Museum of Antiquity Part 22

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOUND AT HILDESHEIM.]

We have mentioned before the luxurious custom, common amongst the Romans after the conquest of Greece and Asia, of having their utensils of the table, and even of the kitchen, made of solid silver. Valuable plate was of common occurrence in the houses of the rich. According to Pliny, common soldiers had the handles of their swords and their belts studded with silver; the baths of women were covered with the same valuable material, which was even used for the common implements of kitchen and scullery. Large manufactories of silver utensils were started, in which each part of the work was a.s.signed to a special artificer; here the orders of the silver-merchants were executed.

Amongst the special workmen of these manufactories were the modelers, founders, turners or polishers, chiselers, the workmen who attached the bas-reliefs to the surface of the vessel, and the gilders. Many valuable vessels have been recovered in the present century; others (for instance, several hundred silver vessels found near the old Falerii) have tracelessly disappeared. Amongst the discoveries which happily have escaped the hands of the melter, we mention the treasure of more than one hundred silver vessels, weighing together about 50 pounds, found by Berney in Normandy (1830). According to their inscriptions, these vessels belonged to the treasury of a temple of Mercury; they are at present in the late imperial library at Paris. In the south of Russia the excavations carried on in 1831, 1862, and 1863, amongst the graves of the kings of the Bosphoric empire, have yielded an astonishing number of gold and silver vessels and ornaments belonging to the third century of our era. At Pompeii fourteen silver vases were discovered in 1835; at Caere (1836) a number of silver vases (now in the Museo Gregoriano) were found in a grave. One of the most interesting discoveries was made near Hildesheim, 7th October, 1868, consisting of seventy-four eating and drinking vessels, mostly well preserved; not to speak of numerous fragments which seem to prove that only part of the original treasure has been recovered; the weight of all the vessels (now in the Antiquarium of the Royal Museum, Berlin) amounts to 107,144 lbs., some over 53 tons, of silver. The style and technical finish of the vases prove them to have been manufactured in Rome; the form of the letters of the inscriptions found on twenty-four vessels indicates the first half of the first century after Christ. The surfaces of many of them are covered with alto-relievos of beaten silver--a circ.u.mstance which traces back their origin to imperial times, distinguishing them, at the same time, from the bas-relief ornamentations of the acme of Greek art. The gilding of the draperies and weapons, and the silver color of the naked parts, in imitation, as it were, of the gold-and-ivory statues of Greek art, also indicate Roman workmanship. The annexed cuts show some of the finest pieces of this treasure. The composition of the figures on the surface of the vase in cut on page 340 shows true artistic genius; naked children are balancing themselves on water-plants growing in winding curves from a pair of griffins; some of the children attack crabs and eels with harpoons, while others drag the killed animals from the water. The graceful groups on the drinking-vessels in the above cuts are mostly taken from the Bacchic cycle of myths.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOUND AT HILDESHEIM. (_Of the first century_)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: VASE OF THE FIRST CENTURY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: VASE OF THE FIRST CENTURY.]

Besides vessels of precious metals and stones, those of gla.s.s were in favorite use among the Romans. The manufactory of gla.s.s, originating in Sidon, had reached its climax of perfection, both with regard to color and form, in Alexandria about the time of the Ptolemies. Many of these Alexandrine gla.s.ses have been preserved to us, and their beauty fully explains their superiority in the opinion of the ancients to those manufactured in Italy. Here also, after the discovery of excellent sand at c.u.mae and Linternum, gla.s.s works had been established. Most of our museums possess some specimens of antique gla.s.s manufacture, in the shape of balsam or medicine bottles of white or colored gla.s.s. We also possess goblets and drinking-bottles of various shapes and sizes, made of white or common green gla.s.s; they generally taper toward the bottom, and frequently show grooves or raised points on their outer surfaces, so as to prevent the gla.s.s from slipping from the hand; urns, oinochoai, and dishes of various sizes made of gla.s.s, are of frequent occurrence. Some of these are dark blue or green, others party-colored with stripes winding round them in zigzag or in spiral lines, reminding one of mosaic patterns. Pieces of glittering gla.s.s, being most likely fragments of so-called _alla.s.sontes versicolores_ (not to be mistaken for originally white gla.s.s which has been discolored by exposure to the weather), are not unfrequently found. We propose to name in the following pages a few of the more important specimens of antique gla.s.s-fabrication. One of the first amongst these is the vessel known as the Barberini or Portland Vase, which was found in the sixteenth century in the sarcophagus of the so-called tomb of Severus Alexander and of his mother Julia Mammaea. It was kept in the Barberini Palace for several centuries, till it was purchased by the Duke of Portland, after whose death it was placed in the British Museum. After having been broken by the hand of a barbarian, it has fortunately been restored satisfactorily. Many reproductions of this vase in china and terra-cotta have made it known in wide circles. The mythological bas-reliefs have not as yet been sufficiently explained. Similar gla.s.s vases with bas-relief ornamentation occur occasionally either whole or in fragments.

