irregularly en cabochon, the
form being frequently quite pleasing ; if the turquoise were thin the
back was coated with pitch to bring out the color, and on the surface
was engraved some short formula from the Koran, such as "Allah be
praised! " or "Allah is great! " Occasionally the Shah's portrait was
the subject.
In
the Roman world entire rings of yellow amber were sometimes formed, and
in a few instances figures or heads have been engraved in relief upon
the chaton. Their execution need not have presented any greater
difficulty than did the carving of the many small amber figures which
have come down to us from ancient times. A carved amber ring in the
Franks Bequest of the British Museum is beautifully formed with
full-relief figures of Venus and of Cupid on either side. It is cut out
of a single piece of amber, and is considered to be the finest example
extant of Roman carving in that material,59 but unfortunately is considerably damaged.
Pliny
declares that in his time amber ornaments were almost exclusively for
women's wear ; indeed, a few years later, Artemidorus, in his "
Oneirocritica," an interpretation of dreams, after saying that amber
and ivory rings were only appropriate for women, proceeds to assert
that this was true of all kinds of rings.60 There are but a
very few ivory rings in the British Museum, although the collection
includes several bone rings, probably for wear on the thumb. The
relief-carving of masks has
59 Hodder
M. Westropp, "A Manual of Precious Stones and Antique Gems," London,
1874, p. 120. No. 1627 of British Museum Catalogue of the Finger Rings,
Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the Dept. of Antiquities, by F. H.
Marshall, London, 1907.
60 Oneirocritica, lib. ii, cap. 5.
