian masters and workmen, who were brought thither by the prospect of gain, and established themselves under the protection of the court, or of the princes and great lords. These, nevertheless, modified somewhat the style and tone of their works, to meet, in some degree, the usages and tastes which they foimd existing there ; and their works have a character peculiar to themselves. It was, in fact, French art executed by Italian artists. The style which is known especially as that of the renaissance, reached its highest degree of perfection under the reign of Francois I. After that period the employment of Italian artists in France began to be less frequent ; for native workmen, following their doctrines and practice, had risen up to take their place, and were founding a school of art which soon became purely French. For a time, however, these native workmen in art were but slavish, and not always successful, imitators of the Franco-Italian school Avhich had preceded them ; and the general character of its style was preserved. The latter half of the sixteenth century presented the INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 29 art of the renaissance in its decadence; and it is considered to have expired towards the close of that period. As the various styles and materials of art we have been describing passed through their different steps of progress, they were applied to different articles of varied utility, as those articles became, in their turn, objects of ostentation. We have seen that, during a long period, art was almost monopolized by the clergy ; and this rose from two causes, because the church and the clergy possessed the more substantial and durable power, wealth, and, perhaps we may add, love of display, and because articles of ornament were, on the whole, much safer under the protection of the church or monastery than elsewhere, and the necessity of moving them from one place to another occurred less frequently. Such, as it has been already remarked, was not the case with the laity, who, of whatever rank, being constantly exposed to plunder, did not care to possess movables of value which were not very portable and easily concealed. These were such as were only brought forth on special occasions, and these chiefly feasts, when they studied ostentation. From a very remote period it was the great pride of the chief, or man of importance among his fellows, to possess a number of drinking- cups and other vessels for the table, or for ornament, made of the precious metals ; and his pride was more especially set in these articles because, as they were either plunder taken from an enemy, or gifts from those who sought his protection or friendship, they were so many proofs of his valour and of his influence. These were locked up in his treasure boxes, and shut up in his treasure house, which was his place of greatest strength and security, and when, for any reason or other, he had to remove, he could carry them with him without much trouble. They were only brought forth at great feasts, when, displayed promineutly in some conspicuous part of the hall, they were intended to impress upon the guests a due estimate of the greatness of their entertainer. We thus understand easily why articles of this description were the first objects in mediaeval society on which the amount of artistic skill then existing was lavished. The earliest remains of Anglo-Saxon poetry speak with this sort of pride of the richness and elegance of the drinking vessels, and of the display which was, in the earliest ages, charac- teristic of the chieftain's feast. Unfortunately, we have no minute descriptions of the arrangements of the hall, in great festivities, at an early period ; so that we cannot speak with certainty of the quantity of plate, or of the exact manner in which it was displayed ; but we find many allusions to the value in which ornamental cups and other vessels for use at the table, or for shoAV, were held ; and we learn that these were 30 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. often richly and elaborately ornamented, and that they not unfrequently presented fanciful, and even grotesque forms. We are informed by Helgaud, a monastic Avriter of the eleventh century, that Eichard II duke of Normandy gave Robert king of France a drinking-cup made in the form of a stag, which that monarch used at his table on festive occasions, and in the sequel presented to the church. Other allusions shew us that even in the earliest times vessels of silver and gold were made of forms which could only be for ostentation, as they could not have served any purpose of utility. We see, even in the pictures in early manuscripts, dinner scenes in which, while the table is adorned with cups of rich materials and form, the great men of the highest rank are drinking from horns, according to the primitive custom. At a subsequent period, perhaps, though it is not possible to say when this custom began, it became the practice to lay a board (which in early times constituted the only table) in a conspicuous place on one side of the hall ; and on this all the plate, cups, and goblets, of gold and silver were arranged together, so as to present to the guests, at one view, the wealth of their entertainer. This board, or table, was called in England the ciip-hoarJ, as being that on which the cups, or family plate, were placed. The French called it a dressrmcr, or dressoii% from the verb dresser, to arrange ; because the vessels of value Avere arranged upon it. It was the special business of one officer of the household to guard the plate. He had in his possession the keys of the chests, or of the almary or ^_ aumbry (cupboard), in which the vessels ' ' of value were locked up for security ; and on feast days he delivered them out, directed the arrangement of them on the side-board, and kept guard over them until they were replaced under lock and key. The annexed cut represents part of a feasting scene given in a fine illumi- nated j\IS. of the earlier part of the twelfth century,' — probably written and illuminated about the year 1125 (MS. Cotton. Nero, C. iv). The feast takes I place on an upper floor, to which the ^i; attendants are here mounting by a stair. The guardian of the plate has opened his almary to deliver out the vessels for the occasion. The decoration of the inside INTrvODUOTOUY ESSAY. 31 of the door with stars, and the elegance of the ironwork of the hinges, shew that it was considered as a receptacle for articles of value ; and the artist has endeavoured to give an ornamental character to the vessels themselves, though their forms are all of an ordinary character. The earlier French names for these vessels were coupe and hanap, which appear to have been nearly synonymous, and to have included, at different times, almost every variety of form. At the period to which the above illustration belongs, and long subsequently, gold or silver were not so common as they had been in the earlier part of the middle ages, or at least those metals had been applied to, and used up for, other purposes ; and vessels made of tire solid metal were compara- tively rare. Other substances were therefore used for the formation of cups and such vessels, among which that wliich seemed to be most valued, and which is most frequently mentioned, was called madre or maser [mazerinus in the Latin of the middle ages). The scholars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries imagined that this was tlie substance of the murrhine vases of antiquity ; and in writing in Latin they often expressed it by the word miirra, and applied to tlie vessels made of it the adjectives murrcus and mnrrinus. Some modern writers, on the other hand, among whom we must include Ducange and Roquefort, deceived by this use of tlie word murra, and by the great estimation in which these cups appear to have been held, have imagined tliat the madre, or mazer, was a kind of precious stone : according to Roquefort, tlic agate-onyx. There can be no doubt, however, from a comparison of the old authorities, that this substance was really a kind of wood, W'hich was valued on account of its knotty and striated texture. At the present day, our general notion is that maser was maple ; and there can be no doubt that tliis was the wood used for making the vessels called mazers in England in the sixteenth century. The poet Spenser speaks of "A mazer 3'wrought of the maple warre, Wherein is enchased many a fayre sight Of bears and tygers, that maken fiers warre, And over them sprcd a goodly wilde vine, Entrailed with a wanton 3'vy twine." SpenseI!, Sltep. Kul. AiiyusL We have evidence, however, that what was understood by madre at an earlier period, was some wood more valuable than maple. In the falliau of the hermit and the angel (the original of Parnell's poem of the Llermit), which was composed probably in the thirteenth century, and is printed in the collection of Mcon, we are told that the hermit and his companion (the angel disguised as a young man) were lodged hospitably by another hermit, whom they visited in their wanderings. 32 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. The supposed youth observed that their host possessed a hanap, or cup, on which he set great store, and that he spent more time and care in cleaning and preserving this hanap than in the prayers he owed to God : " Le vallet vit que li bons hon Leur hostes en grant poiue estoit Por un henap que il avoit ; Plus entencloit a I'essnicr Qu'il ne fesoit a Dieu proicr." M£oN, Nouveau Recveil, vol. ii, p. 220. On their departure the disguised angel stole the treasured hanap, and carried it away with him. Next day they came to a great city, where they obtained with difficulty an ungracious shelter for the night at the house of a rich usurer ; yet before they left, the angel announced to his companion his intention of giving the stolen hanap to their surly host. " In return for the lodging he has allowed us, I will give him this good hanap, which is neither of maple, nor of deal, but of fine and polished madre : it is the one I stole from the hermit": "Por ce qu'il nos a Irerbergie, Li veil doner cest bon hcnap, Qui n'est d'erable ne de sap, ]Mes de madre bcl et poli, Cost cil qu'a Termite toli." Mkon, Ih., p. 22.3. The usurer accepted the hanap as a very valuable gift. In fact, it appears to have been prized even by kings ; for St. Louis used to drink out of a goblet of madre, Avhich he thought sufficiently valuable to present to the abbey of St. Denis. The vessels made of this Avood were called madrelins or mazelins, or were more usually, at a later period, designated by the simple name of the wood, madres or mascrs. The use of them was so general, that the name of madrelinicr or masclinier was given to the officer who had the charge of the king's or lord's plate. " The mazelinier", says an ordinance of the king of France, relating to the royal household, and made in 1316, "shall eat at court, and shall have three deniers of wages ; and it is his duty to hold and keep the hanaps of silver". It must, however, not be forgotten that the wood formed usually but a portion of the cup ; for it was mounted and adorned with silver, so as to rival, in appearance at least, those which were composed entirely of the precious metal. In an inventory of the plate of queen Clemence of Hungary, made in 1328, we find, among other articles, a hanap of yellow madre, valued at ten sols ; a hanap of madre, with a silver foot, valued at six livres and ten sols of money of Paris ; a coupe of madre with a silver foot, of the same value ; two small coupes of madre without feet, valued at four livres; a coupe of madre with a silver foot, gilt, and enameled, INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 33 valued at fourteen livres of Paris ; and a hanap of madre, valued at twenty sols. Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, vessels of madre, mounted in gold, are mentioned. Charles V of France, in 1380, possessed, among many other vessels made of the same material, a large hanap of madre, with a cover ornamented with precious stones, among which were three large pearls. At this time the rage for gold and silver plate was coming in, and madre soon fell into comparative disrepute, and was used chiefly among people of less rank. It would appear that, in the sixteenth century, the true madre had gone out of use, and that maple wood was generally substituted for it. Vessels of this material, probably, more than of solid metal, loaded the dressers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which were at first merely like the tables on which people eat, — a board placed upon tressels, and covered with a napkin. In course of time this temporary structure gave place to a wooden frame with a back, which was covered with a napkin, like the table that preceded it, and on which the plate was similarly displayed. Gradually this dresser, or, as it was afterwards called in France, credence (we should now call it a side-board), received the addition of drawers, or became an absolute almary or cupboard, in which probably the plate was locked up when not in use. The accounts of the duke of Burgundy, in 1399, speak of a dresser shutting with a key {''■ 'pour unrj clrechoir fermant a clef"). The dresser, as an article of furniture, had become so common in the fourteenth century, that the ladies usually had them in their chambers, where they were similarly covered with plate on occasions when they received ceremonial visits there. The accompanying representation of such a dresser is taken from AVillemin, who copied it from a manuscript of the fifteenth century at Brussels, formerly belonging to the library of the dukes of Burgundy. It appears to have (-^ been the proud and powerful princes of this house who introduced that extravagance in ornamental plate which prevailed in the fifteenth century. We arc told by the contemporary historian of Burgundy, Jacques du Clercq, that when, in 1459, the wife of the dauphin of France, then an exile in Burgundy, and afterwards king of France as Louis XI, Avas confined, the duke Philippe-le- Bon sent, to adorn her chamber, according to the custom which then prevailed, a dresser loaded with plate of gold and silver, Avhich he K 34 IXTRODlTCTOE,Y ESSAY. gave as a present to the infant prince. In after years, as we learn from another contemporary liistorian, George Cliastellain, Louis XI was accustomed to exhibit, on grand occasions, " a ricli dresser, made with several steps rising one above another", with plate of great value, — all which had been presented to him by the same duke of Burgundy at his coronation at Eheims. The treasures of this description possessed by Philippe-le-Bon and his son Chaiies-le-Temeraire exceeded any notion that, in modern times, we can form of the extravagance of former ages. Chastellain tells us that on one occasion, in 1461, the duke caused to be made, in the middle of his great hall, a dresser in the form of a round tower, twelve steps high ; on which steps were displayed vessels of all sorts and shapes, of silver gilt, to the value of six thousand marks ; and in addition to this, on the uppermost step, were placed vessels of pure gold, adorned with precious stones " of marvellous value"; and there were also placed, at four points, four unicorns of silver, the least of which was five feet high. The arrangement of the dresser had now become a matter of very great importance, and was the subject of strict regulations. Even the number of steps Avas subjected to a rule according to the rank of the person to whom it belonged ; and it was adopted as a point of strict etiquette, by the courts of France and Burgundy, that dressers, which were now considered apparently as permanent articles of furniture in the chambers of the ladies, of five steps or stages, or upwards, should be reserved entirely for queens, or personages of sovereign rank ; while four steps were allowed to princesses, duchesses, and the higher nobles and their children ; three steps for countesses and great ladies ; two for ladies of bannerets ; and one only for all other ladies of gentle blood. In accordance with these rules, we find that the duchess of Burgundy had a dresser of five degrees ; while the countess of Charolais, the wife of the duke's eldest son, and the heir to the duchy, had only four. The annexed cut represents a dresser of very plain form, but havino- five steps, and therefore belonging to royalty, from one of the beautiful illuminations in a fine manu- script, of the fifteenth century, of the French transla- tion of Valerius Maximus (MS. Ilarl., No. 437.5). After the fifteenth century the display of the dresser was considerably sobered down, and the plate seems to have been distributed more generally over the table itself. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 35 Unfortunately we have not much plate of an older date than the sixteenth century, and the few articles that remain are widely scattered, generally in the possession of old mediteval corporations. Articles of gold and silver were naturally exposed to be melted down, in order to be applied to other purposes, or to be moulded into new fashions ; and the renaissance of art appears to have been followed by a general destruction of the works of the media)val goldsmiths and jewelers, in order to replace them by new articles more in accordance with the taste of the time. We therefore depend, in a great measure, for our knowledge of the mediaeval works, on the imperfect descriptions given in ancient catalogues and inventories, or in the writings of the monastic chroniclers ; and these, especially the latter, speak more of the richness of the materials than of the forms. In the latter part of the fourteenth century and the earlier half of the fifteenth, the descriptions in the inventories become more minute ; and then we find that the articles of plate, cups, and goblets, and water- jugs, and salt-cellars, and drageoirs, or vessels for sweetmeats, were not only ornamented very elaborately, but they were made to assume every variety of fantastic form ; and that they often represented birds, or four-footed animals, or reptiles, or trees and fiowers, and that they were even sometimes made into groups of figures. This taste for fantastic forms, which we have already remarked in king Robert's drinking-cup, made iir the form of a stag, at the beginning of the eleventh century, outlived the renaissance, and was carried to a degree of extraordinary extravagance throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The collection of Lord Londesborough is extraordinarily rich in ancient plate, and presents us with a great variety of form and ornamentation, of which a selection only is given in the present volume. They belong chiefly to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and have issued nearly all from the ateliers of Flanders and Germany, the two great countries of ornamental silversmith's work of this descrip- tion. Of the two principal classes of such articles mentioned in the old writers, the coujoe or cup, and the hanap, the latter, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is usually understood to have been distinguished from the other by having a foot and column to support the bowl, although Ave now use the term cup in a much more extensive sense. Among those engraved in the present volume are a fine hanap of the middle of the fifteenth century,'^ and one, not less interesting, Avhich is nearly ipi. xiu, tig, 1. two centuries more modern," as it bears the date 1633. Some fine examples of the - I'l. xxii, hanap have been preserved, both in England and on the Continent, by the old mediaeval corporate bodies, to whom they have been presented by founders or early benefactors. One of these, now in the collection of Lord Londesborough, and 36 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 1 ri. xi, tlR. 2. - PI. VI, fit,'. i& 5;pl. XI, fig. I. ■ PI. xl,fi-. 1 . V- -J. ■ in. vi.fi,-. 1, * ;[ " PI. xl. ti.i^ . 5. Ilj ,fi,!:;.i " PI xiv. tig 2. ^ lb ,fig. :; ■' 111 ,fig.-t i-pl xlii. fit . i. "Hi tig. r, i-Pl xi\ , t-i'- . 1. 1^ IM. vi, tigs, i i- -J represented in the annexed engraving, appears by the arms and inscription upon it to have belonged to a German company of cloth-workers, — des gewerck der TucH knapen. We learn from an inscription on the foot that it was made by a goldsmith of " Meserix", named Michael Klaemet, in the year 1647, — MICHEL klaemet goldschmidt IN meserix AXNO 1647. It is made of silver, and is hung with small escutcheons bearing bad"'es and traders' marks : no doubt members of the company, who, at different times, were considered, for some reason or other, worthy of being commemorated in this manner. The dates of these escutcheons range between 1653 (four years after the vase was made) and 1693. Another cup in this volume,^ formed like a stag, presents probably an example of a similar practice, though the escutcheons it bears are the arms of courtiers, and not tlic marks of merchants. Amoug the fantastic forms of the cups, mostly of the sixteenth century, in the present volume, we may mention, first, those of cjuadrupeds, such as bears,"^ stags,' rams,' cats,' and elephants." vSome- times they assume tlie form of birds ; and we have here the dove," the swan," the peacock,*' the ostrich,"' the stork," and the uucr-hahi of the Germans, our heath-cock.' ' In general, it is the head which takes off, and serves as a lid or cover ; but sometimes the orifice is in another part of the body, as, for example, on the back. Thus the castle on the back of the elephant serves as a liandle to lift up a lid, which fits into the animal's back ; and the uuer-hahn has a chicken on its back, which serves the same purpose. We have already heard of a drinking-cup made in the form of a stag, at a period so remote as the beginning of the eleventh century; and the forms of different animals occur not unfrequently in the inventories of tlie fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In some instances the animal is represented in some grotesque act, or with some accompaniment. Two of the bears in this collection^' hold before them shields bearing merchants' INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 37 marks, and no doubt indicating their original possessors ; while in another example the same animal is playing upon bagpipes of rather a singular construc- tion.^ Another of these singular cups forms a rather elegant group, of Diana riding the stag.~ So, among the birds, the ostrich carries a horseshoe in his bill, supposed to be intended as an allusion to the pretended capability of that animal to digest iron ; while the stork carries an infant, allusive to some fable of the same description, or perhaps to some family legend. A cup of the latter part of the sixteenth century, engraved also in the present volume,'' presents the form of a Franconian damsel, who unscrews at the waist, her upper part serving for the lid. Another, which bears the date of 1582,* has the sliape of a lanthorn, the emblematical meaning of which is told in a sculpture on the side. When the top of the lanthorn is taken off, it presents the appearance of an ordinary mug. The sixteenth century, with its spirit of adventurous discovery, brought to Europe new materials for the formation of drinking-cups, such as cocoa-nuts and shells of different kinds. The body of the ostrich-shaped cup already mentioned is made of the shell of a cocoa-nut. Two cups in the present volume'' have each a bowl made of a pearl shell ; and another,- although its bowl and stand are formed of ivory, was evidently intended as an imitation of that shell, or of the nautilus. In the subject of the accompanying wood-cut, now in Lord Londesborough's collection, the cup, that is the head, is formed of jade-stone, mounted in silver chased and gilt. It belongs, no doubt, to the sixteenth century, and the silver mount- ing is evidently European ; but, as jade is a substance peculiar to the far East, and scarcely ever found in Western European manufactures, this circumstance, and the general character of the face and head, seem to justify us in suppos- ing that that part of the cup had been brought home by some of the venturesome navigators of the sixteenth century, and mounted, perhaps, by a French silversmith. Among the curious cups in this collection we must not overlook that which there seems apparent reason for believing belonged to the great hero of the reformation, Martin Luther.'^ At the beginning of the seventeenth century a new class of ornamental cups had come into vogue, which could only be placed on the table with the bowl downwards, and were intended to compel the drinker to empty them at one draught. The most singular and fantastic forms were given to the cups belonging L 1 ]'l. xi, fig.-]. -' PI. xl, ti;.'. ■'■■ ■■ n. xi, flL'. 5. ■' Ili-.ti" '' PI. xlii. iig> i. -z, •■; CPl. XXli tig. 4. PI. ii, tiff. i. 38 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. I'l. xi, tig. :l. II..,!!:;. 1. I'l.xxii, H"s. 1, :. I'l. xli. to this class. One, in the present volume,^ represents the figure of a Avoman ; another has, at the end Avhich was uppermost when the empty cup was placed on the table, a windmill with movable machinery, which was set in motion when the contents were drunk off. A refinement in this quaint invention was soon intro- duced, in the form of a second, but very small, bowl, which turned on a pivot under the other when it was full ; and which the drinker was expected, by an act of great dexterity, to empty after the larger bowl, without having spilt either. Tavo examples of cups of this latter description will be found among the plates in the present volume,'' both belonging to the commencement of the seventeenth century. Several other vessels of the table, as well as drinking-cups, Avere made equally the objects of elaborate ornamentation, and assumed singular and sometimes grotesque forms. Among these Avas the saliere, or, according to the modern, and in itself rather grotesque name, salt-cellar. The early inventories mention salt-cellars in the forms of ships, castles, chariots, shells, lions, serpents, and of men and Avomen of various characters and in A'arious postures. Among the articles of this description, in the collection of Lord Londesborough, there is a very remarkable and singularly rich salt-cellar, of so complicated a form that the reader Avill only understand it by the engraving.^ The aiguiere, or Avater-jug, Avas also one of the ornamental articles of the table. The inventory of the plate of Charles V of France, made in 1379, contains an aiguiere of silver, gilt and enameled, having its spout in the form of a stag's head ; another, ornamented Avitli cocks' heads ; and a third, in the form of a lion. Among several in the treasury of the dukes of Burgundy one Avas in the form of a Avoman seated. The drageoir, or vessel for holding SAveetmeats, Avas another ornamental vessel of great importance. Other vessels Avere merely ornamental, and served no other purpose but that of ostentation. These presented sometimes large and compli- cated groups of figures. A small but very fer elegant article of this description, in Tord Londesborough's collection, is represented in the accompanying cut. It is apparently of the sixteenth centurv, and is formed of silver, gilt ; the figures are composed of pearls, and set Avith stones. