he is the first monarch recorded to have formed a cabinet of gems. The Spartan magistrates in the time of Pausanias (the Mithridates. Yellow Sard. second century) used for their official seal the portrait of Polydorus, one of their ancient kings, but no reason is assigned why he was selected in preference to all the others. Areius, King of the Lacedemonians, ends his letter addressed to the High Priest Onias thus:-" The seal is an eagle grasping a serpent in his talons" (Josephus, xii. 5). In the Amphitryon,' in the dialogue between Mercury and Sosias, we have, Ubi ea patera nunc est? M. Est in cistula 6 Signi dic quid est ? Quid me captas carnufex ?" "Where is the bowl now? It is probable that Plautus, whose plays are all adaptations of older Greek comedies, had some ancient authority for making this the device of the signet of the Argive king. The frequency of the portraits of Alexander the Great, upon gems very different ages, arose from their being worn as amulets down to a late period. Trebellius Pollio, speaking of the family Macriana, says that the females wore the portrait of Alexander of Macedon, engraved on their hair-cauls, their bracelets, and in their rings; and adds that it was a common belief that persons who carried about with them a portrait of Alexander in silver or gold, prospered in everything they did; and even so late as the time of St. Chrysostom, he mentions (Hom. ii.) the practice of wearing his bronze coins fastened to the head or feet, as charms to keep off sickness. Cicero says (De Fin. v. 1), "I cannot forget Epicurus even if I wished it, for our friends have his portrait not only in paintings, but even engraved on their cups and in their rings." I once had a portrait of this philosopher, engraved in a late though still antique style, on a fine Sardonyx, with the cha E racters I KƐ thus placed-an early instance of such an arrangement of the letters of a name, afterwards so frequent in Byzantine times. His portrait is easily recognised by his thin cheeks, long hooked nose, and ample beard, more adapted to the character of a Cynic than to the idea one would be inclined to form of the aspect of him that taught pleasure to be the chief good. This too illustrates the passage of the poet, who speaks of a certain personage as being Barbatus, macer, eminente naso, Ut credas Epicuron oscitari." "Him, bearded, lean, and with projecting nose, One of the omens announcing the coming fall of Nero was the presentation to him by his favourite Sporus, as he was taking the auspices on New Year's Day, of a ring engraved with the Rape of Proserpine-a most unlucky subject, being the received symbol of death, and appropriated as a decoration to sarcophagi. Nothing in the eyes of a Roman could be more ill-omened than such a New Year's Gift; altogether as prophetic of future woe, as the unaccountable legend on the marriage medal of Mary and Francis II., “Hora nona Dominus Jesus experavit Heli clamans," words so inappropriate to the occasion that they must have been suggested by Atropos herself to the designer of the medal, in bitter irony of the festive day. Chiflet asserts (but I fear only on the authority of some medieval writer) that Augustus used a signet engraved with a tortoise and butterfly, in allusion to his favourite maxim, Festina lente ("No more haste than good speed"); but this conceit savours too much of the CinqueCento taste to be really authentic. The Sapphire of Constantius, lately mentioned, from the legend cONSTANTIVS AVG., engraved so conspicuously over the principal figure, was most likely executed by that emperor's order, as his private signet; and the Calcedony with the bust and legend of Mauricius, in the Mertens-Schaafhausen Collection, is, if genuine, a most interesting personal relic of that unfortunate prince. Visconti (Esposizione di Gemme Antiche,' No. 497) thus describes a portrait supposed to be that of Constantius II. :— "Impression of an intaglio in Rock Crystal, from the Florentine Museum; a youthful bust wearing the paludamentum, and appearing to offer, in his physiognomy, the features of Constantius, son and successor of Constantine the Great." But his next (No. 498) is a portrait of the highest historical interest :-" A most singular Carnelian, though of miserable execution, inscribed ALARICVS. REX. GOTHORVM. The bust is in front-face, and has upon the shoulders a kind of stole called lorum in those times, which formed part of the habit of ceremony of the emperors and of the consuls." It may be conjectured that this was cut for the official seal of the secretary of the Gothic king. Had it been intended for his private signet, it would doubtless have been executed on a stone of greater intrinsic value-a Sapphire or an Amethyst. Portraits of this late epoch, when they do occur on gems, are generally given in front-face and very deeply cut, showing that the mechanical part of the arts, and the ability of sinking intagli with facility in the hardest stones, still survived the total extinction of all knowledge of design. Front-face portraits had ere this come into fashion upon the more important productions of the Mint, such as the medallions; and very shortly after entirely banished profiles from the obverses of the gold currency. In the De la Turbie Collection, No. 49, is a Carnelian engraved with arabesques, and a Greek inscription, KOMNHNOC TOY CEBACTOY, "Comnenus, son of the Emperor," or in modern phrase, Prince Comnenus. This is consequently an intaglio belonging to the twelfth century, during which that family held the imperial power; and is also the latest instance that has come under my notice of an engraved stone, the date of which can be approximately fixed. It supplies another argument in support of the opinion that the art of gem-engraving was re-introduced into Italy by the artists fugitive from Constantinople in 1453. Pepin used for his signet a head of the Indian Bacchus, and Charlemagne one of Serapis; but there is little doubt that, at that period of ignorant orthodoxy, the first passed muster as a portrait of Moses, the second, with better reason, as that of Christ himself. Probably the most famous signet of later times is that of M. Angelo, preserved in the Paris Collection. It is a Sard, engraved with a group representing a Bacchic Festival, quite in the Renaissance style. In the exergue is a boy fishing, the rebus upon the name of the artist, Gio. Maria da Pescia. Many connoisseurs however still hold the gem to be an undoubted antique. Of this relic the following curious story is told-In the last century, as the Abbé Barthelemy was exhibiting the rarities of the Bibliothèque to a distin guished antiquary of the day, he suddenly missed this ring, whereupon, without expressing his suspicions, he privately despatched a servant for an emetic, which when brought he insisted on the savant's swallowing then and there; and in a few minutes he had the satisfaction of hearing the signet tinkle in the basin held before the unlucky victim of his love of antiquities. There are more paste copies of this gem, some of them excellent imitations, than of any other intaglio in existence, not so much on account of the actual beauty of the composition (which, although fine, is by no means of the first class) as from the celebrity of the signet due to the fame of its original possessor. An antique ring lately came under my notice, which, though its history is quite unknown, one feels tempted to believe must have been the actual signet of some empress of the fifth century. A female portrait, front-face, like that of Galla Placidia, deeply though rudely cut on an octagonal Amethyst, was set in a massy gold ring of a very uncommon but elegant design, representing a cable of many strands, the shank gradually swelling from the middle towards the head, which thus was flattened out sufficiently to receive the stone. The work was executed with the greatest precision, corresponding fully to the elegance of the design-an unusual circumstance in antique rings, especially those of Roman date, which are for the most part clumsy in form, the only object kept in view by the ancient goldsmith being to make them fit comfortably upon the finger without the risk of turning round upon it. it. And now that the subject of antique settings is once more brought before us, I must mention a splendid Greek signet of solid gold, engraved with the head of a Nymph, of the best period of Sicilian art, proving that rings 5 Now in the Uzielli Collection. |