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Onyx, Nicolo

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262
ONYX.
marble, as the feminine gender of the noun proves (indicating according to the genius of the language, a precious stone), as well as the notice that these vases were in gold mountings. These seem to be the same collection as what Posidonius describes as Onyx bowls, found in nests, or sets, up to the capacity of two cotylae (nearly one pint). These comparatively small dimen­sions also serve to prove that the precious Onyx, equally with the Agate Murrhina, is here intended, for in the alabaster so-called vases of the most enormous dimensions are easily pro­curable, as the splendid productions of the Voltura fabrique amply manifest in our own times. Epiphanius, as quoted above, speaks of the Oriental princesses as delighting in drinking-vessels cut out of the Onyx. The treasures of Mithridates came to him in part from the inheritance of his ancestor Darius Hys-taspis, in part had been amassed by the Ptolemies, and recently given up to the Pontic king by the Coans, in whose safe keeping they had been deposited by Cleopatra Selene. The greater part, however, was due to his own collecting, which he had prose­cuted with unremitting zeal.
Veltheim (Onyx-gebirge, p. 75) correctly supposes that such vases were cut out of nodules (nieren), made up of concentric layers of Jasper and Calcedony, like the well-known Agate nodules. The ancient artist, adapting tho form of his vase with admirable skill to the natural disposition of the strata in the stone under his hands, obtained a white coating over the coloured body of the vase through which he cut down, thus producing designs in cameo. As works of art, these vases possess consider­able merit ; but infinitely more extraordinary are they, regarded as mineralogical specimens, as will appear upon the consideration of the dimensions of the principal examples preserved. Of these, the most famous is the " Cup of the Ptolemies, a carchesium, or two-handled vase, holding a sextarius (above a pint), being 4-1/2 inches high, by 154-1/2 in circumference, measured over the handles. It is covered with masks, vases, and other Bacchic emblems, admirably executed in relief; and hence its popular appellation, from the notion based upon these embellishments, that it must have been executed for Ptolemy XL, surnamed Dionysos. The style, however, is much more that of the times
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