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MEDIAEVAL PLATE.
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83
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about
forty ounces Troy. In the centre is an emblema, a spirited scene, the
drinking-match of Bacchus and Hercules, containing eight figures—the
gods, the Fauns, and a panther. It is enclosed within a frieze,
displaying in low relief the triumph of Bacchus over his competitor,
into which enter twenty-nine figures and five animals, elephants,
panthers, goats. The broad rim is adorned with equidistant garlands,
alternately of acanthus and laurel, in which are set sixteen aurei from
Hadrian to Geta inclusive : or all the princes of the surname
Antonini. This treasure was found in the year 1777, at Eennes, in
digging up the foundations of an old house, deposited in a vault
together with a heap of coins from Nero downwards ; and what is of
interest as marking the time, and perhaps occasion of its concealment,
a necklace made of aurei of Postumus, set in frames of open work.1
The
foregoing remarks on the extreme rarity of antique casla-turae will
surprise many archaeologists who behold the numerous silver vases, all
supposed discovered in Pompeii or Cumae, that have within the past
twenty years enriched so many cabinets both national and
private. The phenomenon may be accounted for by the existence of a
complete manufactory of such relics at Naples, whence a continuous
supply pours into the market through various artfully disguised
channels. The imitations of the antique are wonderfully exact, and they
are coated with an oxide, of a thickness that it would defy Old Time
with the aid of his twenty centuries to rival.
MEDIEVAL PLATE.
As
soon as the social life of the Middle Ages had settled down into
sufficient security for any class to enjoy opulence, and to venture
upon the indulging in luxury, the nobles almost vied with their
predecessors of the Lower Empire in the amount and elaborateness of the
silver and even gold plate under which
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