ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

PREFACE

THE term Jewellery is used generally in a very wide sense, and it has been necessary to impose certain limitations upon its meaning for the purpose of the present work. Jewellery may be defined as comprising various objects adapted to personal ornament, precious in themselves or rendered precious by their workmanship. The jewel worn as a personal ornament may be merely decorative, such as the aigrette or the pendant, or it may be useful as well as ornamental, such as the brooch or the girdle. Gems and precious stones are not jewels, in the present sense, until the jeweller's skill has wrought and set them. This definition will be found to correspond with the term minuteria adopted by Italian writers on the goldsmith's art for objects in precious materials employed for the adornment of the person, as distinct from grosseria—those fashioned for household use or ornament.

With the exception of a chapter dealing with Egyptian jewellery, I have confined myself solely to Europe. The work falls into four main divisions. The first deals with the jewellery worn during classical times, and until the ninth century of our era. The second treats of the jewels of the Middle Ages. The third is devoted to the jewels of the Renaissance, and the fourth includes those of subsequent times. In the chapters dealing with Renaissance and later jewellery I have endeavoured to utilise the valuable evidence, hitherto generally overlooked or neglected, which may be derived from the engraved designs and working drawings of jewellers, from personal inventories, and from pictures by the old masters. Perhaps too generous a share of attention has been bestowed on English work; but this may be pardoned when it is remembered that the previous literature of jewellery has been almost entirely from the pens of French and German writers. While fully appreciating the importance and interest of the recent revival of artistic jewellery, I have not thought it necessary, in a book intended mainly for the connoisseur, to give more than a rapid review of the main features of the modern movement, with a brief mention of some prominent craftsmen therein employed. For similar reasons no general account is given of the processes of manufacturing articles of jewellery, though references are made to technical methods when they serve to explain points of artistic importance.

Assistance has been supplied by numerous works. The largest debt is due to the learned art historian Ferdinand Luthmer, whose standard work Gold und Silber has afforded most important aid. From Rücklin's Schmuckbuch I have constantly derived instruction; and Fontenay's Bijoux anciens et modernes has been a storehouse of information. Other books which have been of service are included in the Bibliography.

It is now my duty and pleasure to express my obligations to all those whose unvarying kindness has facilitated my researches. Special thanks are due: to Lady Rothschild, who has presented me with photographs, specially taken for the purpose, of some of her choicest jewels; to Lady Fuller-Eliott-Drake, who at considerable personal inconvenience brought the Drake jewels to London; to Mr. Jeffery Whitehead, who despatched for my use a number of jewels from his collection; to Mr. Max Rosenheim, who, besides placing at my disposal his unrivalled series of engraved designs for jewellery, has read through and corrected the portion of the subject dealing with engraved ornament; to Sir John Evans, k.c.b., who has guided me personally through his splendid collections of early jewellery; and to Dr. Williamson, for assisting me in many ways, and for the loan, on behalf of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, of copyright photographs of the finest enamelled miniature-cases from his catalogue of Mr. Morgan's collection, with leave to describe and reproduce such of them as I might select for this volume.

Among those who have favoured me with permission to publish the treasures in their possession I must gratefully mention Lady Cook (Viscondessa de Monserrate), Lady Ramsay, Lady Monckton, Mrs. Holman Hunt, Mrs. Percy Macquoid, the Marquess of Clanricarde, Viscount Falkland, and Lord Fitzhardinge; also Herr James Simon, of Berlin, and Lieut.-Col. G. B. Croft Lyons, who have presented me with photographs of their jewels. Thanks are also due to Dr. Kitchin, Dean of Durham, for the photograph of St. Cuthbert's Cross; to Dr. Spooner, Warden of New College, for permission and aid in photographing the New College jewels; to Dr. J. Anderson, Director of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, for the loan of blocks of two jewels in the Edinburgh Museum; to Mr. F. G. Hilton Price, who enabled me to photograph the old ledgers in Child's Bank; and to Mr. J. T. Herbert Baily, for leave to reproduce illustrations to my articles on the King's gems and jewels at Windsor Castle in the "Connoisseur" (1902-3). The names of many others, who have kindly lent me jewels or photographs, will be found, attached to the individual objects, in the List of Illustrations.