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 39 This latter class of articles belonged, in the older period especially, to the dresser, which began to lose somewhat of its importance after the sixteenth century. This article of furniture had changed its name at different periods of its history. It was fashionable at one time to call it a credence, in common -with the somewhat similar article of church furnitu]-e. This term appears to have been brought from Italy, where the name {crcdenza) has been preserved in the language. From the middle of the fifteenth century onwards it was known by the name of a bufiet, w4iich belonged more especially to the article of furniture which combined the same stages for the display of the plate with a cupboard which might be used to lock them up, or to contain spices and other articles. In these buffets the cupboard gradually trespassed upon the space given to outward display, until at last the latter disappeared altogether, and the name remained to designate the article of furniture which still retains it. It became, indeed, the practice to make the display of plate no longer on a sideboard, but upon the table itself; and this custom appears frequently in engravings of dinner scenes after the sixteenth century. A curious folio volume was published at Rome, in the Italian language, describing the ceremonies with which, on the 8th of January, 1687, the earl of Castlemaine, ambassador of king James II of England to the pope, was received in the papal court. This book gives an extraordinary account of the splendour of the ambassador's entertainment, and the writer dwells Avith especial pleasure on the rich display of plate and glass which covered the credences. In one of the grand antechambers (of the cardinal Barbarino) he tells us that there was " a noble and truly royal credence", on which was displayed " a complete treasure of silver plate, the value of the labour of which was twenty times more valuable than the material"; accompanied with " a most beautiful butlery of all sorts of precious crystals, formed whimsically in various and strange shapes" (" in varie e strane fofjgio lissarramente formati"). The love of these " strange" forms led to the adoption of more temporary materials, in order to furnish quickly devices adapted to particular occasions. The writer of this account of the reception of the English embassy at Rome goes on to describe the laying out of the table for the banquet in the cardinal's grand hall, and he tells us that it was covered, among other things, Avith a " most sumptuous variety" of figures made in paste of sugar, expressing emblematically " the glory of the unconquered James II, the great defender of the faith, grandeur, and power of the kingdom of England". In another part of the volume a large folding plate represents a similar table laid out at another grand banquet given to the royal ambassador. A portion of the table is here given as a curious example of the 40 INTRODirCTOEY ESSAY. Style of table ornamentation as iireserved in Italy at that period. The figures of lions and unicorns, scattered over the whole length of the table, were designed as complimentary allusions to the well-known supporters of the British arms. All these, as well as the other ornaments, were made, we are told, of the finest sugar. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to point out the curious manner in which the towels arc arranged on the table. One of the most remarkable of the mediajval articles of table furniture remains to be described. This was a vessel in the form of a ship, made usually of silver, but sometimes of gold, and placed before the host, or lord of the festival, and sometimes before a guest who was to be received with special honour. This vessel was called, from its form, a nef {navis). Why this particular form should have been adopted is not very clear ; but the nef appears to have been used first in the church, where it seems to have been employed chiefly for keeping the incense. It was introduced into the baronial hall at an early period, and appears to have served as a receptacle for various articles, such as the lord's towel and napkin, his spoon, and even the lady's gloves, and sometimes for spices or sweet- meats, but most commonly for his Avine. In one of the earlier French metrical romances, that of Garin le Loherain, we have a description of one of those turbulent scenes which occurred in feudal times even in the courts of princes. On Garin had fallen the duty of serving the wine to king Pepin at the marriage festival of the latter. " Before the king", says the story, " Garin stood on his feet, with the large cup he served king Pepin": " Devant lo loi esta en pies Garins, De la grant coupe servi le roi Pepin." Garin le Loherain, vol. ii, p. 1.5. A rival party, seated at another table, are jealous of the honour conferred on Garin, which they considered to belong to their own chief, Fremont ; and at last one of tliem, Bernard de Naisil, jumps up to assert his claim in a sutiiciently rude manner. " Fie leaps over the table, turns towards Garin, and tried to take INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 41 the nef of gold from his fists : he scatters the wine over his mantle of fur. Garin sees him and expostulates : ' Will you drink, sir Bernard V said he. ' I will give you still better wine.' And says Bernard, ' Miserable wretch ! what business is it of thine to hold the nef of gold ? Thou usurpest the heritage of Fromont and his friends, which may bring you in the sequel to mischief and shame.' Bernard pulled, and thinks to take it from him ; but Garin sees his intention, and will suffer this no longer. Garin gives him a blow with the cup of fine gold, which strips ofi' the skin and the eyebrows, and covers him all over with red blood." " Tressaut la table, vers Garin se guencliit, Que la nef d'or li vout des poins tollir ; Li Tins espant sor son pelli(;on gris. Garins le voit, si I'a a raison mis. ' Voulcz-vous boivre, sire Bernars ?' dist-il, ' Je Yous donrai encore de miller vin.' Et dist Bernars, ' Maleurous, chaitis ! A toi que tient de la nef d'or tenir ? Tu dcsherites Fromont et ses amis ; II t'en puet bien nial et honto avenir.' Bernars sacha, que la cuide tolir, Garins le voit, si ne 1' vout soufrir ; Grand coup li done de la coupe d'or fin, Qu'il li abat le cuir et le sorcil ; De sane vermeil le fait trestout covrir." It would appear from this incident that the cup-bearer, in approaching his lord to serve him, held the cup in one hand, and the nef, out of which the wine was to be poured, in the other. It is said that the practice of the lord of the feast having this special vessel to contain the wine for his own use, and kept by his most confidential servant, originated in the fear of poison. In anotlrer part of the Roman de Garin, one of the feudal dependents of the hero is represented as holding before him the nef, " which was all full of wine and clare": " Devant Garin tint Mauvoisin la nef, Toute fu plene de vin et de clare." At a much later period (the romance of Garin le Loherain belongs apparently to the twelfth century), when court etiquette was carried to its highest point of minute refinement under the dukes of Burgundy, Olivim' de la Marche, one of the Burgundian historians, describing the regulations of that court in the year 147-i, tells us that " the butler (sotmnelier) had to carry on his arm the nef of silver as well as the silver staff, and the unicorn's horn (licorne), with which the prince's meat was tried. And the valet who serves must take the small nef Avhich contains the unicorn's horn, and carry it to the butler, who stands by the buffet, and the butler must pour cold water upon the unicorn's horn, and into the small M 42 INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. I'l.ii.figs. 1 and -J. nef ; and he must give the test (or trial, essau) to the butler, emptying the small nef into a cup ; and he must carry it to its place, and make the trial before the prince, emptying the water from the nef into his hand." This is an example of the extreme precautions which it was considered necessary to take against poison in the " good old time". An illuminated MS. of another romance of great popularity in the middle ages, that of Tristan, belonging to the fourteenth century, and now preserved in the imperial library in Paris (No. 6774J, furnishes us with a sketch (given in the accompanying cut) of the prince's table, with the nef and the cup. The accompaniments are simple enough ; and the nef is but the rude imitation of the body of a ship, raised upon a stand. Such was the character, probably, of the earlier nefs ; but at the date of this manuscript the construction of these vessels had become much more elaborate, and all the minute parts of the ship, with its sailors and other accessories, were moulded in silver or gold. In the inventory of the duke of Anjou, dated in 1300, we find one nef of gold weighing between nineteen and twenty marks, and no less than a dozen in silver gilt, some of them described as of very large dimensions, and all minutely elaborate. The inventory of Charles V, king of France, enumerates five nefs of gold, enameled, weighing together two hundred and fifty-eight marks of gold ; and twenty-one nefs of silver, weighing six hundred and forty-eight marks of silver. A large nef of gold, belonging to Charles VI in 1399, was supported on the backs of four tigers; and the duke of Burgundy possessed, in 1467, a nef of silver gilt, which was supported on six lions. In the inventory of Mary queen of Scots, made in 1586, we find a nef of silver gilt, valued at five hundred ecus. The writer of a political satire called the Isle dcs Hermaplirodites, published in 1589, speaks of a nef made similarly of silver gilt, which opened on the two sides ; in one of which openings were placed the napkins, and in the other the fan and gloves of the lady of the place. Subsequently to this, the old name of this vessel was abandoned in France, and it was called a cadenas ; under Avhich name it continued to be introduced at the table of the king of France till a comparatively recent period. A certain number of nefs have been preserved, and they are found, though rather rarely, in the cabinets of collectors. They are mostly of the sixteenth century. Of those in the present volume, two^ are without stands, but one of them mo\es on wheels, and both possess spouts, which were evidently intended INTKODUCTORY ESSAY. 43 for pouring out liquor. A third, which is placed on a stand, presents more the form of a cup than the others.^ These are all of the same material, silver gilt ' n u and belong apparently to the latter half of the sixteenth century. But the finest example of the nef probably now in existence has been recently purchased by Lord Londesborough, and is represented in the accompanying cut. Its history, moreover, is almost as singular as the object itself is remarkable. It appears that it had been preserved from time immemorial in the treasury of the knights of Malta. When that island was taken by the French under Napoleon, this nef was carried away among the plunder ; but the ship which was carrying it home to 44 INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. France was intercepted and captured by an English man-of-war. The English captain took an interest in it, and preserved it until it passed from him into the hands of IMessrs. Garrard the silversmiths, from whom it was purchased by Lord Londesborough. This beautiful and elaborate vessel, which is entirely of silver, gilt and chased, is twenty-one inches high, and sixteen inches long. The figures are partially decorated with colour, for the flesh tints, armour, and clothing. The prow is made to unscrew, in order to pour out the liquid contained in the body of the ship. In front are three cannons, the cannoneer standing in the centre of the deck above, with his linstock ready to give fire. Behind him stand a drummer and fifer, and, on each side, soldiers fully armed. Other soldiers stand behind and beside the galley-slaves, who are seated in couples at each oar. In the middle we see also the boatswain with his Avhistle. Sailors are ascending the rigging ; and the top-castle contains a soldier, who is leveling his arquebus. The poop is arched over, with a banner in front, and the lanthorn behind, and in the centre stands the steersman. Here, also, a banquet is laid out, at which four officers or nobles are seated. The hull of the vessel is chased all over with figures of mermaids and tritons, playing upon musical instruments, and accom- panied by whales and sea-monsters. Not the least curious of the numerous groups of figures introduced in this elaborate work is the party of officers at table on the poop, which is represented in the annexed cut. The personage drinking out of the large ornamental cup may perhaps be considered as the chief. Behind the dish containing the fare, which consists of fowls, stands a large salt-cellar, and cups, bread, etc., are arranged upon the table, which is covered with a damask cloth. Each plate is provided with a knife, but there is no trace of forks, which were still unknown at the date of this nef, which belongs probably to the middle of the sixteenth century, and they appear not to have been known even in Italy, where they were first introduced, and v.'here this nef was probably made, until some years later. Our quaint old English traveler Tom Coryat, who visited Italy at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and published his account of his wanderings in 1611, is the first who mentions the practice of eating with forks in that country, and cites it as one of the marvellous things which he had witnessed in foreign lands. " Here," says he, " I will mention a tiling that might have been spoken of before in discourse of the first Italian townes. I observed a custom in all those Italian INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 45 cities and townes through the which I passed, that is not used in any other country that I saw in my travels, neitlier do I thinke that any other nation of Christendome doth use it, but onely Italy. The Italian, and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, doe always at their meals use a little forke when they eat their meate." Coryat goes on to give very particular directions for the use of this new implement, which he seems to have adopted on his return home, to the great amusement of his friends, for he tells us that one of them in joke called him " a table furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding, and for no other cause !" After this, the use of forks by the Italians seems to have become a common subject of conversation in England, and is alluded to as such by contemporary writers. Ben Jonson, in a play published not earlier than 1614, introduces some of his characters speaking satirically on the great number of patents, or monopolies, granted by our first king of the race of Stuart, — one of whom says : — "Have I deserv'd this from you, too ? for all My pains at court to get you each a patent ? Gilt. For what ? Meerc. Upon my project o' the forks. Sle. Forks ? ^\'hat be they ? JMeerc. The laudable use of forks Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy, To th' sparing o' napkins." Ben Jomsox's Devil's an Ass, act. v, sc. iv. It is clear that at that time the use of forks had not been introduced into this country to any extent. It was not very long after this, however, that the use of them became general, for in Hoole's Orlns Sensualium Pictiis (a translation of Comenius), which was published in 1658, forks are spoken of as the necessary accompaniments of knives at the dinner table : — When d. feast Cum apparatur is made ready, convii-ium, the table is covered mensa spornitur with a ceiiyet tapelihus, and a tahle-cloth et mappd, by the tvaiters, a triclinariis, who besides qui prasterea apponunt lay the trenchers, discos (orbcs), spootis, cochlearia, knives, cuUros, with little /o/-/iS, cmn/uscimdis, taUe-napkins, mapjpulas, bread, panem, with a salt-sellar. cmir salino. Next to the display of his riches in plate of silver and gold, the ancient 16 IXTEODFCTORy ESSAY. chieftain indulged his love of ostentation in the goodness and richness of hi> armour and arms. The armour of the old Teutonic warriors was not very compli- cated. A tunic of mail— usually, as it appears, of ring-mail — called, in Anglo- Saxon, hyrnc (in old English, h/jmie) for the body, and a helm for the head, was all he required, but the old poetry speaks of both, and especially of the helm, as being sometimes ornamented. When Beowulf was preparing to sleep in Hrothgar's hall, we are told that — ''Sa he him ofdyde iscrn-byrnan, hehn of hafelan, sealde his liyrstcd sweord, ircna cyst, ombiht-jiegne. Then lie put ofT his iron byrnic, the hehnet from his head, gave his ornamented sword, the choicest of irons, to an attendant. Beowulf, 1. 1346. There is a subsequent passage still more curiously illustrative of the character 01 Beowulf's armour :- Gyrede hine Beowulf eorhgewa'dum ; nalles for ealdre raearn ; scolde hcre-byrne, hondurn gebroden, sid and searo-fah, sund cunnian, seo L^e ban-cofan beorgan cujie, j^rct him hilde grap hrcjire ne mihte, eorres inwit-fcng, aldre gcsce]?tian ; ac se hwita helm hafelan werede, (se j^e mere-grundas mengan scolde, secan sund-geblan) since gewcor]>ad, befongen frea-wrasnum, swa hine fyrn-dagum worhte wropna smi^, wundrum tcode, bcsctte swin-licum, I'an hine sy^jian no brond ne beado-mecas bitan na meahton. Beowulf clad himself in warlike weeds ; he cared not for life ; his martial byrnic must, twisted by hands, ample and curiously variegated, tempt the deep, which his body could well secure, so that hostile gripe his breast might not, the wily grasp of the angry one, injure his life ; but the bright helmet guarded his head (which the sea-grounds should disturb, seek the mingle of the deep,*, ornamented with treasure, encircled with noble chains, as it in days of yore the armourers wrought, framed wondrously, beset with forms of swine, so that it afterwards no brand nor battle-falchions might bite. Beowulf, \, 2887. The tunic of mail was evidently not very susceptible of ornamentation, and INTRODUCTOKY ESSAY. 47 its beauty probably consisted only in the superior fineness of the rings or links. The use of mail extended through a great part of the thirteenth century ; the coat of mail had originally reached only to the knees, but the legs were afterwards covered ^yith it down to the feet, and it was carried iipwards into a sort of hood, or cowl, with which the head was eirveloped, or which might at will be thrown down over the shoidders. The helmet (hcaimie) continued till the end of the twelfth century to be a more conical cap, sometimes rounded, witli a piece descending over the nose, called a nasal. The only part of the defensi\e armour that bore anything approaching to artistic ornament Avas the surface of tiie shield, the ornaments of which ultimately gave place to armorial bearings. With the later part of the twelfth century, cylindric or barrel-sliaped helmets were intro- duced, and casques more or less inclosing and shutting up the whole head came more and more into use. A helmet still, however, continued to be used formed somewhat like one half of an egg-shell, which was placed o\'er the mail on the head, and was called a chapel-de-fcr (an iron hat, or cap). The only article in the material and decoration of which the knight placed great importance Avas the surcoat, which was worn over the armour, and was made of richly embroidered stuffs, sometimes covered with jewels and precious stones. Towards the latter part of the thirteenth century, it became the practice to apply plates of metal to some parts of the Jiaithcrt, or tunic of mail, chiefly to the knees and elbows. The cuirasse, the casque with the visor entirely closed, and some other plates were added at the beginning of the fourteenth century, but it was not till the middle of the first half of this century, that plate armour began to be generally adopted. Ornamentation appears as yet to have been hardly thought of, and all the plate armour of the fourteenth century known, as well as the casques, is quite plain. AVe have no traces of the complete suit of plate armour till the close of the fifteenth century, and then the surface begins to be ornamented, but in a very simple manner. The accompanying cut, taken from an impression of a seal preserved in the national archives of Trance . is a very good representation of a French knight in plate armour of the beginning of the fifteenth centur}-. It is attached to a deed of Jean lord of Ligne, Avhich is dated in the year 1406. Among the more remarkable characteristics of his dress are the small bells hung round his girdle. A¥e observe similar bells hung to the baldric of a knight in an illuminated manuscript of the 4-8 lN'l'i;()l)li(JTOI!,Y JCSSA"!'. ]{,()yal Libnti-y in tlio Biitisli IMuscuin (MS. Roy. 1.1, D. iii), Ijcloii^in- also to tlio curlier [)ai-t of tlic liftcontli century. The jingle of these small bells si^enis to have been considered at that period as a pleasant noise, and very becoming in th(^ ])ersons of individuals of rank or fashion. At that, as well as at an earlier period, it was considered to be the height of lashiou to cover the bridles and other parts of the trappings of horses with such bells. The reader will remember Chaucer's monk, — " Ami wliiiu In: rood, riicii ini^-lit liis Ijridcl liccrc (iyii^lc in a wliisllj'iiL;' wyiid so clcoir, yVnd cek us lowdc as dotJi Ujo cliiiprl hclii , Thcr as the lord was liuopcr of tlio cello." CirAiJCKR, (.'(int. T., 1. 109. in the I'aiglisb metrical romance of Kichard C(enr-de-Lion, com])Osed apparently in the fourteenth century, the steed of the sultan of Danias has trappings similarly ornamented, — "llys ci'oupor lioonj,' al Cul oC bcllos, And his po}trol and Ids arsoiiii, 'i'liroo ni}lo iny.i;lito in(.'n Injai' tlic sown." ]!i(li. C(rirr-iIi'-L., in Wi:ni:i;. A1)0ut the same time (the conrmencement of the tifteenth century) a ])ractice arose, hardly less singular than that of the Ijells, of giving fantastic forms to the pieces of plate, and making the edges project 'u\ ]>oints and angles from the rest of the armour. This fashion, in faigland, assumed its most grotesrpie forms in tb*^ reign of Richard III, and in the beginning of tliat of Henry VII ; and a remark- ably good example of it is ]n-esented by the effigy of Sir 'I'hoinas I'eyton in the church of Isleham in Cambridge.^liire, which has been frequently engra,ved. This kniglit died in the reign of Richard III. Still nothing lik(; the rich decoration of the plat(^ armour of a later period can Ijc traced ; and no ornamentation is observed on the face of tlie ])lates beyond occasional fbiting. It was a.t the commencement of the si.\tee')ith ceiitui'y tbfit armour began to I'cceive that superb ornamentatioTi on which were expended all the resources of tlie arts of chasing, engraving, inlaying, or damasfjuinerie, etc., and tlir; designs for wliicli wei-e furnished by the first artists of tlie day. This comln'ua,tion of arts wa,s carried to perfection about tlie same time in Italy and in Germany ; but the Italian arnioui- is the most celebrated. The surface of every part of the armour was now covocd with figures, or witli araliesques and other ornaments, and with rich da.raasquinerie of gold and silver. The buckler, which, in imitation of classical models, ^vas made circular, or slightly oval, was covei-ed with complicated sul.)ji;cts in relief, often taken from ancient history or fable. An example of these subjects is XXXV, INTKODUCTOIIY ESSAY. 49 furnished by the buckler of cuir-bouiUi in the present volume,^ which represents ' ri the story of Perseus and Andromeda. It has not been proposed to give anything hke a series of examples of mediaeval armour in this volume ; but a few interesting objects of that description will be found scattered through it, belonging to various periods from that of the Romans to the sixteenth century. Among these we have a particularly good sample of a Tioman helmet, which was found at Ravenna." On another ^ H- > fig- plate' will be found a rare example of the barrel-shaped heaume, with a border of » ri. mi, fig-i- ring-mail below, to protect the neck, which is supposed to be of the latter part of the twelfth century. Equally fine examples of heaumes of the fourteenth^ and " ib.,fiss. fifteenth' centuries, and a salade, or cap worn by the ordinary soldiers,'' of the latter '■ Pi.xxxv, figs.;i,:l. period, present the usnal forms of these articles, with their characteristic deficiency « ib.,fi,-.r,. in ornament. To these we may add a vizored bascinet of the latter end of the fourteenth century." The plates in this volume also contain a few good specimens ' iii.fi,-.-i. of the richer armour of the sixteenth century, including several of the extra- defences of the suit, called the pieces dc renfortf a beautiful morion, breastplate, « pi. xix. and gauntlets, of fine Italian work;'' and a superb suit, with all the pieces, as well ari.xxxi-;. as all the changes, belonging to it, which came from the Bernal collection, and appears to be Italian work of the middle of the sixteenth century.^" ii>ri. xiiii, At this latter period, the decoration which covered the armour of the knight was carried also to the trappings and defences of the horse ; and the chanfrain, or piece of iron which covered the front of the horse's head, was ornamented with particular care. Such also was the case with the saddle, as well as with the stirrups. The stirrups engraved in the present volume^' are remarkable for " pi. xv. singularity of form as well as for elaborate ornamentation, though the latter displays no high degree of art, and they do not belong to the regular series of European armour. The arms which were attached to the person, such as the sword and the dagger, were also susceptible of ornamentation to a very great degree in their hilts and scabbards. Among the relics found in the earlier graves of the Anglo- Saxons and Franks, we find sword-hilts made of solid silver, with zigzag and other ornaments, which prove the antiquity of the fashion of decorating tlie sword among our forefathers. The swords of Charlemagne and that called the sword of St. Maurice, preserved in the imperial treasury at Vienna, the hilts and scabbards of Avhich are covered with precious stones and enamels, show us to what a degree of richness this ornamentation was carried at a not much later period. During the feudal period, and that which immediately followed it, the swords appear to o 11. XXUl, 50 INTEODUCTOEY ESSAY. have been rarely ornamented ; but in the sixteenth century the sword hilt rivaled the most elaborate parts of the armour. It was not only covered with arabesque and other ornaments in relief, but with figures and statuettes, sculptured with exquisite delicacy ; and the guard often assumed singular and complicated forms. The part of the blade nearest to the hilt was also ornamented with damasquinerie and niello, in inscriptions as well as figures. Several examples of ornamented sword handles, of the sixteenth century, will be found in ' I'l.xxvii. the present volume.^ The dagger or poignard, called at one period a misericorde (because it was used to dispatch the enemy who was desperately Avounded, and " mercifully" deliver him from his sufferings) was as necessary an article of the personal equipment of a knight or gentleman as the sword, and appears to have been looked iipon as even more distinctive of class. We meet sometimes with figures of knights with'two daggers, one generally smaller than the other ; and this weapon is also spoken of as being worn by ladies. We therefore easily understand how the dagger became an object of ornament earlier than the sword. An early misericorde, with an ornamented hilt, is given in the present volume.~ At the end of the fifteenth and in the sixteenth centuries, the ornamentation of the sheath of the dagger was looked upon as a matter of so much importance that artists like Holbein were employed to furnish designs for it. The manufacture of daggers and dagger-sheaths appears, indeed, to have been carried to greater perfection at that time, and on a more extensive scale, in Germany than in any other country. Singular forms were not unfrequently given to the blade of the dagger. Two remarkable triangular-bladed poignards, probably of Spanish workmanship, will be found among the engravings of the present volume ;" as well as one with a curiously serrated blade, said to have belonged to the emperor Charles "V. The handles of daggers were often made of ivory, and carved into figures, or groups of figures, sometimes of extreme elegance, and at others ludicrously grotesque. Two daggers of this description will be found in the 'lb., liss. present volume,'' with their ivory hilts thus carved into fia'ures : one, which is 7 & 10. ^ ° of Italian work, representing a nude female extracting a thorn from her foot, the other, which is German, a knight in armour. Both are of the sixteenth century ; and they present us, even at that period, with the contrast of classic design in Italy and medifeval feeling in Germany. Another dagger, in the present volume, has a handle of ivory delicately cut into spirals. In their desire for novelty, the makers of daggers sometimes combined the purposes and forms of more than one object in one piece. The present volume affords us an example of ib.fig..