buried in the earth. The same observation equally applies to the came in Turquois so frequent in collections, a stone which loses its colour so speedily when exposed to damp. Heads in full relief, in Amethyst, Jacinth, and Sard, are often met with, but the same small proportion of true antiques occurs amongst these as amongst the other classes of camei already noticed: a fact easily accounted for when we consider the facility of the execution of these works by the modern process, and the large reward that stimulated the artist's ingenuity to aim at a successful imitation of antique works.

That indeed both busts and statuettes cut out of solid gems were known to the Romans, appears from the numerous authentic portraits of imperial times in this style still preserved to us one of the most famous of which is the bust of Tiberius in a stone like the Turquois, now in the Florence Collection. Pliny states that when the Topazion, or Peridot, was first introduced into Egypt, it became at once a favorite gem; and a statue of Queen Arsinoe, 4 cubits high, was made out of it (of several pieces united, no doubt), and dedicated by her daughter Berenice within the so-called Golden Temple erected to her memory. For this Juba was his authority, but he had himself seen a figure of Nero in armour, 15 inches in height, cut out of a block of Jasper; and also statues of Augustus, in Obsidian, an equally hard material.

I have seen a figure of Osiris in half relief, on a true Ruby, about half an inch long, incontestably antique, and of good Roman work. But most of the "Ruby" camei portraits of modern times are cut in rose Garnets, and foiled up to the proper colour. Some heads also occur cut in relief on Emeralds of such great intrinsic value, that it is almost impossible that any artist, except in the times of imperial magnificence, would have been allowed to use so extravagant a medium

for the exhibition of his skill. There is, however, no class of antiques on the authenticity of which it is harder to decide, than upon these works in relief upon the harder gems.

The Odescalchi cameo now in the Vatican Cabinet, formerly supposed to represent Alexander and Olympia, but according to Visconti, Ptolemy Euergetes and Berenice, is a precious monument both for the beauty of the work and for the great volume of the stone; but the most singular peculiarity of this cameo is that the slab of Sardonyx upon which it is cut is composed of several pieces united together for the purpose, and that in order to conceal the joinings the artist has introduced necklaces upon the necks of the two busts.

In the chapter on Pastes, mention has been made of the large cameo of Bonus Eventus, formed of an excellent imitation of Lapis-lazuli. Caylus, II. LXXXI., gives a drawing of an admirable head of Medusa, 4 by 34 inches in size, and made of a paste subsequently worked over with the diamond point in the same way; and on the same plate he gives a bust of Victory, set in a large antique ring of bronze, which he describes as a perfect imitation of an Onyx of three strata.

Vases also were in use among the Romans, which may be regarded as huge camei, being entirely covered with subjects in relief, such as the famous Agate Carchesium of St. Denys, and others still in existence formed of similar materials. These also were imitated in paste, as the elegant vase of the Museo Borbonico shews, which is entirely covered with a trellis-work of vines, cut out of a delicate white layer, fused upon a dark blue ground; precisely in the same manner as the famous Portland vase was supposed by Wedgwood to have been manufactured. The mention of the latter recals to my mind an idea that struck me in reading the minute account of the coffer of Cypselus, given by Pausanias: in

which one of the compartments "represents Peleus approaching Thetis, from whose hand a serpent rushes at him;" description which seems to me to explain the meaning of one of the much disputed groups upon this vase, in which a youth is approaching a female seated on the ground, who pushes him away with one hand, while a huge crested serpent rises open-mouthed against him from the other. Fragments of vases of this kind are not very rare, and all that I have seen are executed with great taste and delicacy of finish.