I would especially thank, amongst others, the following officers of the Continental museums who have generously presented me with photographs of articles of jewellery in the collections under their charge, or have aided me with their advice:—Sir Henry Angst, k.c.m.g., British Consul-General for Switzerland, late Director of the Zurich Museum; M. E. van Overloop, Conservator of the Royal Museums, Brussels; Dr. Lindenschmidt, Director of the Mainz Museum; Dr. Hermann J. Hermann, Keeper of the Imperial Art Collections, Vienna; Dr. Wilhelm Behncke, late of the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin; Dr. H. Graf, Director of the Bavarian National Museum, Munich; Dr. L. Curtius, of the Antiquarium, Munich; and M. J. de Foville, of the Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

Grateful acknowledgment is also due to the officers of the British Museum for the help they have given me, particularly to Mr. Cyril Davenport for numerous valuable suggestions. To my colleagues in the Victoria and Albert Museum I owe cordial thanks for much encouragement and help, particularly to Mr. A. Van de Put for his aid in reading through the proofs of this volume; and above all to Mr. Martin Hardie, a.r.e., who, besides executing the pen-drawings which illustrate the text, has assisted me in various ways, and throughout the whole course of the present work has favoured me with constant advice and suggestions.

H. Clifford Smith

INTRODUCTION

THE love of ornament prompted by vanity is inherent in the human race. A most primitive instinct of human beings is to make their persons more beautiful, more imposing, or more striking by ornamentation. This inclination is as old as dress itself, nay, perhaps, dates even further back. For there are tribes to whom climate and civilisation have not yet suggested the necessity of clothing the body, but who nevertheless possess ornaments of some degree of development. From the rudest of beginnings up to the last refinements of art, jewelled ornaments have ever the same purpose in view—to give prominence to individual parts of the body by means of glittering, beautiful objects which involuntarily draw the eye of the spectator in the desired direction.

Jewellery is not only worn with the purpose of attracting attention and setting off the beauty of the person, but satisfies the desire, not less deep-rooted in humanity, of establishing a distinctive mark of rank and dignity. In fact the wearing of certain kinds of ornaments has at times been fixed by legislation.

Among savages, and races not far removed from barbarism, it may be observed that the love of ornament is chiefly characteristic of men. As civilisation advances it is displayed more and more by women alone. Yet even a century ago, among the most civilised nations of Europe, the "beaux" and "macaronis" adorned themselves with jewellery of all kinds. To-day, however, it is confined, and with greater propriety, almost entirely to women. Desirous always of pleasing, the gentle sex has ever sought to add to its charms by adorning itself with jewels.

Two methods of dealing with the history of the present subject present themselves. One method consists in taking individual classes of jewellery, tracing their complete development, and following the changes they undergo during the various periods of civilisation. By the other—the historical method—all types of jewellery in existence at a particular time are examined side by side within the historical period to which they belong. The general changes that take place at one epoch find an echo in every piece of jewellery that belongs to that epoch. The different classes of jewellery during every period all bear a distinct relationship of style. For instance, the changes which take place in the aspect of the necklace at a particular epoch will be found to occur at the same time in that of the bracelet and girdle. But there may exist the widest divergence in style and idea between a particular piece of jewellery and its successor of a subsequent period. For these reasons an historical and chronological mode of treatment has been adopted, which will allow more completeness of observation, and fuller and more scientific investigation of style and craftmanship. Certain difficulties are nevertheless encountered, because periods and fashions naturally overlap. This is particularly the case in times when communication was not easy; since some people would cling to an old form of jewellery, while others, more travelled or more fashionably minded, would prefer a new.

In proceeding towards a systematic classification of personal ornaments it may be advisable, instead of dealing with the separate ornaments of each period according to their relative importance or prominence, to follow a simpler and more natural plan. Thus, the ornaments dealt with in each succeeding epoch will in every case be those worn: (1) on the head—diadems, tiaras, aigrettes, hair-pins, jewels for the hat and cap, and earrings; (2) on the neck—necklaces and neck-chains hung with numerous varieties of pendants; (3) on the breast—brooches, clasps, buttons; (4) on the limbs—armlets, anklets, bracelets, rings; and (5) on the body and waist—girdles and their various attachments, chatelaines, and miscellaneous pendent ornaments, such as pomanders, scent-cases, rosaries, etc.

A few preliminary words may be said respecting the evolution of some of the various ornaments employed on the different parts of the body.

