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Marlborough from Stosch for 1000 guineas); and the principal gems of the cabinets formed during the same years are known to have been acquired at sums falling not far short of the above in magnitude. I have lately seen a cameo of Roman work, and that by no means of the highest order, a Roma crowned by Victory, for which the Empress Josephine, herself a collector, paid 10,000 francs; and at her command Denon, then Director of the Musée Impériale, selected from the gems. there preserved a sufficient number to form a complete parure for the wear of this unfortunate lady, the very impersonation of refined and elegant extravagance. These gems, although mounted in a suite of ornaments intended, from their origin, to form a part of the crown jewels of France, never reverted to the Paris Cabinet of Antiques after the fall of the Empress, but were subsequently to her decease dispersed amongst the various collections of European amateurs. It is to be hoped that Denon had reconciled his duty with his loyalty by selecting those camei which were more recommendable by the beauty of the material than by the perfection of the work. At this same date also the art itself had reached the highest point to which it has ever attained since its revival; for it is within this same space of some fifty years that we meet with the names of Costanzi, Rega, Pikler, and Marchant; and never before was skill in this profession so profusely rewarded, instances of which will be found adduced in the notices hereafter given of these engravers.

Many causes, however, may be assigned for the sudden decline of the passion for collecting gems among the wealthy classes of this country: one of considerable influence was, without dispute, the uncertainty introduced into the study by the unlimited fabrication of professed antique works, and by the forging of the artists' names, a species of fraud now first introduced, or at least extensively practised, and of which the

Poniatowsky collection may be cited as the most glaring example. And this was a deception extremely difficult of detection; and one by means of which amateurs of little experience were frequently defrauded out of immense sums. After Payne Knight, the acknowledged chief of English archæologists, had been so notoriously taken in by the famous "Flora" of Pistrucci, all the others began to lose confidence in their own judgment, and refused to expend thousands in the purchase of "antique" works, the living authors of which might possibly come forward, as Pistrucci did, to assert their own claims to the honour of having produced them. And no other branch of archæology demands the union of so many qualifications in the collector to enable him to advance on tolerably safe ground in making his acquisitions, seeing that a knowledge of mineralogy, of the mechanical processes of engraving used at different periods, as well as an accurate discrimination of the respective styles of art, and, above all, the constant examination of large numbers of all descriptions of engraved stones, are absolutely indispensable before proceeding to the commencement of a collection which is intended to possess any real value. All these causes, together with the other drawbacks to the pleasure of this pursuit, enumerated in Duke Ernst's letter to Goethe, respecting the proposed purchase of the cabinet of Hemsterhuis, powerfully operated towards the discouragement of this study, both on the Continent, and, more especially, in this country.

Last, but most powerful of all, came the revival of the taste for mediæval art; beginning with the study of its architecture, and thence naturally diverging into an exclusive admiration of the smaller productions of the same school in metal-work, and wood and ivory carvings; objects of a character so much more adapted by their quaint grotesqueness and barbarous vigour to captivate the unrefined taste of

the amateurs of northern climes; and where a sufficient amount of knowledge to avoid any very damaging mistakes may be obtained with but little trouble, or natural sagacity, or acquired experience. It is satisfactory to observe how much more at present the attention of collectors is again being directed towards these little monuments of perfect taste, treasures only to be truly appreciated by the educated and practised eye; and how rapidly the mania is ebbing for the acquisition of the Gothic monstrosities so much sought after a few years ago. Now, when collections are brought to the hammer, the most ardent competition is displayed for the possession of the elegant art of the Renaissance as manifested in its majolica and bronzes; and thus the public taste is insensibly led back to the fountain-head of that very school -the study of the actual productions of classic times. This is shown by the great rise in the value of antique statuettes whenever they are offered for sale-objects in which is often displayed the utmost perfection of antique skill; and from the love of these a fresh appreciation of the importance of antique gems is rapidly springing up, as the vigorous competition amongst amateurs for the best gems of the cabinets lately disposed of abundantly testifies.

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"This estimable man (Hemsterhuis) had been led to strive indefatigably after both the Moral as regards the soul, and the Tasteful as regards the senses; and this with a sagacious acuteness peculiar to himself. If a person is to be thoroughly imbued with the former, then ought he always to be surrounded by the latter; hence for a private person who cannot go to the expense of large collections, but who yet is unable to dispense with his accustomed enjoyment of art, even when on a journey,-for such a person a cabinet of engraved gems is in the highest degree desirable; he is everywhere accompanied by the most delightful of all things, one that is precious and instructive without being burdensome, whilst he enjoys without interruption the most noble of all his possessions.

"But to attain this end it is not enough merely to will it; for the carrying it out, besides the money, opportunity above all things is required. This last was not wanting to our friend living as he did as he did upon the passage between England and Holland, by keeping watch upon the perpetual com

mercial intercourse between the two countries, and upon the treasures of art constantly passing to and fro in that commerce, he gradually, by means of purchase and of exchange, had succeeded in forming a fine collection of about seventy gems, in doing which he had derived the most trustworthy assistance from the advice and interposition of that excellent gem-engraver Natter.

"Of this collection the Princess Galitzin had in great measure watched the formation, and thus gained knowledge, taste, and a liking for the pursuit; and at that time she was its possessor, as the bequest of a departed friend, who always appeared to her as present in these treasures.

"The philosophy of Hemsterhuis I could only make my own, together with its grounds and its ideas, by translating them into my own language. The Beautiful and the pleasure derived from it consists, as he expresses himself, when we behold and conceive comfortably the greatest possible number of images in one and the same moment. I, on the contrary, must assert that the Beautiful consists when we contemplate the normally Living in its greatest activity and perfection, by which we feel ourselves excited in a lively manner to the reproduction of the same, and also placed simultaneously in a state of the highest activity.

"Accurately considered, all that has been said is one and the same thing, only expressed by different persons; and I refrain from saying more, for the Beautiful is not so much a giver as a promiser. On the other hand, Ugliness, which has its origin in the stopping short of its end, of itself causes. us to stop still, and to hope for, aim at, and expect nothing at all.

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Accordingly, I fancied that I could interpret his 'Letter on Sculpture' according to the above rule, consistently with my own sentiments; and further, his little work On Desire'

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