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HISTORIC ORNAMENT

Treatise on

DECORATIVE ART

AND

ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENT

POTTERY; ENAMELS; IVORIES; METAL-WORK;

FURNITURE; TEXTILE FABRICS; MOSAICS;

GLASS; AND BOOK DECORATION

BY

JAMES WARD

AUTHOR OF “THE PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT”

* *

With Three Hundred and Seventeen Illustrations

LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited

1897

PREFACE.

This work is a continuation of the former volume on the subject of Historic Ornament, and treats of the historical development of ornament and decoration as illustrated in furniture, pottery, enamels, ivories, metal work, including goldsmiths’, silversmiths’, and jewellers’ work, textile fabrics, mosaic, glass, and book decoration.

Though each volume may be considered complete in itself as far as it has been possible to consider the subjects therein treated in the dimensions of this work, at the same time the student is respectfully advised to read both volumes, as a few subjects which are necessarily only slightly noticed in the former treatise, particularly those belonging to the Minor Arts, are more fully treated in the present work.

J. Ward.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

HISTORIC ORNAMENT.

CHAPTER I.
POTTERY.

In a former volume of this work, under the respective headings, the Pottery of the Prehistoric ages, and of the oldest nations, as Egypt, Assyria, and Phœnicia, has been noticed. The pottery of primitive Greece has also been mentioned, and some illustrations have been given. It is here intended to give a brief outline of the history of Ceramics dating from about the end of the thirteenth century; but to connect this sketch with the notice of Cyprian pottery already given it will be necessary to say something of the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman pottery. Greek vases had been found in great quantities in Etruria before they were found in the islands and colonies of Greece, or to any extent in Athens, and from this circumstance they were wrongly supposed to have been of Etruscan workmanship. The Etruscans imported these vases from Greece during the fifth and sixth centuries B.C., many of which had been placed in their tombs, from where they have been exhumed during the last hundred and fifty years.

The vases found at Athens and other parts of Greece were also, as a rule, found in tombs and burial-places; one class in particular—the Athenian lekythi—were made specially to contain the sacred oil or wine and to be afterwards placed in the tomb. These vases are of a long, narrow, and elegant shape, and were decorated with appropriate funeral subjects outlined on a white ground. This white ground is known as matt, and is of a dull surface; it is not a glaze, but simply an engobe of clay fired at a very low temperature. The draperies of the figures are occasionally coloured red, brown, pale green, or a bluish tint, and some of them are remarkable for their beauty of drawing and expression of sentiment in the design. They date from B.C. 450 to 350. Greek vases are characterized by their beauty of shape as well as by their refined decoration. Some of the richly decorated ones were given as prizes to the victors in the Olympian games, and it has also been conjectured that some of the terra-cotta vases found in the tombs were designed to represent the costlier metal vases that were offered for prizes at the games held in honour of princes at their death, the coarser terra-cotta vases being used at the death of the common people.

The shapes of the Greek vases vary in the different periods, getting more elegant as they approached the middle period—the fifth and the first half of the fourth century B.C.—and larger in size with the handles more elaborate in the later periods. The principal varieties are known under the following names:—the Amphora, a full-bodied vase with two handles, used for carrying wine; the Hydria, a wider bodied vase, used for carrying water: it has generally one large and two smaller handles; the Crater, a large wide-mouthed vessel, used for mixing wine and water; the Lebes, a round basin usually placed on the top of a stand or tripod; the Oinochoè, a ewer-shaped vase, used for pouring out wine; the Lekythos, a long bottle-shaped vase, used for holding oil; the Aryballos, for perfumes or oil; the Cantharos, a two-handled cup on a foot, used for drinking purposes; the Kylix, a shallow cup on a foot, used for drinking wine; and the Rhyton, or drinking horn, made in the shape of an animal’s head or a sphinx.

Greek Ceramic ware, like the Etruscan and Roman, was coated with a scarcely perceptible thin glaze, supposed to be composed of a vitreous alkaline that merely hardened the clay body and left a very faint polish on the surface.

The colouring on the majority of the Greek vases of the sixth century is a brown or red glaze on which are painted the designs in black; the markings on the figures and drapery are incised, showing the groundwork, or being sometimes filled in with white, and the faces and limbs usually painted a white colour and fired at a low heat. Sometimes a purple tint was painted over the accessories. Vases of this period have also a white biscuit ground with similar coloured decorations as those of the red ground.

In the fifth century B.C. a change took place in the style of decoration: the figures and accessories are left in the red ground colour of the vase, and the surrounding groundwork is black; the interior markings are in faint yellow or black, and incised slightly with a tool. This is the period of the best designs and of delicate and correct drawing. Some of the kylixes of this period are exceedingly beautiful, and are usually signed with the name of the artist. Some artists’ names are Meidias, Polygnotos, Epictelos, Pamphaios, Brygos, Euphronius, &c. It is said that the greatest artists of Greece—Phidias, Polycletus, Apelles, and Myron—furnished designs for the potters.

The Greeks in their vase paintings observed strictly the æsthetic laws of proportion and space division (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4) as they did in their architecture. The precision of touch which they displayed is remarkable, and the skill in the freehand rendering of their geometric and floral borders, not to speak of their figure-work, is astonishing when we think that if they made a mistake on the absorbent biscuit ware on which they painted, it could not be altered without showing the defect.

Fig. 1.—Greek Vase. Oinochoè.

Fig. 3.—Greek or Etruscan Ewer.

Fig. 2.—Greek Vase. Crater.

Fig. 4.—Greek Vase. Signed by Nicosthenes.

The Levantine island of Samos has been celebrated from the earliest times for its pottery. It has been mentioned by Homer and Herodotus as unparalleled, for its size, in the wealth and artistic qualities of its people. It was renowned for its temples and metal work as well as for pottery. The Temple of Juno—the Heræum—was built in marble, and was of great magnitude—a treasure house of art in itself. The Samians were great traders, and their beautiful red pottery was carried by their ships to all parts of the known world. The clay of which the Samian ware was made was of a fine red compact earth; the pottery was usually thicker than that of the other Greek ceramics, and the decoration was partly modelled and partly incised (Fig. 5). This ware has been found in nearly all parts of Europe, the design of which inclines to the Græco-Roman style, and is doubtless of the variety made during the Roman occupation of the island.

Fig. 5.—Samian Bowl.

Fig. 6.—Græco-Roman Vase.

A Græco-Roman vase in terra-cotta is shown at Fig. 6.

Roman pottery and fragments of it have been found in every country that was formerly under the Roman rule, and consists of examples both of a very simple kind and artistic. Great quantities have been found in England, and every year almost brings new examples to light, consisting of vases, lamps, and panels in terra-cotta.

Although the Greeks never quite lost the art of making pottery during the Middle Ages, they did not produce much artistic work after A.D. 200, and between this time and the end of the fourteenth century. Artistic pottery as glazed ware was imported into Europe from Damascus through the Arabs or Saracens about this time. Cups from Damascus in glazed pottery were reckoned among the treasures of kings, and it was from Damascus that the Arabs undoubtedly brought the secrets of glazed earthenware to Spain, where they established the potteries that fabricated the famous Hispano-Moresque ware. Before dealing with this ware, it is necessary to note briefly the various kinds of glazed wares anterior to its invention. The process of glazing terra-cotta tiles, bricks, and vessels is of great antiquity. In Egypt, as early as the fourth dynasty (B.C. 3766-3600), examples of glazed terra-cotta tiles were in use. Copper has been employed at these early dates to produce a turquoise blue enamel in Assyria and Babylon, and tin has been used in the glaze mixture on the enamelled bricks from the same countries. These ancient tiles and bricks, therefore, belong to the category of fayences. The word fayence, now of so wide application, is derived from Faenza, a town in Italy, where enamelled earthenware, or maiolica, was manufactured in the fifteenth century, which was distinguished by its fine polished white enamel. Fayence is a ware that is distinct from porcelain; it is a potter’s clay mixed with a marl of an argillaceous and calcareous nature and sand. According to the composition, and the degree of heat required in firing, it is called “Soft” (Fayence à pâte tendre) and “Hard” (Fayence à pâte dure).

English earthenware made from pipeclay is “soft”; stone ware, Queen’s ware, and some other special wares are hard. Soft wares are unglazed, glazed, and enamelled. The glazed or varnished wares, as we have seen, were made by the ancient civilized nations, as well as the coarser terra-cotta or unglazed wares. In medieval and in modern times enamelled ware, as distinct from merely glazed or varnished wares, have been made, as well as porcelain or China ware; the latter is called also Kaolin, and is a fine white earth in which silex is the chief constituent, which is derived from a decomposition of feldspathic granite.

Vitreous glaze (or glass) is composed of sand or other siliceous matter fused with potash or soda; this is ground and mixed with water, forming a liquid in which the clay biscuit ware is dipped, and afterwards fired, in order to make it impermeable to liquids. Oxide of lead in considerable quantities is added to the vitreous glaze, which increases its fusibility, but still keeping it transparent; this is what is known as a plumbeous glaze. This glaze may be coloured yellow by the addition of iron oxide; green by copper oxide; blue by cobalt; and black by manganese. All these coloured glazes were known to the ancients.

A further addition of the oxide of tin to the vitreous or plumbeous transparent glaze, in comparatively small quantities, produces the opaque enamel known as a “stanniferous” or tin glaze. This is the enamelled glaze of the Della Robbia ware, of the Hispano-Moresque, and of the Italian maiolica.

From recent analysis of the enamel on Assyrian tiles and bricks it has been ascertained that the oxide of tin was used by the enamellers of that early time, but not to the same extent as the vitreous glaze.

Persia was the natural inheritor of the art of the ancient land of Mesopotamia, and the beautiful siliceous and probably the stanniferous glaze, and also metallic lustres, have been used in that country from very early times. The Arabs, or Saracens, evidently brought the workmen from the East, and imported many pieces of Damascus ware during the independent Caliphate of the Damascus Caliphs in Cordova in Spain, which lasted from the eighth century to the year 1235, when the Moors drove the Arabs out of Spain. The Arabs (says Riaño) had, as early as the beginning of the twelfth century, if not before, established the industry of metallic-lustred pottery in Spain. Edrisi, the Arab geographer, wrote in 1154, in describing Calatayud in Spain: “Here the gold-coloured pottery is made, which is exported to all countries.” This gold-coloured pottery is likely to have been similar to the siliceous glazed ware of the East. The next reference to lustred pottery is made by Ben Batutah, a celebrated Arab traveller, when travelling from Tangiers to Granada, and when passing Malaga (1349-57) he says: “At Malaga the fine golden pottery is made, which is exported to the furthermost countries.” The golden pottery here referred to is the tin-glazed Hispano-Moresque. At Manises, in the kingdom of Valencia, the famous lustred pottery fabriques or workshops were in a flourishing state in the fifteenth century, when Eximenus, in his “Regiment de la cosa publica,” quoted by Riaño, speaking of the excellent things made in his time at Manises in Valencia, says: “Above all, the beauty of the gold pottery, so splendidly painted at Manises, which enamours every one so much that the Pope, and the cardinals, and the princes of the world obtain it by special favour, and are astonished that such excellent and noble works can be made out of the earth.”

The same author translates a document he found in the British Museum, which gives a description of the whole of the making and preparing of the golden lustre as used at Manises in 1785: speaking of its composition, the document runs thus: “Five ingredients enter into the composition of the gold colour: copper, which is the better the older it is; silver as old as possible; sulphur, red ochre, and strong vinegar, which are mixed in the following proportions: of copper three ounces, of red ochre twelve ounces, of silver one peseta (about a shilling), sulphur three ounces, vinegar a quart.” All these ingredients are fused together, and afterwards ground and diluted with water and the vinegar to make the gold-coloured glaze or varnish for use in the decorating of the ware. A woodcut gives a very imperfect idea of Hispano-Moresque pottery, as the lustre and colour is everything in the ware; the designs generally are very simple leaf-work shields and small geometric repetitions. The beautiful dish (Fig. 7) is one of the finest examples of the ware made at Murcia in the province of Valencia. The statement of Eximenus regarding the Pope, the cardinals, and princes sending for this ware seems to have been correct, for most of the pieces known have been found or brought from Italy, to which country the majority of them had evidently been exported.

Fig. 7.—Valencia Dish; Hispano-Moresque. (S.K.M.)

Besides the lustred ware manufactured in the peninsula in the Middle Ages, the Azulejos, or tiles of bright colours, were made in small pieces, and were embedded in the walls to form geometric patterns. This manner of using these tiles was derived from the coloured and geometric Byzantine mosaics, tiles being used in Spain where mosaics would be used in the Eastern Empire; and perhaps the earliest use of them in Spain was in the Alhambra decoration of the fourteenth century. Afterwards the tiles became larger and more complete in their patterns. Terra-cotta figures and ornament, green and white-glazed pottery were also made by the Moors in Spain.

In the sixteenth century Spanish pottery design was of the Italian Renaissance character. Unlike the Moresque work, the designs were shaded and the colours more subdued, but the Moresque design still continued in favour, and to keep its flat treatment and bright effect of colour. The Italian kind of pottery was made at Talavera, at Andujar, and at La Rambla, as well as unglazed porous and coloured ware at the former place, and white unglazed pottery at the latter places. Coarse green and white pottery was made at Toledo in the sixteenth century; a large well-head or brim, with an interlaced Moresque band in relief, from this place is now in the Museum at Kensington.

A bowl of Talavera ware of the eighteenth century, painted in imitation of the Italian maiolica ware, is also in the Museum. The colours used are green, blue, orange, and manganese tint, which are usually found on the Spanish pottery of this period.

The well-known and extensive potteries at Alcora were established by Count Aranda in 1726, where porcelain and pipeclay wares were made with all kinds of designs, mostly imitations of France, Holland, England, and China. Most of the principal painters and modellers at these works were Frenchmen or Germans. The names of the chief artists were Haly, Knipper, Martin, Garces, Ferrer, and Prato. The Duke of Hijar, son of Count Aranda, succeeded his father (1800-1858) in the management of the Alcora potteries. A specimen of this ware is shown in the Rococo plaque (Fig. 8) with the subject of Galatea.

