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Vitrum Annulare, Pastes

Vitrum Annulare, Pastes Page of 453 Vitrum Annulare, Pastes Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
VITRUM ANNULARE.
347
Greek and Etruscan prosperity. They also decorate the neck­laces of the same period of art. Though their surface is now dulled by Time's corroding tooth, yet doubtless, when first sent out from the jeweller's shop at Sardis or Clusium, they displayed more than the polish and the beauty of the Emeralds, Sapphires, and Rubies, whose unattainable rarity they were intended to re­place. This notice of early Pastes Fortune has put it in my power to illustrate most strikingly by the description of two extraordi­nary specimens now adorning the choice collection of Mr. Bale, acquired from that of L. Fould. The first, an ellipse about an inch in length, is translucent, and streaked with wavy clouds of green, like the Venetian schmelze, through which layers of gold aventurine are disseminated in undulations, presenting the most charming contrasts ever achieved in this art. A perforation through its axis shows it was designed to form the centre orna­ment of a necklace. The other is on many accounts yet more remarkable. The Paste, of the same form as the preceding, is opaque, and composed of wavy patterns in the most brilliant colours, arranged as in the mille-fiore glass of Venice, But the most interesting circumstance is its retaining its original setting, being encased in a gold collet covered with a cable plait in the usual Etruscan taste, and furnished with a massy three-sided shank, affixed to the side with pins, so that the jewel is mounted like a scarabeoid. The weight and elaborateness of the setting manifests the high value set upon the Paste by its original Etruscan owner. Could he have taken it for some rare and unique production of nature ; or was it merely prized as an ex­ample, of the skill of the Egyptian glass-worker, brought for a precious gift to some wealthy Lucumo ? The examination of this skilful combination of numerous patterns, much resembling the old Italian mosaic " a tapete," seems to throw light upon the obscure allusion to some such manufacture given by Theo-phrastus, of the " stones brought from Asia," and already quoted under Sardonyx, as composed of earthy minerals, some pulverised, others softened by fire, and so put together.
The Egyptian glass-workers of the very earliest times pro­duced mosaics most minutely finished, and sufficiently small to be set in rings and in pendants to necklaces. The mode was in-
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