The custom of decorating the head with jewelled ornaments was probably suggested by the natural idea of encircling it with flowers in token of joy or triumph. The use of diadems was in early times generally reserved for those of noble birth. From the fillets employed for binding the hair, developed circlets, which with the addition of precious stones assumed the dignity of crowns.

The use of earrings as personal ornaments seems to have originated in the East, where they have always been in favour. Earrings formed an important article of jewellery during the classical ages, but they were not commonly worn again in Europe until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At the present moment fashion does not decree their general use.

The necklace—one of the most primitive of ornaments—is worn either close round the throat, loosely round the neck, or low down upon the breast. Occasionally, as among savage peoples, it takes the form of a ring; but as a rule it is formed either of a simple cord, or a chain formed by the appropriate linking together of rings, perforated discs, or pierced balls. Artistic effects are produced by a regular alternation of these details, as well as by the tapering of the chain from the middle towards the ends. Neck-chains with symbolic elements are those worn as orders and as signs of dignity.

The necklace may be further ornamented by a row of pendants, or more generally a single pendent ornament. The pendant thus employed has become, perhaps, the most beautiful of all articles of adornment. It occupies a conspicuous position upon the person, and possibly for this reason has evoked the greatest skill and refinement of the jeweller's art. Its varieties are manifold—from the primitive charm, and the symbolic ornaments of the Middle Ages, to the elaborate pendant, for the most part purely decorative, dating from Renaissance times.

Next comes the important group of ornaments worn chiefly on the breast, comprising brooches, clasps and pins, employed for fastening the dress. All have their origin in the simple pin. To this class belongs the hair-pin, of which the most handsome and varied examples are to be found in ancient work. Unlike modern hair-pins which are provided with two points, they have a single cylindrical or slightly conical stem, pointed at one end, and terminated at the other with a knob or some other finial.

A simple pin for the dress was uncommon in antiquity, and its general use for this purpose belongs to comparatively recent times. Its place was always taken, especially in early periods, by a brooch—an outcome of the pin—which supplied the want of buttons. The brooch, an ornament of very considerable importance, can be traced down from the earliest civilisation, and is a valuable criterion in questions of ethnic movements. The story, however, of the growth of each of the different classes into which primitive brooches may be divided, the periods at which these ornaments made their appearance, and the deductions of ethnographical interest that may be drawn therefrom, must of necessity lie outside the scope of the present work.

All brooches, as has been said, originated from the simple pin, which itself was preceded by and probably derived from a thorn. At an early period this pin, after having been passed through the garment, was for greater security bent up, and its point caught behind the head. Later, in order that the point might be held more securely in the catch, the pin was given a complete turn, which produced the spring, as seen in the common form of our modern safety-pin. Thus constructed, the brooch, though in one piece, may be said to consist of four parts; (a) the acus or pin; (b) the spring or hinge; (c) the catch or locking apparatus, which forms the sheath of the pin; and (d) the bow or back—the framework uniting the spring with the catch.

In addition to the above brooches or fibulæ (group 1)—all developments of the safety-pin type—there are three other large groups of brooches: (2) the circular disc type; (3) the penannular or Celtic brooch; and (4) the ring-brooch. The first of these—the type generally worn at the present day—may be described as a flat disc fitted with a hinged pin. In cemeteries belonging to the Early Iron Age in Southern Europe circular plates have been found fitted with a pin. These plates appear[1] to have been developed by the conversion of a primitive disc of spiral concentric wire into a circular plate. From the brooch of this type sprang the circular brooch of the Roman period, often inlaid with enamel, as well as the splendid circular brooches of Anglo-Saxon times, and all other disc-shaped brooches. In all early periods, and even in Roman times, the bow or safety-pin type of brooch was commoner than the disc and also more practical, as it offered room for the gathered folds of the garment. In modern times the disc-shaped brooch fitted with a hinged or sometimes with a spring pin has been principally used.