Fig. 8.—Earthenware[Earthenware] Plaque; Alcora Ware. (S.K.M.)

Another celebrated pottery, connected with royalty, was founded by King Charles III. in 1760 in the gardens of the royal palace of Buen Retiro at Madrid. This King, coming from Naples to inherit the Spanish Crown at the death of his brother Ferdinand, was anxious to establish a similar pottery in Madrid to that which he had previously founded at Capo di Monte, at Naples, so he brought his staff of artists, workmen, and director of the works, Bonicelli, over from Italy to Madrid, and established the Buen Retiro works at a great cost. The yearly expenses of these works were £20,000, and all the pottery made was for the exclusive use of the King and Royal Family, and was sent as presents to foreign princes. This was the case for the first thirty years until the death of Charles III. (1798), after which the pottery was allowed to be sold, but at a very high price. The workmanship of this pottery is good, but there is nothing particularly artistic about it. The designs are in the false taste of the late Italian mixed with Louis Seize incrusted motives. A vase in the Buen Retiro ware is shown at Fig. 9. A room in the royal palace, Madrid, is covered with plaques of this ware.

Fig. 9.—Buen Retiro Ware. (S.K.M.)

Maiolica.

Before the advent of Maiolica ware in Italy a similar kind of pottery was made in Spain, which had the stanniferous or opaque tin glaze and the golden lustre that belonged to the best examples of Italian maiolica. We refer to the Hispano-Moresque ware. This opaque stanniferous glaze was known to the Arabs of Spain from the end of the thirteenth century, or more than one hundred years before Luca della Robbia (who died in 1430) produced his enamelled earthenware.

The first specimens of Hispano-Moresque pottery were probably made at Malaga, and another important factory was at Valencia. The shape and decoration of the famous Alhambra vase (Fig. 10), one of the earliest specimens of Hispano-Moresque ware (about 1320), clearly points to its Persian origin of design, and was probably made and decorated by a Persian Saracenic artist. It is coloured brown and blue on a yellowish ground, and is decorated with animals and ornament in the Persian manner. It was found about the middle of the sixteenth century, under the pavement of the Alhambra Palace, filled with gold coins.

Fig. 10.—The Alhambra Vase Hispano-Moresque.

Hispano-Moresque ware is of a general yellowish-white colour, with an iridescent metallic lustre similar to the Italian maiolica of the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. The ornamentation is lustrous rather than the ground, and is of a golden copper red to a pale yellow golden tint. It has been divided into three classes: the first has the ornamentation of a copper red colour; the ground is nearly covered by ornament, consisting invariably of birds in the midst of flowers and foliage, resembling Persian pottery. The ware of this class is less perfect in manufacture than that of the golden yellow designs, and is the oldest. The second class has the colour of a monochrome golden yellow tint, with the ornament of a small geometric character, and Spanish or Moresque escutcheons. This variety is of Spanish origin of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

The third class has the ornament partly rendered in coloured enamels, and has golden yellow armorial bearings, interlacings, and foliage. Animals, such as antelopes, sometimes occur. This ware is the carefully executed work of the fifteenth century. During the first years of the sixteenth century the third class of ware was probably imitated by the Italians.

The process of the manufacture of lustred earthenware was introduced into Italy by Arabian or Spanish workmen from the Balearic Isles.

Fig. 11.—Hispano-Moresque Vase. (S.K.M.)

A beautiful vase of elegant shape with large perforated handles in Hispano-Moresque, decorated with ivy or briony leaves and tendrils, is in the Kensington Museum (Fig. 11).

A curious shaped tile from the Alhambra is shown at Fig. 12, the decoration of which is purely Saracenic.

Fig. 12.—Alhambra Tile. (S.K.M.)

Scaliger (1484-1558) tells us that a costly fayence, as beautiful as the pottery of India, was made in his time in the island of Majorca and exported to Italy; he also adds that the name “Maiolica” or Majolica was derived from Majorca.

The island of Majorca was an Arab possession until the year 1230, and no doubt the Arabs had there founded potteries for the production of glazed earthenware.

Towards 1300, as related by Passeri, the Italian potters began to cover a raw clay with a coating of white opaque Sienese earth produced from that territory. This coating of a white opaque substance, called an “engobe,” was the ground to which the colours were applied, and which, differing from the older methods hitherto employed in Italy, was a distinct advance in pottery manufacture, and has been considered as the first beginning of Maiolica pottery. Improvements were effected in the use of this engobe or opaque varnish until the time of Luca della Robbia (1355-1430).

Della Robbia Ware.

It is not known whether the above celebrated artist invented the opaque white stanniferous glaze with which he covered his works, but he was the first to use it successfully in the architectural decoration known as “Della Robbia” ware. He succeeded, however, in colouring his white glaze, thereby greatly enlarging its usefulness for exterior and interior decoration. The colours he obtained were blue, yellow, green, violet, and a copper tint. His sculptured terra-cottas glazed with these colours became objects of great request. He obtained more orders than he could execute himself, and so he employed his two brothers, who were sculptors, to assist him. His nephew Andrea, after himself was the most famous in this kind of work, and produced, like his uncle Luca, groups of figures in panels, single figures, tabernacles, friezes, &c.

Three sons of Andrea, Giovanni, Luca, and Girolamo, worked in the same material, and Girolamo was invited by François I^er to decorate the Château de Madrid with “Della Robbia” ware, representing the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid, which was done at a cost equal to £15,530.

=Fig. 13.—Medallion in Enamelled Earthenware, by Luca della Robbia. (S.K.M.)

In the Kensington Museum there are many specimens of Della Robbia ware, among which are a series of twelve circular medallions in enamelled terra-cotta, representing the twelve months of the year, one of which is illustrated at Fig. 13. The bas-relief of the Virgin and Child (Fig. 14) is likely to be a work of one of the Della Robbia family.

Fig. 14.—Virgin and Child. School of Della Robbia. (S.K.M.)

Italian Maiolica.

About the year 1450 the Sforzi, the Lords of Pesaro, established at the latter place Maiolica factories, and a decree, dated 1st of April, 1486, was published, granting certain privileges to the ceramists of Pesaro. The potteries of Urbino, Gubbio, and Castel-Durante were then equally famous with those of Pesaro. It is generally thought that the use of metallic lustre was first known at Pesaro; the pearly, the ruby, and the golden lustres appeared at Pesaro and Gubbio before they were known at any other Italian pottery. The early pieces are decorative dishes, or, as they are called, “bacili,” having a broad border and a deep sunk centre; at the back is a projecting circular “giretto,” pierced with two holes, which shows that they were intended to be hung up as decorative objects. Coats of arms, or other devices, occupied the centre; the border usually is simple but well designed, showing a mixture of Oriental with Gothic or Italian forms (Fig. 15). The potteries of Faenza, Forli, and Caffaggiolo are thought by some to be as early, if not earlier, in date than those of Pesaro.

Fig. 15.—Early Pesaro Dish. (S.K.M.)

In 1444 Federigo, the second Duke of Urbino, built a castellated palace at Urbino, and gathered around him men of learning and many artists, and especially encouraged the manufacture of maiolica. His son, Guidobaldi I., succeeded him in 1482, and he also was a great patron of the ceramic arts. The ware made in Italy during this time—the latter half of the fifteenth century—was known under the name of “mezza-maiolica,” this ware differing from tin-glazed or true maiolica in its glaze in its having a lead or plumbeous glaze; but in common with the true maiolica, the mezza-maiolica is also a lustred ware, having a peculiar iridescent lustre, derived from the lead used as a glaze. This lustred ware was therefore made anterior to the tin-glazed dishes and other objects, and chiefly at Pesaro and Gubbio. The lustre was obtained on a glaze of oxide of lead and glass by the use of certain metallic oxides, and the art of making it was probably learnt from the potters of the island of Majorca, where the making of the Hispano-Moresque ware was well known.

The Italian writer Passeri states that the tin-glazed ware or true maiolica was made at Pesaro in 1500, and that the process was introduced from Tuscany. A better ground for the reception of the colours used in the decoration was afforded by the new enamel, but it did not entirely supersede the manufacture of the mezza-maiolica, as a great deal of the latter ware still continued to be made of a brilliant metallic lustre at the fabriques of Pesaro and Gubbio. At Castel-Durante, Urbino, and Diruta were other famous botegas or fabriques where the lustred ware was made, but none were so celebrated as that of Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio. It was at this famous botega that the best of all the golden and ruby metallic lustres were produced. The ruby lustre particularly seemed to be a monopoly of the Gubbio workshops, for it is known that many of the Italian factories sent their pieces to Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio to have the ruby and the gold lustre added as a finish to parts of the designs.

Maiolica was made at Venice in the sixteenth century, also at Forli, Diruta, Siena, Caffaggiolo, and Faenza, where much early work of great beauty in design was produced.

We shall only have space to describe a few of the most important products of Italian maiolica.

Fig. 16.—Pitcher; Caffaggiolo Maiolica. (S.K.M.)

An early method of decorating maiolica pottery is known as “sgraffitto-work,” in which the patterns are scratched or incised into the ground: this was a favourite method of executing outdoor plaster decoration in Italy. It consists in laying on a ground of coloured clay or plaster on another coating of a different colour, and while this second coating is moderately soft, the pattern or design is incised or “scratched” down to the first coating or ground, which, being of a different colour, reveals itself, and thus forms the pattern. In both, pottery and plaster decoration sgraffitto work is usually accompanied by modelling in relief, such as representations of leaves, flowers, and fruit in bas-relief bands, or medallions of figures and animals, in high relief. After the ware is incised it is glazed with a translucent lead glaze, variegated with green and yellow colouring over the white engobe (Fig. 17). The sgraffitto pottery of Italy is either of Lombardic or Venetian origin, as appears from the usual Gothic character of the designs.

Fig. 17.—Sgraffitto Maiolica. (S.K.M.)

The wares of Caffaggiolo are distinguished by a purely white glaze, with masses of a rich cobalt blue used as portions of the groundwork for the ornament; sometimes green and purple are used with the blue, and at other times a bright orange yellow and a copper green or an Indian red. Caffaggiolo, Faenza, and Forli wares have much resemblance to each other. The pitcher (Fig. 16), with the arms of the Medici family, belongs probably to the Caffaggiolo school, and is a work of the early years of the sixteenth century.

Fig. 18.—Maiolica Plate; Caffaggiolo Ware. (S.K.M.)

The tazza (Fig. 19) is another example of this ware. The fine plate (Fig. 18) is thought to be a work from the same botega, and the subject is supposed to represent Raphael and the Fornarina.

The plate (Fig. 15) is an example of the mezzo-maiolica ware, and is anterior to the date 1500. The more beautiful one (Fig. 20) is a work dating from the first years of the sixteenth century, at the time when the stanniferous glaze was coming into use. Both these plates are supposed to be from the Pesaro fabriques. They may have been made as wedding presents from the bridegroom to the bride, and are portrait dishes, with an inscription on the ribbon, with the name of the bride, or some endearing motto.

These plates are known as “amatorri” pieces. The colours used in the Pesaro maiolica are yellow, green, manganese, black, and cobalt blue, and have what is known as the “madreperla” lustre, which has a beautiful changing effect in colour. The outlines are manganese, and the flesh left white in the best pieces. The finest work executed in Pesaro came from the fabrique of Lanfranco in the years 1540-45.

Fig. 19.—Plateau or Tazza; Caffaggiolo Ware.

The products of the Sienese potteries are worthy of being ranked with the best works of Pesaro and Caffaggiolo, to which they are closely allied.

There is a fine pavement of tiles in the Kensington Museum from the Petrucci Palace at Siena, dated 1509. Benedetto is the name of an artist of the Sienese school, who painted in maiolica, from whose hand most of the best Siena maiolica has come; the drug pot (Fig. 21) and the two plates (Figs. 22 and 23) are works of his. On the drug pot, tiles, and some large dishes, grotesques were very much used as ornament, and in colour, yellow, orange, and particularly black grounds, were used in the Siena production.

Fig. 20.—Pesaro Portrait Dish (about 1500). (S.K.M.)

The maiolica wares of Gubbio are the most celebrated in all Italy, as regards their richness and beauty of colouring; this, of course, was due mostly to the beautiful effects gained by the unique ruby and gold lustres used at this fabrique. The name of one man, Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, as the chief artist, is connected with the Gubbio ware. He was a native of Pavia, and came of a noble family. He finally established himself at Gubbio, where he was made a “Castellano” of that city in 1498, and enjoyed the patronage of the Dukes of Urbino. He was a modeller as well as a painter of maiolica, and is said to have executed some altar-pieces in relief before coming to Gubbio. In the Kensington Museum there is a bas-relief of St. Sebastian which is supposed on good authority to be a work of his hand; it is coloured with the gold and ruby lustres.

Fig. 21.—Drug Pot; Siena. (S.K.M.)

Fig. 22.—Siena Plate. (S.K.M.)

Fig. 23.—Siena Plate. (S.K.M.)

A circular dish or “bacile” of lustred ware (Fig. 24), with the subject of two mailed horsemen in the centre, and a border of foliated ornament, is a work of the Gubbio fabrique, but is an earlier work than the time of M^o. Giorgio.

Fig. 24.—Lustred Dish; Gubbio Ware. (S.K.M.)

The embossed vase in copper lustre (Fig. 25) is a very beautiful example of the stanniferous glaze and ruby copper lustre. The design is well adapted to show the “reflets” of the lustre by the variety of form on its embossed surfaces. This work is ascribed to the same artist who executed the previous example.

Fig. 25.—Vase in Copper-ruby Lustre; Gubbio. (S.K.M.)

The tazza (Fig. 26), with the subject, “The Stream of Life,” after Robetta, is one of Giorgio’s best figure pieces. Though not very good in figure draughtsmanship, it is excellent in colour, and is cleverly heightened with ruby lustre. This and another plaque in Kensington Museum, representing the “Three Graces” after Raphael, are amongst if not the best of Giorgio’s work: for colour and richness of lustre, and for clearness and perfection of the enamel glaze, they are the best works in Italian maiolica that we possess. The date of both is probably 1525.