[Page Decoration]

EMPLOYMENT.

Many arts and inventions were in common use in Egypt for centuries before they are generally supposed to have been known; and we are now and then as much surprised to find that certain things were old 3,000 years ago, as the Egyptians would be if they could hear us talk of them as late discoveries. One of them is the use of gla.s.s, with which they were acquainted at least as early as the reign of the first Osirtasen, more than 3,800 years ago; and the process of gla.s.s-blowing is represented during his reign, in the paintings of Beni Ha.s.san, in the same manner as it is on later monuments, in different parts of Egypt, to the time of the Persian conquest.

The form of the bottle and the use of the blow-pipe are unequivocally indicated in those subjects; and the green hue of the fused material, taken from the fire at the point of the pipe, sufficiently proves the intention of the artist. But, even if we had not this evidence of the use of gla.s.s, it would be shown by those well-known images of glazed pottery, which were common at the same period; the vitrified substance that covers them being of the same quality as gla.s.s, and containing the same ingredients fused in the same manner. And besides the many gla.s.s ornaments known to be of an earlier period is a bead, found at Thebes, bearing the name of a Pharaoh who lived about 1450 B.C., the specific gravity of which, 25 23', is precisely the same as of crown gla.s.s, now manufactured in England.

Gla.s.s bottles are even met with on monuments of the 4th dynasty, dating long before the Osirtasens, or more than 4,000 years ago; the transparent substance shows the red wine they contained; and this kind of bottle is represented in the same manner among the offerings to the G.o.ds, and at the fetes of individuals, wherever wine was introduced, from the earliest to the latest times. Bottles, and other objects of gla.s.s, are commonly found in the tombs; and though they have no kings'

names or dates inscribed upon them (gla.s.s being seldom used for such a purpose), no doubt exists of their great antiquity; and we may consider it a fortunate chance that has preserved _one_ bead with the name of a sovereign of the 18th dynasty. Nor is it necessary to point out how illogical is the inference that, because other kinds of gla.s.s have not been found bearing a king's name, they were not made in Egypt, at, or even before, the same early period.

Pliny ascribes the discovery of gla.s.s to some Phnician sailors accidently lighting a fire on the sea-sh.o.r.e; but if an effect of chance, the secret is more likely to have been arrived at in Egypt, where natron (or subcarbonate of soda) abounded, than by the sea side; and if the Phnicians really were the first to discover it on the _Syrian_ coast, this would prove their migration from the Persian Gulf to have happened at a very remote period. Gla.s.s was certainly one of the great exports of the Phnicians; who traded in beads, bottles, and other objects of that material, as well as various manufactures, made either in their own or in other countries: but Egypt was always famed for its manufacture; a peculiar kind of earth was found near Alexandria, without which, Strabo says, "it was impossible to make certain kinds of gla.s.s of many colors, and of a brilliant quality,"

and some vases, presented by an Egyptian priest to the Emperor Hadrian, were considered so curious and valuable that they were only used on grand occasions.

Gla.s.s bottles, of various colors, were eagerly bought from Egypt, and exported into other countries; and the manufacture as well as the patterns of many of those found in Greece, Etruria, and Rome, show that they were of Egyptian work; and though imitated in Italy and Greece, the original art was borrowed from the workmen of the Nile.

