AGATE.
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Great
collections of antique onyxes, engraved as cameos and intaglios, are in
Vienna and Berlin; in the first is to be seen the apotheosis of
Augustus, which is ten lines broad and six high, and contains twenty
perfect figures; this was purchased by the Emperor Rudolph at
Frankfort-oir-the-Maine, for fifteen thousand ducats.
The
celebrated cameo in the Vatican Museum, at" Rome, is of agate, and
represents Augustus. Italy has always been the great emporium for
genuine antique onyxes and cameos, and occasionally we still behold
fine specimens of art in the possession of travellers coming from
Europe. A very fine collection of antique cameos and intaglios in
precious gems and antique pastes, likewise cameos and intaglios of
modern artists, I have seen in this country, in the possession of
Thomas G. Clemson, Esq., of Philadelphia.
I
have in my collection a good onyx of the Emperor Vi-tellius; a splendid
cameo of Bacchus, of two and one fourth inches long and one half inch
thick; one of Antony and Cleopatra; also a splendid intaglio.
In
Paris are several celebrated cameos, worthy the notice of travellers
going to Europe: the Brunswick Vase was cut from a single stone, and
has the form of a cream pot, about Seven inches high and two and a half
broad on its outside, which is of a brown color; there are white and
yellow groups of raised figures, representing Ceres and Triptole-mus in
search of Proserpine; Agrippina and her two children, composed of two
layers, brown and white; the Quarrel of Minerva with Neptune, which
consists of three layers; Venus on a sea-horse, surrounded with cupids,
&c.
The
Museo Borbonico at Naples contains an onyx measuring eleven inches by
nine—the apotheosis of Ptolemy on one side, and the head of Medusa on
the other; both are splendid specimens of art, and supposed to be the
largest in existence.
