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Naxium, Emery

Naxium, Emery Page of 384 Naxium, Emery Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
196
NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
the engravers ascertained that the same principle applied by means of blunt points varying in thickness would enable them to sink almost the whole of their design with extreme accuracy, only requiring a slight finish from the cutting medium. This is why many of the archaic Babylonian class exhibit in their mode of execution as extensive, or rather exclusive, employment of the drill, as marks the largest proportion of the Etruscan scarabsei, which still retain, the stamp of their Asiatic origin in their technique, though not in their subjects.
It must be here explained, that the metal point takes no part in cutting the intaglio, but merely serves as a medium in which the acuter particles of the pounded Corundum embed themselves, and bring an infinite number of cutting surfaces, continually renewed, to bear upon the gem. The softer the metal the larger proportion of these cutting particles does it take up and carry ; hence a bronze drill will work faster than one of steel. The modern gem-engraver sets all his drills and cutting tools, however dif­ferently shaped, to work, by making them revolve hori­zontally by means of a lathe driven by the foot, whilst he presses the gem cemented into a handle against the cutting edge. These cutters are, as they are wanted, fixed in a spindle driven by the wheel, which last gives the name to the entire contrivance. On the contrary, the ancient engraver, reversing the operation, brought his drills to bear upon a fixed surface, and turned them merely by means of the bow moved by his right hand, whilst he directed the drill with the left. Thus only is it possible to understand how the an­cients were enabled to operate upon those enormous camei, the extent of which presents to the practical eye difficulties almost insuperable by the modern process. More than one artist could thus have laboured simultaneously upon the same slab of Sardonyx, the simple drill and bow requiring
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