The two remaining groups of brooches—(3) the Celtic brooch and (4) the ring-brooch—are both developments of the simple pin in combination with a ring—in the former case penannular and in the latter annular. The Celtic brooch, with penannular ring and long pin, is apparently the result of fitting a pin to a prehistoric form of fastening for the dress—a penannular ring terminating with knobs, known as a mammillary fibula. The ring-brooch with complete ring, and pin of the same length as the diameter of the ring, which was popular in mediæval times, is the outcome of fitting a complete ring of wire to a pin to prevent the head of the pin from slipping through the material—which ring in course of time became the more important member. It is improbable that the Celtic brooch originated in the same way, from the union of a long pin with a small ring. Nor is it likely that these two forms of brooches were evolved the one out of the other by the shortening or lengthening of the pins. As a matter of fact the two appear to have arisen independently side by side.

Bracelets and armlets may be considered together, for though the bracelet is properly only a decoration for the wrist, the term has become descriptive of any ornament worn upon the arm. The bracelet, together with the necklace, were the earliest ornaments used for the decoration of mankind. Amongst savage tribes both were worn in some form or another—the necklace as an ornament pure and simple, but the bracelet serving frequently a practical purpose, sometimes as a shield for the arm in combat, sometimes covered with spikes, and used for offensive purposes. While used universally by women in the form of a band, closed, or open on one side, or else in the shape of a spiral, or fashioned like a chain, the bracelet has been worn from the earliest times in the East by men also, especially by princes as one of the insignia of royalty, and by distinguished persons in general.

Of all jewels the simplest and at the same time perhaps the most interesting and important is the finger ring. It is universally employed as an article of personal ornament, and has been worn by both sexes at almost all times, and in nearly every country. Sometimes it is an object of use as the signet ring, or a token of dignity as the bishop's ring. Sometimes it has a symbolical significance, as the wedding-ring. Sometimes it is purely ornamental. Most finger rings may be said to be formed of two parts—the circular portion which surrounds the finger, known as the hoop or shank, and the enlarged or upper portion which is called the bezel. This latter term, applied to the upper side of the ring, which is broadened to receive an ornament of some kind, generally a stone, seems to have originally designated the basil or projecting flange, that retained the stone in its setting. The term collet, also used for the whole top including the stone or seal, is similarly derived from the flange or collet in which the stone is set. From its box-like shape this part of the ring is also called the chaton.

The belt or girdle was worn round the waist by men as a means of suspending weapons, by women sometimes merely as an ornament, and generally by both sexes for the practical purpose of confining the clothing. It is commonly formed of a band of leather or textile material. The part as a rule which receives particular attention is the fastening. This is either in the form of a clasp, or more often a buckle. The clasp consists of two parts, generally symmetrical, one of which can be hooked into the other. The buckle, another combination of a ring with a pin, is similar to the mediæval ring-brooch, but differs from it in that while the pin of the brooch pierces the material twice, that of the buckle pierces it only once. It may be described as a rectangular or curved rim having one or more hinged pins or spikes attached on one side of it or on a bar across its centre, and long enough to rest upon the opposite side. The buckle is made fast to one end of the girdle; whilst the other end, drawn through on the principle of a slip knot, is kept fast by pushing the point of the pin or tongue through a hole made in the material of the girdle. The girdle is attached by means of sewing a fold of it round the bar or round one side of the rim of the buckle. As a great strain was put upon the doubling of the leather or stuff, this soonest gave way. Consequently a plate of metal was passed round the bar or edge of the buckle, and the two portions of it received the end of the strap between them. The whole was then made fast with rivets. The plate is known as the buckle-plate. One end of the girdle being thus furnished, the other was frequently made to terminate with a metal chape to enable it to pass easily through the ring of the buckle in the process of buckling and unbuckling. This chape is known also as the mordant. The chief point of the girdle to be decorated was the buckle-plate, which was often in one piece with the buckle, or hinged to it. The mordant or tag was commonly decorated too, while ornaments of metal of similar design, sometimes jewelled, were applied at regular intervals to the strap or band of the girdle. In later years the girdle often took the form of a chain, on which, as in the case of chains for the neck and wrists, artistic effects were produced by a regular sequence of links. Fastened by a clasp, it was worn by women chiefly as an ornament, or to carry small objects for personal use. For the latter purpose it was subsequently supplanted by the chatelaine.

