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Vitrum Annulare, Pastes

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VITRUM ANNULARE.                         341
" vitreas gemmas pro veris." She having demanded that. a condign example should be made of the at once cheat and traitor, the Emperor sentenced him to be exposed to the lions in the arena. The poor wretch stripped naked was thrown in, the door of the den was raised, when out strutted a capon ; and the culprit got off with the fright alone, Gallienus proclaiming by the voice of a crier that the cheater had been cheated : " imposturam fecit et passus est."
The finest example of an antique piece of imitative jewelry that I have ever seen was found amongst other Roman remains at Shefford, Bedfordshire, and is now in the museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. It is in bronze thickly gilt, about eight inches over, and formed by three concentric circles connected by pieces radiating from the centre, and set at all the intersections with large paste Emeralds and Amethysts of beautiful colour, retaining their first polish. Its pattern is unique for a Roman fibula, but is identical with that of the head of a monster ring, once shown me, a present from the Great Mogul to an Austrian envoy some two centuries ago : the concentric circles whereof contained every gem known to the Hindoos except the Diamond.
The best antique intaglio Pastes that ever came before me in their original mountings were ; one found near Rome in the spring of 1850, its subject the Town of Troy upon a skilful imitation of the banded Agate, retaining its antique massy bronze ring almost entire ; and another, the bust of Abundantia in imitative lapis-lazuli of large size mounted in gold for a pendant (Eastwood). A singular recognition of the prototype of a paste, the genuineness of which is beyond all question, once delighted myself. Amongst the Praun Gems was a paste, of Thalia seated, holding a mask on her knee. At the sale of the Uzielli Collection in 1861,
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