And
this remark of his has suggested to me the suspicion that the gold
rings with broad highly polished oval faces, never engraved, so
frequently met with in Campanian tombs, were intended for
finger-mirrors, like those of the Hindoo women at present, although the
latter now are set with a bit of looking-glass.
The Egyptians at some unknown time invented the art of Niellatura, in
long-after ages carried to such astonishing perfection by the
Florentines of the Quattro-cento school. This may be deduced from
Pliny's somewhat obscure statement (xxxiii. 46) : " Egypt stains
silver in order to see her darling Anubis upon the plate ; and paints the
metal instead of chasing it." The pigment was made by adding one-third
by weight of the finest copper, and as much of sulphur, to some silver
(in filings probably) : this mixture was roasted in a pot with a luted
cover until the cover opened of itself. It seems to have preceded, and
been a substitute for, enamel, afterwards applied to the metal in the
way described below.
The
Niello * of the Florentine goldsmiths, so justly celebrated, was a
somewhat similar composition; Cellini's recipe for it being to take one
part silver, two copper, three lead, melt them together, and pour into
an earthen pot half full of sulphur : the mass to be ground up when
cool, and used like enamel. To apply it the design was first engraved
in line upon a polished silver plate, precisely after the manner of a
copper-plate (which style of engraving originated in this) ; the
powdered niello was then laid on the face and fused upon it by the
application of heat. The superfluous mass being removed by polishing,
the lines in the silver came out filled with a dark violet : the μίλαν of the Byzantines, the nigettum of the later Latins
* From "Nigellam," the Low Latin equivalent of the technical Byzantine name μί\αν.