Fig. 26.—The Stream of Life; Tazza by M^o. Giorgio.

A work by Giorgio is shown at Fig. 27. This is a highly decorative tazza in the best manner of Giorgio, who was very clever at this kind of design. The groundwork of this piece is blue, parts of the decoration are green, and other parts ruby, while all of the decoration is lustred. The back of this piece is covered with a yellow lead glaze, which seems to be the case with many examples of maiolica. Probably it was done for economical reasons. We close the list of illustrations of Gubbio ware with that of a dish, “Fruttiera” (Fig. 28). The design is simple and very good for showing the beauties of the ruby and gold lustres. It is embossed, and has been made from a mould, and is an unsurpassed example of the famous Gubbio lustre. Mr. Fortnum thinks that Giorgio obtained the secret of the ruby lustre from an artist that formerly worked at the Gubbio fabrique, and that he did not invent it, and also that all the similar lustred ware was produced at Gubbio, the wares of Urbino, Castel-Durante, and of other fabriques having been sent to Gubbio to get the final lustre added to them.

Fig. 27.—Tazza by Giorgio. (S.K.M.)

Another artist who executed many important works at the Gubbio botega signs his productions with the letter N. Some think that this is meant for a signature of M^o. Cencio, a son of Giorgio who succeeded his father at the fabrique. Another name that appears on some of this ware is M. Prestino. It is known that Giorgio signed his name on many pieces that were painted by other artists or by his pupils.

Fig. 28.—Embossed Fruit Dish; Gubbio. (S.K.M.)

A beautiful specimen of Castel-Durante ware is the plate (Fig. 29) with a deep centre—"tondino"—which has a border of cupids, foliage, and medallions on a dark blue ground. The centre has cupids, and the sides of the centre painted with solid white ornaments on a low white ground. It is probably the work of the artist Giovanni Maria (1508).

Fig. 29.—Castel-Durante Maiolica. (S.K.M.)

The vase (Fig. 30) is a richly decorated specimen of the same ware; the grotesque masks and arabesques are vigorously drawn, and the ornament generally is a good example of that used on the Castel-Durante ware. This vase has been used as a drug pot, and was made at the botega of Sebastiano di Marforio. Giuseppe Raffaelli in his “Memorie” (1846) says that the manufacture of glazed pottery as an art began when Monsignor Durante built a “castello” on the Metauro at Correto in the year 1284, and the names of potteries are recorded that were in existence in 1364 to 1440. The year 1490 began a period of great activity in the Castel-Durante fabriques, and we hear of many artists who were Durantine maiolica painters going to various parts of Europe and establishing works in pottery. Tesio and Gatti went to Corfu in 1530, and taught the art in the Ionian Islands; Francesco de Vasaro went to Venice, where he was eminently successful in developing the Venetian phase of maiolica; others went to Nevers and Lyons, in France, and one to Antwerp. The artist who styled himself “Francesco” of Urbino, and who also worked at Perugia, sometimes signed his works “Durantino.” Vasari, in his “Lives of the Painters,” speaks of Battista Franco of Venice, a clever painter and designer, as having been employed by the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo II., in 1540, to design subjects for the excellent ceramic painters of Castel-Durante. The death of Duke Francisco Maria II. (1631) put an end practically to the maiolica industry of the place; the trade generally then declined, and the artists were forced to emigrate.

Urbino is a city celebrated in the art and literature of Italy in the Renaissance period, and her dukes rivalled the Medici family of Florence in the patronage and encouragement of art, science, and literature. The names of the Urbino maiolica artists have been fortunately well preserved. Those of Nicola da Urbino, Guido Fontana, and his more famous son Orazio, also another son, Camillo, the versatile artists in “Majoliche istoriate”, and Francesco Xanto, may be mentioned as the most important.

Fig. 30.—Drug Pot; Castel-Durante Ware. (S.K.M.)

To the first-named artist, Nicola, is ascribed the earliest authentic works from the potteries of Urbino, the celebrated service of maiolica, painted probably between the years 1490 and 1519, for Isabella d’Este, wife of the Marquis of Mantua, and known as the Gonzaga-Este service. Two fine plates of this service are in the British Museum. They have the arms of Gonzaga impaling those of Este on a shield, and one of them has the painted subjects of Apollo and Daphne, and Apollo and the Python, while the other has a representation of a troop of horse soldiers entering a city. The figures are delicately and carefully outlined and the colouring is brilliant.

Orazio Fontana was the most celebrated of the family of that name. His best work was done from 1540 to 1560, and he was the artist proprietor of a botega at Urbino, from whence came many of the finest works ever made in that city, not only as regards their artistic qualities but in the beauty and finish of the maiolica ware. The “istoriati” panels, or figure subjects (usually mythological) which were copies or adaptations of engraved designs by Italian painters, were the work of Orazio himself, and the grotesques probably from the hand of his brother or some other artist.

The pilgrim bottle (Fig. 31) is from the botega of Orazio Fontana, but the grotesques on it are supposed to have been painted by his brother Camillo. One artist named Gironimo was very clever at this grotesque, or “Raphaelesque” work as it is sometimes called—not from the great Raphael Sanzio, but from the artist Raphael dal Colle, who introduced this grotesque design among other work of his for the decoration of the Pesaro ware, in the duchy of Urbino. These grotesques were afterwards called “Urbino arabesques” and were of a different character to the grotesques of the Gubbio ware, which may be seen by comparing the dish of Urbino ware signed by Gironimo (Fig. 32) with Fig. 27.

There is a circular dish of Urbino ware in the Museum at Kensington on which is painted the subject of the marriage of Alexander with Roxana, from an engraving by Marc Antonio Raimondi, after Raphael’s design. This work is signed by Francesco Xanto (1533), a prolific and somewhat careless artist who took great liberties with the designs he adapted, like most of the maiolica painters. The colouring of this dish is very rich: the colours generally of the Urbino school were green, yellow, and blue, and a predominance of orange on a light or white ground.

Fig. 31.—Pilgrim Bottle; Urbino Ware. (S.K.M.)

Faenza pottery is among the oldest in Italy, but little is known of the early artists or potteries. Many pieces of doubtful origin have been classed as Faentine, but without any positive proof.

In the Cluny Museum in Paris there are a pair of pharmacy jars or vases, one of which bears the inscription “Faenza,” and the other is dated 1500, their excellence proving that good work was done at Faenza at this date, or perhaps much earlier. The pottery works called the Casa Pirota was the principal establishment for the production of maiolica at Faenza.

Fig. 32.—Urbino Dish, with “Urbino Arabesques.” (S.K.M.)

Many works from this pottery are in the Kensington Museum, and they seem generally to be the work of one hand, but there is no record of the artist. He painted a certain kind of grotesque, and figures of boys on plates of a wide border. The colours are a light blue on a dark blue ground, the light blue heightened with touches of white, and shaded with a brownish yellow. This style is known as “sopra azzuro” and is very characteristic of the unknown painter’s work (Fig. 33).

Fig. 33.—Faenza Plate. (S.K.M.)

A fine tazza in the same museum by the Faentine artist who signs himself as F. R. has the painted subject “the Gathering of the Manna,” after Raphael.

Fig. 34.—Faenza Maiolica. (S.K.M.)

The colours used are strong and rich yellows, blues, greens, orange, and purple tints. This work is much superior to that of another Faentine artist who used the same initials. An oblong panel or plaque in the Kensington Collection, 9-3/4 inches in height by 8 inches in width, has a painting of the Resurrection after a design by Melozzo de Forli, signed with a monogram consisting of T and B. It is a maiolica work of the highest rank, carefully executed yet with perfect freedom of touch—for carefulness of execution in pottery painting very often implies hardness—and pleasing combinations of blues, yellows, greens, and golden browns, with little touches of red. Mr. Fortnum thinks it was painted by the same artist that executed the famous service of maiolica of which seventeen pieces are in the Museo Correr at Venice. The tazza at Fig. 34 is ascribed to the Faenza fabriques. It is as much Gothic as Italian in design, which is the case sometimes in Northern Italian art, and it has been found also that the “istoriati” maiolica of Faenza has more of its subjects from the engravings of German artists’ works, such as Dürer, Martin Schon, and others, than the pottery of any other Italian fabrique. Maiolica has been fabricated at many other places in Italy, such as Diruta, Forli, Rimini, Padua, Ferrara, Genoa, and Venice, but space prevents us here from giving any descriptive notice of them, further than the mention of the Venetian botegas where many important examples came from during the sixteenth century. The Venetian dishes of this time were covered with ingenious and elaborate designs of interlacing ornament, foliage, birds, masks, with tyings of ribbons or drapery (Fig. 35). The colour of the enamelled surface is white slightly tinted with zaffre blue. A low-toned blue colour was employed for the ornament, which was outlined and shaded with a darker blue and heightened with white.

Fig. 35.—Venetian Dish. (S.K.M.)

Persian, Damascus, and Rhodian Wares.

The artistic pottery and tiles of Persia, though forming a large variety, may nearly all be brought under the designation of siliceous or glass-glazed wares, the tin glaze being only met with occasionally in some Persian and Damascus examples, where an unusually white surface was required. All the glazed wares of Persia are highly baked, and are mostly of a semi-translucent character.

Fig. 36.—Persian Lustred Ware.

There is the fine copper, ruby, and brown lustred ware, which has sometimes a white and at others a blue ground. The plate (Fig. 36) is an example of this ware. The design on this ware is in the pure Persian character.

Another kind, and by far the most numerous, are the wares of a coarse porcelain variety, not only made in imitation of Chinese porcelain, but decorated to imitate the Chinese ware, the ornament being sometimes mixed with Arabian forms; the colour a bright blue on a white ground, and the Chinese marks or signatures being copied as well (Figs. 37 and 38).

Fig. 37.—Flower Vase, Persian, with Chinese decoration.

In the reign of the Persian Shah Abbas the Great (A.D. 1586-1628) the route for travellers and merchants from China to Europe lay across Persia, and many objects of merchandise were imported from China to Persia, including great quantities of Chinese porcelain, many examples of which were purchased in Persia that are now in our museums, as well as specimens in abundance of the imitated Chinese variety.

Fig. 38.—Persian Water-bottle; imitated Chinese decoration.

The beautiful enamelled earthenware tiles were made with and without the metallic lustre in the days of, and anterior to the reign of, Shah Abbas, but since his time the art has declined, and nothing but a coarse and inartistic pottery has been made in recent times. As a rule the excellence of Persian pottery, like wine, is augmented in proportion to its age.

Fig. 39.—Persian Tile; Seventeenth Century.

The picturesque wall tile (Fig. 39) was found in the ruins of the palace of Shah Abbas II. (1642-1666), near Ispahan. It has a blue ground with white embossed decorations and black pencillings, and is lustred.

Wall tiles have been in use in Persia from a very early date. Some of them are beautiful in colour, having usually a deep lapis-lazuli blue ground or white. Sometimes the design is complete on one tile, but generally a whole tile has only a portion of the pattern, many tiles being required to make up the complete pattern (Fig. 40). The tiles are made to fit into all kinds of spaces, according to the shape of the wall, and these arrangements have usually a border design.

Fig. 40.—Persian Wall Decoration.

The lustred tiles are of an older date than the Persian fayence fine ware, or imitated Chinese porcelain. The body composition of the tiles resembles that of the old bricks that are found in great quantities in the ruinous mounds of Rhages (Rhé), where also many fragments of tiles have been found, and some remains of potters’ kilns, proving that Rhages must have been the centre of extensive pottery works. Another class of Persian ware has a thin, hard, and nearly translucent paste, which is decorated by having pierced holes filled in with transparent glaze. It is creamy white in colour, and has foliated ornament in blue or brown. This has been called Gombion Ware.

One variety of decoration on a late seventeenth-century Persian bowl is shown at Fig. 41. This is a good example of the late floral ornament.

Fig. 41.—Blue Persian Bowl; Seventeenth Century. (S.K.M.)

Damascus ware has generally been classified as Persian, but in many points it is different from the latter. It is better in colour and design. Some examples have a smooth even glaze, and are coloured with a fine quality of cobalt blue, turquoise green, and a dull lilac or purple intermixed with white portions of the design evenly distributed. The ornament is less florid and the fayence is of an older date than the majority of Persian examples. The “Damas” cups or vases have always been highly prized for their beauty, and the wall tiles from Damascus are the most beautiful of all Oriental tiles.

Fig. 42.—Rhodian Ware.

Rhodian or Lindus tiles and pottery have been also classified as Persian, but again this ware is quite distinct from Persian or Damascus wares. Rhodian pottery is coarser than the two former varieties, and the decoration is brighter and more strongly marked. The ornament is of a very conventional character, and in colour it is characterised by having a red opaque pigment used in spots and patches, and sometimes in bands, but always raised or embossed.

The plates shown in Figs. 42 and 43 are examples of Rhodian ware.

Fig. 43.—Rhodian Dish.

The island of Sicily was conquered by the Saracens in A.D. 827, and about the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries potteries of glazed wares had been established by the latter.

Some examples of their work of these periods have decorations of animals, figures, birds, and also mock Saracenic inscriptions like the Siculo-Arabian textiles of the same and later periods (Fig. 44).

Anatolian ware is a later variety that is akin to the Persian wares, but somewhat coarser and of a duller surface. This ware is small in size, and the colouring is usually gay on light grounds. The tiles from Anatolia are less inventive in their ornament and rougher in execution than the Damascus or Rhodian.

Fig. 44.—Vase, Siculo-Arabian Ware; Fourteenth Century.

The decoration of Turkish tiles and Turkish ornament generally is of the Saracenic kind, but has neither the beauty nor the invention of the other varieties of Persian. There are no plant nor animal forms in the Turkish variety of Saracenic ornament; it is more allied to the Egyptian Saracenic, but lacks the ingenuity of the latter. The colour is harsh and crude. It is seen at its best in the tomb mosque of Soliman the Great at Constantinople (Fig. 45), built in 1544.