^. a dagger of the sixteenth century, with a small wheel-lock pistol attached to it.'^ II... fiz- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 51 The annexed cut represents a dagger of the earher half of the sixteenth century, <^im^. of German workmanship, which was purchased by Lord Londesborough at the Bernal sale. It will be seen at once, that, when in its sheath, this dagger was intended to serve the purpose of a mace. In the sixteenth century a new arm became an object of ornamentation— that which we now call a gun. Amid the changes which were taking place in military science after the middle of the fourteenth century, the necessity of making fire- arms — at first only great and very clumsy cannons — more portable, was soon felt. The first step in the change was to make cannons so small in the barrel that a man might carry tliem without difficulty, and when he wanted to use them, he could, placing them on a rest of some kind, hold and direct them with one hand, while he applied the lighted match to the touch-hole with the other. This contrivance was attended with many inconveniences, among which not the least was the circumstance of having only one hand to direct the gun. A movable piece was therefore added, which held the match over the touch-hole ; and the gunner could then hold the piece with both his hands, placing one so that he could at will press the match down to the touch-hole with his finger. He was thus enabled to dispense with the necessity of a rest ; but still the whole proceeding was a very clumsy one. The first great step in the way of improvement consisted in applying to the touch-hole a piece of simple machinery consisting of a small furrowed wheel of steel, which was turned round rapidly by the action of a spring, and by friction against a piece of sulphuret of iron, held in the same way as the flints in the guns of more modern times, produced sparks, which were directed to the priming-powder. The wheel-lock was invented in Italy early in the sixteenth century : it was moved by a chain, and wound up like a watch, to prepare it for use. The lock was not generally fixed in the gun, but it was fitted in a groove when ready for firing, and was usually carried in a velvet bag. The gun now took nearly the form of our modern instrument of the same description, and it received the name of an arquebus. The wheel-lock prevailed throughout the sixteenth century ; but it was still too elaborate a process for common use in battle, and the match-lock at length entirely superseded it, which was again superseded by the modern flint-lock in the latter part of the seventeenth century. No sooner had the gun thus become a portable weapon than it began to receive O'J INTEODUCTOKY ESSAY. i 1. KXXl. the same kind of ornamentation as that which was given to armour. The barrel was chased, engraved, and inlaid, and the stock was incrusted with ivory and other substances, on which were engraved, not only arabesques and other similar decorations, but elaborate subjects, often executed with great delicacy. Great beauty was also given to the lock, which was sometimes adorned with figures in a similar manner to the hilts of dageers. The first of the wheel-lock guns or arquebuses, figured in the present volume,^ is particularly interesting as having been, according to tradition, the one used by Charles IX in the terrible massacre of St. Bartholomew's day (1572). The barrel is richly chased with foliage, amid which is the continuation of a stag hunt, which also forms the principal ornamen- tation of the sides of the stock. The latter is inlaid with ivory. Of the other two examples given in the present volume," which belong to nearly the same date, the stock of the one is of ivory inlaid, and that of the other of brass embossed with figures and foliage. The lance or spear was always the distinguishing weapon of the knight, and it Avas a destructive one against those who Avere imperfectly provided with defensive armour ; but in combats between knight and knight, the personal superiority whicli it gave to one over the other, consisted merely in the dexterity with which he used it in unhorsing his opponent. After the knights began to be completely covered with armour, when the combatants had no longer to deal immediately with each other's bodies, but only with their iron cases, other weapons were found more effective, such as the older battle-axe of the Teutonic and Scandinavian peoples, the mace or club, and a sort of hammer called a martel-de-fer. These were rarely ornamented so much as to give them a title to be considered as objects of art ; but the axe, by a sort of combination with the spear, was transformed, in the fifteenth century, into the weapon called a halbert, which the Swiss and German infantry used with great effect. This soon became a fashionable weapon in the courts of the western princes and barons ; and not only was its head ornamented both by giving it various fantastic forms, and by engraving, chasing, and inlaying, but the staff also. The halbert from the collection of Lord Londesborough, represented in the accompanying cut, is of rather an early date, and is less remarkable for its ornamentation than for the interest attached to it as having belonged, as it is stated, to king Edward IV INTEODUOTOUY ESSAY. 5o of England. It may be remarked that the halbert is the ornamental weapon of the fifteenth century ^vhich continued longest in actual use. The contrast between the care bestowed by the man of rank and wealth in the middle ages on the richness of his plate and on the embelHshment of his person, and the little importance he set on the furniture of his house, is very remarkable, but is easily explained by circumstances to which allusion has been already made. The vessels of gold and silver offered the most available investment of his wealth, and at the same time the safest and most portable, — for, while they allowed him to display his superiority in this respect on all occasions, he could always carry them with him, and they were readily turned into money. On the other hand, as the normal state of medieval society was Avar, people's houses were continually exposed to be plundered, and any investment in furniture was simply providing for others, and not for the rightful possessor. Even the royal palaces in France, as late at least as the end of the fourteenth century, were left quite unfurnished, ^^lien the king moved from one palace to another, he took with him the furniture necessary for himself and for the members of his own family, and, to furnish the apartments for the rest of the court, it was necessary to make a forced loan on the inhabitants of the town or neighbourhood where the castle was situated. The houses of respectable people were actually stripped, and they were left without beds to lie on ; and this Avas one of the great causes of political discontent. If royalty itself was so ill provided with household furniture, we may easily imagine what was the case in the other classes of society ; and the old inventories of household goods which remain show us how few, and of how little value, they were. So general was this custom among princes and nobles, of carrying their furniture about with them, that they even took it with them in war, to display in their tents ; and this made the baggage of an army so cumbrous, and rendered the plunder of an enemy's camp so profitable an affair for the victorious soldiers. Every reader of history will remember the vast wealth which Charles-le-Temeraire, duke of Burgundy, carried with him, and lost, in his expedition against the Swiss. In looking over the old writers, Vt'e sometimes find mention of articles of furniture made to be taken to pieces, and thus rendered more portable, and designed especially to be carried to the camp. The inventory of the goods of the celebrated mistress of Henri IV, Gabrielle d'Estrees, contains a camp-table made of walnut wood, with iron joints, which allowed it to be folded up (" tine talk fagon de caen [for camji], de hois de noyer, ferric et ployante, de trois pieds de long ou environ, prisee un escu"). Lord Londesboroiigh possesses a very remarkable camp- p 54 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. chair, made entirely of steel and richly ornamented, ^yhich is so contrived as to take to pieces, by which means it may be packed in a very small compass. I )'i.xxxvi. This curious object is engraved in the present volume.^ Few as were, no doubt, the articles of furniture of any value, even those were placed in the more private apartments, where they were seen only by the friends of the family, and they were rarely exposed to public view. The hall, or public apartment, was little better than a bare room, with perhaps a bench or two for seats ; and even benches seem to have been brought in only at meal-times, the only permanent seats being recesses in the walls and the stone window bottoms. At the hour of dinner or supper boards were brought in and placed upon trestles, to form tables, and benches were introduced, to be placed by the side of them. A chair was a very rare article, and was only introduced for persons of great distinction. In the Romans de Dolopathos, a chair is placed at the table for the philosopher Virgil, as a mark of especial honour : " Un siege seur unc chaiere, Moult riche ct bele et bien ouvree, Ont el plus haut leu atornee ; La menerent seoir Virgile ; Cesar ot par toutc la vile Commande ke tuit I'ennoraissent Et seignorie li portaissent." Romans de Dolopathos, 1. 1618. In the English romance of the Seven Sages published by Weber, a lady is told, as a special mark of insolent disrespect towards her husband and his guests, to seat herself in a chair at the head of the table, — "And sette the liaiest ate bord, In a chaier ayen thi lord." Seven Sages, in Webek, 1. 1845. So, in the commencement of the rom.ance of Eichard Cccur-de-Lion, a king who is seated at table in a chair himself, causes another to be placed there in order to do honour to his daughter, — "They sette trestclcs, and layde a horde; Cloth of sylk theron was sprad ; And the kyng hymselve bad That his dougliter wcr forth fettc, And in a chayer before hym sette." Pdch. Cocur-de-L., in Weber, 1. 102. In another English metrical romance, that of Sir Isumbras, a lady shews her mingled compassion and respect for the unfortunate knight who had come in the disguise of a palmer, by ordering a chair and cushion to be placed for him near herself, — INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 00 " So lange he satt and ete noghte, That the Lady grete wondir thoghte, And tille a knyghte gane saye, ' Bryng a chayere and a qwyschene, And sett jone povre palraere therin, That he to me telle niaye What tydans that he hase herde and sene In haythynenes, whare he hase bene In many a wilfuUe waye.' A riche chayere than was ther fett, This povre palmare therin was sett, He tolde hir of his laye." Thornton Romances, p. 112. The cliair, however, properly belonged to the bedroom, and is continually mentioned in the popular literature, and represented in the illuminations of manuscripts, as an article of furniture in that apartment. The service of the table, in the old time, was as simple as the furniture of the hall. A cloth was laid over the board (which is described in the romances as being, on grand occasions, of silk), and on this were placed cups for drinking, and knives for cutting the victuals. This, in ordinary tables, seems to have been all the furniture at meals, except the vessels in which the food was brought. Thus, in the romance of Dolopathos, at the feast given to Virgile, we are told only that — " Ja furent les tables assises, Et les napes per desuz mises, Et li henap et li ooutel." Romans de Dolopathos, p. 57. To these were added dishes {kiielles) and a salivre, or salt-cellar, which was an important vessel on the rich man's table. The former, as they were intended to hold pottages and similar articles of food, required spoons. All these articles are enumerated in the setting out of a princely table, as described briefly in the romance of Parthenopex de Blois, — a composition, probably, of the earlier part of the thirteenth century : " Tables mises, et doubliers, Couteaux, saillieres, et cuillers, Coupes, henas, et escuelles D'or et d' argent." On ordinary tables, however, even the salt appears to have been only placed upon a piece of bread hollowed in the middle ; and in the same way, a thick slice of coarse bread was placed under the meat which was to be carved, to save the table, or rather the tablecloth. These slices of bread were called trcmchoirs. After tliey had become soaked with the juice which issued from the meats in carving, they were sometimes eaten by the guests ; but they were more frequently thrown into 56 INTKODUCTOKY ESSAY. the coulouere, or vessel for the reception of the offal from the table, which was afterwards distributed to the poor. The employment of slices of bread in this manner continued till a rather late period ; for a writer of the latter half of the iiftcenth century, after describing the luxury of the bishops, and the rich plate whicli adorned their tables, asks how the poor were served, and replies, " with the traiidioirs which remain of the bread upon the table": " He ! qu'ont les povres ? llz ont les trancliouers Qui Llemcurent du pain dessus la table." ]Maktial de Paris, Les Viyiles de Charles VII. Eound discs of wood, or metal, began, loug before the date of this waiter, to be substituted for the bread, or at least to be placed under the bread ; and these were known by the same name of tranclioirs. Tire Avooden trancJioir, or, as the word was Anglicized, trencher., was used in England by the guests in the same manner, and for the same purpose, as our modern plates, and has become celebrated by a variety of allusions, and even of proverbs. A good trencher-man was formerly a term equivalent to a hearty feeder. There can be no doubt, however, that, for many ages, people not only used their fingers at table instead of forks, but that they ate their substantial victuals without plates. Spoon-meats alone were served in esctielles or dislies {iciiclles) ; and until a comparatively late period the dishes were not counted out according to the number of persons, but more than one of the guests ate from the same dish. It appears to have been finally settled that the guests at table should have a dish to every two ; and they were arranged, or arranged themselves, so that the couples were friends, usually a lady and a gentleman. Hence arose a proverbial expression by which, to express the close friendship between two individuals, people said that they ate at the same dish (rncir/r/er a la mane ecnclle, was the phrase in French) ; and the coupling of the gentleman and lady at the same dish was often looked upoir as air affair of gallantry. This practice is mentioned as early as the twelfth century ; and it is not unfrequently alluded to in tlie Fabliaux of the thirteenth. In one of the latter we arc told of a lady who showed her regard for her guest by placiuQ- him bv her side to cat at her di.sh : " Trcstot dclez li, coste a coste, Lo fet seoir la damoiscle Et mangier a imc escuele." In the later prose romance of Perceforest, written about the middle of the fifteenth century, tlie author, describing a grand feast, tells us tliat eight hundred knights sat down to table, and that there ^^•as not one of them who had not a lady or a maiden at his dish. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 57 K^l ti We leam from the inventories of kings and princes that dishes were often made of silver, and even of gold, which Avas, no doubt, considered to be a convenient method of keeping the precious metals in store ; but they seem to have been generally plain, and plates and dishes do not appear to have received any artistic ornament until the introduction of porcelain. Such, however, was not the case with the knives, spoons, and forks, used for carving and serving the meats, which were ornamented from a very early period, and often very elaborately. The handles of the knives and forks, and the stalks of spoons, especially in the sixteenth century, were often formed of small figurines, or even of groups of figures, wrought in metal or in ivory, some of which are extremely beautiful. The subjects are usually classical, but they sometimes assume a droll or grotesque character, combined also at times with ingenious machinery, which gave motion to the figures. Such is the case with the grotesque fork 0^ represented in the accompanying cut, from Lord Londesborough's collection, ■which is of silver gilt, and is here represented on a scale of one half the size of the original. By the pivots at the knees and shoulders, the figure bends downwards and receives a motion like that of a man sawing. This fork is believed to be of the sixteenth century. The knives for the table were generally carving knives ; for in the olden time the guests used their own knives, which they carried in a case attached to their person. The carving knives were also kept in a case, which contained what was called a jjaire, or trousseau, of knives [une paire de cousteaulx), the pair consisting usually of three. These were, first, a large knife, very broad at the extremity of the blade, and sharp-edged on each side, Avhich was used for carving certain things, and also for presenting the piece carved to the guests as Avith a shovel ; of another carving knife ; and of a smaller knife, Avhich Avas given to the prince or other great personage. In the minute account of the household of the duke of Burgundy, in 1474, given by OliAder de la March, Ave are informed that " the valet Avho was serving Avas to place his bread and the tranchoirs on the table, and then he Avas to draw the knives out of their case, and to place the tAvo large knives (kissing humbly the handles in doing so) before the place AAdiere the prince is to be seated ; and he must put the points toAvards the prince, covering these points Avith the cloth turned over them ; and then he must put the handle of the small knife toAvards the prince, — the reason of Avhich is, that the large knives are to be used by the esquier Avho is carving, and therefore Q 1 VI. xviii, tiRS..i,4,5. 58 INTEODUCTOKY ESSAY. the handles are towards him; and the little knife is turned the opposite way because the prince is to help himself with it. And the esquier must take the meat upon his knife, and put it before the prince." The inventory of Charles V of France, in 1380, enumerates ''admire of carving knives, that is, two large and one small, Avith handles of H(jmim aloes, adorned with gold enameled, and each with a pearl at the extremity." A " paire" engraved in the present volume^ contains only one large knife, a fork being substituted for the other; but the larger knife answers exactly to the description just given. Knives of several descriptions, or at least differently named, were used in the service of the table, for carving the bread or different sorts of meat or pastry. One of these was called aparejHdii (bread-parer) ; for it appears that at the tables of the great the crust was pared off the bread before the latter was cut into pieces for the table. In the same inventory of Charles V just alluded to, we find an entry of " a paire of carving knives, that is, two large, one small, and a parepain belonging to them, with handles of silver gilt, round, and marked with the fleur-de-lis." The reader of the early English romance of Sir Tristrem Avill remember the brief description of the table scene there : "The kyng no sc3-d no move, Bot wesche and Ycde to mete ; Bred thai pard and scliare, Ynough thai hadde at ete ; "Whether hem lever ware Win or ale to gete, Aske and have it yare, In coupes or homes grete Was brought ; Ther while thai wold thai sete, And risen when hem gode thought." Sir Tristrem, fytte i, st. L. (in Scott's Ed.) U)., figs. Another ornamental carvino: knife and fork will be found in the present volume.' As it will be seen by these examples, the blades were ornamented no less than the handles. Sometimes the blade has an inscription containing a motto or sentiment, or indicating the name of the possessor, or of the individual who had presented it to his friend. There is also a curious class of knives, of the sixteenth century, the blades of which have on one side the musical notes to the bene- diction of the table, or grace before meat, and on the other the grace after meat. The set of these knives usually consists of four, the grace being set to four voices, and each knife containing the notes to the particular voice. A very choice example of such knives Avill be found in the collection of Lord Londesborough ; s i- 9? " and one of them is engraved in the present volume.^ INTKODUCTORY ESSAY. 59 The early inventories mention cases of knives which were to be carried on the person, and contained other articles besides those just enumerated. King Charles V had, in 1380, a case of this kind, "for carrying in the forest", which contained a great knife and a small one, a punch or bodkin, and what was probably a pair of small shears, which were put in a case and attached to the person by a chain of silver (" uns constcaux a clou, a porter en hois, c'est a sf;avoir mi grand, tin petit, vn poinc^on, avec les forcettcs qui sont cV argent, ct est la gaijne estofee cTor, et la cJiayne u quog elles pendent d\:irgent"). The inventory of the dukes of Burgundy, in 1420, mentions " a large coitsteaul, or set of knives of German make", which contained six knives, one tile, and a bodkin and shears, which was suspended by a silk cord (" un gros cousteaid d'Alemaigne, garni de vi. cousteaul.v, line Igme, et iing poinsson et cVunes forsetes, pendans a line courroye de fit hlanc, a dons de leton"). These cases of instruments were to be carried on the person when huntino-, and are commonly known by the name of troussermx de chasse. Lord Londesborough possesses a very complete trousseau de cliasse, preserved in its orio-inal case of cuir-bouilli, which contains all the instruments of this description which we can imagine that the noble hunter could require. These instruments, which are partly gilt, and have ivory handles, are here engraved on a scale of one-third of the size of the originals. 60 I^^TEODITCTOEY ESSAY. It has been already vcniavkcd that the chair was not formerly a part of the furniture of the hall, but of the chamber, which was usually better furnished than the hall. It contained the bed, a chair (till a comparatively late period seldom more than one), a buffet, and one or sometimes two chests ; at a later period, a cupboard or cabinet. The rich ornament of the bed is often spoken of in the poetry and romance of the middle ages ; but it consisted entirely in the valuable stuffs of which the curtains and bed-coverings were made. The bed was supported on a mere frame of plain wood ; and even post-bedsteads were not in use until the fifteenth century. The elaborate carving of bedsteads, as well as of chairs and tables, began with the sixteenth century. The first objects of this description of household furniture Avhich received much ornament were the chests and cabinets ; but more especially the former. We find chests of an early period decorated both with painting and carving. The reason of this respect shown to chests is, no doubt, to be sought in the fact tliat they were generally intended to contain articles of more than ordinary value, and that they were therefore looked upon as possessing greater importance than chairs or stools, which were mere objects of temporary convenience, or tables, which were put together for the occasion, and even while in use concealed from view by the tablecloth. The annexed cut is taken from a manuscript in the British INIuseum, well known by the title of Queen jNIary's Psalter, and belonging to the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. (MS. Reg. 2, b. vii.) It is intended to represent the covetousness of king Joshua, who is laying up in his treasure-chest a cpiantity of money, brooches, rings, and ii^^^i^ cups. All these were, in the middle ages, included under the names of jewels (in Latin joceiliei, from jocus, as being articles of amusement and not of use ; and in old French, joiieUcs, joiatis, joijeix^ etc.), and hdejlies or heKjues (identical with tlie Anglo-Saxon lieaij^ or leli). This latter word, which has been only retained in the French language in the signification of rings for the fingers, has left its traces in a number of words and phrases which are taken in a different sense. Thus, as the articles originally included under the designation were those Avhich people were mostly in the habit of carrying about with them, the word he()jfjeige came into use as the ordinary term for people's luggage. Again, as the articles thus designated were objects more for ornament than use, a diminutive of the word was used to indicate a thing of tritHng importance, a small jewel of little value, a heijjuleUe. Similarly, when soldiers (and all gentlemen were INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 61 then soldiers) made advantageous capitulations, they stipulated that they should have vies et hagues sauves, or amies et hagues sauves, that is, that they should be allowed to go away with their lives, arms, and portable goods. A man, in the same way, stipulated for himself, his household, and his movable goods (moi, mes gens, et vies hagues). The art of the jeweler has been practised from a very remote period of the history of the human race ; and in all ages, with the manners of which we are at all acquainted, it has been the custom to adorn the person with that class of ornament to which we now more strictly apply the term lijouterie. It was the custom, at all times, to wear jewelry on the fingers and ears, on the arms (when bare), and on the neck. It was often placed also on the breast, and not unfre- quently on the covering of the head. The principal display of jewelry among the Saxons and Franks was seen in the rich fibula; or brooches which were fixed on the exterior dress, by way of fastening, at the breast and shoulders, and which are often covered rather profusely with stones, — such as garnets, sapphires, and emeralds. A similar object, called then a fermail (fermaetilum), was in use through the feudal period for the same purpose, — that of fastening the dress, — and it appears to have beeir usually placed just under the chin. The medieval romances often speak of the richness of the fermails. That of Parthenopex de Blois, of the thirteenth century, describing a lady's appearance, tells us that the fermail under her chin and the buttons of her vest were of rubies, and that her bracelets and armlets were of gold : " Le fermail desos Ic mcnton Sont de I'ubi et li bouton, Li bras sont fort par les manicles, Qui faites sont d'or, ct d'ornicles." The practice of carrying jewelry about the person, by both sexes, might be illustrated by a multitude of examples from ancient writers. We are told, in the inventory of his goods, that when Piers Gaveston, the favourite of Edward II, was taken by the barons, he had on his person " three great rubies in rings, one emerald, and a diamond of great value set in silver, enameled." Nor do the descriptions of the fermails and other jewels, given by the poets and writers of fiction, exceed, or even equal, the actual objects as described in the serious language of official records. Henry III of England possessed, in the middle of the thirteenth century, a fermail with two diamonds. In the middle of the century following, the king of France caused to be made a fermail of gold, set with rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and other stones. About the same time the duke of Normandy possessed, among other fermails, one which was made in the E Pl.xxxiv t\^. i. 62 IXTKODUCTORY ESSAY. form of a peacock, set with stones and pearls. The mventory of Charles V of France, made in 1380, contains numerous examples of superb ornaments of this description, among which we find a fermail formed of an eagle of gold, on which were five sapphires, seven emeralds, seventeen rubies, and thirty-six great pearls ; " and the said eagle has on its head a crown set with four small emeralds, three little rubies, and eight small pearls." Other fermails, in the same collection, equally covered with precious stones, had the several forms of a griffin, a stag, a stork, two hands interlaced, and an inscription containing the names of the three kings of Cologne. In 1389, an inventory of the dukes of Burgundy enumerates fermails made in the shapes of a turtle dove, a pelican, a doe, and a lady seated holding a harp and a little dog. When these jewels were attached to the hat, or otherwise, when not used for the purpose of a brooch, they were often called enseignes, or signes. This usage was taken probably from the pilgrims' signs, and it sometimes had a religious or emblematical signification, or they not unfrequently represented the crest or badge of the person who wore them, or of some one to whom he was affectionately attached. As the earlier enseignes were usually of gold, or brass, enameled, it was usual also to use the word email by itself, in the signification of an ornament of this description. The enseigne became an ornament of still greater importance in the sixteenth century. It had then become the fashion to hang rich masses of jewelry to the collar, instead of fixing them to the dress, and under this form they Avere known by such names as pendants and iientacoh. Clemence of Hungary, queen of France, possessed, in 1328, "a round fermail for a pentacol" {tin fermail ront a pentacol), which was set with an emerald in the midst of six rubies and three great pearls ; and a second pentacol, formed of a sapphire {iin pentacol cTwi sapl/ir). Charles V possessed, in 1380, "a small reliquary of jasper, in the shape of a pentacol", set with precious stones. It was a common practice to carry relics in this manner, or sometimes the figure of a patron saint ; both which articles were supposed to protect the person Avho Avore them from danfjer. A small reliquary of this description, of silver gilt, will be found in the present volume.