Such, too, was their skill in making gla.s.s, and in the mode of staining it of various hues, that they counterfeited with success the emerald, the amethyst, and other precious stones; and even arrived at an excellence in the art of introducing numerous colors into the same vase, to which our European workmen, in spite of their improvements in many branches of this manufacture, are still unable to attain. A few years ago the gla.s.s-makers of Venice made several attempts to imitate the variety of colors found in antique cups; but as the component parts were of different densities, they did not all cool, or set, at the same rapidity, and the vase was unsound. And it is only by making an inner foundation of one color, to which those of the outer surface are afterwards added, that they have been able to produce their many-colored vases; some of which were sent to the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Not so the Egyptians, who combined all the colors they required in the same cup, without the interior lining: those which had it being of inferior and cheaper quality. They had even the secret of introducing gold between two surfaces of gla.s.s; and in their bottles, a gold band alternates within a set of blue, green, and other colors. Another curious process was also common in Egypt in early times, more than 3,000 years ago, which has only just been attempted at Venice; whereby the pattern on the surface was made to pa.s.s in right lines directly through the substance; so that if any number of horizontal sections were made through it, each one would have the same device on its upper and under surface. It is in fact a Mosaic in gla.s.s; made by fusing together as many delicate rods of an opaque gla.s.s of the color required for the picture, in the same manner as the woods in Tunbridge-ware are glued together, to form a larger and coa.r.s.er pattern. The skill required in this exquisite work is not only shown by the art itself, but the fineness of the design; for some of the feathers of birds, and other details, are only to be made out with a lens; which means of magnifying was evidently used in Egypt, when this Mosaic gla.s.s was manufactured. Indeed, the discovery of a lens of crystal by Mr. Layard, at Nimroud, satisfactorily proves its use at an early period in a.s.syria; and we may conclude that it was neither a recent discovery there, nor confined to that country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT GLa.s.s VESSELS.]

Winkleman is of opinion that "the ancients carried the art of gla.s.s-making to a higher degree of perfection than ourselves, though it may appear a paradox to those who have not seen their works in this material;" and we may even add that they used it for more purposes, excepting of course windows, the inconvenience of which in the hot sun of Egypt would have been unbearable, or even in Italy, and only one pane of gla.s.s has been found at Pompeii, in a place not exposed to the outer light.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLa.s.s BROACH.]

That the Egyptians, more than 3,000 years ago, were well acquainted not only with the manufacture of common gla.s.s, for beads and bottles of ordinary quality, but with the art of staining it with divers colors, is sufficiently proved by the fragments found in the tombs of Thebes; and so skillful were they in this complicated process, that they imitated the most fanciful devices, and succeeded in counterfeiting the rich hues, and brilliancy, of precious stones. The green emerald, the purple amethyst, and other expensive gems, were successfully imitated; a necklace of false stones could be purchased at an Egyptian jeweler's, to please the wearer, or deceive a stranger, by the appearance of reality; and some mock pearls (found lately at Thebes) have been so well counterfeited, that even now it is difficult with a strong lens to detect the imposition.

Pliny says the emerald was more easily counterfeited than any other gem, and considers the art of imitating precious stones a far more lucrative piece of deceit than any devised by the ingenuity of man; Egypt was, as usual, the country most noted for this manufacture; and we can readily believe that in Pliny's time they succeeded so completely in the imitation as to render it difficult to distinguish false from real stones.

Many, in the form of beads, have been met with in different parts of Egypt, particularly at Thebes; and so far did the Egyptians carry this spirit of imitation, that even small figures, scarabaei, and objects made of ordinary porcelain, were counterfeited, being composed of still cheaper materials. A figure, which was entirely of earthenware, with a glazed exterior, underwent a somewhat more complicated process than when cut out of stone and simply covered with a vitrified coating; this last could, therefore, be sold at a low price; it offered all the brilliancy of the former, and its weight alone betrayed its inferiority; by which means, whatever was novel, or pleasing from its external appearance, was placed within reach of all cla.s.ses, or, at least, the possessor had the satisfaction of seeming to partake in each fashionable novelty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IMITATION OF REAL STONES.]