The decoration of the palace of the Seraglio and of the “Sultanin Valide” consists of beautiful tiles that were brought from Persia to Constantinople.

Fig. 45.—Ornament from the Cupola of the Mosque of Soliman the Great, Constantinople.

French Pottery.

The art of the potter flourished in Gaul before the time of the Romans, but this early pottery was of a coarse kind, used mostly for domestic purposes, and of an unglazed variety (poteries mates). The use of a vitreous glaze was common in France as early as the thirteenth century, and in a grave that had the date of 1120, in the Abbey of Jumièges, two small broken vases were found covered with a yellowish lead glaze. We are informed by an old French chronicler that “On fait des godets à Beauvais.” A godet was a goblet or cup of glazed fayence, with a wide mouth, and often had a cover, and was usually silver-mounted. Beauvais was noted in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for its glazed pottery.

It has been mentioned before that the Italian artist, Girolamo della Robbia, introduced the famous enamelled earthenware invented by his grand-uncle, Luca della Robbia, into France, when he came by invitation of Francis I. to decorate the exterior of the Château de Madrid, in the Bois de Boulogne, and the Pesaro maiolica painter, Francesco, also settled and worked in France; but apparently little came of these attempts to naturalise Italian pottery on French soil, except that the art must have been spread in some degree by the workmen, and by French artists who would naturally have assisted the Italians, and the traditions left by the latter must have helped considerably to influence the subsequent fabrication of enamelled earthenware.

Oiron Ware.

To take our subject in a chronological order, the wares of Oiron, or “Henri-Deux ware,” as the name they are better known by, must be noticed first.

Until a recent date the origin of this was only guessed at, but the late M. Benjamin Fillon by his researches has cleared up the mystery. It appears now that the invention of this scarce and unique ware was due to Hélène de Hangest, Dame de Boissy, the widow lady of Gouffier, who was formerly governor to Francis I. This lady established the pottery in 1564 in the Château of Oiron, near Thouars; and, being gifted with strong artistic tastes, conducted the work with great success, assisted by two skilful collaborateurs, François Charpentier and Jehan Bernart. The former was the modeller, and the latter—Bernart—was her librarian, and the artist who designed and adapted the stamped ornament which is so characteristic of this ware. This ornament is copied from the bookbindings of the period, and seems to have been stamped in colour on the Oiron ware with tools similar to those used in the bookbinding craft. The vase or tazza (Fig. 46) is a fine example of this ware of the earlier period, showing the stamped decoration. The ornament is identical with the peculiar Italo-Saracenic style of the Grolier and contemporary bookbindings.

Fig. 46.—Tazza, Henri-Deux Ware. (S.K.M.)

The decoration is of a dark brown colour, sometimes heightened with pink, on an ivory-coloured ground.

Another and later class of this ware has modelled decorations in high relief. The colouring and technical skill generally was also improved, as may be seen in the profusion of small figures, masks, and festoons that were added to the candlesticks and vases after the earlier period, but these additions were not always improvements in the general design. The colouring is also of a greater variety: ochre, green and blue, and sometimes gold, was added in small quantities.

Fig. 47.—Candlestick, Henri-Deux Ware. (S.K.M.)

The celebrated candlestick (Fig. 47) is one of the best examples in which modelled ornament is a feature. It is now in the Kensington Museum, where there are various fine specimens of Oiron ware.

This candlestick shows the Italian Renaissance influence very strongly, and probably owes much to the art of Cellini, as seen in his metal-work designs. The ewer and tazza betray also his influence (Fig. 48).

Fig. 48.—Oiron Ewer and Tazza. (S.K.M.)

The saltcellar (Fig. 49) is a restrained piece of architectural design and is altogether a very fine piece of work.

Fig. 49.—Oiron or Henri-Deux Saltcellar. (S.K.M.)

It is said by some that there are eighty pieces of this ware in existence, and others that there are only fifty-three genuine pieces. The early examples bear the emblems of Francis I., and the later ones those of Henry II. and Diana of Poitiers. The paste used in this ware is a white pipeclay, and is covered with a thin glaze.

Palissy Ware.

Bernard Palissy was one of the most remarkable men who practised the art of the potter in France or in any other country. He was born about the year 1510, but his birthplace is not exactly known. He worked in his younger days and up to the period of his middle age at surveying, glass-making, portrait painting, and was also well skilled in natural sciences, but was not brought up to the trade of a potter.

It was in the year 1542, at Saintes, that in order to increase his slender means he took to the making of earthenware. In writing his life he says: “It is now more than five-and-twenty years that a cup was shown to me of fashioned and enamelled clay, and of such beauty, that from that day I began to struggle with my own thoughts, and hence, heedless of my having no knowledge of the different kinds of argillaceous earth, I tried to discover the art of making enamel, like a man groping in the dark.”

So he struggled on for fifteen years, with starvation and death often at his door, until at last he mastered his art, and produced ultimately, as he says, “those vessels of intermixed colours, after the manner of jasper.”

The particular jasper enamel invented by Palissy is a deep rich glaze of a green and brownish variegated character. He made many “rustic pieces” as dishes, plates, and plaques, on which he admirably arranged reptiles, fishes, frogs, shells, insects of various kinds, fruits, leaves, acorns, &c., modelled in relief and covered with the jasper glaze.

Most of these dishes were elliptical in shape and had broad rims (Fig. 50).

Fig. 50.—Rustic Dish, with Reptiles and Fishes; Palissy Ware. (S.K.M.)

He decorated a “grotto” with his famous pottery at the Château of Ecouen for his patron the Constable de Montmorency, and similar grottoes at the Tuileries, and at Reux, in Normandy, for Catherine de’ Medici. Palissy made other forms of pottery besides his rustic pieces, such as ewers, bottles, hunting flasks, and dishes, ornamented with figures and other work. It is likely that the figure work was executed by his sons or relatives, Nicholas and Mathurin Palissy, who worked for Catherine de’ Medici on the Tuileries grotto. Many of the Palissy wares are similar in design to the étains and pewter works of Briot and of other artists, as Prieur, Rosso, Gauthier, and Primaticcio. Openwork baskets and dishes and other modelled works were covered with the jasper glaze. Of the invention of the latter Palissy does not seem to have communicated the secret to his successors, for after his death the jasper glaze was imitated, but without much success, as appears evident from some specimens that are now in existence which were made from his moulds.

Palissy was nearly all his life engaged in lecturing on scientific and other subjects, and in the work of proselytism for the Reformed Church of which he was a member, being in prison more than once on account of his religious ideas, and eventually died in the Bastille Prison in poverty in 1590 at the age of eighty.

As efforts of decorative design the encrusted wares of Palissy cannot be placed in a high rank of decorative art, but the art of France would be considerably poorer without the genius of Palissy, an artist of whom any nation might be justly proud.

Nevers, Rouen, and Moustiers Wares.

We have mentioned before that some maiolica artists and workmen came from Italy in the sixteenth century to Nevers and Lyons and there set up potteries. One of these artists, named Scipio Gambin, worked at Nevers, under the patronage of the Duc de Nivernais.

Fig. 51.—Pilgrim’s Bottle, Nevers Ware. (S.K.M.)

The maiolica productions at Nevers were in imitation of the Urbino, Castel-Durante, and Faenza wares, but the colours were inferior, probably owing to the poorer glaze used by the French potters. The subjects of the decoration were at first similar to the “istoriati” decoration of the Urbino ware, and were compositions from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” (Fig. 51) or from the Bible. Later on the potters of Nevers imitated the shapes of Oriental pottery with French decorations (Fig. 52).

Fig. 52.—Vase, Nevers Ware.

In 1608 two Italians—the brothers Conrade—came from Genoa to Nevers, and were probably the successors of Gambin: the ware made by them was decorated with a mixture of Chinese and Italian ornament, and the colouring was blue, manganese, brown, and white.

In 1632 a Frenchman named Pierre Custode and his sons established a pottery at the sign of “The Ostrich” at Nevers. To them is ascribed the beautiful Persian blue-coloured pottery decorated with naturalistic flowers and birds in solid white with yellow heightenings, the shape and decoration being Chinese in character. The blue glaze peculiar to Nevers pottery of this period is very fine, and has been imitated by French and foreign potters, but without success.

Fig. 53.—Pilgrim’s Bottle, Nevers Ware. (S.K.M.)

The great importation of Chinese porcelain into Europe in the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the eighteenth had a strong influence on the art of the Nevers pottery, and many pieces exist on which Chinese designs almost pure were copied in a blue Camaïen (monochrome), or in a harmonious mixture of blue and purple-black manganese, the latter colour being a mixture of the blue with manganese. In the eighteenth century the style of design was debased and very much degraded, and the pottery became coarse and heavy.

Fig. 54.—Plateau, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)

Rouen Ware.—A much better class of pottery both in manufacture and design is the famous Rouen ware, made in the town of that name in Normandy. In the year 1644 Edme Poterat obtained a licence to make and sell fayence in the province of Normandy.

Fig. 55.—Tray, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)

This monopoly did not last long, for we find that in 1673 his son, Louis Poterat, obtained another licence, and from that time a new development takes place in the ornament that is so characteristic of Rouen ware. The greater part of this ornament is composed of a scallop form of setting out, with alternating compositions of ornamental flowers, called lambrequins, and baskets of ornamental flowers that repeat at intervals around the border of plates or trays; light pendentives and wreaths of artificial flowers are painted in a lighter tone, and occur between the richer lambrequins (Fig. 54). Richly ornamented coats-of-arms, or baskets of flowers and cornucopias, occupy the centres (Fig. 55). The beautiful plate in the Kensington Museum (Fig. 56) is unique in Rouen ware in having amorini, or cupids, in the centre. All of the foregoing examples are painted in blue of different shades on the white enamel, or sometimes on yellow ochre grounds. Indian red colour and a warm reddish yellow is sometimes also used. The ornament is pseudo-Chinese, and is a Norman development of Oriental forms with some Italian influences which are reminiscences of the decoration brought by the Conrade brothers from Genoa to Nevers.

Fig. 56.—Plateau, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)

Some of the Rouen ware is decorated with a ray formation on which the ornament is painted on a light or dark ground. This is known as the style rayonnant. The drawing of these patterns is always very careful and correct, the latter often being copies of the printed decoration of the books of that period. Later on the decoration became of a freer type, with bouquets of artificial flowers, and in the eighteenth century the Rocaille or Rococo element began to creep in, and the Rouen ware developed from the camaïen blue style of decoration to a polychrome style.

Fig. 57.—Dish, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)

The Chinese element in design became everywhere in the ascendant, not only in late Rouen ware, but in the pottery of every country in Europe, and remains more or less in the work of to-day. Some of the late Rouen ware is not so bizarre in its decoration as many other French and European styles of the same period. Fig. 57 shows the Chinese influence, but is in better taste than the majority of contemporary designs.

As a style decays the colour as a rule becomes more gaudy, which applies to Rouen ware as to other varieties of fayence. The “Cornucopia pattern” belongs to the decadence period: this is full of unrestrained liberty both in form and colour. It ought to be mentioned that Louis Poterat, of Rouen, first discovered the secret of making the Chinese soft porcelain (pâte tendre) in France. Several pieces of this Rouen porcelain are preserved in the Museums at Sèvres and at Limoges.

The Rouen School of Decoration has influenced modern pottery designers in France, Germany, Holland, and England, more than any other school; but unfortunately they all copied its later defects with greater zeal than in taking lessons from its earlier excellencies.

Rouen ware was imitated in the Sinceny pottery, but this pottery was made by some workmen who had formerly belonged to Rouen, and established themselves at Sinceny in 1713, and copied the Rouen ware so closely that the copies have often been mistaken for the latter ware.

At Paris, St. Cloud, Quimper, and Lille, imitations of Rouen ware have been attempted with success. The St. Cloud pottery is of a slatey blue colour. The pottery of Lille is a close imitation of Rouen ware, as the plate (Fig. 58) clearly shows.

Moustiers, in the south of France, was an important centre for enamelled pottery works, where a style of decoration was used that was a mixture of the Italian Urbino and the School of Rouen, the borders of the plates having the Rouen lambrequins, and the centres having figure subjects and landscapes, or, as in the later work, grotesques and ornament after the French artists, Callot and Berain.

The colour was in shades of a deep blue (Fig. 59).

Pierre Clérissy (1728) was the name of the first artist and also of his nephew, who continued the works after him in Moustiers.

Polychrome decoration became common at a later date, when some Moustiers workmen, who had been to the Alcora potteries in Spain, introduced the Spanish style of colouring, then in great fashion, which consisted of bright orange yellow, light green, and blue outlines. The later Moustiers ware is decorated with festoons and ovals with figures or busts painted in them.

Marseilles fayence is of a delicate and pure enamel, and is painted with flowers, shell fish, and insects, &c., which as a rule are thrown on or disposed in an irregular sort of way. Much of the decoration was Chinese or Rouen imitations, and little landscapes painted in red camaïen; gold was sometimes used in the stalks of the flowers.

Fig. 58.—Plate, Lille Ware.

Strasburg pottery, though classed as French, owed a good deal of its process of manufacture and general character to German methods of manipulation and decorative processes, as German potters were mostly employed in the works.

The great difference was in the mode of decoration, the latter being applied on the fired surface of the enamel in the Strasburg wares; whereas in the wares of the other French potteries that have just been considered the decoration was applied to the unbaked and consequently absorbent ground. The latter was the more artistic method, and the former, or German method, allowed a wider range of the artist’s palette, and admitted of greater delicacy of execution, but was more harsh in effect, and did not incorporate the colours with the enamel in a way that an absorbent ground or unbaked enamel would do.

Fig. 59.—Plate, with Stag Hunt; Moustiers Ware.

The name of Charles Hannong is connected with an early pottery of Strasburg, which was mostly a manufactory of earthenware stoves. This pottery was founded in 1709. In 1721 Hannong and a German porcelain worker, who was taken into partnership by the former, began to make porcelain, but after a short existence under the sons of Hannong this pottery was closed.