^ These jcaa^cIs Avere often made in the form of figures, or of objects, sirch as fruit, AA'hich opened and shewed the relic or sacred object inside. Thus the inventory of Charles V, in 1380, mentions "a jcAvel" (nn joijau) representing the Annunciation, in Avhich the belly of the Virgin Mary opened and exposed to vicAv a representation of the Trinity inside. An image of the Virgin Mary, of gold, Avith a ruby on the breast, the belly opening in the same manner, and displaying the same subject, is entered in the inventory of the dukes of Burgundy in 1420. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 63 Another inventory of the dukes of Burgundy, made m 1396, speaks of a fleur-de- lis which opened, and contained inside a picture of the crucifixon. In 1416, the duke of Berri had " a fair apple" which opened, and contained within, on one side, the figure of Christ, and on the other that of the Virgin. Among the jewels of tlie dukes of Burgundy, in 1392, there were two pears of gold, enameled, each containing an image of our Lady. We iind similar entries in the other different inventories of tlie dukes of Burgundy : an apple of silver, enameled, containing in the inside a picture of St. Catherine, in 1400; a pineapple of gold, which contained figures of the birth of Christ, and of the three kings, in 1467 ; and in the same year two apples of gold, one containing, on the opposite halves, our Lady and St. Paul ; the other, St. Peter and St. Paul, the latter suspended by three small chains. These kinds of devices continued in fashion till a mucli later period ; and a very curious example, from the collection of Lord Londesborough, which appears to have belonged to king James I, is represented in the accompanying woodcut. The whole is of silver, and the leaves appear to have been painted green. On opening it we find in the inside the small skull here represented above the apple. The top of this skull opens again like a lid, and inside are two small paintings representing the creation and resurrection, with the inscription, ^^ Post mortem, vita, eternitas". The external inscrip- tion is not over gallant. To give the apple, externally, a more natural appearance, there are marks of two bites on the side opposite that here represented, shewing a large and small set of teeth. It is engraved here on a scale of two-thirds of the size of the original. Among the singular forms of jewels worn on the person as " pentacols", or pendants from the neck, we may mention that of small birdcages. The inventory of the dukes of Burgundy, made in 1408, mentions " a little cage of silver gilt, in which is a goldfinch of silver, with manger and drinking-cup, all of silver gilt." The bird, however, which was usually put in these small cages of silver was of a very peculiar character. The use of perfumes prevailed at all periods of the middle ages, and they were carried on the person by different contrivances. A mixed perfume of some kind, which can be traced back into the fourteenth century, and JWffJi \ I 1./ 64 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. ^vhich appears to have been a great favourite, was usually made up into the form of little birds, which were called oiseaux-de'Chupre, or, more commonly, oisellets-de- dniprc, birds of Cyprus, — perhaps because the materials were brought, or said to be brought, from that island. The oisecmx-de-chjprc were used sometimes for perfuming the house, and they were also carried on the person, either in boxes in the purse, or, AA'hich appears to have been more usual, hung from the neck. In this latter case the perfume-boxes were made in various forms, and were susceptible of every description of ornament ; but, perhaps in allusion to the name and form of the perfume, the favourite device appears to have been, in the fifteenth century, that of a small cage. The inventory of Charles V mentions a silver fish to contain birds of Cyprus, and a little lantern of silver gilt for the same purpose, the latter attached to a chain. Between this date and the end of the century Ave have mention more than once of a cage for birds of Cyprus, but they appear to have been for suspension in the house. In 1399, Charles VI had a small round pear, of silver gilt, to contain birds of Cyprus, hanging by a silken lace. In 1416, the duke of Berri possessed no less than seven different utensils for carrying birds of Cyprus : one was a small silver chandelier ; another was a small censer, of silver gilt, suspended by five little chains ; a third was a cage, of silver gilt, containing two little perches inside, and tvt^o little birds upon them, which were to hold the birds of Cyprus ; a fourth was an apple of silver ; the fifth and sixth were two other small cages, of silver gilt ; and the seventh was a small figure of a bear, of gold enameled with black, set with a ruby, two small sapphires, and six pearls, and hollow, so as to contain the substance of the perfume. In 1467, the didve of Burgundy had an apple, of silver gilt, to contain birds of Cyprus. The apple seems to have become, subsequently, the more usual form of the perfume-case ; and it gave its name eventually, under the form of pomander, to the perfume itself. The pomander, or apple-shaped perfume-box, was very common in England in the sixteenth century, and several examples of it have been preserved. In Shakespeare ( Wint. T., iv, 3) it is spoken of as one of the common wares hawked about by the pedlar ; and it was considered an article of the greatest necessity, for it was used to contain perfumes not only for pleasure, but as a preservative against infectious diseases, of which people lived, in that age, in so much dread. Although it is quite evident that there was much fine and elaborate jewelry made in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we have very few examples left — by no means enough to allow us to form any just notion of its character. This is easily accounted for, when we consider that, in these articles, the stones INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 65 themselves were of far greater value than the mounting, or the artistic ornament employed upon them, they were continually exposed to be broken up in order to employ the stones in forming jewels of different forms and in newer fashions. Thus we learn from a note in the inventory of the jewels of Charles V of France, that that monarch had taken one of the largest and most beautiful fermails he is described to have possessed, in order to employ the materials in making a morse to be presented to the pope. The manner in wliich the finest jewelry of the ages preceding the sixteenth century has perished, is well illustrated by an anecdote told by Benvennto Cellini, who assures us that, in 1.527, when the pope was besieged in the castle of St. Angelo by the ferocious captors of Rome, he employed him to take the precious stones out of all the splendid jcAvelry of the papal treasury, in order to melt down the gold. The treasure of noble works of art in je^velry, which existed in Italy before the destructive wars of the fitteeuth and sixteenth centuries, must have been immense. It was from that country, indeed, that came, towards the end of the fifteenth century, the renaissance in jewelry as in the other arts. Wc have still a tolerably numerous list of Italian goldsmiths and jewelers of distinction during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many of whom were celebrated for their talents in what we should now call higher branches of art. Such was Michelagnolo of Florence, who, at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, executed in great perfection not only works in gold and silver and in jewels, but richly ornamented armour ; and whose great skill in mounting precious stones is celebrated by his pupil, Benvenuto Cellini. The name of Cellini is well known to all readers. Born in the year 1500, he studied not only under Michelagnolo, but under other of the most celebrated jewelers of Florence, and subsecjuently established himself in that city, where he executed a multitude of small works in hijouterie. He afterwards removed to Rome, and passed to other cities ; and he was brought by Francois I to France, where he left also a considerable number of beautiful works of the same description, as Avell as magnificent chefs-iV oeuvre of ornamental plate. Tlie taste with which he mounted the precious stones is especially spoken of by his contemporaries. The jewels engraved in the present volume are nearly all pendents, and belong mostly to the sixteenth century. Some of them are, no doubt, of the age of Benvenuto Cellini, and one or two of them may have come from his school. They are all of gold, enameled, and set with stones. One only^ is a mere M'i.t composition of jewels, emeralds, and pearls : all the others represent subjects of one description or other. Some of these subjects are animals, real or fiibulous, — s nv.- --i. 1 ri 66 INTEODTJCTOKY ESSAY. :i':^.i. such as a lion, the body of which is formed of a large pearl ;' a talbot dog, set - I'l.v.fig.:!. -^vith emeralds and rubies r a sea-horse, set with rubies, emeralds, and pearls;'^ a • n'v.iip.I unicorn, set with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and pearls;' and a mermaid, set ■' ii.xxxviii, y^[i\^ emeralds.- On one of the pendents in the present volume, which is set with '' I'l. i. tis.1. emeralds and pearls, a female is seated on a sea-horse;'' another, which is set with diamonds, pearls, and rubies, represents a group of a lady and gentleman, on ■ I'l-xxxviii, one horse, hawking.' None of the compositions of jewels given here represent classical subjects ; but there are more than one of a scriptural or religious character. Thus a fine pendent, adorned with large amethysts, represents - 11.., ti;,.. 1. Abraham's sacrifice f and the subject of another, which is richly set with ' ri,i,fig, r,, diamonds, pearls, and rubies, is the Annunciation.'' To this class of objects also belongs an extremely rich cross of gold, enameled, and set with crystals, which I'TLxxxMii, j-^^g evidently served as a pendent to the neck."' With the sixteenth century there came into vogue, in France and Italy, an ornament, worn on the hat, and imitated from the old pilgrims' signs, which was made an object of greater display of art even than the pendent jewel. It was, as it has been remarked before, called an enseu/ne (a sign), and was formed of a medallion, usually of gold, bearing some subject in relief, often an exquisite work of art, and surrounded with a border of decorative material more or less rich. Cellini speaks with great satisfaction of his works in this class of ornament, as well as of those of his contemporary, Caradosso, who excelled in the making of enseignes. The subjects had often some relation, more or less direct, to the individual who wore them ; but the device was also very frequently religious, representing sometimes the patron saint of the Avearer, who was usually a lady, after the middle of the sixteenth century, when they ceased to be much worn by men. One of the jewels engraved in the present volume, representing " II.., fig. i. St. James of Compostello killing an infidel," was probably an enseigne. Other adjuncts to the dress, which, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, received rich and elaborate ornamentation, were girdles, and collars for the neck. Two interesting examples of girdles, formed of a series of small plates ; in one instance of bronze, in the other, of silver ; are engraved in the 1- ri. xxxiv, present volume.'" The collar for the neck was similarly formed of small plates, fig-. 1,0. set with stones, or ornamented in other ways, and was called in French a carquan. Two carquans are described in the inventory of Gabrielle d'Estrees, in 1599, one of which consisted of seven pieces, set with pearls and rubies, " that in the middle being larger than the others"; the other was " a large carquan", consisting of sixteen pieces, on seven of Avhich were represented the seven planets ; and on the liSTTKODUCTORY ESSAY. 67 sixteenth piece, " which served for the middle of the said carquan", there was a figure of Jupiter. The word passed over into our island in its diminutive form, carquanet, or, as it was more usually spelt, carcanet, and occurs commonly among the writers of the Elizabethan age. The girdles just alluded to will give a notion of the manner in which the pieces of the carcanet were linked together. Shakespeare, in one of his sonnets, derives a beautiful simile from the manner in which a few pieces of greater value were scattered sparingly in the circle of the carcanet : "Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, Since seldom coming, in the long year set, Like stones of ■worth they thinly placed are, Or captain jewels in the carcanet." Shakespeake, Sonnet lii. The playful poet Herrick alludes also to the manner in which the carcanet was adorned : " About thy neck a carkanet is bound, Made of the rubie, pearl, and diamond." From a diversity of causes it has happened that rings are the class of medieeval jewelry which has been preserved in greatest number. They were connected with religious and civil ceremonies : they were at times regarded superstitiously, as possessing protective virtues ; and they were often tokens or memorials of friendship and affection ; while, on the other hand, even when they were of gold, the quantity of the metal -was not so great as to tempt people to melt it down for other purposes : and rings, too, Avere almost the only articles of any value which were frequently buried with the dead. It is extraordinary, indeed, how much, during the middle ages, the ring entered into almost all the ordinary relations of life. A ring was one of the distinguishing insignia of the high ecclesiastical offices of bishop or abbot; and the prelate, when dead, Avas irsually interred with the ring of office remaining on his finger. One of the rings engraved in the present volume* was found, in 1829, in the tomb of Thierry, bishop of Verdun in France, ^ H- x, who died in 1165. Another early ring, of a similar character, and preserved likewise in the collection of Lord Londesborough, is represented in the accompanying cut. The stone, like that of bishop Thierry's, a sapphire, is an irregular oval, secured in the collet by four clamps. The shank, which is of gold, is formed by two winged dragons. The ring was often used, during the feudal ages, as a sign or mark of investiture, not only of offices, but also of lands. The inventory of the dukes of Burgundy, made in 1420, speaks of " a very good and rich ring, made entirely of a fine and 68 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. clear ruby {halaijs), which my late lord, the duke Philippe (whom God absolve) ordained by his will to be put on the finger of the dukes of Burgundy, his successors, at the ceremony of taking possession of the duchy of Burgundy, m the church of St. Benignus at Dijon." Long before this, as we learn from Dugdale, an English knight, named Osbert de Camera, who lived in the twelfth century, "■ being visited with great sickness, granted unto the canons of St. Paul's, m pure alms, for the health of his soul, certain lands and houses lying near Hagge-lane, in the parish of St. Benedict, giving possession of them with his gold ring, wherein was set a ruby, appointing that the said gold ring, together with his seal, should for ever be fixed to the charter whereby he so disposed them." Other instances are recorded of a ring, indicating transfer of property, being attached to the titledeed. Of all the ceremonial usages of rings, however, tlie one best known, and probably one of the most ancient, is that in the marriage ritual. The existence of this usage is so well known during the periods when we have any information relating to such customs, that it is hardly necessary here to illustrate it. The marriage rings are now and tlien mentioned in the old inventories, and two instances deserve, perhaps, to be quoted on account of their singularity. In 1416, the duke of Berri possessed a ring with a stone set in it, — but of what kind we are not told," — pretended to have been the identical ring with which Joseph espoused the Virgin Mary ! Tlie marriage ring of Henri IV of France was set with a valuable diamond; and in 1599 it was found, rather oddly, among the jewelry of his mistress, so celebrated as " la belle Gabrielle". The marriage ring appears thus, instead of being plain, to have been then ornamented equally with other jewelry. But by far the most elaborately decorated rings of this description are those ttsed, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by the Jews ; rather numerous examples of which will be foitnd in Lord Londesborough's collection ; and three of the most elegant are engraved in one of the plates of the present volume, all of gold and of the sixteenth century. The first^ is surmounted by the - 111., lis. '• figure of a domed temple ; the second has,' similarly placed, a pyramidal tower ; and the third" has a still more elaborate figure of a building, apparently a temple, within a colonnade of two arches oir each side. In this example the roof of the temple is formed by a blue stone or paste. This portion of the ring usually opens by a hinge, and underneath appears a motto in Hebrew, generally enameled, and consisting most commonly of the two words, ;««.:«Z touv, or, as they are pronounced by the Jews, maussd(aij', meaning "joy be with you", and intended as an invocation of good fortune on the ncAvly married couple. From this inscription J I'l. X, tlL'. 1. iiL.tio-. i;. INTRODITCTOEY ESSAY. 69 these Hebrew betrothal rings are usually called, among the Jews themselves, mmisselaufs. The stones in the medieval rings had, in the eyes of the possessors, a value quite independent of their use as ornaments. In ages when life was felt to be constantly surrounded both with visible and invisible dangers, the latter of which were increased by a number of deeply implanted superstitions, these same superstitions led people to seek means of protection of an equally mysterious character, and to believe that various objects or combinations possessed super- natural virtues for protection as well as offence. These constituted amulets or charms. Properties of this kind were ascribed to all the precious stones. Thus the beril was supposed to protect the wearer from all danger from enemies. Some stones were supposed to render the bearer proof against weapons of steel. It was imagined that others possessed the quality of rendering him invisible, or of giving him warning of dangers at hand, or of good or evil which was happening to friends at a distance. Nearly all of them were considered to be preventives against disease. In some of the earlier statutes of religious houses of nuns, in the articles against the wearing of finery in dress or ornaments of the person, an exception is made in regard to rings and precious stones when they were worn " for cause of maladies". In this manner, the sapphire was protective against venom ; and the turquoise possessed the quality of turning pale when the wearer was not in good health, and of brightening as he recovered. The old poet Donne cites, by way of comparison, — - ... ."a compassionate turcoijse, which doth tell, By looking pale, the wearer is not well." Donne, Anatomic of the World. There were also stones of mysterious origin, whose properties were equally strange. The aetites, or eagle-stone, was supposed to be obtained from the nest of the king of birds, and to possess the property of assisting women in childbirth. The head of the toad was believed to contain a stone which also possessed extraordinary virtues of this kind ; and a stone pretended to have this origin, and called a toad-stone, was much sought and greatly prized. The reader will remember the lines of Shakespeare : " Sweet are the uses of adversity ; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous. Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." SiiAKEsrEAKE, As You Like It, ii, 1. Ben Jonson alludes to the practice of wearing the toad-stone in rings : "Were you enamour'd on his copper rings. His saffron jewel with the toad-stone in it?" Jonson, Fox, ii, 5. 1 PI. 70 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Lord Londesborough possesses three toad-stones set in rings, the most curious of which is represented in the annexed cut. It is apparently of the fifteenth century. The stone, which is set in a silver ring, is in this example embossed with a figure of a toad. In another ring in this collection, engraved in the present volume,^ the figure of a toad is perhaps substituted for the toad-stone. The magical or other virtues, which were supposed to exist in the things themselves, were believed, indeed, to be easily transferred to figures of those things, while to many combinations of figures were ascribed qualities that were equally marvelous. The engraved stones and cameos of the ancients, which were often found in digging upon Roman sites, were objects of great superstition in the middle ages, and were believed to possess qualities of the most singular description. " The superstitious eld" has left us many inventories of these qualities, from which we might easily make a numerous selection. Thus we are assured that a stone engraved with the figure of a sheep, or a lion, or of Sagittarius, carried on the person, renders a man " amiable and gracious towards everybody". A stone with an engraved figure of Hercules ensured victory in battle. A stone with the figure of Mercury gave the wearer so much eloquence that nobody could resist him. Similarly, the figure of Perseus preserved the wearer against thunder and lightning, and against all injury from devils ; that of a ship gave success in commerce ; and that of a man carrying a palm-branch in his hand conciliated the favour of princes. From figures to inscriptions the transition was simple ; and the charmed rings, or rings with magical words, form a rather numerous class in the cabinets of collectors, and seem to have been articles of very general use, as they are often made of copper or brass. In the old medieval romances the use of these charmed rings is a very common incident. Thus, in the romance of Floire et Blanceflor, when the young hero takes leave of the queen, his mother, to enter upon an adventurous expedition, she places a ring on his finger, which, she says, will protect him against all danger, and will assure him the eventual attainment of all the objects of his wishes : "Et la roine son anel A mis el doit au damoisel ; ' Fills,' fait-ele, ' gardez le bien ; Tant com I'arez, mar cremez rien ; Car Tous ja rien nc requeriez, Que tost ou tard vous ne I'aiez.' II prent I'anel, et Fen mercie, Et dist qu'encor r'ara s'amic." Floire et Blanceflor, p. 43. INTKODUCTORY ESSAY. 71 In the old English metrical romance of Sir Perceval of Galles, a ring with a stone possessing great virtues plays a similar part : " Siche a vertue es in the stane, In alle this werlde wote I nane Siche stone in a rynge ; A mane that had it in were, One liis body for to here, There scholde no dyntys hym dore, Ne to the dcthe brynge." Thornton Bomances, p. 71. Similarly, in another old English romance, Sir Eglamour of Artois, the lady gives her lover a ring that should protect him against the possibility of being slain : " Seyde Organata, tliat swete tliynge, ' Y sclialle geve the a gode golde rynge Wyth a fullo ryche stone ; Whedur that ye be on water or on londe, And that rynge be upon yowrc honde, Ther schalle notliyng yow slon.' " Thornton Romances, p. 147. Tl:iese romances abound in incidents whicli show us how much use was made of rings in the intercourse between individuals, especially wlien at a distance from each other. They were frequently bestowed as gifts, or given as bribes. In Sir Tristrem, one of the heroes, in the disguise of a poor man, overcomes the churlislmess, first, of the porter, and after of tlie huissier, by bribing each of them with one of his rings. An interchange of rings was not unfrequently made between friends who were separating, or between persons wlio had newly entered into friendly relations. It was a common practice also to send a ring as a token ; and rings often served as credentials to messengers, or were used for the same purposes as letters of introduction. In the romance of Floire and Blanceflor, the young hero, on his way to Babylon, arrives at a bridge, the keeper of which has a brother in the great city, to whose hospitality he wishes to recommend Floire, and for tliat purpose he gives him his ring : " Take this ring to him, and tell him from me to receive you in his best manner"— " Icest anel li porterez, Et de moie part li direz Qu'il vous consent miens qu'il porra; Jou cuit qu'il vous herbergera." Floire et Blanceflor, p. 55. In the sequel, the ring produces the full eifect that was expected from it. This use of the ring, the examples of which are innumerable, implies that everybody's ring was personally distinctive, and that it was known to all Avho knew the possessor intimately. Hence rings became especially the means of personal 72 INTRODUCTOEY ESSAY. identification. In the romance of Sir Tristrem, the hero's mother dying in childbirth of a son (Tristrem), after his father was slain, gave a ring to the knight to whose care she entrusted the infant, as a token by which Tristrem's parentage should be known when he grew up: " A ring of riche hcwe Than hadde that Icvedi fre ; Sche toke it Rouhand trewe, Hir sone schc bad it be — ' Mi brother wcle it kneAve, Mi fader yaf it me.' " This ring subsequently leads to the recognition of Tristrem by his uncle, king Marke. In the same way, in the romance of Ipomydon, the hero receives from his mother a ring which was to be a token of recognition to an illegitimate brother : " The quene to hyr sonnc gan sayc, In pryvyte and in counselle, ' Thou hast a brotlier, ^vitllOutGn fayle, Prevely goten was me uppon, Or I ^vas weddyd to any man ; But hastely he was done fro me, I note yff he alyfFe bee. But lie me sent this cndyr yere A riche rynge of gold ful clere ; And evyr he any brother had, I shuld yeffe it hym, he me bad ; That where he come, amongc hye or lowe, By that rynge he shuld hym knowe. Then take thys rynge, my sonne, of me ; In what contre that he bee. Who that knowith this ylk rynge He ys thy brothyr withoute Icsyngc.' The ryngis he toke of his modyr. And trusted welc to knowe his brother." Webeb-'s Romances, vol. ii, p. 35.5. In the sequel of the story this ring becomes the medium of recognition between the two brothers in a very unexpected manner. In a work professing a more historical character, the life of the Anglo-Saxon Hereward, the great opponent of William the Conqueror, Hereward, visiting a prince's hall in disguise, on the occasion of the nuptials of the princess, makes himself known to her by dropping his ring into the wine-cup, as she, according to the manner of that time, served him with it. In the early and very curious Anglo-Norman romance of king Horn (of which there is a valuable manuscript in the University Library Cambridge), rings play a very prominent part. When the princess Eigmel bribed her father's steward to introduce Horn to her chamber secretly, she gave him, INTRODITCTOK.Y ESSAY. 