JEWELLERY

EARLY JEWELLERY

CHAPTER I

EGYPTIAN AND PHŒNICIAN JEWELLERY

MOST of the forms met with among the jewellery of the civilised nations of later times are found represented in the ornaments of the Egyptians. It is fortunate that important specimens of all descriptions of these have come down to our days. This we owe to the elaborate care which the Egyptians bestowed on the preservation of the dead, and to the strict observance of funeral rites, which induced them to dress and ornament their mummies with a view to future comfort both in the grave and in the after life. The ornaments, however, buried with the dead were frequently mere models of what were worn in life, and the pains taken in making these depended on the sums expended by the friends of the deceased after his death. While those who were possessed of means and were scrupulous in their last duties to the dead purchased ornaments of the best workmanship and of the most costly materials, others who were unable or unwilling to incur expense in providing such objects were contented with glass pastes instead of precious stones, and glazed pottery instead of gold. With the exception of many finger rings worn by both sexes and some female ornaments, the greater number of jewels discovered in the tombs are of inferior quality and value to those which the deceased had worn when living.

A peculiarity of the jewellery of the Egyptians is that, in addition to its actual purpose, it generally possesses something of the allegorical and emblematic signification, for which their mythology offered plentiful material. Among the emblems or figures of objects which symbolise or suggest the qualities of deities, the most favourite is the scarab or beetle, type of the god Khepera. The use of scarabs in burial had reference to the resurrection of the dead and immortality. Other important emblems include the uza or utchat, the symbolic eye—the eye of Horus, the hawk-god; the cobra snake, the uræus—emblem of divine and royal sovereignty; the tet, the four-barred emblem of stability, endurance, and lastingness; the human-headed hawk, emblem of the soul. These and many others, as well as figures from the animal world, were worn as ornaments, and especially as amulets to bring good fortune or to ward off evil.

Colour plays an important part in Egyptian jewellery. This love of colour was displayed in the use of glazed ware, incorrectly termed porcelain, but properly a faience, much employed for all articles, as necklaces, scarabs, and rings, and particularly for the various kinds of amulets which were largely worn as personal ornaments. The most usual and beautiful was the cupreous glaze of a blue or apple-green colour; yellow, violet, red, and white are also met with, but less frequently, and chiefly at later periods. But colour showed itself above all in the surface decoration of jewellery, produced by the application of coloured stones and the imitation of these inserted in cells of gold prepared for them. The chief materials employed for the purpose were lapis-lazuli, turquoise, root of emerald or green felspar, jasper, and obsidian, besides various opaque glasses imitating them.

With the exception of enamel upon metal, which is only found in Egypt in quite late periods, the Egyptians appear to have been acquainted with all the processes of jewellery now in use. Chasing and engraving they preferred to all other modes of ornamenting metal-work, as these methods enhanced the beauty of their jewels while retaining a level surface. They were also highly skilled in soldering and in the art of repoussé work. The great malleability of gold enabled them to overlay ornaments of silver, bronze, and even stone with thin leaves of this metal; while ornaments were also composed entirely of plates of gold of extreme thinness. In articles where frequent repetition occurs, for instance, in necklaces, patterns were produced by pressure in moulds, and then soldered together.

Examples of jewellery furnished by the Egyptian tombs are to be found in the museums of almost every country. Undoubtedly the finest collection is in the Viceregal Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Cairo. It contains jewels of the earliest dynasties, very few of which are to be found outside it. Dating from the great Theban dynasties, the eighteenth and nineteenth, when the jeweller's art reached its highest level, are many beautiful examples, notably the famous set of jewels discovered in the tomb of Queen Ȧāh-Ḥetep (1600 b.c.). Fine collections are also preserved in the British Museum, in Berlin, Munich, and in the Louvre.

Following the sequence of ornaments from the head downwards, mention must first be made of diadems or frontlets. These were composed either of ring ornaments, set with precious stones and strung in a variety of ways, which hung down over the temples, or of gold bands ornamented in cloisonné inlay with the favourite allegorical representations of animals in various arrangements. In the case of royal personages there is a uræus in front.

Among all Oriental nations of antiquity of whom we have any accurate knowledge, earrings have always been in general use by both sexes; but as far as can be judged from monuments, these ornaments appear in Egypt to have been worn by women alone. M. Fontenay[2] claims that the holes visible in the ears of statues of Rameses II—such as the colossal head in the British Museum, cast from the original in the temple of Ipsamboul—have been pierced for earrings. But even so, earrings had probably only a sacerdotal or sacred significance, and were worn by the sovereign only, and on very exceptional occasions. Earrings, however, found very little favour even among women until what in Egyptian chronology are comparatively late times. Those that do occur are of the simplest kind, formed of a ring-shaped hook for piercing the lobe of the ear, hung with a blossom-shaped or symbolical pendant. Large penannular rings of various materials were occasionally employed as ear ornaments; the opening in them enabling them to be fitted on to the upper part of the ear.