Statuettes, clocks, dinner and dessert services were made in Strasburg glazed earthenware, with modelled and painted decoration. The colouring and decoration was of the prevalent Rococo, bright and clear; flowers of all kinds, and Chinese pictures, were imitated mostly on white grounds (Fig. 60).

Fig. 60.—Plate, Strasburg Ware.

French Porcelain.

The desire to imitate the porcelain ware of China led to the discovery of the soft paste (pâte tendre). The names “porcelaine de France” and “Sèvres porcelain” have also been given to it. As previously mentioned, it was made at Rouen in 1690, at St. Cloud in 1698, and at Lille in 1711, but in all these cases in a small and tentative way.

The composition of the paste in the French soft porcelain is described by MM. Gasnault and Garnier in their handbook of “French Pottery” as follows: “The paste was composed of the sand of Fontainebleau, saltpetre, sea salt, soda (soude d’Alicante), alum, gypsum, or parings of alabaster; all these elements were mixed together and placed in an oven in a layer of considerable thickness, where, after being baked for at least fifty hours, they formed a perfectly white frit, or vitrefied paste. The frit was mixed with Argenteuil marl in the proportion of nine pounds of frit to three pounds of marl, &c.”

The glaze is described as consisting of “the sand of Fontainebleau, litharge, salts of soda, Bougival silex or gun-flint, and potash.” All these were ground and melted together, and afterwards the vitreous mass was re-ground in water and thus formed the glaze.

The soft paste is much superior for artistic works owing to the glaze incorporating with the colours in a perfect manner, rendering them equally brilliant with the enamel, but this is not the case with the hard or natural kaolin, as the glaze on this does not blend completely with the colours of the decoration. The soft paste porcelain is, however, too porous for articles of domestic use, and can be tested by its being easily scratched by a knife.

Fig. 61.—Sèvres Vase; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)

The Marquis Orry de Fulvey made an attempt to establish the soft paste porcelain works at Vincennes in 1741, but this was not a success. It was established again under new conditions in 1745, and after many experiments some important vases were made decorated with flowers in relief. The manufactory was reorganized again and removed to Sèvres, near Paris, in the year 1756. The products of the Sèvres works at this time were the fine vases with the bleu de roi, or bleu de Sèvres, and the lovely rose Pompadour colours, and numerous fancy articles, as heads of canes, buttons, snuff-boxes, needle-cases, also table services, &c. Many artists were employed to paint the flower and figure decorations; the latter were painted after the designs of Boucher, Vanloo, and others.

The soft paste porcelain was made from about 1700 to 1770. Some of the finest soft paste Sèvres porcelain may be seen in the Jones Collection at South Kensington, of which there are nearly sixty examples. The vase (Fig. 61) has a dark blue ground. The clock of Sèvres porcelain (Fig. 62) is a beautiful and unique example that was made especially for Marie Antoinette. The clock is mounted in ormoulu by Gouthière, and is in his best style of work.

The egg-shaped vase (Fig. 63) has a blue ground and is decorated with subject of Cupid and Psyche.

The artists Falconet, Clodion, La Rue, and Bachelier modelled and designed many of the statuettes, plaques, and vases for the Sèvres manufactory.

Cabinets and tables of the Louis Seize period were often inlaid with painted plaques of Sèvres ware, and have ormoulu mountings. This kind of furniture is exceedingly refined in design and workmanship, and reflects in a high degree the Pompadour and Du Barry period of French taste.

Fig. 62.—Sèvres Porcelain Clock; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)

In 1768 beds of kaolin clay were found in France at St. Yrieix, near Limoges. Maquer, a chemist attached to the Sèvres factory, in 1769 submitted for the king’s (Louis XVI.) inspection at the Château of Versailles sixty pieces of the new hard porcelain made from this native clay.

Fig. 63.—Sèvres Vase, dark blue; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)

During the time of the French Revolution the manufactory was in a critical state of existence, but was still kept in a working state. In the year 1800 Alexandre Brongniart was appointed director, a post he held for forty-seven years—and after his appointment the manufacture of soft porcelain ceased.

In his time the manufactory was in a state of great prosperity, and the science he brought to bear on the manufacturing processes was of immense importance. Vases over seven feet in height were produced, and the pieces which were made were ornamented with trophies and battle scenes that glorified the events in the reign of Napoleon I.

In the reign of Louis Philippe the artists Fragonard, Chenavard, Clerget, and Julienne introduced a new style of Renaissance decoration and design, but this was of a heavy and overloaded order that was not exactly suited to the character of porcelain.

About the middle of the present century Louis Robert, the chief painter at Sèvres, introduced the novelty of coloured pastes, which was to develop later into the pâte-sur-pâte process, so successfully practised by the talented M. Solon, who has executed so much of this beautiful work for Minton’s in England. The process of Louis Robert consisted in the use of porcelain paste coloured with oxides. A barbotine or slip was made of this composition and paintings were executed with it in slight relief, the white paste being used chiefly on a coloured ground, the modelling or light and shade being regulated according to the thickness of the semi-transparent material employed. When finished this kind of work has a cameo-like effect.

German Pottery.

German stoneware was manufactured at an early date, and in the countries bordering upon the Rhine the industry must have been in an active state in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, judging from the plentiful examples of the different varieties of the ware formerly known as “Grès Flamands” or “Grès de Flandres,” but now classified under their proper German origins. In the sixteenth century this ware was carried in great quantities from Raeren, from Frechen and Sieburg, near Cologne, and from Greuzhausen, near Coblentz, down the Rhine to Leyden and the Low Countries.

Fig. 64.—Delft Vase.

The brown stoneware of Raeren—which formerly belonged to the ancient Duchy of Limbourg—was especially in great request in Flanders. This brown ware was of a spherical or cylindrical shape, divided by a central broad band, with decorations of figure subjects, shields, masks, arms, &c.; the neck is also decorated with shields and bosses, and the foot with rings and guilloche ornament. Some good specimens of blue stoneware—called the “blue of Leipzig”—were also made at Raeren.

At Frechen, near Cologne, the celebrated “Greybeards” or “Bellarmines” were first made, that were imported and imitated so much in England during the reign of James I. (see Fig. 73). They were decorated with the head of an old man with a long beard, and sometimes also with armorial bearings or figure subjects.

The Sieburg stoneware was a cream-coloured ware, richly decorated in relief, and chiefly consisted of long narrow drinking tankards with metal covers, called “Pokals.”

At Greuzhausen and at Höhr were manufactured small jugs called “cruches,” also saltcellars, inkstands, and braziers were made in grey stoneware decorated in parts with the rich “blue of Leipzig” and with various relief ornaments.

In the end of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth at Creussen, in Bavaria, tankards or drinking mugs were made of a round shape with covers, and decorated with figures of the Apostles in relief, and coloured in bright crude colours that look like oil painting: they are known as “Apostel Kruges,” or Apostle mugs.

At Nuremberg, tiles, pipes, and stoves were manufactured in glazed brown or green stoneware, and at the same place a celebrated potter named Augustin Hirschvogel made different kinds of ware in tin-glazed enamel, who with his family preserved for a long time the secret in Germany of this particular glaze.

Delft, a town in Holland, was renowned in the seventeenth century for its extensive manufacture of the fayence known as “Delft.” The potteries of Delft were established in the early years of the century, and towards the end upwards of thirty potteries were in full working order. The genuine delft ware is of a fine hard paste, has a beautiful and clear smooth enamel, and is decorated with almost every kind of subject, chiefly in a blue camaïen.

Attempts at polychrome decoration are very rare, but a red colour has been often used. The style of design and shapes were generally imitations of Chinese, Japanese, and Dresden wares (Fig. 64). Almost every class and shape of the usual pottery objects were manufactured, and some plates and vases were of very great dimensions.

German Porcelain.

The Portuguese introduced China porcelain into Europe, and for a long time the potters sought to imitate it, but without much success, until the true kaolin was discovered by Böttger, about 1709. At Aue, Schneeberg, and in the year 1715, a pottery for the manufacture of hard porcelain was established at Meissen, by Augustus II., Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, with Böttger as director.

Fig. 65.—German Stoneware.

Fig. 66.—Dresden Candelabrum.

This porcelain, after it had been brought to a considerable degree of perfection, turned out a great success in its similarity to the Chinese composition of body, but in spite of all precautions to keep the making and the nature of the clay secret, the knowledge leaked out, and in a short time after we find that hard porcelain was made in many parts of Germany and Austria.

Fig. 67.—Dresden Vase; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)

Like most of the wares made at other potteries at this period, the Dresden porcelain was at first an imitation of Chinese in shape and decoration. Almost every kind of articles were made at Dresden, such as candelabra, statuettes, modelled flowers, vases, services, &c., on which were painted with great delicacy, flowers, landscapes, and figures on grounds of different rich colours (Figs. 66 and 67).

English Pottery.

Ancient British pottery has been found in the barrows and burial mounds in the form of incense cups, drinking and food vessels, and cinerary urns. These have all been made of clays that were found usually on the spot, and are either sun-dried or imperfectly burnt.

The drinking vessels were tall and cylindrical in form, and the incense cups were wider in the centre than at either end. The urns and food vessels have a similarity of shape, being globular, with or without a neck. The decoration is of the simplest description, such as chevrons, or zigzags, and straight-lined patterns produced by scratching with a stick, or the impressions of a rope tied around the vessel while the clay was soft.

The Romans made pottery in Britain from native clay, and also imported much of the Samian ware. The Roman wares of British manufacture are known as Castor, Upchurch, and New Forest wares; they are generally of very good shapes, and are decorated with slips, dots, bosses, and indentations, and are unglazed or slightly glazed (Fig. 68).

Fig. 68.—Romano-British Urn, with Slip Decoration. (B.M.)

The Romano-British urn in the illustration has a slight yellow glaze. The pottery made by the Anglo-Saxons is of the same type and pattern as that made by the Saxons on the Continent. It is rough and inartistic in shape, except in some specimens that were made in the south of England, where an imitation of Roman and probably Norman pottery was attempted.

We do not meet much Saxon pottery in England of any importance until we come to the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, when some of the best efforts in tile making and decoration are seen in the beautiful floor-tiles of the early Gothic period. Many examples of these tiles have been preserved in the British and other Museums, and some are still in sitû in Westminster Abbey, Malvern, Ely, and Gloucester Cathedrals, and Chertsey Abbey. The designs are often heraldic in character (Fig. 69), and consist of geometrical, floral, animal, and architectural forms. Badges, shields, and texts are also found as decorations, and sometimes the human figure is also represented. The earliest are of one colour, or two, as a yellow or a dull red, and the later ones have several colours. They are generally called “encaustic” tiles.

Fig. 69.—Encaustic Tile, from Monmouth Priory. (B.M.)

Slip wares were made extensively at Wrotham in Kent as early as 1650, and at Staffordshire, Derby, and other places in England even earlier than this date. Many of them are of quaint and uncouth forms, and are generally covered with a rich green, brown, or yellow glaze, made from copper, manganese, or iron oxides. Curious two-handled, three or four-handled mugs or tygs used for handing round drinks, posset cups or pots, plates, dishes, candlesticks, jugs, and piggins were made in these wares, and decorated with “slip,” which is a mixture of clay and water used in the thickness of cream, and which is dropped or trailed from a tube or spouted vessel, on the surface of the ware, forming the decoration according to the fancy of the designer. The colour of the slip varied from light to dark (Fig. 70).

Fig. 70.—Tyg of Wrotham Ware.

The dish of Toft’s ware (Fig. 71) is a specimen of the slip decoration, date about 1660. Toft was a potter who had his kiln at Tinker’s Clough, near Newcastle in Staffordshire. His work is decorated with coloured slip on a common red clay, with a wash of white or pipe clay, upon which the decoration was laid in red slip; darker tints were used for the outlines, and sometimes white dots. The lead glaze used gave a yellow tint to the white clay coating.

Fig. 71.—Dish of Slip Ware; by Thomas Toft. (S.K.M.)

Marbled and combed wares, &c., were made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in which different coloured bodies were mixed in the paste to form a mottled, marbled, or variegated appearance.

Lambeth has been noted for its potteries from about 1660. Lambeth delft comprised such objects as wine jars, candlesticks, posset pots. The ware is of a pale buff tint; the paste is covered with a white tin-glaze or enamel, and a lead glaze over the decoration. Some plates have figure subjects and floriated borders, which seem to be imitations of Italian majolica (Fig. 72). The names of Griffith and Morgan appear as Lambeth potters in the eighteenth century; and the present “Stiff’s” pottery was founded in 1751. The most noted pottery now in London is the manufactory of Messrs. Doulton—"The Lambeth Pottery"—founded in 1811, whose original and beautiful work is so well known to everybody in the present day.

Fig. 72.—Dish of Lambeth Delft. (B.M.)

In Staffordshire pictorial delft ware was made in William III. and Queen Anne’s time, but was of a coarser kind and less pure in the enamel than Lambeth delft.

Stoneware of an extremely hard and translucent kind was made by John Dwight at Fulham, about 1670. He made grey stoneware jugs, flasks, statuettes, and busts. The busts and statuettes were of great excellence. The jugs and tankards were made in imitation of the German “Grès”—the so-called “Grès de Flandres.” These were called in England “Bellarmines,” “longbeards,” or “greybeards,” by way of mockery of the Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, who was unpopular with the Protestant party in the reign of James I. (Fig. 73).

Salt-glazed stoneware is still made at the present time at the Fulham works, which are now in possession of Mr. C. J. C. Bailey.

Fig. 73.—Bellarmine, Fulham Stone Ware.

The salt-glazed white stoneware of Staffordshire was made from 1690 till after 1800. The introduction of the salt glaze ware in Staffordshire is ascribed to the celebrated potter John Philip Elers and his brother David. They are likely to have been Dutchmen who had also worked in the potteries of Nuremberg, and had brought with them the knowledge of the salt-glaze process to Staffordshire, together with the style and ornamentation of the Holland stonewares. Dwight of Fulham made salt-glazed wares before the time that the Elers settled at Bradwell in Staffordshire (1690-1710). John Elers made a revolution in the style of working the English pottery by turning his ware in the lathe instead of the exclusive use of the potter’s wheel. The Elers made a red unglazed stoneware chiefly for teapots, cups, saucers, milk jugs, chocolate pots, besides other salt-glazed wares.

