the
objects in gold found in this crypt, my father and I were called upon
to examine them with the utmost care. We had thus an opportunity of
studying the particular character of Etruscan jewellery, and, holding
thereby in our hands the thread which was to guide us through our
researches, we set earnestly to work. The subsequent discoveries of
Campanari at Toscanella, and of the Marquis Campana at Caere, and the
excavations lately made at Vulci with so much intelligence by our
friend Alessandro Francois, by Prince Torlonia and by M. Noel des
Vergers, have revealed new treasures to us and have furnished models of
the most exquisite elegance.
Our
first object was to detect the processes by which the ancients worked.
We remarked that all their Jewellery, except that intended for funeral
ceremonies, instead of owing the raised parts to chiselling or
engraving, were formed by separate pieces brought together and placed
one upon the other. This it is, in my opinion, that gives it so
peculiar and marked a character, derived rather from the expression, as
it were, of the spontaneous idea and inspiration of the artist, than
from the cold and regular execution of the workman. Its very
imperfections and omissions, purposely made, give to the workmanship
that artistic character altogether wanting in the greater number of
modern works, which, owing to a monotonous uniformity produced by
punching and casting, have an appearance of triviality depriving them
of all individual character—that charm which so constantly strikes us
in the productions of the ancients.
The
first problem then that offered itself to our attention was to find the
means of soldering together, with the utmost neatness and delicacy, so
many pieces of extraordinary thinness. Among others, those almost
invisible grains, like little pearls, which play so- important a part
in the ornamentation of antique jewellery, presented difficulties
nearly insurmountable. We made innumerable essays, employing all
possible agents and the most powerful dissolvents to compose proper
solder. We consulted the writings of Pliny, Theophilus and Benvenuto
Cellini; we neglected no other sources of instruction with which
tradition could furnish us. We studied the work of Indian jewellers and
those of the Maltese and Genoese, but it was only in a remote corner of
the marches at St. Angelo in Vado, a little district hidden in
