paste stands the Townley, "Bonus Eventus," or the youthful Caracalla so complimented, a plaque eight inches square; and other important specimens of the same material may be seen in the show-cases of antique glass in our National Museum.
When first discovered, the paste under consideration retained its mounting, described as being "of silver filigree," but so oxidised by the action of the salts of the earth where it had lain, as to fall to pieces immediately when handled. This circumstance is to be regretted, for, if preserved, this mounting would have shown the destination of the ornament, whether for a pendant jewel or for a fibula. By the description "filigree" (work of which the Romans made no use) it is almost certain we ought to understand that cut and pierced pattern-work, beginning to come into fashion (for silver plate alone) in Pliny's day,[1] under the name so expressive of its nature, "Opus Interrasile," and which, from the reign of Severus downwards, became the general style of mounting for all sorts of jewels. Illustrations of this kind of work in gold are common enough; good examples are certain fine medallions[2] set in broad, pierced borders in the form of pendants, in the French Cabinet; the massy rings of the Tarsus and Rouen treasure-troves, of the reign of Severus Alexander;[3] and, what bears immediately upon the present question, the pretty gage d'amour ring, found at Corbridge, pierced à jour with the "posy" (in Elizabethan phrase) ÆMILIA ZESES,[4] "Long life to thee, Emilia!" The silver ornaments of that period, probably obtained by melting down the current denarii (then largely debased with lead), were caused by this pierced-work ornamentation to expose innumerable surfaces to the destructive influences of the earth, and rapidly decomposed into a black, brittle sulphuret, falling to pieces on the lightest touch. But other circumstances render it most probable that this paste in its completed state was designed as a pendant for the neck. By a singular coincidence, the only lazulite paste that ever came under my notice, still preserving its antique mounting
- ↑ "Interradimus alia (vasa) ut quam plurimum lima perdiderit" H. N. xxxiii. 19. "Découpé à jour" is the French term for it; and better than our own.
- ↑ Particularly the two of Postumus, found in the same hiding place with the celebrated "Patère de Rennes."
- ↑ Caylus engraves a very elaborate example of a ring of this kind with broad open work shoulders, set with a gold quinarius of Maximin, found at Hen, near Amiens. Rec. d'antiq. v. pl. 112.
- ↑ Figured in Arch. Journ., vii. 191.