The salt-glazed ware is one of the hardest wares known, and is almost a porcelain in composition. The glaze gives a slightly[slightly] uneven surface to the ware, which comes from the manner in which the wares receive the glaze. The pieces are not dipped in a glaze mixture, but when the kiln has reached a very high temperature common salt is thrown into the kiln; the soda is liberated from the salt by the action of the heat, and coming in contact with the silica of the stoneware clay, forms with it a silicate of soda, which is really a glass glaze. The composition of the ware is, generally speaking, clay and fine sand. Astbury, the potter, in 1720 used what is considered the best composition—grey clay and ground flint instead of sand. The colour is drab, or sometimes has a dull cream-coloured covering.

The colour of the old Staffordshire ware is drab, with small white applied ornaments that were previously cast from moulds of brass or stoneware. Coloured enamels have also been very much used for decorating later work. The ornaments are single roses, may blossoms, fleur-de-lis, spirals, small interlacings, birds, figures, straight or wavy lines, &c., all generally very sharp and clear cut (Figs. 74, 75).

Fig. 74.—Jar, White Stoneware of Staffordshire. (S.K.M.)

The potter John Astbury worked for the Elers, and after finding out as many secrets as he could from them, he left them and started a pottery of his own in Staffordshire. He used a wider range of clays and colours than those used by the Elers, and had more variety also in the decoration of his ware, which consisted of such ornaments as harps, crowns, stags, lions, and heraldic designs.

Fig. 75.—White Salt-glazed Ware of Staffordshire. (S.K.M.)

Brown stoneware was made at Nottingham during the whole of the eighteenth century, and was of a bright rich colour; the material was thin and well fabricated. Besides the ordinary shaped jugs, puzzle-jugs and mugs in the shape of bears with movable heads were made, that were used in the beerhouses of the last century.

Bristol and Liverpool were famous for their delft-ware during the last century. Richard, Frank, and Joseph Flower are names of potters who had delft works in Bristol.

In Liverpool bowls with pictures of ships, arms, and landscape decoration were made of delft. Tiles on which were printed transfer decorations were also made of Liverpool delft by Sadler and Green, the inventors. These tiles were about five inches square, were printed in black or red, and were used for lining stoves and fireplaces. Theatrical characters and portraits of celebrities were the usual subjects. Wedgwood and other Staffordshire potteries sent their wares to Liverpool to get transfers printed on them.

Wedgwood ware is one of the most technically perfect productions that has been invented. The colouring is quiet and refined, and the decorations—following the classic ideals of the period—are severe and rather cold, but the workmanship is of such a perfection and delicacy that is seldom found in the ceramic products of any other manufactory.

Josiah Wedgwood came of a family of potters. He was born in 1730, and died in 1795. He was the youngest son of Thomas Wedgwood, a potter of Burslem, who died in 1739, and after his death Josiah left school and was bound apprentice to his brother Thomas, who succeeded his father in the pottery. Josiah concentrated his energies to the designing and modelling of pottery ornaments and to the invention of new paste compositions and glazes. Later on he sought to imitate in appearance and composition the precious stones of agate, onyx, jasper, &c.

After his apprenticeship was over he joined partnership with Harrison, of Stoke, and afterwards with Wheildon, of Fenton, but these associations did not last long, and in 1759 he started business in a small way at Burslem, where he executed many works, and by degrees perfected the cream-coloured ware which is known by the name of “Queen’s ware.” In the year 1776 he took into partnership Mr. Thomas Bentley, a Liverpool merchant of artistic tastes, who attended chiefly to the production of the decorative wares of the firm. This partnership lasted until the death of Bentley in 1780. It was in 1769 that Wedgwood removed his works and went also to live at his new house at Etruria, where he founded and named this village. He took his sons John, Josiah, and Thomas into partnership, and also his nephew Thomas Byerley in 1790. Five years after this date he died.

The products of the Wedgwood manufacture—which may be found more fully described in Professor Church’s excellent book on “English Earthenware,” to which we are indebted for many particulars on English pottery and for some of the illustrations—are thus classified:—

"1. Cream-coloured ware, or ‘Queen’s ware,’ comprises dinner and dessert services, tea and coffee sets. Cream-coloured, saffron, and straw-coloured, with well-painted designs of conventional foliage and flowers, and later work with transfer engraving in red or black, printed by Sadler and Green, of Liverpool.

"2. Egyptian black, or basalt ware, owing its colour chiefly to iron. Seals, plaques, life-size busts, medallion portraits, and vases. Black tea and coffee sets decorated with coloured enamels and gilding (Fig. 76).

"3. Red ware, or Rosso Antico, used for cameo reliefs.

"4. White semi-porcelain or fine stoneware. This ware was composed of one of Wedgwood’s improved bodies.

"5. Variegated ware is of two kinds, one a cream-coloured body, marbled, mottled, or spangled with divers colours upon the surface and under the glaze; the other an improved kind of agate ware, in which the bands, twists, and strips constituted the entire substance of the vessel.

“6. Jasper ware. The body of this ware was the material in which the chief triumphs of Wedgwood were wrought. Outwardly it resembled the finest of his white terra-cotta and semi-porcelain bodies, but in chemical and physical properties it differed notably from them. There are seven colours in the Jasper body besides the white Jasper, but the solid Jasper is of a blue tint. The seven colours are:— blue of various tints, lilac, pink, sage-green, olive-green, yellow, and black.”

Fig. 76.—Lamp, Black Egyptian Ware.

Plaques, tablets, large portraits, and other medallions, cameos, intaglios, vases, statuettes, pedestals, flower-pots, &c., are objects and vessels that were made in Jasper ware.

Fig. 77.—Pedestal in Green and White Jasper, Wedgwood Ware. (S.K.M.)

Flaxman collaborated with Wedgwood in making many designs for his work. The beautiful pedestal shown at Fig. 77 is from a design by Flaxman, and is made in green and white Jasper.

Other names of artists who designed or modelled for Wedgwood are Hackwood, Stubbs, Bacon, Webber, Devere, Angelini, Dalmazzoni, &c. An influence on some of his work was due to his studying and copying the celebrated Portland Vase, which was lent to him for this purpose for more than three years by the Duke of Portland.

English Porcelain.

Porcelain was first made in England about the year 1745. The best period of the manufacture dates from 1750 to 1780, though some of the oldest factories have survived to the present day. English porcelain, or as it is better known as “China” ware, was made at Chelsea, Bow, Derby, Worcester, Plymouth, Bristol, and in Staffordshire. Some of the best porcelain from these places does not yield in beauty to the finest of Sèvres ware.

The Chelsea porcelain works were first under a Mr. Charles Gouyn, and it appears that Nicolas Sprimont was his successor, who was originally a goldsmith in Soho, and who was probably of Flemish origin.

Chelsea ware is remarkable for its deep rich claret-coloured grounds. This colour was first used on the Chelsea porcelain in 1759. Turquoise-blue, pea-green, and Mazarine-blue were also, though in a lesser degree, peculiar to Chelsea ware. The early pieces are without gilding, which is more of a distinguishing mark of the later productions. The paste, the enamel, the colour, and technique are all perfect in their way, but the art and design of the objects do not by any means equal the workmanship; this was of course due to the false taste of the period, when the rococo element in design was fashionable everywhere (Fig. 78). Vases, statuettes, scent bottles, compotiers, bowls, cups, saucers, animals, birds, fruit, and flowers were made by Sprimont in an extravagant style of design.

In 1769 William Duesbury, of the Derby porcelain works, purchased the Chelsea manufactory, and six years later he acquired the Bow porcelain works. A less extravagant style of design and decoration characterized the Chelsea-Derby productions, a specimen of which is seen in the cooper’s bowl, Fig. 79.

Fig. 78.—Chelsea Vase; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)

The Bow China factory was owned by two partners, Weatherby and Crowther, in 1750; the former died in 1762, and the latter failed in the business in 1763. Duesbury, of Derby, bought up the Bow works in 1776, when he removed the moulds and models. Chelsea and Bow ware are very similar in design and appearance, and consequently a difficulty exists in classifying doubtful pieces. There are a great many examples of Bow porcelain in the Schreiber gift in the South Kensington Museum, and Professor Church is of the opinion that they are mostly authentic specimens. The Chinese-shaped vase with the rococo and Louis-Seize decorations is a typical example of the Bow porcelain (Fig. 80).

Fig. 79.—Bowl of Chelsea-Derby Porcelain.

Fig. 80.—Bow Porcelain Vase. (S.K.M.)

Fig. 81.—Derby Statuette.

The date of founding of the Derby porcelain works is not exactly known, except that certain pieces of Derby ware have been advertised for auction “after the finest Dresden models” in 1756 and up to 1770, proving that the works must have been going on during these periods. According to Professor Church, William Duesbury, the first of that name, was connected with the Derby works in 1756, and died in 1786. He was succeeded by his son of the same name, who took into partnership Michael Kean in 1795. This W. Duesbury died in 1796. The works were carried on by another William Duesbury until the year 1815, when they passed into the hands of Robert Bloor, who carried the manufactory on until 1848, when it ceased. Locher, a manager of Bloor’s, started another factory after this which still exists to-day. The Derby coloured porcelain statuettes are imitated more or less from Dresden ware, even to the Dresden marks of the crossed swords (Fig. 81), which marks are copied by a great many porcelain manufacturers. The cup and saucer (Fig. 82) is a specimen of early Crown Derby. The borders are deep blue and the festoons pink. Some of the names of the painters who were engaged at the Crown Derby works are:—F. Duvivier (1769), P. Stephan (1770), R. Askew (1772), J. J. Spengler (1790), and W. J. Coffee (1791). Askew was a clever figure painter. Deep blues, reds, and greens, with lavish gilding, and ornament of a very conventional character, are found on some of the late Derby cups, saucers, and plates.

Worcester porcelain was first made by a company consisting of fifteen shareholders, formed in the year 1751 by Dr. Wall and Mr. W. Davis, the inventors. The name given to the early ware was the “Tonquin porcelain of Worcester.” These works have been going almost without interruption under different names of proprietors until the present day.

Fig. 82.—Crown Derby Covered Cup and Saucer.

Vases and other objects in Worcester porcelain of the early period were decided imitations of Chinese and Japanese wares, but at the same time they were dignified examples both as to form and decoration compared with the meaningless rococo designs of Chelsea and Bow.

The vase (Fig. 83), in the Schreiber Collection, is Oriental in form and decoration, but has a restrained character of its own that is not usually met with in the contemporary wares of the period.

Fig. 83.—Worcester Vase. (S.K.M.)

The vases are the chief glory of Worcester ware; in colour they are exceedingly rich, having grounds of “gros bleu,” turquoise, pea-green, maroon, and a fine shade of yellow; gold is also used in modified proportions.

We have mentioned before the mode of decoration by transfer printing adopted by Janssen on the Battersea enamels and by Sadler and Green on the Liverpool delft; this style of decoration was extensively employed by the Worcester decorators for the fillings of the panels with landscapes and rustic figures, after engravings by Watteau, Gainsborough, and others.

Dresden and Sèvres wares were imitated at Worcester, and it is generally thought that when this was done—during the period 1768-1783—the Worcester ware was at its best. This was the middle period, and towards the time that ended about the beginning of this century the designs became laboured, and lavish use of gold rendered the work vulgar and showy.

Josiah and Richard Holdship and R. Handcock are names of some of the principal artists of the early and middle period. Donaldson, Neale, and Foggo were names of enamellers who worked at the Worcester pottery. A curious design in this ware of a tobacco-pipe bowl (Fig. 84) is in the Schreiber Collection.

Plymouth porcelain manufactory was established by William Cookworthy (1705-80), who was the first to discover in England the real China clay or kaolin, about the year 1755. Cookworthy had a good knowledge of chemistry, and was a wholesale chemist and druggist. He found both the China clay and China stone at Tregonning Hill and at two other places in Cornwall. A patent was granted to him in 1768 for the manufacture of porcelain, and the firm of “Cookworthy and Co.” established itself at Coxside, Plymouth. A French ceramic artist named Sequoi was engaged to superintend the works. The Plymouth works were not of long duration, for shortly afterwards they were removed to Bristol, and Richard Champion, of Bristol, obtained a licence from Cookworthy to make the Plymouth porcelain, and bought the entire rights from the latter in 1773. From this date until 1781 Champion owned the Castle Green works at Bristol which formerly belonged to Cookworthy. Statuettes, vases, rustic pieces, teapots, cups and saucers, &c., were made in both Plymouth and Bristol china, many of them being imitations of Sèvres and Oriental wares.

Fig. 84.—Bowl of Tobacco-pipe, Worcester Ware.

In Staffordshire many porcelain works are still in existence that began in the last century or early in this, such as Longton Hall, New Hall, Spode, Wedgwood, and Minton, but space prevents us from giving any details of their work. Liverpool, Lowestoft, Coalport, Swansea, Nantgarw, and Rockingham may be mentioned as other places where English porcelain was made.

Chinese Porcelain.

Fig. 85.—Chinese Vase.

The manufacture of porcelain in China, according to their own accounts, dates for more than two hundred years before the Christian era. The composition of Chinese porcelain is of two elements: one, the infusible argillaceous earth or clay called kaolin; and the other the “pe-tun-tse,” which is feldspar slightly altered, a micaceous mineral and quartz or silica, which is fusible. The latter is used with or without other mixtures to form a glaze for hard porcelain. Other materials are sometimes used in the glaze, but, unlike the enamel of earthenware, tin or lead is not used.

The Chinese made their porcelain in different degrees of translucency. The kind made especially for the Emperor’s use, such as cups, saucers, and rice plates of a ruby-red tint, are very thin and almost transparent.