Such inventions, and successful endeavors to imitate costly ornaments by humbler materials, not only show the progress of art among the Egyptians, but strongly argue the great advancement they had made in the customs of civilized life; since it is certain, that until society has arrived at a high degree of luxury and refinement, artificial wants of this nature are not created, and the poorer cla.s.ses do not yet feel the desire of imitating the rich, in the adoption of objects dependent on taste or accidental caprice.

Gla.s.s bugles and beads were much used by the Egyptians for necklaces, and for a sort of network, with which they covered the wrappers and cartonage of mummies. They were arranged so as to form, by their varied hues, numerous devices or figures, in the manner of our bead purses; and women sometimes amused themselves by stringing them for ornamental purposes, as at the present day.

A far more numerous cla.s.s were the potters; and all the processes of mixing the clay, and of turning, baking and polishing the vases are represented in the tombs of Thebes and Beni Ha.s.san, of which we have already spoken.

They frequently kneaded the clay with their feet, and after it had been properly worked up, they formed it into a ma.s.s of convenient size with the hand, and placed it on the wheel, which was of very simple construction, and generally turned with the hand. The various forms of the vases were made out by the finger during the revolution; the handles, if they had any, were afterwards affixed to them; and the devices and other ornamental parts were traced with a wooden or metal instrument, previous to their being baked. They were then suffered to dry, and for this purpose were placed on planks of wood; they were afterwards arranged with great care in trays, and carried, by means of the usual yoke, borne on men's shoulders, to the oven.

The Egyptians displayed much taste in their gold, silver, porcelain, and gla.s.s vases, but when made of earthenware, for ordinary purposes, they were frequently devoid of elegance, and scarcely superior to those of England before the taste of Wedgewood subst.i.tuted the graceful forms of Greek models, for some of the unseemly productions of our old potteries. Though the clay of Upper Egypt was particularly suited to porous bottles, it could be obtained of a sufficiently fine quality for the manufacture of vases like those of Greece and Italy; in Egypt, too, good taste did not extend to all cla.s.ses, as in Greece; and vases used for fetching water from a well, or from the Nile, were of a very ordinary kind, far inferior to those carried by the Athenian women to the fountain of Kallirhoe.

The Greeks, it is true, were indebted to Egypt for much useful knowledge, and for many early hints in art, but they speedily surpa.s.sed their instructors; and in nothing, perhaps, is this more strikingly manifested than in the productions of the potter. Samples of the more common are seen below.

Carpenters and cabinet-makers were a very numerous cla.s.s of workmen; and their occupations form one of the most important subjects in the paintings which represent the Egyptian trades.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN POTTERY.]

For ornamental purposes, and sometimes even for coffins, doors and boxes, foreign woods were employed; deal and cedar were imported from Syria; and part of the contributions, exacted from the conquered tribes of Ethiopia, and Asia, consisted in ebony and other rare woods, which were annually brought by the chiefs, deputed to present their country's tribute to the Egyptian Pharaohs.

Boxes, chairs, tables, sofas, and other pieces of furniture were frequently made of ebony, inlaid with ivory, sycamore and acacia, were veneered with thin layers, or ornamented with carved devices of rare wood, applied or let into them; and a fondness for this display suggested to the Egyptians the art of painting common boards, to imitate foreign varieties, so generally adopted in other countries at the present day.

The colors were usually applied on a thin coating of stucco, laid smoothly upon the previously prepared wood, and the various knots and grains painted upon this ground indicated the quality of the wood they intended to counterfeit.

The usual tools of the carpenter were the ax, adze, handsaw, chisels of various kinds (which were struck with a wooden mallet), the drill, and two sorts of planes (one resembling a chisel, the other apparently of stone, acting as a rasp on the surface of the wood, which was afterwards polished by a smooth body, probably also of stone); and these, with the ruler, plummet, and right angle, a leather bag containing nails, the hone, and the horn of oil, const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al, and perhaps the only, implements he used.