73 among other gifts, a rich ring of gokl, which had been made " in the time of Daniel": " Al premier ad done a Herland un anel, Gros d'or quit jSIelclvin dcs le tems Daniel Fud forgie, si I' forga li orfievre Marcel." AVhen this meeting took place, Eigmel gave Horn a ring as a token of her aiFection. On a later occasion, wlien, after various adventures and vicissitudes, the secret of the two lovers was discovered, and they were obliged to separate, in their parting interview they exchanged rings. The ring whicli tlie princess now gave to lioru possessed some extraordinary virtues,- — " whoever bore it upon liim could not perish ; he need not fear to die either in fire, or water, or in field of battle, or in holding a tournament": " Horn ki I'ad sur sci ]ii ne purra perir ; Xe en feu ne en ewe mar i creindra nmrir, N'en bataille cliampel, ne en turnci tenir." At a still later period of the story, when Horn, having received secret intelligence that the fatlier of the princess Eigmel is compelling her to marry another, repaired to the court, and entered the hall in the disguise of a ])almer at the very moment of the nuptial feast, he, like Hereward, made himself kriown by throwing his ring into the drinking-horn which the princess was serving round. That the ring should thus be so easily recognized, it must generally have been marked with some device ; and the adoption of such devices gave rise to signet rings, the impression of Avhich in wax served tlie same purpose of credentials as the rings themselves. This forms by far the most numerous of the different classes of medieval rings. Sometimes the device on these signet rings was a mere arbitrary figure, — often a bird, or some other animal, or a tree, or flower, or some miscellaneous object. Sometimes it was a letter, the initial of a name, or the name in full, or a merchant's mark, or a crest, or a coat of arms. The accompanying cut represents an elegant signet ring, of silver partially gilt, in Lord Londesborough's collection, the iS-^ ~ exact date of which, however, is rather doubtful. ((^^ The precious stones had hardly lost their reputation for '}%' marvelous virtues in the sixteenth century, when the ring was beo-inning to assume, more generally, the character of a mere ornament. It may be remarked that, in the older medieval jewelry, the stones were usually set en calochon, as the French term it, that is, in their rough forms, merely polished, but not cut. Although there were certainly cutters of stones, and even of diamonds, in the middle nges, they seem to have understood their craft but imperfectly, and it was not practised to a very great extent. It appears u 74 INTKODUCTOKY KSSAY. to have been only in the course of the fifteenth century that the cutting of diamonds was carried to perfection, and from that period they were mucli more generally used in rings. Tln-ee diamond finger-rings, all of the sixteenth 1 I'l.x.ii--. century, will be found eno-raved amono- the plates in the in-escnt volume.' It will .;, !i. 1(1. ' ^ si i be seen that in each example the diamond is cut in the form of a pointed pyramid, which was a fashion that remained in great favour during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, because it was convenient for writing inscriptions of various kinds upon the glass panes of windows, — a practice which was then very much in vogue, and of which we often meet with the relics in old houses. One of the old usages of rings still remains, and, indeed, was too congenial with the better feelings of human nature to be forgotten, — -the giving or ex- changing them as tokens of friendship and aftection. These token rings also contained their devices, emblematical of the feelings which accompanied them, and not unfrequently inscriptions also, in the form of mottos, or, as they were often called, posies. These mottos of aftection were common at an earlier period, when the objects to which they were attached, whether rings, or fermails, or other jewels, Averc playfully termed drueries, which may be literally translated by love- tokens. An example has been met with dating as far back as the latter end of the twelfth century, inscribed with the following rhymes, which signify literallj^ "I am drucrie, do not give me away; if any one sever our love, may he be punished with death": " Jo sul druerie, Ne mc duncz mie ; Ki nostre amur deseivre, La mort puist ja rcceivre." ]Many early rings with mottos are preserved, which are often simple and touching. A gold ring in the collection of Lord Londesborough, which is probably of the age of Henry VIII, is inscribed with the words Let hjking laste; another, Avhich is perhaps nearly a century older, has the motto, in French, mon cor plesor (apparently meaning, my heart's delight); a third, of about the same age, has for its inscription, de hoen eiier, — i.e., heartily. The same sentiments in which such inscriptions took their origin, brought into fashion, towards the sixteenth century, a class of rings which were called gimmal rinr/s, or r/immuls, and which, as the name implies, consisted at first of two rings united in one, but which were afterwards formed of three, and sometimes even of four separate rings. When the rings were closed together, the place at which they fastened was covered externally with the representation of two hands INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 7D clasped, and hence the term (jimmal is often appHed to a single ring when it bears this particular device. In the time of Herrick, that is at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the gimmal appears to have consisted usually of three rings. He says playfully, in one of his poetical pieces, — " Thou sent'st to me a true love-knot ; but I Return a ring of gimmals, to imply Thy love had one knot, mine a frijde tie." Heeeick, Hesi)erid.,Y>. 201. Dryden, in his play oi Don Sebastian, published in 1690, has given a more minute description of a gimmal ring in the following lines : .... "A curious artist wrought 'em With joynts so close as not to be perceiv'd; Yet are they both each other's counterpart. (Her part had Juan inscrib'd, and his had Zayda, You know those names were theirs); and in the midst A heart divided in two halves was plac'd. Now if the rivets of those rings inclos'd, Fit not each other, I have forg'd this lye ; But if they join, you must for ever part." This passage is singularly illustrated by a gimmal ring, of silver gilt, in the collection of Lord Londesborough, which is represented in the accompanying cut. It consists of three rings, which separate and turn upon a pivot. Tlie two exterior rings are plain, and have been united by two hands clasped, Avhich concealed two united hearts upon the intermediate ring. This intermediate ring is toothed at the edge, so as to present, when closed, the pattern shown in the cut, which also displays the ring as, when unclosed, it forius three rings secured by a pivot. This ring may possibly be contemporary with the poet Herrick, judging from the character of its work- manship. Another gimmal ring, of gold, in Lord Londesborough's collection, made in England, and apparently of the latter end of the fifteenth century, contains two inscriptions, or posies; that on the outside, which is in French, is En amours soies leiiis, the meaning of the last word of which is not quite clear; on the inside is the inscrip- tion, in English, Tliowthe is fre. A third gimmal ring, in the same collection, which is formed of silver, gilt and engraved in niello, and is represented in the next cut, is interesting in more points of view than one. It belongs probably to the sixteenth century, and is a combination of the gimmal and the signet ring, the latter part showing the head of Lucretia in a circle. Lucretia's head seems 76 INTEODUCTOEY ESSAY. to have been a favourite ornament of such objects made for the female sex in tlie sixteenth century, no doubt because she was a model of chastity. This ring is a curious illustration of a passage in Shakespeare (Twelfth Nvjlit, act ii., sc. 5), where ]\Ialvolio, breaking open the letter purporting to be in the handwriting of his mistress, says, " By your lea^'e, wax, soft !■ — and the impressure her Lucrece, with which she uses to seal." The giranial rings appear to have been employed much as gifts at marriages; there was another class of memorial rings which were given, or bequeathed, on the occasion of deaths. These often bore ornaments emblematical of mortality. During the latter half of the sixteenth and earlier part of the seventeenth centuries, figures or emblems of death, for some reason or other, perhaps under the influence of puritanism, were very much in fashion. We have already, in a former page of this essay, seen one of these objects in the form of an apple, containing a skull, or death's head. A mourning ring is also engraved in the ' I'l. X, present volume,' which is ornamented with two skeletons holding a sarcophagus. Several emblems of this description occur also among the small jewels in Lord Londesborough's collection. One, which is engraved in the present volume,' is in the form of a small death's head, of gold, enameled white, which ojiens and displays in the interior a very diminutive skeleton, seated, with an hour-glass and scythe. Another, also engraved liere," is in the form of a small sarcophagus, or tomb, of silver gilt, the lid of which takes off and exposes to view a diminutive skeleton extended at full length inside. Memorial rings were not, however, always ornamented with melancholy emblems like these, but they often presented more pleasing reminiscences of those who gave or becjueathed them, or \'\liom they were intended to commemorate. Sometimes such objects had reference to public events, or even served political purposes. Thus, in the agitation of tiie latter years of queen Anne's reign, violent partisans wore rings with the head of Dr. Sacheverell. Similar rings Avere worn by the friends of the pretender, and siiil earlier, the defeated royalists carried the same description of memorials of Charles I. A remarkable example of such memorial rings is engraved in the present volume.' It is a gold ring, with a square table-faced diamond on an oval face. This latter opens, and reveals beneath it a portrait of Charles I in enamel. The ring itself is ornamented with black enamel, to indicate mourning. Among the objects which employed the resources of art for their embellish- ment in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries, were clocks and watches. It is extremely difiicult to trace with any exactness, before very recent times, the i.i.ii- V\. V. v\. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 11 origin of tlie various inventions which contribute so much to the necessities and comforts of modern society ; because most of them only became known to us at the period when they had come into general use, or when some remarkable step had been made in their progress towards perfection ; so that we are continually finding that the men who have been looked upon as inventors were, in truth, nothing more than improvers of what was known long before. We have no distinct account of the period at which a combination of wheels, moved by means of a weight, was first employed to indicate the hours of the day ; but diff'erent circumstances lead us to believe that it was about the close of the tenth century. Before that date, people calculated time by means of sun-dials, or measured it by such contrivances as the hour-glass. The invention of the machinery constituting what we call a clock, is usually ascribed to the celebrated Gerbert, who ascended the papal see, as Sylvester II, in 999. At first the horloge, as it was called, merely indicated the hours by a needle which was fixed in the axis of a wheel ; the machinery for striking the hour was a later addition, and is alluded to for the first time in the Book of Usages of the Cistercian order (Liber Usiium Ordinis Cisterciensis), compiled about 1120, which directs the sacristan to regulate the horloge {horologium temperare) in such a manner that it should strike and awake him before the hour of matins. From this time, striking horloges are mentioned not unfrequently, though they appear to have been established chiefly in the monastic houses ; and it is said that there was no public horloge in Paris until one made by Henri de Vic was erected in the tOAver of the palace in 1370. These large horloges, however, had not been very long in use before the horlogiers began to make smaller ones for domestic purposes. The domestic horloge, or, as it was sometimes called in French, reloge, makes its appearance as early as the close of the thirteenth century. The inventory of Charles V, made in 1380, describes a reloge entirely of silver, without iron, which belonged to king Philippe-le-Bel, with two counter-weights of silver filled with lead ("?hz rdoge (I argent tout entierement, sans fer, qui fut du roy Flieli'irpe-h-Bel, avec deux conirepoix d'argent emplis de plom'). Philippe-le-Bel reigned from 1285 to 1314. Near about the same time the portable horloge is described in the celebrated Romance of the Hose as though it Avere not an uncommon article in the great man's house : " Et refet soner ses orloges Par ses sales et par ses loges, A roes trop sotivement, De pardurable movement." Roman de la Itose, 1. 21,537. Charles V of France, in 1580, had several other horloges, mostly of silver, besides X 78 IXTKODUCTORY ESSAY. that already mentioned as having belonged to Philippe-le-Bel. They were then, in fact, such well-knoAvn articles that Chaucer brings them into his poetry for a simile. In his description of the widow's cock, in the tale of the nun's priest, he compares the clearness of his voice to that of a clock or of an abbey horloge : " In \y'hich sehe had a cok, higlit Cliaunteclere, In al the lond of crowyng was noon his pecrc. His vois was merier than the mery orgon On masse-dayes that in the chirche goon ; Wei siliorer was his crow3-ng in his logge, Than is a dole, or an abbey orologge." Chaucee, Cant. T., 1. 16,335. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the earliest occurrence of the use of the English word clock in this sense ; and if I am not mistaken, it liere distinguishes the portable horloge from the large stationary one, such as those which were placed in the abbey towers. In the romance of Sir Degrevant, which is printed from a manuscript of the middle of the fifteenth century, but the composition of which is, no doubt, of a rather earlier date, the chan:iber of Maid Myldore is described as containing a horloge, placed high on the wall, made to ring the hours at night : " Witli an orrelegge one hyith To rynge the ours at ny5th, To waken Myldore the bryjth, With ballus to knylle." Thornton Romances, p. 237. We ha^'e, in the illuminations of manuscripts of the fifteenth century, several figures of portable clocks of this period, one of which, taken from a manuscript in the library of the Arsenal at Paris, painted by John of Bruges, is reproduced in the accompjanying cut. It resembles those which, in modern times, have been known by the name of Dutch clocks, and which seem, in the sixteenth century, to have been distinguished by that of German clocks,- — -in both instances, no doubt, from the country in which they were chiefly made. An illuminated manu- script in the British Museum, of the latter part of the fifteenth century, contains a figure of a clock placed on a small table or stand, with a hole in it, through which the weights descend. This, of Avhich an engraving is given by Admiral W. H. Smyth, in an interesting paper on the subject published by th« Society of Antiquaries [Archceologia, vol. xxxiv, p. 9), -was perhaps the first step towards the standing clocks of a later period. The clock suspended against the Avail, like that INTEODUCTOEY ESSAY. 79 represented in our cut, appears, however, to have been the form chiefly in use during the sixteentli century ; and we learn from a number of passages from the old English dramatists, brought together by Nares, that the German clocks of that time were celebrated for getting easily out of order. Shakespeare speaks of " A woman that is like a German cloch, Still a repairing ; ever out of frame, And never going aright ; being a watch, But being wateh'd that it may still go right." Shakesfeake, Love's Lah. Lost, act iii, sc. 1. It was about the beginning of the reign of Louis XI, who succeeded to the throne of France in 1461, that a great revolution was made in the art of clock- making by the introduction of the use of the spiral spring instead of the weight as the moving power. This, of course, allowed of the whole machinery being confined within a very small space. During the period which followed this event, and which extended to the middle of the sixteenth century, the clockmakers of Germany, Italy, and France, rivaled each other in the elaborate ingenuity with which they constructed these useful implements ; and many of those of the earlier part of the latter century, which have been preserved, are marvels of complicated mechanism. Not content with indicating the hours, they were made to tell the days of the month and week, the festivals of the Church, the phases of the moon, and even the movements of the planets. Other " horlogiers" were labouring at the same time to reduce the horloge to the smallest possible dimensions, and succeeded at last in making pocket horloges, producing the object to which the French gave the name of montre, and which we call in English a watch. The exact period at which the first watches were made is extremely doubtful ; but it seems tolerably certain that the invention does not date further back than the earlier years of the sixteenth century. They appear to have been made in France and in Germany about the same time. In tlie former country, the watchmakers gave them a cylindrical form ; but at Nuremberg, which was the o-reat place for their manufacture in Germany, they w^ere made in the form of an ess, and hence the earlier German watches are known by the name of Nuremherg eggs. During a long period, however, after the introduction of watches, they had no fixed shape, but received every fantastic variety of form. At first, as the mechanism itself was a matter of curiosity to the possessor, it was common to place the works in cases of glass or crystal, so that they might be visible to the eve ; but after the middle of the sixteenth century, when they had become more common, this feeling of curiosity ceased, and they were inclosed in cases of silver, or other metal, on the ornamentation of which externally great labour was f\>.,ti'J 80 IXTEODUCTORY ESSAY. expended. It was not till the reign of Louis XIII that the round form, more or less fiat, which has been preserved from that time to the present day, began to be generally adopted. During the seventeenth century, the external ornamen- tation consisted principally in enameling and engraving ; and some of the best engravers of the day, such as the celebrated Theodore de Bry, in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, were employed upon the latter class of ornamentation. Some of the varieties of form given to watches in the sixteenth century will be seen in the examples given in the present volume. Two of these, belonging both to the latter part of that century,^ are made in the form of birds, one that of an eagle, the other a duck. A third example presents the form of a cross, Avith the watch in the middle, and made so as to hang round the neck." The cross-shaped watches are said to have been first made in Paris towards the nriddle of the sixteenth century. This example belongs to the earlier years of the century following ; and the engraving on its surface has been conjectured to be the work of Theodore II'., iiL's. (-|g J^yy. Two other watches o-iven here have the form of books,' and are both i and D. •' " elaborately engraved on the outside. One, which, although made for the duke of Pomerania, is of no better material than copper gilt, bears the name and date of the maker, the latter being the year 1627. The other watch of which an iii,,(ig. (1. engraving is given in this volume,'' is of silver gilt, and richly enameled. It was made for Loiris XIII, as a present for Charles I of England, and differs only in shape from modern watches in being oval instead of round, and in being, like most of the old watches, thicker in proportion to its size than they are made at the present day. The invention of watches, wdrich of course were long very expensive articles of luxury, did not of course supersede the use of many of the simpler and cheaper, though less certain, instruments for ascertaining the hour of the day. Among these were small portable dials, sometimes formed regularly with a gnomon, and at others in the shapes of circles, rings, etc., with which the hours might be known, at least approximately, by the sun's shadoAv. There is a well known passage of Shakespeare, which shows us how common the use of such simple instruments must have been at that time. Jacques, in As You Like It, relating his interview with the fool, goes on to say — " ' Good morrow, fool !' quotli I. ' No, sir !' quotli lie, ' Call me not fool till heaven liath sent me fortune.' And then he drew a dial from his poke ; And looking on it with lack-lustre eye Says, very wisely, ' It is ten o'clock : Thus we may see,' quoth he, 'how the world wags.' " Shakespeake, As You Like It, act ii, sc. 7. INTEODUCTOEY ESSAY. 81 /^^ These pocket dials appear to have been used by persons in all classes of society ; and, among the engravings in the present volume, we have an example of one made of ivory ,^ which appears from its ornaments to have belonged to a cardinal. In all large collections of antiquities, to Avhatever period they belong, or with whatever special view they were made, there are always a certain number of objects of a miscellaneous character, which, without coming exactly under the head of any other class, have still a bearing and an interest in connexion with them all. Such is the case with the collection which it is the special object of the present volume to make known to the public. One of the most interesting of the miscellaneous objects in the collection of Lord Londesborough is the magical mirror which belonged to the celebrated Dr. Dee, and which is repre- sented in the accompanying wood- cut. Singularly enough, ^ in the great intellectual revo- lutions of the sixteenth cen- ^iij tury, the old popular super- j^ stitions of all kinds, instead of sinking before the increas- ing development of the human intelligence, seemed to have suddenlv gained a new force, and we find men of the highest reputation in science believing in Avitchcraft, and magic, and all the different wonders of the occult sciences. This strange blending of pure science and gross superstition is remarkably illustrated in the history of Dr. Dee. Born in London, in 1527, John Dee raised himself at an early age to a great reputation for his learning, in the mathematical sciences especially, in the most celebrated universities of his own country and of the continent. He is said to have imbibed a taste for the occult sciences while a student at Louvain, but there was evidently in his temper much of an enthusiastic and visionary turn, which must have given him a taste for such mysterious pursuits, without the necessity of any external impulse. One of the oldest and most generally credited of magical operations, was that of bringing spirits or visions into a glass or mirror, a practice which has continued to exist in the East even to the present day, and which prevailed to a very considerable extent in all parts of Western Europe during the sixteenth century. The process was not a direct one, for the magician did not himself see the vision in the glass, but he had to depend upon an intermediate agent, a sort of famiUar, who in Y 1 11. 82 INTRODUCTOKY ESSAY. England was known by the name of a sJcrijer, and whose business it was to look into the glass, and describe what he saw. It is thus quite evident that the Avise man, who believed that he could command the spirits of the unknown world, lay at the mercy of a very inferior agent, of whom he was easily the dupe. Such was no doubt the case with Dr. Dee, who seems to have tried several " skryers" with little success, until he became acquainted, soon after the year 1580, with Edward Kelly, a clever unprincipled man, who led Dee into a number of romantic adventures, which it is not necessary to relate here. During his connexion with Kelly, Dr. Dee kept an exact diary of all his visions, a portion of which w'as printed in a folio volume by Meric Casaubon, in 1659. In this journal more than one magical glass is evidently mentioned ; and we are not always sure, by the rather loose description of them, whether they were round or spherical. One of them the doctor had the weakness to believe had been brought to him by an angel from heaven. Dr. Dee died in the year 1608. We cannot state with any certainty whether the mirror figured above be one of those mentioned in Dr. Dee's journal, or not. It is a polished oval slab of black stone, of what kind we have not been able to ascertain, but evidently of a description which was not then common in Western Europe ; and Dr. Dee may have considered it as extremely precious, and as only to be obtained by some extraordinary means. It was one of the ornaments of the museum of Horace Walpole, at Strawberry Hill ; and Walpole has attached to it a statement of its history, in his own hand-writing, from which we learn that it was " long " in the possession of the Mordaunts, earls of Peterborough, in whose catalogue it was described as " the black stone into which Dr. Dee used to call his spirits". " It passed from that collection to lady Elizabeth Germaine, from whom it went to John Campbell, duke of Argyle, whose sou, lord Frederick Campbell, presented it to Horace AValpole." This interesting relic was bought at the Strawberry Hill sale for the late Mr. Pigott ; and at the more recent sale of that gentleman's collection, it passed into the possession of Lord Londesborough. Its history and authenticity appear, there- fore, to be very well made out. The family of the Mordaunts held a prominent place in English history during the whole of the seventeenth century, and it is hardly probable that they w^ould have received an object like this without having good reason for believing that its history was authentic. It is believed that Butler alluded to this identical stone in his well known lines : — " Kelly did all his feats upon The devil's looking-rrlass, a stone, 'When, playing with him at bo-peep. He solv'd all problems ne'er so deep." Hudihras, Part ii, canto 3. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 83 The regular fitting-out of the magician at this period was a complicated process. He required his implements of various kinds, and, in addition to these, various robes, especially made for the occasion, with girdles and head-pieces, and magical rings and bracelets. A very curious example of the last- mentioned article of the magician's accoutrements is represented in our cut, of the full size of the original ; it was purchased by Lord Londesborough in 1851, and had formerly been in the posses- sion of Charles Mainwaring, Esq., of Coleby, near Lincoln. It is in silver, the letters of the inscription round the bracelet being engraved and filled with niello. This inscription may be distinctly read as follows: — -t- lOUA -f IHOAT -\- LONA -]' HELOI H" YSSABAY ~j~ \\ -\- MEPHENOLPHETON -|- AGLA -|- ACHEDION H- YANA -|- [j II BACHIONODOXAVALISILIOJ^ -{- ]i BACHIO^■ODO^•AVALISACII -\- Some explanation of this mysterious inscription might, no doubt, be obtained by a diligent comparison of some of the numerous works on magic, compiled in the age of Dr. Dee, and in the seventeeth century. The bracelet has had four pendants to it, of which three still remain, witlr tlie silver setting of the fourth. One of the pendants which remain is a brownisli pebble, secured by three flat bands of silver. Another is an oval cage of strong silver wire, containing a nut of some kind, or some other vegetable substance. The third has on one side a circular convex pebble, set in silver, and on the back three smaller pebbles. In conclusion of this attempt at giving a popular illustration of the interest of these varied objects of former times, it will be only necessary to enumerate rapidly a few other miscellaneous objects which will be met with among the engravings of the present volume. Among these the horns first attract our notice, as being intimately connected with many of the usages of domestic life among our forefathers in remote ages. A horn was the first Teutonic drinking cup, and continued to be so much in favour in that capacity, that its form was often imitated when drinking cups were made of other materials. The horn was one of the characteristic equipments of the huntsman ; and, as hunting formed one of the most important pursuits of feudal life, it was often 84 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. adopted as a symbol of feudal power and feudal tenure. The three liorns given in the present volume have no particular interest independent of their ' L''- ^n"' forms and ornaments. One' is an ivory huntino- horn, mounted in silver, and hg. 1. JO 2 lb., figs, n^ay be safely ascribed to the fourteenth century. The two others' are of bronze, one of them belonging also to the fourteenth century, while tlie other is of more uncertain date. There was no subject which, during the middle ages, exhausted to such a degree men's most elaborate ingenuity, as that of corporeal punishment and torture ; and the two apparently very opposite institutions, the inquisitorial courts of the church, and the governing bodies of the free cities of the Continent, appear to have rivaled each other in their inventions for inflicting the most exquisite degree of torment, in diiferent manners calculated for each particular member of the human body, and so as to endure longest without leading to insensibility or death. Examples of tliese horrible implements have been found still preserved in the secret cells of some of the ancient dungeons, and a few appear in the present volume. These also, in general, tell their own story with sufficient plainness. The one which strikes us first is tlie instrument for crushing the ■' ]'\. xxiv, thumbs and fingers,' which bears upon it the evident marks of having done tig. ■>■ '' considerable execution in its time. Not much less cruelty is exhibited in the ^ ib.,tig.(;. spiked collar for the neck; ' and an implement for securing thieves in the pursuit, of which various examples are preserved in other collections, is here contrived so ^ ii..,fig.:i. as to act at the same time as an instrument of punishment.' These, with an '■ ib.,fig.a. ancient branding instrument,'' were all obtained from Germany. Another instru- ment of torture, said to have been used for the punishment of slaves, is understood ■ ib.,fig. 1. to Iiave come from the Spanish colonies in the new world.' The last object of » lb., fig. 1. this class, given in the present volume," was intended to inflict upon the offender disgrace and ridicule, rather than actual bodily suffering. It is a mask for the head and face, with tire ears of an ass, and has a gag for the mouth, with a whistle attached to tiie nostrils in such a manner, that an effort to speak must have produced a noise calculated to add not a little to the ridiculous appearance of the sufferer. This singular object was also procured in Germany, and is said to have been used sometimes as a punishment for disorderly soldiers. Similar objects remained in use to a comparatively late period, as popular instruments of punishment for women who were not masters of their own tongues. PLATE 1. T "'^ >:aifjiuLT fi .V II t-TAircr/ir.T rwr JEWLiiL;:.' I'^ifi'irR^K'ii' "[T"i.!i1 /;-_ iiS^l , PLATE I. JEWELS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Fig. 1. JEWEL, enamelled on gold, and set with large emeralds. It represents a Sea-horse mounted by a female figure, diademed, and holding a trident. The chain used for its suspension is also enamelled and enriched with pearls. From the Dehruge-Dumenil Collection (Cat. No. 1028^. Fig. 2. A SEA-HORSE suspended from a chain enriched with rubies and emeralds. The body of the horse is formed by a large pearl ; the head is of wdiite enamel, on gold. Five pearls are suspended from this je\\'el, which is also decorated with surface enamelling. Fig. 3. " DEATH'S HEAD"', in white enamel, on gold. The upper part of the skull opens by a spring placed between the eyes, as exhibited in Fig. 4. Fig. 4. The " Death's Head" opened, and discovering a minute skeleton formed of gold, and covered with white enamel. This figure is seated, and lifts an hour-glass ; the scythe being on the ground. Memorials of this kind were worn by widows. Fig. 5. PEXDAXT JEAVEL, representing the Annunciation. It is enamelled on gold, and thickly studded with diamonds, pearls, and rubies. The reverse is fancifully scrolled and enamelled. From the Dehruge-Dumenil Collection (Cat. No. 991^. All the Jewels on tJiis plate are rcprcscnied of Itie acluul si^e of the orijinals. PLATE I I. DECORATIVE VESSELS FOR THE TABLE. Fig. 1. SMALL NEF, of silver-gilt. It is a work of the latter part of the sixteenth century, intended to contain liquids; upon the deck is represented an engagement between Turks and Venetians. Fig. 2. NEF, of a somewliat earlier date than the preceding. Four sailors, in the conventional dress of Roman soldiers, are propelling the vessel by means of paddles. Upon the hull of the boat figures of sea-monsters and waves are engraved. It has a tube for pouring, that projects from the front of the vessel. Fig. 3. LAEGE NEF, "pounced" and gilt, on a highly-enriched stand. The body of the boat is chased -VA'ith figures of dolphins sporting in the waves ; an ornamental handle is affixed to the stern, and the beak of the vessel is formed like the lip of a tankard. Upon the deck are figures of sailors navigating the vessel, and soldiers mounting guard, with match-lock and bandoliers. Sailors are climbing the rigging, and one of them is placed on the top-castle to keep a look out. The flag at the summit of the mast Avaves freely, as do those on the other vessels previously described. Fig. 4. " MARTIN LUTHER'S CUP," of ivory, mounted in silver-gilt. The six medallions upon its surface comprise repetitions of two subjects ; the upper row representing the " Agony in the Garden", and the Saviour praying " that the cup might pass from him." The lower row delineates " the Last Supper", the centre dish on the table giving the incarnation of the bread, both the subjects being remarkable for the materialism of their treatment. This interesting relic belonged to the late W. Elkington, of Birmingham, who executed some copies of it. The initials and date are engraved on the lid as here given in fac-simile : — All the vessels in this plate are engraved to a scale of onc-tldnl the original size. J I i: PLATE III. SHIELD OF CUIR BOUILLI. THE convex or outer side of this shield exhibits, in the central medallion, the story of Perseus and Andromeda. It is surrounded by four smaller medallions ; the upper one representing jNIercury, those at the sides equestrian figures, and the lower- most an emblematic figure of Fortune ; precisely similar to those seen in Alciatl and other books of emblems. Enriched foliated ornaments fill the entire space between each medallion, within wdiich kneeling genii bear military trophies. The interior of the shield is also richly decorated with emblematic medallions and ornamental scrolls ; in the central compartment is painted, upon a field gules, a lion rampant, or, holdiug a fleur-de-lys. The handle and strap for the upper part of the arm are both quite perfect ; and to the handle is buckled a portion of the original " guige", or long strap, by which the shield was slung across the shoulder. From the Collection at Strav:l)Prnj Hill. Tlic engraving is one-fourtli of tlie original si^e. ifflMF^SS- jl^l^gLjl^ : wmmmmm>' XX ©[EJECTS [^ G V ® m V :>KAj.v1, 5- ElJC^E^A^Erj BT r.W.rAIH.nOiT, F-S. PiibJisted "by Ciapm an & Hall , Kcc5.ai]ly , 18i4 , PLATE IV. OBJECTS IN IVORY. Fig. 1. THE IVORY SCEPTRE, or " Main dc Justice", of Louis XII. It was obtained from the Debruge collection {Cat. No. 167). Fig. 2. The Hand given on a larger scale, showing the ring, set with a small pearl, worn on the third finger. Fig. 3. The Inscription upon the Sceptre. It is engraved in relievo, upon three of the convex decorations, and commences on the lowest one. Fig. 4. The Knob of the Sceptre, decorated with fleurs-de-lys, and leaves. Fig. 5. IVORY MIRROR-COVER of the fourteenth century, the compartments representing scenes from medieval romance. Fig. 6. AN OVAL IVORY BOX of the fourteenth century. It is mounted in metal, and in the centre of the side represented is carved a hunting scene. Fig. 7. Tpie Ivory Carving on the Reverse of the same Box, representing grotesque animals with human heads. At each end of the box, between the carvings, is a row of quatrefoil ornaments, inlaid with red enamel. Flfj. 1 is represented to a scale one-third of the orifjinal size. Figs. 2, 3, and 1, one-half the orifjinal size. Figs. 5, 6, and 7, are eacli one-tJdrd less tJiaii the original ohjects. PLATE a. ^ iMi! M. J_H HaBHART IMPJ^ 'WHf n i^' i^j ii 5^¥JC (StEfWHJKY ,IALT. frCi'iD.Tl.fiT i£Sl PLATE V JEWELS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Fig. 1, LION. The body of the animal is fornacd of a large pearl; the head and legs are of gold, enamelled. From tliv Deirtifje-Dumenil Collection {Cat. No. 1012). Fig. 2. EMERALD, of large size, set in a framework of gold, decorated with blue, green, and white enamel. Two emeralds are suspended from the top, and five small pearls from the lower part of the jewel. Fig. 3. A " TALBOT," of gold, partially covered with white enamel, and studded with jewels. It is placed on a cornucopia of gold, also enamelled, and set with six emeralds and a ruby. It was obtained in Spain. Fig. 4. UNICORN. The body is formed of two large pearls ; the head and legs of gold, coated with enamel. On the back of the animal is seated a female figure bearing a sword, and attired in a robe, semi' with fleurs-de-lis ; this figure is meant to represent France, and encircles Avitli its arm another figure, representing Victory. This jewel is enriched with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and pearls. From the Dehuge-Biimenil Collection {Cat. No. 1002. j Fig. 5. SARCOPHAGUS of silver-gilt, inscribed on one side cogita . jiori, and on the other, vt . vivas. The lid fastens with a pin in an aperture at the liead of the chest, and on being removed displays a small skeleton in white enamel. AH the jewels in this plate arc represented of tlt.e actual sise of the oi-i.g'mals. '^"-■. if- . ^ ^iaiU <^3& ^ PLATE VI. NUREMBERG DRINKING CUPS. THESE Cups, intended for the decoration of the table, are works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; the bodies contained liquids ; the heads of all unscrewing. The bears will call to mind the favourite drinking cup of the Baron of Bradwardine, as described in the Waverkt/ of Sir Walter Scott. Figs. 1 and 2. RAMS, of silver; the locks of wool are chased in relief; the mound upon which they stand is decorated with plants and flowers. Fig. 3. RAM, of silver; the locks of wool are represented by incised lines. Upon the base are a lizard and a tortoise creeping among plants. Fig. 4. BEAR hokhng a shield, upon which is a merchant's mark, and several initials, engraved in relief, and gilt. The eyes are formed of small rubies, and the body is engraved all over with scroll ornaments in incised lines ; the collar is gUt, and has three turquoises set in front, a small chain passing from it Aovm. the back. The decoration on the base is repousse, and the whole constructed in silver. Fig. 5. BEAR, also holding a similar shield to the one previously described, except that the letters are incised upon its surface. The locks of hair covering the body of the animal are also expressed by incised lines. The mouth, collar, shield, and basement are gilt. The chain connectiag the head and body is seen in this figure, and prevented their disseverance when the former was lifted for drinking. It is of much earlier date than Fisr. 4. All these Chips are represented one-half the original sist P L A T E y T I, EARLY HEAUMES. THE Heaumes engraved in the present plate are all of the rarest kind, and were purchased by Lord Londesborough from Mr. Samuel Pratt, of Bond Street, who obtained them from churches in Norfolk, where they had remained from the period when they had been deposited as funeral trophies. Fig. 1 of the plate had long been exhibited by the sexton as a "popish lanthorn." Fig. 1. HEAUME of the latter part of the twelfth century, resembling those seen on the great seals of Eichard I. The aventaille or moveable grating for covering the face, has been lost, but the hinge, staples, and other means of fastening it still remain : its form may be studied in the great seals of Henry III and Edward I. Fig. 2. HEAUME of the time of Edward III. It was worn in the tourney over the cliapelle de fer, resting on the shoulders of the knight, and secured to the hauberk before and behind by the staples, Avhich still remain upon it. The perforations for breathing take the form of a cross ; others for securing the crest and lambrequin are visible on its summit. Fig. 3. HEAUME of the time of Richard II. The ocularium is a simple slit or opening across the centre, and the breathing holes take the shape of a double lozenge. It fits closely round the neck, and a series of small holes are drilled there to secure the camail, or tippet of mail which covered the neck and shoulders of an armed knight. The holes for fastening the crest are visible upon the summit. All these Heaumes arc of Iron, and are represented one-fourth tlie size of the orifjinals. n li-^ S Q [£ H T fc, [}{] [E § § Kill E m P L A T E VII I. ANCIENT CHESSMEN. THESE very curious carvings are made from the tusks of the wakus, and have formed the subject of an erudite dissertation by Sir Frederic Madden in the twcnty- tourth volume of the ArcJiccologia. A more correct detail of the mode of their discovery has been since published in Wilson's Arclmology and Pre-historic Annals of Scotland, where Ave are told that they were discovered in 1831 in the parish of Uig, Isle of Lewis, " the inroads effected by the sea having undermined and carried away a considerable portion of a sandbank, and uncovered a small subterranean stone building like an oven, at some depth below the surface. The exposure of this singular structure having excited the curiosity, or more probably the cupidity, of a peasant who chanced to be working in the neighbourhood, he proceeded to break into it, when he was astonished to see what he concluded to be an assemblage of elves or gnomes, upon whose mysteries he had unconsciously intruded. The superstitious Highlander flung down his spade, and fled home in dismay; but incited by the bolder curiosity of his wife, he Avas at length induced to return, and bring away AAdth him the singular little ivory figures, Avhich had not unnaturally appeared to him the pigmy sprites of Celtic folk-lore. They consisted in all of at least ninety-tAvo pieces (including fourteen tablemen, or draughtsmen), eight of Avhich are kings, eight queens, thirteen bishops, fifteen knights, and tAvelve figures of footmen, to AA^hich Sir Frederic Madden gives the name of Avarders." They formed portions of different sets of Chessmen, and Avere purchased for the British Museum, Avith the exception of ten pieces, Avhich Avere selected by the late Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, of Edinburgh, previous to their possessor, Mr. Koderick Sirie, offering them to the trustees ; and one afterwards obtained from a person residing in LeAvis. On the death of Mr. Sharpe, and the dispersion of his collection, they Avere purchased by Lord Londesborough, and a selection of the most curious is exhibited in the accompanying plate, exactly one-half the size of the originals. Judging from the costume, and other peculiarities of these curious figures. Sir Frederic Madden assigns their fabrication to the tAvelfth century, and to Scandinavian artists ; but Wilson contends for their native origin : for " Avhatever military or naval skill the natives of Scotland might acquire from their intercourse Avith the Northmen, they Avere much more likely to impart than to receive a superior kiroAAdedge in the arts of the sculptor and the carver. Christianity Avas introduced into Scotland and Ireland some centuries before its acceptance by the Scandinavians, and the primitive Christian monuments of Denmark and Nonvay Avill, as Avorks of art, bear no comparison AAuth those Avhich preceded them in Scotland." He also argues that the long kite- shaped shield is indicative of Norman or southern, rather than Scandinavian origin, the latter nation being characterized by round ones of Avood, bound Avith iron, as Giraldus describes the NorAvegians Avho attacked Dublin in 1172; neither does he think that a ri.ATi; Yiii. Norse carver of tlie twelfth century could obtain ■•' such a knowledge of episcopal chasuble, dalmatic, stole, cope, and tunic, as is traceable in the bishops of the Lewis Chessmen." Fig. 1. KING. He wears a floriated crown, and grasps a sheathed sword wth both hands as it rests on his knees ; his hair is arranged in plaits, and his beard trimmed circularly. His outer mantle or dalmatic covers the left arm, and is fastened on the right shoulder by a fibula; the border is decorated with a chevron pattern. The tunic beneath is bordered with circles. Fig. 2. The Back of the same Piece, showing the mode of dressing the hair, and the interlaced ornament on the chair. Fig. 3. QUEEN. The crown is simple in form, and she wears a ^vimple on her head ; her other garments being a gown and mantle, with a simple border. She leans her head on the right hand, and holds a drinking horn in the left. Fig. 4. BISHOP, seated. He wears a lo^v mitre, a plain dalmatic and cope, and grasps a pastoral staff of simple form with both hands. Fig. 5. THE BACK OF ANOTHER BISHOP, showing the iiifida, dependant fr(jm the mitre, the cross on the cope, and the interlaced ornament on the chair. Fig. 6. BISHOP, standing and giving the pastoral benediction. Fig. 7. WARDER ; he is represented in the excitement of a projected onslaught biting his shield. Fig. 8. KNIGHT, mounted on horseback, and wearing a conical cap, from which hang three small shield-shaped ornaments charged with a sultire ; he has a long gambeson, and carries a short spear and long shield, which will be best seen in the cut at the foot of this page, representing the other side of the same figure. Fig. 9. WARDER, in a long gambeson, bearing a sword and shield. PLATE IX. ENAMELLED PLAQUES OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. THESE plaques were obtained from a dealer in Liege, who was n.nacquainted with their previous history, but they have evidently formed part of the decoration of the arcades of an altar-piece, similar to that formerly at Basle, and now in the Hotel de Cluny, at Paris, or else were destined for the ends of a reliquary. The holes by which they were originally secured to some such surface are visible around the outer edges of each. The figures represent David and Solomon, both styled projilieta, in an abbreviated form, in capital letters, decorated with red enamel. The style of regal costume adopted is similar in its details to the monumental effigies of our sovereigns Richard and John, with some slight modifications, which may lead to the supposition of their having been executed about the middle of the thirteenth century. The enamelling is executed by the old cliamp-lcvv process, the ground of the metal being cut out for its reception ; a mode which ceased in the following century. The colours used are all opaque, and consist of white, yellow, green, red, and deep blue, the latter being obtained from cobalt, and the others from metallic oxides, the greens exhibiting many irregularities from air-bubbles. The metal ground of copper is gilt ; a process which was effected after the enamels had been fused in their various cavities, and brought to a level with the surface of the metal by polishing. The figures are of hammered copper, in high relief, gilt, and affixed to the plaques by metal pins. The sceptres are small models secured in each hand. As specimens of early art in metal work, as Avell as in enamel, these plaques are extremely interesting. Scale ; one-third the size of the ori(jinals. ,#^=^fe>^w ':::^:f^_ §f^ PLATE X. RINGS. THE Rings engraved in the present plate are selected from Lady Londesborough's collection of two hundred and fifty ancient and medieval rings and personal ornaments. An elaborate Catalogue Eaisonnc of the entire collection was prepared by the late Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq., and a few copies were printed for private circulation. From that work the following descriptions are borrowed, in a condensed form : — Fig. 1. EPISCOPAL RING. Gold, set ivith saipfhire. The stone, an irregular pentagon, with nine capsular marks on the face. It is secured in the collet by four projecting clamps ; and the shank, wliich is triangular, bears on the outside the inscription ave . maria . gratia between the heads of two dragons. Workmanship, French, of the twelfth century. This ring was procured in exchange from the collection of Monsieur Failly, Inspector of Customs at Lyons, 1848. It was found in 1829 in the tomb of Thierry, Bishop of Verdun, who died in 1165. Fig. 2. MOURNING RING. Gold, enamelled. It is formed of two skeletons, who support a small sarcophagus. The skeletons are covered with white enamel. The lid of the sarcophagus is also enamelled, with a Maltese cross in red, on a black ground studded with gilt hearts, and when removed, displays another skeleton, as exhibited in the cut. Fig. 3. THUMB RING. Gold, enamelled. Upon the summit is a cluster of diamonds, set in ornaments, decorated -with white, red, and green enamel. The outer edge is surrounded with twelve smaller diamonds, and the inside of the ring is elaborately decorated with a floriated pattern, cut in the metal, and filled in with black enamel. Fig. 4. HEBREW BETROTHAL RING. Gold, enamelled. It is of the kind termed " a Temple Ring", having the letters ilb ?XI2 enamelled in blue, one on each angle of the roof of the small temple on its summit. This class of ring is, therefore, called Mazul-touv, which may be freely translated "joy be with you." Fig. 5. HEBREW BETROTHAL RING. Gold, enamelled. It is decorated with five blue enamelled rosettes, and five fiUigree bosses. The roof only of the temple surmounts the ring ; it is decorated Avith light green enamel ; it opens on an hinge, and exhibits beneath the letters 31£3. Fig. 6. HEBREW BETROTHAL RING. Gold enamelled. « The Temple" is here a square building with a steep roof, dormer windows, and moveable vanes. The inscription, similar to that in Fig. 4, is in large raised letters on a granulated ground, the letters being filled in with dark blue enamel, and the smaller ornaments between them with light green and blue alternately. PLATE X. Fig. 7. EOYAL MEMORIAL RING. Gold enamelled. It lias a square table- faced diamond iu an oval setting, which opens, and reveals beneath a portrait of King Charles I, in enamel, on a blue ground ; the King is represented in black, with the blue ribbon of the Garter across his breast. The face of the ring, its back, and side portions of the shank, are engraved -with scroll-work, tilled in with black enamel. " This ring perpetuates the faithful devotion of one of Charles's adherents much more forcibly than the pen of the biographer, since it is evident that neither the death of the master nor the hopelessness of his cause had extinguished his attachment. It may be naturally expected that the life of the man who thus ingeniously secreted the resem- blance of features which, in all probability, were as firmly impressed on his heart, must have manifested many proofs of zeal in the Royal service." Fig. 8. xiLCHEMY RING. Gilt. The term alchemij has been apphed to rings of mixed metal, like the present, manufactured in the fourteenth century for superstitious purposes, and believed to possess mystic virtues. It was obtained from Germany, and has upon it a figure of a toad swallowing a serpent. Mr. Croker considered this " a remarkable ring in connection with the serpent, toad, and dragon superstitions", and adds, " there is a middle-age story of one necromancer introducing himself to another professor of magic by shewing him a serpent ring. Upon which the latter, who did not desire any one to interfere with his practice, produced his toad- stone ring, observing, that the toad might swallow the serpent ; thereby intimating that he would destroy him." It is intended to be worn on the thumb. Fig. 9. RELIGIOUS RING. Gold enamelled. It has a diamond in the centre, and six rubies, arranged like the sacred cross, around it. The scrolls are enriched with white, blue, and green enamel. Fig. 10. SMALL FINGER RING. Gold. The workmanship is of the six- teenth century, very fine, and probably Italian. It is set with a diamond, held in its place by four birds' claws in open chased work ; the shank is semi-engraved without and within. " This class of ring was highly prized in England during the revolutions of the seventeenth century, from its power of marking or writing upon glass, and thereby leaving records, some of which have descended to our times." All these rinr/s, tvith the exception of Figs. 1, 7, and 8, are ivories of the Renaissance period. They are represented of the actiud size of tlie orir/inals. ■^^ 'mmmL illHIlinill I miMllMMlllMiiniMi linn '.jit PLATE XI. GERMAN DRINKING CUPS. Fig. 1. WINDMILL. Silver. The mill and scroll oniament on the cup are gilt. It was held in the hand to be filled, and could not be set down until emptied ; the drinker blowing through the tube into the mill set the sails in motion, and reversed the cup on the table. It is dated 1619. Fig. 2. LANTHORN. Silver; parcel-gilt, and engraved. The cover of the lanthoru forms a lid, and the body a capacious drinking cup. The horn-window in front is fastened over an engraved representation of two men in the costume of court tools of the sixteenth century, one of whom is staggering home inebriated, being lighted on his road by the other: above this subject is engraved the date 1582, and this inscription : — DISE . LATERN . GHERT . IN . DAS . HAVS DAMIT . LEVCHT . MAN . DEN . GESTEN . NAVS. Fig. 3. CUP. Bronze. It takes the form of a crowned maiden with flowing hair. The ornament of the dress, repousse and pounced ; that on the apron entirely formed in delicate dotted lines. She holds a flower in one hand coloured with red enamel, and a salamander in the other coloured with green enamel, both being typical of innocence and purity ; her bodice is also enamelled red, and her girdle green. Round the border of her gown are two lines of Scripture, in German written characters, selected from the second epistle of Paul to Timothy, chapter iv, verses 7 and 8 (" I have fought the good fight", etc.) This cup requires to be filled when held reversed in the hand, and must be emptied at one draught. It is a work of the early part of the seventeenth century. Fig. 4. BEAR. Silver ; gilt. He holds a bag-pipe between his forepaAvs, which is also secured round his body by a chain. His collar is set with a row of turquoises. His head unscrews, the body forming the cup, which is covered all over with waved short lines, to express hair. It is a work of the sixteenth century. Fig. 5. MAIDEN. Silver. Parcel-gilt, and ornamented with pounced work. The costume is that of a female of Franconia of the latter part of the sixteenth century. This cup unscrews at the waist of the figure, the lower portion of the dress holding the liquid. Scale ; one-half tJie size of the orifjinals. fZ ? '^Ti 54 v^ ^ ^7 r''^r^ ) P— PLATE XII. HUNTING AND WARDER'S HORNS. Fig. 1. IVORY HUNTING HOEN. It is carved with figures of lions, eagles, griffins, harpies, and other imaginary creatures, in compartments formed by interlaced strap-work. It is mounted in silver, and is a work of the fourteenth century. Fig. 2. RUNIC HORN, apparently of Scandinavian workmanship. It is formed from the tooth of the walrus, and is sculptured with a series of imaginary monsters, a human sacrifice, etc. Incised characters, probably magical, are interspersed amongst the carved ornaments. Fig. 3. WARDER'S HORN, in hronse. It was formerly in the possession of the Due d'Abrantes. Round the summit is inscribed, in raised letters, — PETRVS . GHEYNEVS . ME . FECIT beneath which is incised the word and date, — FLORVIT . 