The porcelain coloured in turquoise blue, violet, sea-green, and celadon are of the oldest varieties made. Yellow, the colour of Ming dynasty, is a common colour in Chinese porcelain.

The Chinese decorated their vases sometimes without much regard to the spacing or divisions of body, neck, or foot (Fig. 85). Landscapes, dragons, fanciful kylins, dogs, and lions, as well as nearly all kinds of natural objects were used by them as decoration. Conventional renderings of flowers and foliage and geometric ornament are often used in a judicious sense.

Fig. 86.—Oriental Porcelain; Chinese, with French Ormolu Mounting.
(S.K.M.)

Peculiar shapes of vases, such as the square, hexagonal, and octagonal forms, are found very frequent in Oriental ware. The vase (Fig. 86), from the Jones Collection, is a less extravagant example of Chinese porcelain than usual; the egg-shaped body is, however, the only Oriental part of the vase.

Fig. 87.—Japanese Ancient Vase; circa B.C. 640.

Japanese ware is more interesting and more varied in design, though not so gaudy in appearance as the Chinese, owing to the higher sense of artistic feeling and individuality of the Japanese artists. The art, as seen in the ceramic productions as well as in most other things of Japanese art and design, was originally borrowed from the older nation of China and from the Coreans. From their keen sense of beauty, and also greater artistic power, the art products of the Japanese are superior to those of China.

The first glazed pottery made in Japan is supposed to date from the year 1230—this was made at Seto by Tôshiro, who had learnt the art in China, and the first porcelain just before the year 1513, for the maker of this early Japanese porcelain—Shonsui, a Chinese potter—had returned to China in that year.

Fig. 88.—Incense-Burner, Satsuma Ware; circa 1720.

Pottery of an inferior kind was made anterior to the Christian era, but probably the oldest known was made by the people who occupied the country before the present Japanese. The ancient vase (Fig. 87) is an example of this early ware. It is of a coarse kind of earthenware, baked or fired in a hole in the ground, over which and around the vessel was built a wood fire.

Fig. 89.—Incense-Burner, Arita Ware; circa 1710.

Japanese wares are of three kinds: the common stoneware ornamented with scratched lines and glazed; a crackled glazed ware with painted decorations; and the porcelain. The porcelain of Japan is first baked to the biscuit state, then the colours of the decoration are applied, and the piece is afterwards glazed, and is again fired at a greater heat. The gilding or enamel colours that may be required are put on afterwards, when a third firing at a lower temperature is necessary. The Japanese porcelain paste does not stand the firing so well as the Chinese, and consequently the pieces are often twisted and altered in shape.

Fig. 90.—Pierced Glazed Water-bottle, from Madura. (B.)

The factories of Hizen are among the very oldest and are still in working order in Japan. Old Hizen ware is decorated with blue paintings.

The pottery and porcelain of Seto manufacture is highly esteemed, and the name of Setomono has been given by the Japanese to their porcelain ware.

The Kutani ware is a coarse porcelain, known also under the name of Kaga ware; the pieces with a red ground and gold ornamentation are highly valued. It is also glazed with deep green, light purple, and yellow colours.

One of the most famous and costliest Japanese wares is the old Satsuma, which was first made by the Corean potters who settled in the village of Nawashirogawa, in the province of Satsuma, about 1600. This ware is of a dark cream colour, with a crackled glaze, and is decorated with red, green, and gold outlined ornament (Fig. 88)

A specimen of the Hizen potteries porcelain, Arita ware, is illustrated at Fig. 89, of an incense-burner. It is painted in bright colours of red, green, pale blue, and has some gilding. It is decorated with hares or rabbits and waves in the panels and dragons on the cover.

Indian Pottery.

The making of pottery is universal throughout India. The unglazed wares are made everywhere, and of various colours. Red glazed pottery is made at Dinapur, gilt pottery at Amroha and in Rajputana; black and silver pottery at Azimghar in the north-west, and at Surujgarrah in Bengal; painted pottery at Kota, the unglazed pierced variety at Madura, and the celebrated glazed pottery made at Sindh and in the Punjaub.

Fig. 91.—Glazed Pottery of Sindh. (B.)

It may be said that in general the pottery of India is good in shape, colour, and decoration, the latter never violating its purpose, nor distracting the eye from the shape of the vessel. The designs are very simple, and repeating, perhaps to monotony in many cases; but the painted pottery decoration, by reason of its broad and direct application, although the ornament is very simple in character, is better, and less monotonous, for instance, than the Indian wood-carving decoration. The designs take the form of panels of flower and leaf ornament placed side by side, bands of guilloches, chevrons, running ornament, and lines, the knop-and-flower pattern, and a panel filling or an all-over decoration consisting of diapered flowers, leaves, or stars. The elegant shaped water bottle from Madura (Fig. 90) is pierced so that the air may circulate round the inner porous bowl. This ware is coloured a dark green or a golden brown glaze.

Fig. 92.—Glazed Pottery of Sindh. (B.)

The Sindh glazed pottery is beautiful, though very simple in colour and decoration. The colours are mostly blue of two or three shades, turquoise greens, and creamy whites, and sometimes the glaze is purple, golden brown, or yellow. Many of the vases are bulbous or oviform in shape, with wide necks and bottoms, and are decorated with the Sventi, or daisy-like flower (Fig. 91), or the lotus (Fig. 92).

Fig. 93—Enamelled Tile, from Sindh. (B.)

The enamelled tile from Sindh (Fig. 93) has a knop-and-flower decoration, the larger flower having the character of an iris, and, at the same time, something of the lotus flower in its composition.

CHAPTER II.
ENAMELS.

Enamelling is the art of applying a vitreous material to an object, as decoration, to the surface of which it is made to adhere by heat. Metals are the usual foundations to which enamels are applied, but stone, earthenware, and glass may be enamelled. When one speaks of “an enamel” we understand it to mean a metal that is ornamented by a vitreous decoration fused and fixed to the metal surface by heat. There are three principal kinds of enamels: the “embedded or encrusted,” the “translucent upon relief,” and the “painted.” Some enamelled objects have a mixture of two methods.

The embedded or so-called encrusted kind has two varieties, which are best known under their French names, the Cloisonné and the Champlevé. When floated in a transparent state over a bas-relief, showing the chased details below, it is translucent, or, as it is called by the French, émaux de basse-taille. The painted is a later variety developed by the school of Limoges.

The Cloisonné is the oldest variety; it is that in which the Greek or Byzantine enamels are made, and also the Chinese. In this method of enamelling the plate or metal foundation which is to receive the enamel is first cut to the required shape, and a little rim of gold ribbon soldered around it.

The design is formed by narrow strips of gold ribbon or filigree, fastened to the foundation by a strong gum or cement, and bent to form the lines of the design. The cells thus formed are filled in with the enamel in a fine powdered state, or in a paste, the vitreous materials of the selected enamel having previously been tried, as to their colour and time required for perfect and equal fusion.

The piece is then placed in a furnace or “muffle,” sufficiently open so that the progress of the fusing can be watched while firing, and withdrawn when perfectly fused. As the enamel generally sinks lower than the walls of the cells after fusion, it is necessary to add a second thin coating, or sometimes more, and to re-fire it in order to fill all the cavities. After this the work will require grinding down and polishing to level the surface and restore the brilliancy of the colours that may be slightly deadened by the cooling of the enamel.

The materials of enamel colours are metallic oxides. These colours are finely pulverized, washed, and mixed with vitreous compounds, called fluxes, which are easily fusible, and in melting impart an extra brilliancy to the colours, and form with them by fusion the almost imperishable substance of enamel.

The Champlevé enamels are made in the same way as the Cloisonné, with this exception, that instead of the thin gold ribbons or filigree work forming the design, the walls of the cells that compose the design and separate the enamel colours in the Champlevé variety are formed by the hollowing out of the thick metal—usually copper—and leaving the design to be formed out of the thin partitions that are left standing. The cavities are filled with the enamel mixtures and fused as in the Cloisonné method.

On account of the articles being small, and also being mostly made on a gold foundation, they were more likely to have been stolen or melted down, and this accounts in a great measure for the scarcity of Cloisonné enamels in our collections. The Champlevé, on the other hand, being generally enamels on copper or brass, that from the cheapness of those materials, larger vessels and other objects were extensively made, and from both size and lesser value of the materials they were more likely to have escaped the melting-pot.

When the foundation of the Champlevé enamels was copper, the lines of this metal that formed the design would be gilt with an amalgam of melted gold and mercury, and the piece re-fired at a lower temperature, in order not to injure or disturb the enamel surface.

“Translucent” enamel upon reliefs known as de basse taille is the art of enamelling reliefs of silver or gold that have previously been chased or engraved with the design required. The enamel is laid on in various degrees of thickness, according to the strength of shading or depth of tone required. The transparent varieties of enamels are selected for these works, and opaque varieties avoided.

“Painted” enamels were suggested by the translucent enamels upon reliefs. The extensive demand for the latter variety, and the great number executed, gave rise to the invention of using enamel colours as in oil-painting; that is, instead of engraving the subject or design previously on the metal, the method of expressing with the brush the drawing and the light and shade with the enamel colours direct was resorted to, on grounds specially prepared upon copper surfaces. Labarte believes that the modification in the art of glass painting introduced in the fourteenth century had the effect of causing enamel painters to experiment in painting with the enamel colours direct, as in painting on glass.

About this time the method of painting on glass was introduced, which formerly was decorated by simply using the pieces of stained or coloured glass as in mosaic work, the only difference between the superficial glass painting and the painting in enamels being that in the latter the opaque enamel colours are used instead of the transparent as in glass painting. It was, however, a considerable time from the introduction of painting on enamels before any good specimens of the art were executed.

Among the earliest specimens of Cloisonné enamels was the golden altar given to the cathedral of Sta. Sophia at Constantinople by Justinian.

Fig. 94.—Altar Tray and Chalice, Cloisonné Enamel; Sixth Century (?).

This altar was dismantled and divided amongst the Crusaders at the taking of Constantinople in 1204. The next important works in date are the gold altar of Ambrose at Milan, made by Volvinius in 825; the votive crown of St. Mark, Venice, 886-911; the Limburg reliquary made for Basil II. (the Macedonian), 976; and the famous altar, the Pala d’Oro, in St. Mark’s, Venice, 976-1105, made at Constantinople, and brought from there to Venice by order of the Doge Ordelafo Faliero. This altar had precious stones added to it and was enlarged in 1209 and in 1345. If the crown of Charlemagne (Fig. 96) was used at his coronation it would make the date of the four enamelled gold plates with the figures of Solomon, David, and Our Lord between two seraphim and Esaias and Hezekiah, anterior to the year A.D. 800, when he was crowned. These enamels are enclosed in filigree bands and sunk into the metal in the Greek manner.

The sword of Charlemagne, made in the ninth century, has the golden scabbard inlaid with filagree Cloisonné enamels. Both the sword and crown are in the Imperial treasury at Vienna.

The gold altar tray and chalice (Fig. 94) were found near Gourdon, in the Department of the Haute-Saône. The altar tray has a cross in the centre, and lozenge and trefoil ornaments of Cloisonné garnet-coloured enamels. Greek coins of the sixth century were found with it.

The Byzantine reliquary (Fig. 95) is another example of Cloisonné work.

At Cologne, in the cathedral, is the shrine of the Magi that contains the skulls of the “Three Kings.” This is a magnificent reliquary made by the order of the Archbishop Philip von Heinsberg in two storeys, both of which have a series of arcades with figures in each. It is also an example of enamelled work in which the Cloisonné and Champlevé processes may be seen.

The first authentic or dated specimens of Champlevé enamels belong to the twelfth century, though some specimens are likely of an earlier date. Some crosses and other works of the dates 1041-1054 show a mixture of the two embedded varieties of enamels.

It is probable that the Rhenish Provinces of Germany were the first places where Champlevé enamels were extensively made; but almost simultaneously in the twelfth century there arose an active centre of work in this method in Limoges, the future great seat of the enamel industry.

Fig. 95—Byzantine Reliquary, Cloisonné Enamel; Tenth Century.

The German variety may be distinguished from the French by the greater number of colours employed: there is a difficulty in deciding which of the two is the earlier.

The Abbé Suger, when building the Abbey of St. Denis, brought enamellers from Loraine, near the Rhine, to make an enamelled cross, which they completed between 1143 and 1147. A portable altar, and a cruciform reliquary with a dome, in the treasury at Hanover, are early examples of the German school. One of these portable altars in enamel, of the German school, thirteenth century, is shown at Fig. 98. The earliest Champlevé enamel of the Limoges school is that of the monument to Geoffrey Plantagenet, who died in 1151. It is now in the Museum of Le Mans (Fig. 97).

Fig. 96.—Crown of Charlemagne.

Fig. 97.—Champlevé Enamel of Geoffrey Plantagenet.

At Limoges towards the end of the twelfth century Champlevé enamels were made in great numbers. Two specimens of this date are in the Cluny Museum in Paris: one has the subject of the adoration of the Magi, and the other St. Stephen with St. Nicholas, both having Limousin legends. In the same museum are Champlevé enamels as book-covers of the Gospels, croziers, plaques, and “gemellions.” The latter is the name given to certain hand-basins used for religious purposes. In the Louvre is an example of Champlevé enamel—a ciborium of the fourteenth century. This is a vessel in which the Host is kept. Another vessel used for similar purposes is the pyx. Both are small round boxes in which the sacred wafers were kept, and were used for carrying the sacrament to the sick. Ciboria were also in the forms of doves or little towers suspended over the altar. They were kept in little cupboards on either side of the altar, and at later periods the name “ciborium” was applied to the tabernacles having architectural pretensions erected over the altar, and which had a canopy or curtain used as a covering. These tabernacles became shrines of great size and beauty in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and were carved in wood as that in Nuremberg by Adam Kraft, or were stone erections of great dimensions with sculptured figures as decorations, the doors of which were often made in gold and enamelled. Fig. 423 (previous volume) is an example of a fifteenth-century tabernacle with a gilt metal door.

Fig. 98.—Portable Altar; German,
Thirteenth Century.
(S.K.M.)