Necklaces appear to have played a very prominent part in Egyptian ornaments. No tomb seems to be without them, and the wall paintings also prove their very general use. Most frequent is a chain consisting of various materials strung together, generally with a large drop or figure in the centre, and pendent motives introduced at definite intervals. The latter, of every imaginable variety of design, occur in rhythmical alternation, and are occasionally introduced between two rows of beads. The peculiarly severe and regular decorations of the Egyptians—more particularly the various charming adaptations of open and closed lotus flowers—are here found in the finest forms of application. Especially is this shown on the ornament called the usekh collar, which figures on every mummy and mummy case. Formed of rows, generally of cylinder-shaped beads with pendants, strung together and gathered up at either end to the head of a lion or hawk or to a lotus flower, this collar or breast decoration covered the shoulders and chest, and is found in that position on the mummy, attached frequently to the winding-sheet.

One of the most important Egyptian ornaments is the pectoral, which, as its name implies, was worn on the breast, suspended by a ribbon or chain. In all probability it formed a portion of the everyday costume of men and women, but its symbolism points to its chief use as a mortuary ornament, and it is found on almost every mummy. Pectorals are usually in the form of a pylon or shrine, in the middle of which is often a scarab, the emblem of transformation and immortality, adored by the goddesses Isis or Nephthys.

These ornaments were made of metal—rarely gold, more often gilded bronze—and very frequently of alabaster, steatite, and basalt sometimes glazed, and of earthenware always glazed. In the Cairo Museum is a pectoral of pure gold inlaid with carnelian, lapis-lazuli and turquoises, which was found at Dashûr in 1894 in the tomb of the Princess Set-Hathor (twelfth dynasty). Discovered at the same time was a pectoral having at the top a vulture with outspread wings and below the name of Usertsen III supported on either side by hawk-headed sphinxes. The open-work pectoral of Queen Ȧāh-Ḥetep, of solid gold, also at Cairo, is one of the most beautiful of all specimens of Egyptian jewellery. Another golden pectoral, found in the tomb of Khā-em-uas, son of Rameses II, is in the Louvre.

Somewhat similar to the pectorals are jewels in the shape of conventional hawks. As emblems of the soul, they are found placed upon the breast of the mummy. The finest are made of pure gold decorated with cloisons shaped according to the natural formations of the body and wings of the bird. The talons grasp a pair of signet rings. Allied to these are ornaments known as ægides, which were occasionally also worn on the breast. A very beautiful specimen, the ægis of Bast, is in the Louvre.

Sculptures and paintings represent bracelets by bands of red or blue colour on the arms, and show that the Egyptians wore four—one on the wrist and one above the elbow of each arm. Some of the earliest are composed of glass and gold beads threaded so as to form various patterns. The more solid forms of bracelet are ornamented with inlaid work. Rings for the arms, as well as the ankles, are generally of plain gold—both solid and hollow—sometimes bordered with plaited chain-work. Bracelets of thick and occasionally twisted wire, found as early as the twelfth dynasty, usually have the ends beaten out into a thin wire, which is lapped round the opposite shank so as to slip easily over the wrist. Bracelets in the form of serpents belong to the Ptolemaic and early Roman periods.

The commonest ornament is the finger ring. The ring was not only an ornament, but an actual necessity, since it served as a signet, the owner's emblem or badge being engraved either on the metal of the ring or on a scarab or other stone set in it. There are three main types of Egyptian rings. The first and simplest, composed of a seal stone with a ring attached, is formed of a hoop with flattened ends, each pierced, which grasp the scarab. Through a hole made in the scarab was run a wire, the ends of which, passing through the extremities of the ring, were wound several times round it. The revolving scarab exhibited its back when worn on the finger and the engraved side when necessary to use it as a seal. The general outline of the ring is like a stirrup, a form which of course varied in accordance with the size of the scarab. In a second type of ring the swivel disappears, and the ring is in one piece. Its outline retains the stirrup form, but the inside of the hoop is round and fits closely to the finger. Of this type are rings, dating from the eighteenth to the twentieth dynasty, formed of two hoops united at the top and having the names and titles of the owner deeply sunk in hieroglyphics on oblong gold bezels. A third type, almost circular in outline, is of similar form to the signet-ring of the present day. In addition to those which were actually worn in life, are models of real rings employed solely for funeral purposes to ornament the fingers of the wooden model hands which were placed on the coffins of mummies of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. The model rings are made of faience with fine glazes of blue, green, and other colours, with various devices, incuse or in intaglio, upon the bezels, which are generally of oval form.