1-466 Scale ; onc-tldrd the size of the originals. y\ A .C ^ ;,\ ^■^i- :!>^.A:C ^'^^-^^^-^ ^ ^. ■• ^kiiipi ;(, ;_v- ^;'^^i;/ PLATE XII I. A MORSE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. THIS elaborate specimen of clerical ornament was obtained at Amiens, and was used to fasten the cope in tlie service of the Roman Catholic Church. The design is very fanciful and intricate. The outer circle consists of groups of foliage, animals, birds, and shells, in high relief, disposed over the surface between small floriated plaques, covered with blue and green enamel, and secured by screws to the base, which is of silver-gilt ; from the middle of each 2->laque rise ornamental bosses, set with turquoise. The centre stone is a sapphire, and is surrounded by small rubies and sapphires, arranged in a square raised base, from the sides of which four filigree ornaments project, in the form of a cross. Smaller jewels are secured around this by pins, the heads of which arc like stars or flowers. Next these are arranged other ties of filigree, and birds and animals between shells and foliage, supporting flowers, consisting of four leaflets enamelled in blue, with large pearls in their centres, upon which small blue stones are set, as well as upon the heads of the birds. The engraving is an exact facsimile of the original in size, the section beneath gives its projection, and the woodcut below represents the under part, shewing the clasp by which it was secured, and the screws which hold some of the ornaments. PLATE XIV. DRINKING CUPS IN THE FORM OF BIRDS. THESE curious decorations for the table are part of the series of which examples are given in Plates VI and XI, and are works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Fig. 1. AUER. HAHN, or Cock of the Wood. It is of silver, the eyes of red glass ; the insects on the ground are gilt, and the knobs beneath the stand are jewelled. Fig. 2. DOVE. Silver, the wings perforated at the outer edges ; the eyes are formed of red paste, the insects on the ground gilt. Fig. 3. SWAN. Silver, gilt; the body is formed of crystal, shaped into compartments like a pine-apple. Fig. 4. PEACOCK. Silver, gilt on alternate feathers, the tail jewelled with variously-coloured stones. Scale ; one-half the size of the originals. PLATE XV. STIRRUPS. Fig. 1. MAURO-SPANISH STIRRUP, of steel, elaborately decorated with tignres and foliage. A pair, similar in form, but less elaborate in design, arc in the collection of Prince Soltikotf, at Paris. Fig. 2. MAURO-SPANISH STIRRUP, of steel, with ornaments of copper inlaid. The pair was purchased for Lord Londesborough from the Royal Armourer at Madrid by Lord Howden. Fig. 3. The Inner Side of the same Stirrup. Fig. 4. MEXICAN STIRRUP, of wood. Presented to the collection by Mr. Bannister, of Hull. It is stated to have been brought from the Castle of Montezuma, in Mexico. Fig. 5. The Inner Side of the same Stirrup. Scale ; one-third the size of the originals. PLATE XVI. ROMAN DOMESTIC ALTAR. THIS curious altar, sculptured in Parian marble, was obtained at Napoli di Romania. It is decorated with figures and emblems of the twelve principal divinities. The larger figures on the outside represent Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, and Mercury. Behind, between four piUars, stand Juno, Venus, Diana, and Minerva. Beside them are emblems of Neptune, Ceres, Pomona, and Bacchus. The workmanship is somewhat rude, and partakes of the debased characteristics of the later Roman period. The engraving is the same sise as the original. PLATE XVI I. GOLD ORNAMENTS FOUND IN IRELAND. Fig. 1. COLLAR, found at Ballykilty, near Newmarket-on-Fergus (county Cork), exhibiting a new type, being convex all round. It weighs 4oz. 13dwts. 4grs. A large quantity of other gold ornaments were discovered with it, but they afforded no new types ; the majority were melted immediately afterwards, and it is reported that £-iOO worth of gold was the result. Fig. 2. RING, set with a plain onyx, found in 1842, Avithin a few yards of the entrance to the caves at New Grange (county Meath), along with the other articles numbered 3, 4, 5, and 6, in this plate. They were at the depth of two feet from the surface of the ground, and without any covering or protection from the earth about them. Another labouring man hearing of this discovery, carefully searched the spot whence they were taken, and found a denarius of Geta, and two other coins of small brass, but quite defaced. Fig. 3. CHAIN, probably for wearing round the neck ; it is secured by hooks fitting into each other. Fig. 4. BRACELET, of twisted gold wire, secured by a clubbed end passing through a neatly formed loop. Fig. 5. BRACELET, of similar construction to the preceding one, but varying in its mode of fastening, which in this instance is effected by a hook passing over a knob at the opposite end. Fig. 6. RING, set with a plain onyx similar to fig. 2. The hoop has been severed from one side of the stone, and flattened out, which has led to some misapprehension of its original use and character. It is represented in the plate as it at present exists, but the cut exhibits its original form and size. Fig. 7. COLLAR, found in the neighbourhood of Ardrah (county Donegal). It is very thin, and decorated with a slightly- incised ornament in simple lines. Figs. 2, 3, size of onginals ; 4, 5, 6, two-thirds of original sise ; 1, and 7, half the sise of the originals. PLATE XVIII. IMPLEMENTS FOR THE TABLE. Figures 1 and 2. ANGLO-SAXON FORK AND SPOON. They were dis- covered m January 1834, by labourers employed in making a deep drain upon a farm at Sevington, in North Wilts, and were obtained by C. W. Loscombe, Esq., of Corsham, who added them to his collection of Antiquities ; at the sale of this collection m 1854, they were purchased by Lord Londesborough. An account of the discovery was communicated to the Society of Antiquaries in 1837, by E. Hawkins, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., and is published in Arclucologia, vol. xxvii; from which it appears that they were buried between two and three feet deep, in the middle of a meadow where there was no trace of buildings, and appeared to have been deposited in a box, of which there were some decayed remains. With them was found a circular ornament, some fragments of others in silver and brass, and about seventy Saxon pennies of sovereigns, from Coenwulf, king of Mercia (a.d. 796), to Ethclstan (a.d. 878, 890). Mr. Hawkins concludes his account of this curious discovery, by saying that " the fork and spoon having been found in close juxtaposition with these coins, unmixed with other productions of a later period, Avould be of itself sufficient evidence of their contempora- neous antiquity. The fabric and the ornaments with which the fork and spoon are decorated, would, to the practised eye, be quite sufficient evidence of the approximate era of their manufacture. The combination of these circumstances cannot leave a doubt upon the mind of the most prejudiced, that the fork and spoon, for whatever purpose they may have been intended, whether sacred or domestic uses, were manu- factured in the ninth century." Figs. 3, 4, 5. CREDENCE MESSER, from the Debruge-Dumcnil collection, and thus described in the Catalogue (No. 1523); " Couteau et fourchette a deux dents, et un decoupoir a large lame plate, pour servir la patisserie. Les manches, en ambre, sont termines par un pommeau en ivoire, decore de petits bas-reliefs tres finement executes, places sous une feuille d'ambre transparente ; xvi^- siecle." The subjects on the handle comprise the Offering of the Magi, emblematic figures, dogs of chase, flowers, and figures of gentlemen and ladies in the costume of the latter part of the 16th century. Two specimens of the full size of the originals are here engraved. Figs. 6 and 7. CARVING KNIFE AND FORK. The blade is decorated with engraving, and the handles partially ornamented with ivory. Figs. 8 and 9. KNIVES. Upon one side of each blade is engraved a grace before meat, and upon the other side a grace after meat, with the music to which they should be chanted, arranged for four voices. The set of four were kept in an upright case of stamped leather, and were placed before the singers according to the adaptation of each part to the voice indicated upon them. Scale ; one-third the original size. PLATE XIX. PIECES DE RENFORT. THESE extra defences of plate are of great rarity and interest. They are works oi the sixteenth centnry, when the art of the armourer exhibited its best taste ; engraving, chasing, enamelling, and gilding, are all employed upon their decoration. Fig. 1. PLIIME-HOLDER, for the helmet. It was affixed to the crown and back part of that defence ; the triple bars behind resting on the neck ; the pipe which held the plume is seen upon the central one. Fig. 2. PLACCATE, for the back. It is of the finest Italian workmanship ; the figures in the medallions embossed, the other ornaments are engraved and gilt, the dotted lines being formed in small raised studs of silver. Only two other specimens are known of this rare piece of armour. Fig. 3. MENTONNIERE, with mantcau cVarmes. This fine specimen was ob- tained at the sale of the European and Oriental Arms, collected by General Peucker, of Berlin. It is highly enriched with ornament, which appears to have been executed by corrosion with acid, in the same way as an artist's etching, and afterwards gilt. The Arms of Saxony, which appear amid elaborate and beautiful mantling, are em- blazoned in their proper colours by the enamelling process. Scale ; one-third the original size. IR=F^^[:^^ WW 3mm r^' ^%5P V,2^ ,^ la ^ss^^^^ ^mMm^' laS) PLATE XX. Fig. 1. COMBS. Ivory. The sides are ornamented with the vine tendrils and fruit. In the centre is a garden scene, with a fountain in which two persons are bathing ; an armed soldier guards it on one side, and a female on the other drives away an intruder by injecting water in his face from a syphon ; a knight and lady are at the extremity of the composition on one side, and a poor traveller and his wife on the other. Upon the reverse of the comb is a boar-hunt, here engraved of the original size. It is evidently a work of the fifteenth century. Fig. 2. Ivory. On one side is the representation of a bridal procession ; the bride wears her hair dishevelled, in accordance with the usual custom in the middle ages ; a band of pearls crosses her head. The brides-men on each side support her mantle, and one bears a flower garland ; musicians precede, and brides-maids follow. On the other side is the garden scene (engraved beneath the comb), in which ladies and gentlemen are engaged with music, flowers, or hawks, the central lady is forming a flower garland for her lover. The costume is that worn at the close of the fifteenth century. Fig. 3. Boxwood. On one side is a rudely executed representation of the Adoration of the Magi ; on the other is inscribed — "Prenes an gre ce petit don, Quar de bon du coeur je le vous don". The subject of the sculpture appears to be the adventures of Eeynard the Fox, one of the most popular of medieval satires. Fig. 4. Horn. The entire decoration of the centre is perforated, and the armorial bearings coloured and gilt. The cupidons supporting the wreath are painted in oil colours and shadowed. The dexter shield is blue, with blue mantling, the lion upon it, and the crest gilt ; the sinister shield is red, the lion gilt ; the crest is a knight in dark armour, the wings are black. It was probably a wedding present, the initials being those of the bride and bridegroom ; and the arms those of each family. Scale ; one-half the size of the originals. v;f:i"fiKT M}fJi.i ilTK }vr-.;.T, ,vHa PLATE XXI. ALTAR FURNITURE. Figures 1 and 2. PRYKET CANDLESTICKS of copper; gilt, and enamelled. The figures of angels are executed in incised lines, the heads in high relief, and formed of separate pieces of copper riveted to the base. The enamel is executed by the champ Uve process. The stems of each candlestick are chased with fleurs-de-lis in high relief in a diaper ornament. They are works of the thirteenth century, and were probably constructed for the use of a French Royal Chapel. Fig. 3. PYX, of copper ; (jilt, and enamelled. The cover is decorated with crystals and coloured glass ; eight emblazoned shields of arms cover the surface, being those of France, Saxony, &c. On one shield appears the divine hand issuing from the clouds and giving the benediction, and on another an armed warrior in the costume of the thirteentli century. From the Bernal Collection. Fig. -i. FLAGON, of copper ; gilt, and decorated with figures in high relief, representing birds feeding on fruit, this subject being conventionally treated, and repeated over the surface ; between each group are animals' heads. It is a work of the twelfth century. Scale ; one-half the size of originals. PLATE XXII. DRINKING CUPS. Fig. 1. CUP. Silver, decorated with engraved arabesques. The small upper cup IS supported by a demon who stands on a skeleton globe, Avithin which is a small bell, Avhich rings as the cup is reversed by the drinker. From the Bernal Collection. Fig. 2. CUP. Silver-gilt It takes the form of a lady in the elaborate dress of the early part of the seventeenth century, who holds above her head a smaller cup. Within the rim of the larger one is inscribed, " Philippus Huntzell von Hall aus Sachsen: 1607." From tlie Bernal Collection. Fig. 3. HANAP. Silver-gilt. Within the lid is the following inscription, de- noting it to have been the gift of the Magistrates of the city of Hersbroeck to one of the Stanleys during the thirty years' war in the low countries. Beneath the foot of the cup is a longer inscription, to the same effect, in the German language. " Dira lues quando cumularat funera, scpvas Et Bellona faces sparserat ipsa siias, Unus pro nostra vigilavit sede salutis Stanleius facias continuando preces. Hinc memor Hersbruccum nreritis ha;c poclare dono, Geunseri alloquiis condecorata piis ; Queis sua Wilbaldus, Wagnerus, Roseliusque, Clara tribus plebis sidera vota litant ; Ut quoties potus fluat inde futurus amicis, CiviBUS eo toties sit bene quisque sonet. PrcBsentatum 25 die Martij. Anno 1633." Fig. 4. CUP. Ivory mounted in Silver, gilt and chased. The bowl and handle are formed from one piece of ivory, the ornament sculptured in relief. The rim of the cup is chased in representation of hare and fox hunting. The stem is formed of a crowned mermaid (the cognizance of the city of Nuremberg, where it was probably made), the foot of the cup being embossed with representations of waves and sea- monsters. Fig. 5. BEAKER. Silver-gilt. The body of the cup is shaped like a heart, and upon the bands which cross the upper part is inscribed the name of the maker ; " Der Stiifter des Becher war Adam StempfFer von Lohen geburtig:" and the names, " Martin Bardt Schmidt, Joh. Leonhardt Seger, Jacob Braun, damals 3 geschworne meister. Anno 1696." Scale; one-third the size of originals. MJW*^ ID !£/ A (£ ^& VT.JJ Bf F ^ J.T . F 5 . A PLATE XXIII. DAGGERS. Fig. 1. SPANISH DAGGER of the fifteenth centiuy, made for Francesco Padilla, one of the generals of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Upon the guard are his initials, in a monogram, and npon the blade F? Vl The keys and fetterlock denoting him to be the governor of a castle, are represented in perforations on the blade. Fig. 2. POIGNARD, with triangular blade. Tliis ex- tremely rare specimen ^Yas taken from a Parisian insurgent, in 1848, and presumed to have been stolen from some public or private collection. Fig. 3. Early Italian COUTEAU DE CHASSE. The hilt is square, and formed of ivory, carved with figures and foliage, on one side representing David destroying the lion, and on the other St. George conquering the dragon. Several other single figures are arranged at the sides, and beneath the principal groups a lion and dragon in combat surmount the whole. Fig. 4. MISERICORDE, or dagger of mercy, said to have belonged to Raoul de Coney. The handle of steel is engraved and perforated. Fig. 5. Italian POIGNAED with triangular blade: the hilt is richly ornamented, and set with imitations of precious stones. The scabbard, with its chain, is of silver, highly enriched by engraving, and is represented in our cut. Fig. 6. MISERICORDE, from the collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick, and engraved in Skelton's Illustrations of the Arms and Armour at Goodrich Court, where it is thus described : " A misericorde, the blade of which is of the time of ITenry VI, though the guard and pommel, which are ' hatched' and gilt, cannot claim an earlier date than the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth. This is shewn, not only by the form of them, but from the slit in the guard being calculated to receive a blade almost twice the width, and not at all conformable to a three-sided one like that of this misericorde." Upon each side of the blade is engraved a figure in the costume of the latter part of the fourteenth century, the ladies wearing the characteristic horned head-dress. These figures are eno-raved in Skelton's work the full size of the originals. The back of the weapon is covered with ornament, and is here represented half the original size. It bears an abbreviated inscription in letters formed like a folded ribbon, the peculiarity of their form and their partial corrosion render all but the first word ave difficult to read. [Fic. 7. PLATE XXIV. IMPLEMENTS OF PUNISHMENT. Fig. 1. MASK OF PUNISHMENT ; chiefly employed for the correction of minor offences by exciting ridicule against the wearer, and frequently placed on soldiers for breach of discipline. It is formed of bands of iron, which fold over the head, and are fastened behind by a padlock ; a pair of spectacles and ass's ears are attached ; a double plate closes over the mouth, and a whistle passes up the nose ; producing a loud sound should the wearer attempt to speak. The mask is painted a flesh- colour, the eyebrows and ears are shaded with dark grey, and a mouth is delineated upon the plate covering the lower part of the face. It was obtained from the old castle of Nurembcr"'. Fig. 2. BE-AND for a felon. The mark it occasions is that of the gallows and wheel, the ordinary capital punishments of the period ; it is here ensi-raved of the original size. It was obtained at Bamber'jr in Bavaria. AAA Fig. 3. THIEF-CATCHER. It is formed of steel, set with spikes, and having springs to the upper part. It was alfixed to a pole, and used by the police to secure a runaway prisoner, by pushing the springs against the neck or leg, allowing either to slip within the spiked ring, from which they could not be easily extricated without assistance. It was obtained at Wurtzburg, in Bavaria, where they were in use at the early part of the seventeenth century. We engrave a curious figure of an officer about to make a capture with one of these implements, from " Neder-landtsche gedenck-clanck." Harlem 1626. Fig. 4. PINCERS, of steel. They were used to brand and punish slaves in the Spanish West Indies. Fig. -5. THUMB-SCREW, of iron, the side bars surmounted by acorns, the cross bars are considerably bent, and indicate that this implement had been frequently used with vigour. It was obtained at Nuremberg. Fig. 6. COLLAR, of iron, set with steel spikes, so that they press on the shoulders and lower part of the face ; within the collar are springs set with smaller spikes. Its vv'eight is great, and its extreme cruelty apparent. Scdc ; one-fourth the original size. ?)W « PLATE XXV. ENAMELLED ALMS-DISH OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. THIS beautiful example of early enamelling formed part of tlie Bernal Collection, and is described in the Sale Catalogue, Lot 1289, as " A circular Alms-dish." The centre represents a young man on horseback, holding a hawk on his fist, the jesses hanging from his hand. Six female iigures are seated in as many compartments around the central subject, the ground of all being covered with arabesque ornament. The dish is of copper, and has been gilt ; its side view is exhibited in the outline beneath, showing a portion of the fleiirs-de-lz/s attached to the geometric pattern covering the under surface ; this is engraved upon it in lines and dots, and will be more perfectly understood by the reduced representation below. The coloured engraving (erroneously dated) is one-third less than the size of the original. ;, 'S«ZV-GAMW/V>; ^^"^ ^ ro-' ij ll'l ViX PLATE XXIX. MEROVINGIAN BROOCHES. Fig. 1. Found at Bourg-sur-Aisne, near Soissons, Dept. de I'Aisne, in 1843, and presented to Lady Londesborough by M. de Courval. It is of silver-gilt, with ornament in high relief. The bow and lower portion enriched in the centre by slices of garnet placed in square compartments over gold leaf-foil, ridged across diagonally to give them additional lustre. Around the upper portion, a row of small spherical garnets are set ; the five ornamental projections have also contained slices of garnet similar to those in the lower part, but two of them are now vacant. Fig. 2. Gold. It is divided into three circular compartments, the outer one consisting of a row of ten bird's heads ; the eyes formed of small rubies, the necks and beaks of slices of garnet. The cells into which the surface of the brooch is subdivided, are enriched with twisted gold ornaments, or slices of garnet laid upon chequered gold-foil. Fig. 3. Gold. The surface is divided by gold lines into a triple series of compartments, each filled with slices of garnet laid upon chequered gold-foil. It was purchased of a dealer in Paris. Fig. 4. Gold, set with blue stones, and dark green glass. The surface is further enriched by delicate filigree ornaments, arranged in knots and convolutions. The outer circular cells appear to have been filled with pearls, as a small portion of one remains. The back plate, to which the whole is secured by eight pins, is of copper ; the pin for affixing it to the dress is of iron. Fig. 5. Gold, set with precious stones and pearls. It is further enriched with figures of dragons and cockatrices chased in relief, and elevated upon open scroll-work, as shown in the cut below. Scale ; full size of originals. -.A A '. I U ' •■), \\ I- PLATE XXX. THE BELL OF ST. MURA. THIS curious relic, here engraved the full size of the original, is remarkable as a work of art, as well as a genuine relic of the most venerable antiquity ; it was formerly regarded with superstitious reverence in Ireland, and any liquid drunk from it was believed to have peculiar properties in alleviating human suffering ; hence the peasant women of the district in which it was long preserved, particularly used it in cases of child-birth, and a serious disturbance was excited on a former attempt to sell it by its owner. Its legendary history relates, that it descended from the sky ringing loudly ; but as it approached the concourse of persons who had assembled at the miraculous warning, the tongue detached itself, and returned toward the skies ; hence it was concluded that the bell was never to be profaned by sounding on earth, but was to be kept for purposes more holy and beneficent. This is said to have happened on the spot where once stood the famous Abbey of Fahan, near Innishowen (County Donegal), founded in the seventh century by St. Mura or Muranus, during the reign of Abodh Slaine. For centuries this abbey was noted as the depository of various valuable objects which were held in especial veneration by the people. Amongst them were several curious manuscripts written by St. Mura, his crozier, and this bell ; which ultimately came into the possession of a poor peasant residing in Innishowen, who parted with it to Mr. Brown of Beaumaris, at whose sale, in 1855, it was purchased by Lord Londesborough for £80. The material of the bell is bronze, and its form quadrangular, resembling other ancient Irish bells, and leading to the conclusion that it is a genuine work of the seventh century. The extreme feeling of veneration shewn towards it in various ages, is proved by the ornament with which it is encased. By the accidental removal of one portion of the outer casing (shewn in the woodcut), a series of earlier enrichments were discovered beneath, which were most probably placed there in the ninth century. The portion disclosed consists of a tracery of Runic knots, wrought in brass, and firmly attached to the bell by a thin plate of gold ; whether the remainder of these early decorations, now concealed, be similar, cannot be determined without removing the outer plates. These exterior ornaments consist of a series of detached silver plates of various sizes, diversely embossed in the style known to have prevailed in the eleventh century. The centre is adorned with a large crystal, and smaller gems have once been set in other vacant sockets round it ; only one of amber remaining. The two large spaces in front of the arched top were also most probably filled with precious stones, as the gold setting still remains entire. The best workmanship has been devoted to these PLATE XXXI. GUNS. Fig. 1. WHEEL-LOCK GUN. It formed part of the collection of Prince Potemkin, and was originally the property of Charles IX of France ; it is traditionally reported to have been the gun he used in firing on his Huguenot subjects, from one of the windows of the Louvre, during the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The barrel is richly chased in high relief, with a stag hunt amid foliage. The stock is inlaid with ivory, sculptured into a series of hunting-scenes, knights on horseback, &c. Fig. 2. Reverse of the same Gun. Upon the breech is represented Judith, with the head of Flolofernes, and emblematical figures in the costume of the sixteenth century. Fig. 3. CROZIER GUN. The stock is inlaid with the arms of Burgundy, in ivory, on a mahogany ground, and the opposite side to that represented in the plate has the crowned monogram here engraved. Fig. 4. WHEEL-LOCK GUN, of the time of Henry II of France. Obtained from the De Bruge collection. The lock and barrel are highly enriched in gold and silver damascene ; the stock is of ivory, inlaid with classical figures, scroll ornaments, and fruits and flowers,— the latter stained in tints of green and brown. Fig. 5. RIFLE, of the sixteenth century, with match and wheel-lock. The stock is of brass, richly embossed with figures and foliage. Upon the breech is a monoo-ram, and a badge, consisting of the sun and moon encircled by dragons. Scale ; one-fourth the shje of originals. bu ® [m A\ i^ © C?. ® ^ 2 E s . JIAWN i Kll OKiWEB By F.W 1-:AIRH01.T , J 3 A PLATE XXXI I. ROMAN BRONZES. Fig. 1. ARCHER, discovered in Queen Street, Cheapside, London, in July 1842, by W. Chaffers, F.S.A., from whom it was purchased by Lord Londesborough. The figure is perfect, and in good preservation ; it is covered with a deep green patina ; the surface is a little corroded in some parts, from remaining so many centuries in the earth. The figure is of brass, the eyes of silver, with the pupils open ; the hair is indicated by chased lines, and disposed in graceful curls on the head, as well as on the chin and upper lip ; the head and body are inclined forward, and nearly the whole weight is supported by the left leg, which is firmly placed on the ground. It is evidently intended to represent a person in the attitude of shooting an arrow from a bow ; the bow and arrow were probably of richer metal than the figure itself, but no vestiges of them were discovered. Coins of Carausius, and his successor AUectus, were found not many yards from the spot where the figure was discovered ; consequently this statue might belong to the time of those Emperors, or to an earlier period, but it could not well be assigned to a later. Mr. Chafi'ers' account of the discovery was published in vol. XXX. of the Archceologia. Fig. 2. COMEDIAN, wearing a grotesque mask, and habited in a tunic, his feet covered by the soccus. It was discovered at Megalo-Castro, in Crete, and presented to the collection by Capt. Graves, R.N. Fig. 3. PLOUGH, found at Piercebridge, Durham, and formerly in the collection of Sir Cuthbert Sharpe. The plough is of simple and clumsy construction, the beam formed of a tree-stem, to which the oxen are heavily harnessed, and there is an appearance of extra bands round the horns of each. The ploughman bears the remains of a long goad in his right hand ; this antique is curious, as exhibiting the mode of ploughing, probably introduced into Britain by the Romans. Fig. 4. LAMP, of unusually large dimensions, upon which is engraved the Christian monogram. It has rings for suspension, but the chain is wanting, as well as the lid which covered the receptacle for oil. Scale ; Fig. 1, one-third the original si?:e ; 2, S,fiill size ; 4, half original size. '01 YYy> T :>, ' '\y\.'r' -M,- 'L , MiiiAiiM r,aj PLATE XXXIII. ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENTS. Fig. 1. FIBULA, of Ironze^ gilt. It is concave-shaped, like a saucer; and is ornamented with an interlaced spiral pattern in raised lines, surrounding a central circle. It was discovered in Oxfordshire. Fig. 2. FIBULA, of Ironse., gilt. This is also saucer-shaped, but less boldly developed than Fig. 1. The surface is decorated with very peculiar ornament, part raised, and part sunk in half circles. It was also discovered in Oxfordshire in 1851. Fig. 3. FIBULA, ofhronze; set with four triangular slices of garnet, and four pearls (one of which has perished) ; the central ornament, also probably of pearl, has perished. It was found in a tumulus on Breach Downs, about four miles from Canterbury, in the year 1842, when Lord Londesborough superintended the opening of fifty- two tumuli ; a detailed account of the result is published in Archceohgia, vol. XXX. Fig. 4. FIBULA, gold and bronze. It was discovered by Lord Londesborough in a tumulus containing the remains of a female, at Wingham, near Canterbury, in 1843. It is composed of a disc of bronze, upon which is affixed a smaller disc of gold ; in the centre is a star-shaped ornament, decorated with a series of cells, enriched with slices of garnet, laid upon gold foil ridged with transverse lines to give them greater brilliancy; other compartments are filled with a blue vitreous paste. The circles between each point of the star are composed of raised knobs of pearl, the summit of each set with a slice of garnet ; small scrolls of gold filigree, of most minute and beautiful workmanship, fill the base of the jewel. Fig. 5. PENDANT, or BULLA, of gold ; the ornament upon its surface is raised by means of a die. It was found in the same grave Avith Fig. 4, just described. Fig. 6. PENDANT, of gold. The ornament consists of wreathed threads of gold filigree secured to its surface ; in the centre a garnet is imbedded on a raised surface. It was found in a tumulus on Breach Downs, in the course of the excavations noted above. Fig. 7. PIN, ofhronze ; upon the head is affixed a plate of gold ; the ornament upon this consists of small cells filled with slices of garnet and pearl ; the interstices are filled by minute studs enriched with ornament. It was found at Wingham with Figs. 4 and 5. Fig. 8. BUCKLE, of bronze ; upon which are traces of silver plating ; in the centre is affixed a plate of gold richly decorated with an interlaced pattern in embossed work, bounded by a reeded line all round. It was found in the same tumulus with Fig. 3 ; upon the pelvis of a female skeleton ; a silver bracelet, some very minute beads, and a small ring, were also found ; and fragments of a casket discovered between the feet. Sccde ; fill size of the originals. na.t& 1 PLATE XXXIV. DECORATIONS FOR THE PERSON. Fig. 1. GIRDLE, formed of a series of small plaques of bronze held together hy rings. The plaques are cast, and the ground of the ornament on the face of each is filled in with white, blue, and black enamel colours. A portion only of the girdle is repre- sented, as the pattern is continuous. Its entire length is thirty-nine inches. From the Bernal Collection. Fig. 2. CROSS, of silver, gilt ; the arms filled with blue enamel. In the centre is chased, in high relief, a half-length figure of Charlemagne ; on the reverse is a figure of St. Peter. From the Debruge Collection. Fig. 3. MORSE, of silver-gilt ; the design is formed by a series of plates, each devoted to difi'erent portions, and screwed upon each other, to give greater relief to the entire composition, the foundation being a solid plate of silver with a highly-raised rim ; a hook behind secured it to the cope of the priest. It has been an offering to the Church by the Count de Rosenburg, who is represented kneeling at a small desk before the Virgin, seated on a throne and carrying the Infant Saviour ; at her feet is placed the family arms of the Count. Fig. 4. RELIQUARY, of silver, gilt and engraved; in the upper triangular part are four sockets, covered with crystal, and intended to hold relics ; they project considerably, as will be best understood by the side view here engraved. Fig. 5. GIRDLE, of silver, partially gilt, composed of a series of plates linked together, and bearing figures in high relief; the central decoration represents the Annunciation ; to the lower part of it rings have been affixed, for a pendant ornament. The large loop to the left was intended for the suspension of a purse. The most ancient object in this plate is the Reliquary, Avhich may be a work of the fifteenth century. The cross and silver girdle appear to have been constructed towards the end of the sixteenth century. The latter is evidently of German workmanship. The enameled girdle resembles Flemish work of the commencement of the seventeenth century. The Morse was fabricated a little later. Bade ; Fig. 1, 2, full size ; 3, 4, 5, half the sise of originals. j^6a.t m. [L R/^ E T !|, v_AWIf & E1TORA.VE1) ET I' ^ATPAIRHOLT, F PLATE XXXV. HELMETS. Fig. 1. Roman HELMET, of bronze, found at Eavenna; remarkable for the completeness of its preservation. Fig. 2. HEAUME, of the early part of the fifteenth century, as worn in the tournament over the close-fitting bascinet, and resting on the shoulders of the knight. The visor is riveted fast to the sides, and pierced with holes for seeing through ; a wide space above is open for breathing ; the staple and ring by which it was secured behind still remains. Fig. 3. HEAUME of Sir John Crosby, formerly suspended over his tomb in St. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate. He was an eminent merchant of London, but is represented upon his tomb in a full suit of armour. He died in 1475. The extreme height of the crown of the heaume resembles that on the tomb of the Earl of Warwick, in the Beauchamp Chapel, at Warwick ; and was intended to support the crest of the wearer, the holes for affixing it being still visible. Fig. 4. BASCINET, of the time of Richard II. This extremely rare specimen was obtained from Herr von Hulshoff", at his castle, near Munster, in Westphalia. The visor lifts upward on a hinge, and its position may be further regulated by the screw which slips in the groove above it. The row of holes on the lower edge of the bascinet was made to secure the camail or tippet of chain-mail, which covered the neck of the wearer. An equally rare example of the long-toed SOLLERET, worn at the same period, is engraved below. These two fragments of the knightly suit exhibit its most quaint features. The curious little figure of St. George, at Dijon, engraved in ArcJueologia, vol. 25, aff'ords the best representation extant of the entire suit. Fig. 5. SALADE, with fixed visor (supposed to be unique). They were chiefly worn by foot soldiers, and are depicted in battle scenes of the fifteenth century. The lower part of the face was protected by a high gorget of plate, and the salade was pushed upward, the back part of the rim resting on the shoulders, when the soldier was not in action ; or was brought down in action, until the slit in front was level with the eyes ; the face being thus entirely covered. Scale ; one-fourth the size of originals. nJ ,X\ IJ b-t. -.:.'/ i:Z- "BY r' V-r.I'iVIRHOLI, F :;: A_ PLATE XXXVI. STEEL CHAIR. THE armourers of the sixteenth century were remarkable for their artistic ability ; and instances are recorded of this ability being devoted to metal-work of other kinds. The steel chair here engraved, was most probably the work of an armourer, as it is so constructed as to take to pieces readily, that it might be carried with the General's baggage for his use during a campaign. It is secured by screws and hooks, the seat being formed of a sheet of leather stretched over metal rollers. The open floriated ornament is designed with boldness, and executed with much neatness ; the scroll ornaments on the solid parts of the chair are relieved by gilding ; its style and workmanship lead to the supposition that it is of Spanish manufacture. Its entire height is three feet two inches, and its width two feet three inches. PLATE X X X V 1 1. SACRED UTENSILS. Fig. 1. RELIQUAHY, representing the Virgin crowned, seated on an enamelled throne ; she bears a flower in her right hand, and with her left supports the infant Saviour, who gives the pastoral benediction with his right hand, holding in his left, a book. On one side of the throne is the angel Gabriel, on the other the Virgin, the two subjects conjoined represent the Annunciation, On the back of the seat (which forms a square box), is a door upon Avliich is depicted the mystic lily-pot, the flo^ver curling o\'er the surface. The enamelling is produced by the old champ-lcve process, the foundation colour being a rich blue, the ornamental lines are engraved, and the dots punched. It is a work of the twelfth century, of Byzantine manufacture. Fig. 2. TRIPTYCH, formed of plates of copper-gilt, and secured by pins to a solid foundation of oak, one inch and a quarter in thickness. The ivories which decorate the surface are evidently much older than the metal-work enclosing them ; the central subject represents the death of the Virgin, in accordarice with the old legend which assures that all the Apostles were miraculously summoned to be present at her death, and that she resigned her spirit into the arras of our Saviour. Her soul, under the conventional form of an infant, is again shewn by the artist carried up to heaven by an angel. When the side doors are closed, they are secured by hooks passing over a pin, and their external surface is entirely covered by engra^'ing similar in style to that adopted for monumental brasses, and representing the donor and his wife standing beneath trefoiled arches ; above each are quatrefoil ornaments and dragons. The lady is dressed in a long gown, mantle and wimple ; the gentleman in a long close gown with short hanging sleeves, a tippet round the neck, and a close coif upon his head ; the costume being that of the fourteenth century. He bears in liis hand a representation of this Triptych, as if in the act of offering it to the Church. Beneath the figures is the following inscription : THOMAS : LixoRMANS : z : tzabiaus : sa : feme : eaisent : faire : cest : vaissel : p'ies : ponex.-|-. Fig. 3. PYX, in the form of a dove, engraved and enamelled by the champ-leve process. The body forms a small receptacle for the sacred wafer, and is closed by a lid fastening on its back. It stands on a small enamelled plate, from which four arms spring, having hooks at each end, to which chains were affixed for its suspension above the altar. It is a work of the twelfth century. Fig. 4. ESCUTCHEON, of copper-gilt, and enamelled. In the centre is a shield, consisting of arms, surrounded by floriated ornament on a grey ground. The outer border, in perforated work, consists of a series of lizards, whose curved tails are seized by each other's mouths. The eyes of the reptiles are set with small turquoises. It has probably been affixed to a reliquary of the thirteenth century. Scale ; one-tJilrd the sive of oriejlimls. fi) Try / ;» ! Tp/ ' /^ ) JEWELS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Fig. 1. ABRAHAM'S SACRIFICE is the principal subject of this composition, which is represented by a series of enamelled figures in a richly-designed temple, supported by caryatides, and decorated with rubies. Above are seated figures of hounds, and on each side of the base are lions. Below the central group, an amethyst is set in a floriated ornament amid enriched scroll-works, from which hangs a richly cut yellow amethyst. The back of this Jewel is also decorated with scrolls inlaid with coloured enamels. Fig. 2. MERMAID, holding a comb and glass. The chain for suspension is enamelled and enriched by diamonds and emeralds. A tiara of emeralds is upon the liead of the mermaid ; the bands crossing the breast and arms enamelled with a deep blue. A circular ornament covers the centre of the body, and is enriched with emeralds and scrolls enamelled in red, and blue, and white ; this forms a lid to the hollow body of the figure ; the tail is covered with enamels in red, green, and purple, and also enriched with emeralds, as is the back of the figure. a gentleman on Fig. 3. A HAAYKING SCENE horseback, with a hawk on his fist, carries a lady behind him, through a field of flowers. This scene is represented in gold repousse work, covered with enamels, and enriched with diamonds. The circle enclosing it is surrounded by rubies ; pearls and rubies enrich the chains, and form the pendant. The back of the Jewel exhibits a new design in open work, also enriclied with enamel in white, red, blue, and black on the gold ground ; this forms a support to the equestrian group, and is shewn in our cut. Fig. ST. JAMES the Great (of Compostella), conquering a Turk ; in the background the attack of a castle. The legendary history of this Saint assures us that he was seen upon a white horse at the head of the Spanish army, when they gained a victory over the floors, enamel and gold, but has suffered from time and injury. It has been surrounded by a trellis of gold wire, probably originally decorated with flowers and leaves. From the loops on each side it appears to have been worn as a morse, or for the centre of a fjirdle. The whole is executed in Fig. 5. CROSS, set with crystals, the framework in gold richly chased and enamelled ; the lower part has a loop for a pendant jewel similar to that hanging to fig. 1. Fig. 6. Reverse of the same Cross ; the flat surface is covered with flowini ornament in raised threads of gold, enclosing blue, white, and green enamel colours. Scale ; full sisc of orl(jliiuls. PLATE XXXIX. DECORATED ITALIAN ARMOUR. THE armourers of the sixteenth century lavished an amount of enrichment on knightly suits unknown before ; and designs of the most elaborate kind, received an additional amount of decoration by inlaying the surface with gold and silver damaskeening of the most intricate and beautiful patterns. The specimens in the present plate could not be surpassed for vigour of design and execution, or delicacy of detail. Fig. 1. MORION, of steel, chased and partially gilt. It is remarkable for the height of the crest or comb, the space for the head not reaching higher than the seated figures above the great central medallion, representing a Roman battle scene. On the opposite side, the scene depicts soldiers marching from their tents under the Burgundian banner. Fig. 2. BREASTPLATE, of steel, with figures repousse, and chased in very high relief. It is divided into compartments by architectural bands, from Avhich hang wreaths of flowers and fruit. Figures of victory surmount the whole ; in the centre is the head of a Gorgon, typical of war, beneath which are captives bound, and seated. In the central niche is a figure of Mars ; in other compartments are figures of Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, and Apollo. The entire surface is enriched by a thread pattern in gold and silver convoluted ornament, executed by the process of damaskeening, which consisted in engraving the surface and inlaying the grooves thus formed with threads of the precious metals. Figs. 3 and 4. GAUNTLETS ; the portion which covered the wrist enriched with figures in repousse work ; the rest with elaborate damaskeening. The woodcut below represents the back of a saddle in steel, of the same enriched character, and further illustrates the splendour of the knightly caparison of the sixteenth century. It is ornamented Avith a representation of a Roman battle in repousse work, chased and inlaid with gold and silver damasrpdnee. The steel is blackened in places to give relief to the figures ; the ground, and portions of the ornaments, are gilded. Scale; one-fourth the size of originals. I'l^^i^. ©tSuS^^C^QFi© (Sy^SDff^ F®[SLP-ffl(n)C^AWDraAL< PLATE XL. DRINKING CUPS IN THE FORM OF ANIMALS. THE present plate completes our series of selections from these quaint table- decorations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Like those on Plates VI and XIV, they chiefly bear the plate-marks of the silversmiths of Augsburg, Nuremburg, and the principal towns of Germany and Flanders, where they were most generally used ; though the curious engraving in the volume descriptive of the Earl of Castlemaine's embassy to the Pope, 1687, which represents the table laid out for the banquet given to him in Eome, shows that the custom had reached Italy, and was continued until the end of the century. Fig. I. STAG, remarkable for its large size, and spirited execution ; it is of silver ; the front half of the figure being gilt, from the dotted line Avhich crosses the body. The collar is of silver, bearing an escutcheon of a German Duke ; to this a chain is appended, Avliich secures the head when lifted. The ground is gilt, and chased in high relief, with storks, serpents, and snails, amid rockwork and plants. Fig. 2. STAG, of silver, gilt all over, the collar set with a garnet. Silver bands encircle this curious figure, to which are appended many small silver escutcheons engraved with the arms and names of distinguished officers of the Court of Saxe- Gotha ; the latest being " Herr von Mangenheim Gamer Juncker und Eegierung Assessor in Gotha, d. 15, Augusti, A°- 1722". It has probably been a prize for shooting, successively won by those persons whose arms decorate it. Fig. 3. DIANA, ON A STAG. The figures are very carefully executed in silver. The neck of the stag separates at the collar. The stand is made to represent a rough country, crossed by a stream, over which the stag is leaping. Fig. 4. ELEPHANT, of silver, entirely gilt. The driver seated on his neck is represented in oriental costume. The soldiers in the castle, on his back, are in the dress of the troopers of the low countries at the early part of the seventeenth century, with buff-coats, bandoleers, and matchlocks. The moulding round the upper part of the castle conceals the junction of the cup and cover. Fig. 5. CAT, seated. The head removes at the junction concealed by the collar. It is gilt all over, and is of very early German workmanship, probably the end of the fifteenth century ; the Elephant ranks next in date ; the Diana was made about the middle of the sixteenth century ; and the Stags executed in the latter half of the same period. Scale ; one- third the sisc of originals. •'■:^^\ /M PLATE XL I. SILVER-GILT SALTCELLAR. THE Goldsmitlis of the middle ages appear to have especially delighted in the construction of quaint decorations for the table. The abundance and variety of design exhibited in such works, has been partially displayed in the present volume, and may be further illustrated by the great continental collections ; while the inventories of noble households give detailed descriptions of others now destroyed. In those of Charles V of France, and his brother the Duke of Anjou, we find mention of several possessing as much grotesque originality as that here engraved; which displays the continuance of the taste until the latter part of the sixteenth century, when it was probably executed. It appears to have been intended for a saltcellar, the salt being received in the large shell of the then rare pecten of the South Seas, which is edged with a silver-gilt rim chased in floriated ornament, and further enriched by two garnets inserted in the valve ; to this portion of the shell is affixed the half-length figure of a lady, the bosom formed of the shell of the smaller orange-coloured pecten, upon which a garnet decoration is affixed ; the back of the figure is richly chased, and in front, below the waist, a large crystal is affixed ; a cut crystal also forms the caul of the head-dress, both receiving a deep green tinge from the foil upon which they are placed. The shell is supported by the tail of the whale on one side, and on the other by the serpent which twists around it ; in this reptile's head a turquoise is set, the eyes are formed of garnet, and the tongue of red onyx. The whale is of silver-gilt repousse, and chased ; the eyes and tongue of onyx ; upon the head and tail two small toads are perched ; within the mouth is a small nude figure of Jonah. The base represents the sea, filled with whales and marine monsters executed in low relief. It was purchased by Lord Londesborough of Mr. David Falcke, who procured it from the collection of a nobleman in Stockholm, where it -was considered the work of an Augsburg goldsmith. Scale; one-fourth less than the orvjinal. i'^i . A. 0' K [^ irj }: ^ k', (£ ¥ fl, S §> [? n_ 2^ PLATE XLII. DECORATIVE DRINKING VESSELS. Fig. 1. HANAP, of wrought metal, gilt. This beautiful specimen of German art belongs to the middle of the fifteenth century ; and greatly resembles one in the collection of antiquities at Weiner-Neustadt, which is known to have been made in commemoration of the peace concluded there, between Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, and Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in 1463. This has been engraved in Shaw's Decorative Arts of the Middle Ages, pi. 9. Another, of the same general design, but varied in its details, is given in Heideloff's Ornamentik des Mittelalters, part 12, pi. 6, to which he assigns the date of 1510. Fig. 2. CUP, formed of an entire pearl shell; mounted in silver and richly chased. Upon the summit is a figure of Neptune riding on a sea-horse, and bearing in one hand a trident, in the other a cornucopia. The stem is formed by a female satyr, who carries a dolphin under each arm. Fig. 3. CUP, also formed from the Indian pearl shell, but not denuded of its outer coating, to which is affixed a silver festoon ornament, and the Spanish regal badge of the Pomegranate. It is supported by a silver-gilt figure, which stands on a basement of waves and sea monsters. Fig. 4. OSTRICH, bearing in its mouth a horseshoe, indicating the power of dio-esting iron it was once fabled to possess. The body is formed of a cocoa-nut shell, the mountings are silver partially gilt. Upon the head is affixed a piece of quartz showino- a vein of gold; a small nutmeg forms a handle to the lid on the back. The neck unscrews, and is chased all over. Fig. 5. STORK, bearing in its beak an infant, in accordance with the old German nursery tale, that the King of the Storks is the bringer, and protector of babies. It is chased all over, the eyes are formed of rubies, and one wing takes off, that liquid may be placed in the body, and imbibed through the neck by a hole in the crown of the bird. It was probably a quaint fancy for some German noble nursery, at the early part of the 17th century, to which period the whole of the articles in this plate maybe assigned, with the exception of Fig. 1, of which the date has been o^iveu above, and Fig. 2, which belongs to the latter half of the 16th century. Scale ; Figs, 1 and 2 one-half the original sizes; Figs. 3, 4 and 5 one- third the sise of originals. PLATE XLIII. ARMOUR OF A KNIGHT. THIS superb cap-d-pie suit of armour was purchased at the sale of the Bernal Collection ; and is remarkable for its variety and completeness, comprising the entire series of defences adopted by the knight in arming for war, or practising in the tournament. In the Catalogue of the Collection it is described as " probably Italian, about 1530"; but the double-tailed lion on the shield (the arms of Luxembourg), as well as the leopards' heads on various portions of the suit, show that it was fabricated for some noble of central Europe. In the armoury at Goodrich Court is a suit greatly resembling this, which Sir Samuel Meyrick considered to be of German manufacture, " though it had a complete Italian outline," and he fixed its date to 1555. The present suit is delicately channeled and engraved ; and the engraving has been richly gilt. The helmet has a visor and beaver ; the breast-plate is provided with a lance rest ; the gusset under the right arm is protected by a roundel ; a large pauldron covers the left shoulder ; and the fingers of the gauntlet for the hand on that side are not separate, as they are upon the right one, but only bend at the joints, because the hand was solely used to hold the bridle. A jufon of chain mail appears beneath the tasseis, and the boots are also of chain mail, with steel toes. Fig. 1 exhibits the grande-garde, used as an additional defence in the tournament, consisting of mentoniere w\A placcate, having a manteau-d'anncs, upon which the wearer's cognizance is engraved, and which covered the left arm as it held the bridle ; to the lower placcate tuilles are affixed by leathern straps, and are so constructed as to defend the thighs of the knight when seated on his charger. Fig. 2 is a helmet of a light kind, with a visor to protect the lower part of the face. Fig. 3, an extra protection for the face and neck, to be used occasionally, and termed a volantc-inece. Fig. 4 is a casque, with an umbril over the forehead ; a hi"-h comb above the head; and a moveable ear-piece at the side, pierced with holes, in form of a rose, for convenience of hearing. Fig. 5 is the plume-holder, occasionally affixed on the helmet ; the socket for the feathers is seen on the centre bar of steel. Fig. fi is a pauldron for the left shoulder, the upper part provided with a raised pass-guard to turn the edge of a lance from the neck. Fig. 7 is a garde-de-hras for the left elbow, to be used when the arm was bent and in a fixed position on horseback. Fig. 8 is the shield, shghtly raised in the centre, and having a broad rim divided into compartments, each containing a quatrefoil ; the centre of the shield is divided into three pyramidal spaces, vi'ithin each are lions rampant, having double tails. Two fragments of horse armour, belonging to the same suit, have been preserved ; and are shovpn in the woodcut below. They consist of the chanfron for the head of the steed ; and the cantle of the saddle ; the ornament upon each is similar in character to that upon the armour of the knight, and has also been engraved and gilt, showing that the horse was caparisoned as richly as his rider. Scale ; one inch and a quarter to the foot. PLATE XLIV. IVORY CASKETS. THESE beautiful works of medigeval art were generally fabricated for wedding presents, and the upper one may have been constructed for some royal lady of the French court, as it is decorated all over with fleurs-de-lis. The lower part of the box in front is nearly covered by the lock, on one side of which is seated a bag-piper, on the other side a countrywoman, as shown in the cut. A dance of peasants occupies the centre of the back of the box. On the lid are grotesque monsters, and in front a sagittary attacks a similar nondescript. The mount- ings of the box are of brass gilt, and it appears to be a work of the fourteenth century. The lower casket exhibits more of the taste of the Kenaissance, and belongs to the succeeding century. Grotesque monsters, and semi- classic masks cover the lid ; arabesque ornaments entwined with female figures and satyrs the front and sides ; while the back exhibits a satyr holding cornucopise, from which elaborate foliations emanate. The mountings are all of silver-gilt. ^ccde ; one-third less tlian the originals. FINIS. 'fw/ Jl