Many adzes, saws and chisels, have been found at Thebes. The blades are all of bronze, the handles of the acacia or the tamarisk; and the general mode of fastening the blade to the handle appears to have been by thongs of hide. It is probable that some of those discovered in the tombs are only models, or unfinished specimens, and it may have been thought sufficient to show their external appearance, without the necessity of nailing them, beneath the thongs, for those they worked with were bound in the same manner, though we believe them to have been also secured with nails. Some, however, evidently belonged to the individuals in whose tombs they were buried, and appear to have been used; and the chisels often bear signs of having been beaten with the mallet.

The drill is frequently represented in the sculptures. Like all the other tools, it was of the earliest date, and precisely similar to that of modern Egypt, even to the nut of the _dom_ in which it turned, and the form of its bow with a leathern thong.

The chisel was employed for the same purposes, and in the same manner, as at the present day, and was struck with a wooden mallet, sometimes flat at the two ends, sometimes of circular or oval form; several of which last have been found at Thebes, and are in European museums. The handles of the chisel were of acacia, tamarisk, or other compact wood, the blades of bronze, and the form of the points varied in breadth, according to the work for which they were intended.

The hatchet was princ.i.p.ally used by boat-builders, and those who made large pieces of frame-work; and trees were felled with the same instrument.

With the carpenters may be mentioned the wheelwrights, the makers of coffins, and the coopers, and this sub-division of one cla.s.s of artisans shows that they had systematically adopted the part.i.tion of labor.

The makers of chariots and traveling carriages were of the same cla.s.s; but both carpenters and workers of leather were employed in their manufacture; and chariots either pa.s.sed through the hands of both, or, which is more probable, chariot makers const.i.tuted a distinct trade.

The tanning and preparation of leather was also a branch of art in which the Egyptians evinced considerable skill; the leather cutters const.i.tuted one of the princ.i.p.al sub-divisions of the fourth-cla.s.s, and a district of the city was exclusively appropriated to them, in the Libyan part of Thebes, where they were known as "the leather-cutters of the Memnonia."

Many of the occupations of their trade are portrayed on the painted walls of the tombs at Thebes. They made shoes, sandals, the coverings and seats of chairs or sofas, bow-cases, and most of the ornamental furniture of the chariot; harps were also adorned with colored leather, and shields and numerous other things were covered with skin prepared in various ways. They also make skins for carrying water, wine, and other liquids, coated within with a resinous substance, as is still the custom in Egypt.

The stores of an Egyptian town were probably similar to those of Cairo and other Eastern cities, which consist of a square room, open in front, with falling or sliding shutters to close it at night, and the goods, ranged on shelves or suspended against the walls, are exposed to the view of those who pa.s.s. In front is generally a raised seat, where the owner of the shop and his customers sit during the long process of concluding a bargain previous to the sale and purchase of the smallest article, and here an idle lounger frequently pa.s.ses whole hours, less intent on benefiting the merchant than in amusing himself with the busy scene of the pa.s.sing crowd.

It is probable that, as at the present day, they ate in the open front of their shops, exposed to the view of every one who pa.s.sed, and to this custom Herodotus may allude, when he says, "the Egyptians eat in the street."

There is no direct evidence that the ancient Egyptians affixed the name and trade of the owner of the shop, though the presence of hieroglyphics, denoting this last, together with the emblem which indicated it, may seem to argue in favor of the question; and the absence of many individuals' names in the sculpture is readily accounted for by the fact that these scenes refer to the occupation of the whole trade, and not to any particular person.

The high estimation in which the priestly and military professions were held in Egypt placed them far above the rest of the community; but the other cla.s.ses had also their degrees of consequence, and individuals enjoyed a position and importance in proportion to their respectability, their talents, or their wealth.

According to Herodotus, the whole Egyptian community was divided into seven tribes, one of which was the sacerdotal, another of the soldiers, and the remaining five of the herdsmen, swineherds, merchants, interpreters, and boatmen. Diodorus states that, like the Athenians, they were distributed into three cla.s.ses--the priests, the peasants, or husbandmen, from whom the soldiers were levied, and the artisans, who were employed in handicraft and other similar occupations, and in common offices among the people--but in another place he extends the number to five, and reckons the pastors, husbandmen, and artificers independent of the soldiers and priests.