PHŒNICIAN JEWELLERY

As the inventors of methods and the creators of models which exercised a widespread influence in the development of subsequent types of ornaments, Egypt, and in a lesser degree Assyria also, occupies a position of considerable importance. The chief agents in the spreading of these methods and models were the Phœnicians, the first and foremost navigators of the ancient world, who imported jewels among other articles of trade, into Italy and into the islands and mainland of Greece. Not by nature creative, but always copying those nations with whom in their wanderings they came in touch, the Phœnicians produced a native jewellery of composite type in which there is a perpetual mixture of Egyptian and Assyrian forms. As they had imitated Egypt and Assyria, so they began to imitate Greece as soon as they came into contact with her. The Greeks in return made great use at first of this composite style, but subsequently shook off its influence and incorporated it only after many modifications into their own developed art. The amphora—a form of ornament in goldsmith's work which can be traced to Assyria—is one among many motives borrowed by the Phœnicians, and transmitted by them to Greece.

From Egypt the Phœnicians acquired a high degree of technical skill and mastery over materials. This finish was transmitted to the finest Greek jewellery, and to the personal ornaments of the early Etruscans. The art of soldering gold to gold, which was known in Egypt at an early period, was greatly perfected and developed by the Phœnicians; and it is generally believed that they were the inventors of the process of decorating jewellery by granulation, that is by affixing to the surface minute globules of gold—a process which attained its perfection in the skilful hands of the Etruscan goldsmiths.

The jewellery of the Phœnicians must be sought for from one end of the Mediterranean to the other, rather than in Phœnicia itself. It occurs chiefly in their settlements on the shores and islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, at Sardinia, Crete, and Rhodes, and on the southern coasts of Asia Minor, but the best and most numerous specimens have been found in Cyprus.

In addition to the actual ornaments, special value attaches also to Phœnician sculptures, principally busts, both from Phœnicia itself and from its colonies, owing to the care with which personal ornaments and details of dress are represented. Several striking examples of these are preserved in the galleries set apart for Cyprian and Phœnician antiquities in the British Museum. The most famous of similar works, which include the sculptures from the "Cerro de los Santos," near Yecla in the province of Albacete in Spain, now in the museum at Madrid, is the remarkable stone bust of a woman in the Louvre, known as the "Lady of Elché," from a town of that name in the province of Alicante, where it was discovered in 1897 (Pl. II, 9). The majestic character of this figure, its sumptuous coiffure with clusters of tassels suspended by ten chains, the wheel-like discs cover the ears, the triple row of necklaces with their urn-shaped pendants—all unite to produce an effect unequalled by any known statue of antiquity. Especially noticeable among these ornaments is the diadem which encircles the forehead and hangs down from each side in long pendants upon the shoulders. With this may be compared the chains hung at the ends of the golden fillet at Berlin, discovered by Schliemann at the pre-Mycenæan city of Hissarlik in the Troad, the ornate tasselled appendages at St. Petersburg, found with the famous Greek diadems in the tombs of the Crimea, and the elaborate head ornaments with pendent ends worn by Algerian women at the present day.

The Phœnicians, as seen also by their sculptures, were addicted to the barbaric practice of piercing the upper parts of the ears, as well as the lobes, and attaching to them rings bearing drop-shaped pendants. Rings were also attached to the hair on each side of the face. They consist of a double twist which could be run through a curl of the hair, and are ornamented at one end with a lion's or gryphon's head.

Of ordinary earrings worn by the Phœnicians the simplest is a plain ring. In the majority of cases the simple ring was converted into a hook and served to suspend various ornaments, of which baskets or bushels with grain in them afforded favourite motives. Examples of earrings of this kind, from Tharros in Sardinia, are in the British Museum.