Onyx and Sardonyx 181
so as to display a white or light figure against a darker coloured background. Cameos are mostly engraved in Paris and Italy, but the plates of onyx used by these cameo engravers are prepared at Oberstein and Idar. The tool of the cameo engraver is known as a style.
Perhaps the most famous stone cameo in history was that sardonyx upon which Queen Elizabeth's portrait was cut, set in the famous ring which she gave the Earl of Essex as a pledge of her friendship. When sentenced to death, Essex sent this ring to his cousin, Lady Scroop, to deliver to Elizabeth. By mistake the messenger gave the ring to Lady Scroop's sister, Countess Nottingham, an enemy of the Earl; the vengeful Countess did not deliver the talis-manic ring, and in consequence the fated Earl was executed. The Countess Nottingham confessed this act of vengeance to Elizabeth when the Countess was on her death-bed; which, according to the chroniclers of Elizabeth's life history, so infuriated the Queen that she shook the dying noblewoman, saying, " God may forgive you, but I cannot."
Sardonyx—supposed by the ancients to be an entirely different mineral from onyx—was be-