A very singular kind of antique paste, something between a mosaic and a cameo, is presented in the small pieces of the size of ring stones, themselves imitating Lapis-lazuli, and inlaid with a pattern of variously coloured pastes, arranged in the form of different objects. Two in the Herz Collection —one a vine leaf, the other a parrot-brought the high price of £10 apiece, being considered unique; one of these (the vine leaf) or an exactly similar one, is figured by Caylus. Here too we may appropriately notice the glass discs stuck into the mortar when still moist, which closes up the tombs in the Roman catacombs. These are usually called the bottoms of drinking-glasses, but all that I have seen appear perfect in themselves, and never to have formed a portion of any other vessel. They contain within their substance rude designs, often portraits of the latest emperors, surrounded by inscriptions, the whole worked out of a stout leaf of gold laid between two pieces of glass afterwards fused together, and thus incorporated within their substance. It seems most probable that they were manufactured expressly for the purpose to which we find them applied, and for that alone, namely, to serve as imperishable memorials of the date: in the same manner as the coins deposited along with the ashes of the deceased in earlier times.

The consideration of this, the latest era of Roman art,

introduces the subject of a very numerous class of camei, apparently belonging to the same period. These are inscriptions cut in relief, in Onyx or burnt Carnelian, and mostly enclosed within a rim of the same layer that the letters are formed of, which last are usually engraved with extreme neatness, and of a shape greatly resembling those of the legends on the coins of the successors of Constantine, when a peculiarly neat compact character replaced the sprawling open types of the previous century. Hence they may be justly assigned to the 4th century, a date with which the purpose of the legends is in strict accordance. Nothing but inscriptions are to be found in this style of engravings in relief; with one exception, an unique cameo in my possession, representing Anubis bearing the caduceus and the palm, the well-known Gnostic device, executed in the precise manner of these inscriptions upon a green and white Onyx, the figure being inclosed within a border left of the upper layer of the stone. The spelling of these legends (usually containing nothing but a name and a good wish, as EGNATINICA "Success to thee, Egnatius!") offers some curious anomalies to the student of the transitional state of the Latin language. The Greek and Latin characters are used indifferently; and the B replaces the v wherever the harder sound of the letter is required, the v being at that time always sounded as our w: thus we have VIBAS LVXVRI HOMO BONE-"Long life to thee, Luxurius, thou good man!" The Greek legends offer perpetually instances of the so-called Romaic pronunciation of the vowels, as XEPETE instead of Xaigere, "Hail"; and are often extremely hard to make out, from this interchange of letters, their similarity of form, and the manner in which they are run into each other. This gave rise to a most absurd mis-translation of one in the Herz Collection, reading ETPATONIKHY TIAINE, which last word

being read MIAINOYZA, was interpreted to convey a very insulting address to the lady instead of a good wish, its actual meaning. Others of these inscriptions only give the name and office of the owners as EPMAAI@N KAICAPOC; and others present maxims, one of which is of frequent occurrence, and of which Caylus remarks that it should be taken as the motto of every philosopher:

ΛΕΓΟΥΣΙΝ Α ΘΕΛΟΥΣΙΝ ΛΕΓΕΤΩΣΑΝ ΟΥ ΜΕΛΕΙ ΜΟΙ·

A most interesting stone of this class, the only one I have seen in its original gold ring, and that of the smallest size, evidently only intended for the top joint of the little finger, bears the legend VTVXI and thus may have been a present to the famous chamberlain of Constantius, the persecutor at once of the Cæsar Julian and of the patriarch Athanasius.

EVCEBI'

The Byzantine period presents us with many camei, often cut on pieces of Sardonyx of uncommon size, and of the most beautiful colours. But as might have been expected from the lateness of the date, the execution of the subjects is very far from corresponding with the perfection of the material, being rude and clumsy in the extreme, the figures seeming to have been hewn out of the upper stratum of the Onyx by some rude instrument; it is possible they may have been scraped out of the stone with a piece of emery, like the coarser scarabs of the Etruscan period: at least, the peculiar roughness of finish of both these classes is difficult to explain in any other manner. The subjects are taken from scripture, the Angelical Salutation is a very favourite one, a circumstance affording some clue to the time of their execution, since the portraits of the Virgin do not appear upon the bezants before the reign of John Zimisces, at the close of the 10th century. Had these camei been the productions of an