When Justinian rebuilt Sta. Sophia he placed in it a ciborium or tabernacle of great splendour. Ciboria are now changed into what are known as baldacchinos.

In the Kensington and British Museums are many examples of Champlevé enamels, both German and Limoges, such as book-covers, croziers, pricket candlesticks, châsses, chefs, reliquaries, paxes, crosses, and nuptial caskets, &c. Most of them have blue grounds, with light bluish-grey and dark blue or green ornaments, and are usually enamelled on copper. Some of the reliquaries or châsses have gilt figures in high relief. From the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries is the date of these enamels.

In the latter end of the thirteenth and in the fourteenth centuries enamels became simplified in execution; the figures were mostly incised and gilt, and the background a level coating of enamel—generally of a blue colour. (Fig. 100.)

Fig. 99 is a Limoges enamelled châsse or shrine of the twelfth century, and is in the British Museum.

The Italians did not make Champlevé enamels; but they worked in the Cloisonné process from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, as we know from examples, and from the work, “Diversarum Artium Schedula,” written by the learned monk Theophilus, in the twelfth century, wherein he describes very minutely the whole process of making Cloisonné enamels, according to the methods of the Tuscan enamellers of his time.

Fig. 99.—Châsse in Champlevé Enamel; Twelfth Century. (B.M.)

As regards the antiquity of the art of enamelling on metal, it is generally agreed by learned authorities in the matter that before the art was known at Constantinople or in the workshops of Greece, it was practised by the “barbarians” of Western Europe in the Gallo-Roman period. We apologize for quoting here the oft-repeated passage from Philostratus, the Greek who established himself at Rome in the early part of the third century at the request of the Empress Julia, wife of Septimus Severus. In his “Treatise upon Images” he says: “It is said that the barbarians living near the ocean pour colours upon heated brass, so that these adhere and become like stone, and preserve the design represented.”

Fig. 100.—Champlevé Enamel; French, Fourteenth Century.

This passage proves at any rate in Greece and in Italy enamelling on metal was an unknown art in the third century, the time in which this Greek writer lived, and sufficient examples exactly answering his description have been found in Gaul and in Britain, in Roman burial-places and in caves, all bearing evidences of belonging to this period. The Celtic objects in vitreous enamel are on bronze or copper, and prove that enamelling was an art carried on in the Roman Provinces of Gaul and Britain, which was unknown in Italy at that time.

Fig. 101.—Enamelled Vase, found in Essex in 1834, since partially destroyed by fire. Diameter, 4¾ inches.

The beautiful vessel at Fig. 101, found in a Roman sepulchre in the Bartlow Hills, in Essex, is a fine example of this early enamel. Other existing specimens of the Gallo-Roman period are in the Museum at Poitiers, in the Imperial Library, Paris, and in the Museums of London. From the Gallo-Roman period until the eleventh century most of the arts were at a low ebb, owing to the devastating wars and invasions that spread all over Europe; the art of enamelling had been almost lost, and had quite died out in France and Germany, but is likely to have still been practised in Ireland, where no doubt the art of the goldsmith and the enameller in conjunction had flourished less disturbed than in France or England. We have existing remains of pure Irish Celtic work that date from the ninth and probably earlier centuries, and are of unsurpassed workmanship. Chalices, books of the Gospels, croziers, reliquaries, brooches, jewellery, &c., more or less enamelled, were made in the ninth century, and some earlier. Ireland had a school of living art when in the ninth and tenth centuries the rest of Christendom was sitting wrapped in chaotic gloominess, idly awaiting the supposed end of the world, in A.D. 1000. As regards our present subject, we must notice as coming under the head of enamels that beautiful Irish relic known as the Ardagh Chalice. (Fig. 102.) The body of the cup is silver with about one-third or one-fourth of copper alloy. It is a wonderful mixture of metals, there being gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass, and lead; and an iron bolt secures the stem and bowl together. The ornaments are belts, and the handles, to which are fastened the beautifully designed and worked interlacings of Celtic ornament, of which each little panel is different; it is said that forty distinct varieties in the designs can be traced, consisting of interlaced bands of Celtic twistings, knots, and arabesques: each compartment of the principal belt of ornament is divided by a boss, or enamelled bead, of which there are twelve. The handles are composed of enamels and filigree work similar to the work of the belt, but different in design, with blue glass or paste bosses. The two larger circular ornaments on the sides are composed of gold filigree with a central enamelled boss. The four settings of these ornaments had two pieces of blue glass paste and two pieces of amber, which have fallen out.

Fig. 102.—The Ardagh Chalice; Irish Celtic Work. Height, 7 inches.

The stem is composed of bronze metal gilt, and is richly chased with interlaced ornaments. The circular foot is ornamented with gold and bronze plaques alternating on the outer rim; the bronze divisions are enamelled.

The inside, or under the foot of the cup, is divided into a series of circular divisions around a central crystal, composed of amber and bronze, gold filigree, amber, bronze, and translucent green enamels respectively. In some of the enamels were embedded small portions or grains of gold while the enamel was in fusion. There is a chiselled inscription on the plain surface of the bowl consisting of the names of the Apostles. The workmanship of this exquisite chalice is infinitely superior to the Byzantine work of the same period.

A detailed and exhaustive description of this chalice is given in Miss Stokes’s “Early Christian Art in Ireland,” from which our illustration is taken.

Going back to the ninth century, we have the ring of King Ethelwulf, bearing his name, which is of Saxon workmanship. It was found in Hampshire, and is made of gold and blue-black enamel. Another ring, that of Alfred the Great, was found at Athelney in Somersetshire, the place where Alfred retired to in 878. It is of gold, wrought in filigree and chased. The face is of rock crystal, and the design is in filigree fastened to the gold plate and enamelled in the Byzantine manner. Round the edge is the inscription (translated), “Alfred ordered me to be made.”

Enamelled disks, fibulæ, finger rings, and other articles of personal adornment have been found in England of the Anglo-Saxon period, mostly having a bronze foundation for the enamel.

Documents are preserved at Oxford proving that Limoges enamellers were brought over to England in the thirteenth century to execute effigies, tombs, and other work in enamels. Master John, a native of Limoges, was employed to construct the tomb and recumbent figure of Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester. This work was destroyed at the period of the Reformation. There still exists, however, some of the Limoges work of that date in the effigy of William de Valence, who died in 1129. This tomb is in Westminster Abbey.

The enamels known as émaux de plique à jour, are a kind of Cloisonné work in which there was no background, the enamel being in variety transparent, in imitation of precious stones, and set between the Cloisons or network of gold. The beautiful specimen (Fig. 103) is a cup with a cover, and with architectural features; it is now in South Kensington Museum.

Translucent enamels upon relief date from the period when Art in Italy was beginning to throw off the stiffness and angularity of Byzantine traditions. This was towards the end of the thirteenth century, in the early dawn of the Renaissance.

Freedom in sculpture and painting brought with it a desire to treat enamels in the same freedom, and so we find that engraving on silver and gold, and placing carefully the various powdered enamels in their proper proportions over the engraved surfaces, produced an entirely new and splendid effect; besides, it required more artistic skill to execute this kind of enamelling, and consequently the best artists of the Renaissance were not only goldsmiths, painters, sculptors, and architects, but executed important works in enamels as well. The method was one that could be described as a link between the art of the painter and the goldsmith, and no doubt the demand for enamelled altars, and religious vessels of all kinds, both sacred and secular, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was the cause of producing many artists that subsequently rose to great eminence. For instance, among others may be mentioned Francisco Francia, the celebrated painter who lived in the fifteenth century, who was originally a goldsmith, and as Vasari says, he excelled everybody of his time as an engraver on metals and as an enameller on silver. There is a fine oil-painting by him in the National Gallery of London, on which he has signed himself as “Francia the Goldsmith.” Many names of eminent Italians artists might be given who executed works in enamel in the translucent process: Nicolas Pisano and John his pupil, who executed an altar for Bishop Gubertini of Arezzo in translucent enamel on silver in 1286. Agostino and Agnolo were pupils of John, and helped him at this altar.

Fig. 103.—Cup of Translucent Enamel. (S.K.M.)

Forzore, the son of Spinello of Arezzo, is mentioned by Vasari as a famous enameller. Pollaiuolo is another great name in the Italian art of the goldsmith and enameller. He was also a celebrated modeller and sculptor who had helped Ghiberti in the ornamental work of his gates of the Baptistery of St. John. He died in 1498. Many other celebrated names could be mentioned, but the greatest of all, both as a goldsmith and as an enameller, was Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1570), whose work is well known, and who tells us himself, in his “Treatise on the Goldsmith’s Art,” so much about the method of enamelling in his time. The celebrated ewer, called “The Cellini Ewer,” is a masterpiece of jeweller’s work, and is attributed to Cellini. The body of the ewer is composed of two oval slices of brown sardonyx, carved with radiating ribs in relief. These slices are fastened in an ornamental frame of gold, richly worked. A female figure sits on the top front curve of the body under the lip. The neck, lip, stem with dragons, and other parts of the framework, are enamelled in the translucent method.

A book-cover in the Kensington Museum, of very fine workmanship, with several small figure compositions enamelled on gold, is attributed to Cellini. Works by him in jewellery, vases, salt-cellars, &c., are preserved in various museums on the Continent. Cellini spent five years in France, ending the year 1540, where he executed some works for Francis I., notably the fine salt-cellar now at Vienna.

The art of enamelling on reliefs was introduced to France by Italian artists during the early years of the fourteenth century, and about the same time to Flanders. We read of a manufactory of this kind of enamelling as having existed in 1317 at Montpellier, the seat of the royal Mint.

“Painted enamels,” as we have seen, were suggested by the translucent enamels on relief. Painted enamels were first made at Limoges, and also brought to great perfection at the same place. Any painted enamels found in Italy are Limoges enamels or the work of Limousin artists. The fifteenth century was the period during which the painted enamels were brought to perfection. In the earlier part of the century the enamel was applied directly to the plate of metal and united to it by fusion; but later, towards the middle of the century, a ground of translucent enamel coating was laid on the metal, over the engraved outline of the design, and on this transparent flux the colours were applied. The outlines of the design, which appeared through the transparent coating, were then covered over with a dark-coloured enamel; the various parts, such as draperies, background, and sky, were then laid in with thick coatings of enamel; the spaces left for the flesh tints were filled in with black or violet enamel; and the modelling of the flesh was obtained by layers of white enamel in varying degrees of thickness, leaving the darker violet parts for shade or shadows, and thicker layers represented the highest lights. Thus, all the flesh tints in enamels of this period are slightly brownish or violet in hue.

The other parts of the design were left without shadow, or sometimes the highest points in the hair or draperies would have little fine touches of gold pencillings, in order to bring out some kind of relief. Imitations of precious stones or jewellery on the dresses were brought out in translucent bits of enamel.

An entire change in the process is seen in the Limoges painted enamels of the sixteenth century. The plate of metal was covered with a layer of black or some very dark-coloured enamel, and the design carefully outlined in white. The whole work was then modelled up with white, laid on in varying thicknesses, so as to produce an effect of light and shade called grisaille (grey), the flesh tints being slightly higher in relief than the other parts, and a flesh-coloured enamel being always employed. Fine touchings of white and gold were added to finish off the work.

To make a coloured enamel of the grisaille work it was only necessary to add a thin transparent coating of coloured enamel.

Some splendid effects of a translucent character were obtained in the enamels of this period by the use of gold and silver leaf (paillon) fixed on the enamel ground behind the draperies and other accessories, and sometimes on the backgrounds. Over this leaf of shining metal transparent enamels were painted. Armour, imitation jewellery, and other accessories were rendered by this means of a rich and dazzling brilliancy. In the Kensington Collection many examples of this kind of enamelling may be seen.

One work amongst others is an oval plaque of the sixteenth-century Limoges enamel, which has a representation of a warrior on horseback, and has portions of the armour in translucent enamel. The horse is white, and the groundwork dark. It is one of the best works of the Courtois family.

The enamel painters of Limoges had many methods and secrets in the exercise of their art, and, as a rule, kept them in their families. Generally speaking, we find many enamellers of the same name and family, and their works bear also a strong family likeness, both in subject, colour, and methods.

The greatest name amongst these Limoges artists is Léonard Limousin. This surname was bestowed on him by Francis I. to distinguish him from Leonardo da Vinci. Léonard Limousin was the chief enameller to this monarch, and worked at his art between the years of 1532-74. Léonard in his early works copied his subjects from engravings of the German school of artists, but at a later period, owing to the influence of the Italian artists that were brought to the Court of Francis I., he adopted the subjects of Raphael and the Italian masters. He also improved at this period in his colour and drawing. Some of his best works are those that he painted in the year 1553 for the Sainte-Chapelle by order of Henry II., which consist of two magnificent frames of pictures in enamel, now in the Louvre, and which are acknowledged as his masterpieces. He also excelled in portraits, among which from his hand are those of the Duke de Guise, the Constable de Montmorenci, and that of Catherine de’ Medici in her mourning robes, taken after the death of Henry II. A full-length portrait of Henry II. is preserved in the Louvre, executed by Léonard. The monarch is represented in the character of St. Thomas, and is painted on a white enamel ground, as several other works by this artist are similarly executed. This style of work looks, however, too much like majolica painting, and was not persevered in to any great extent. Léonard was noted for some good original work, both in oils and enamel; but, generally speaking, the Limoges enamellers were fond of copying subjects from German, Italian, and French engravers, who engraved many works after the great painters of these countries. The German engravers were known under the name of the “Petits-Maîtres,” many of whom were pupils or imitators of Albert Dürer. Some of the more important were Heinrich Aldegrever, Hans Sebald Behan, Virgilis Solis, Theodore de Bry, Jean Collaert, Albrecht Altdorfen, and Georg Pens. Two celebrated French engravers who supplied many designs for the Limoges enamellers were Étienne de Laulne, known also as Stephanus, and Pierre Woeiriot, the former a copper-plate and the latter a wood engraver. The Courtois and Raymond enamels have many subjects from the designs of Étienne de Laulne. Another engraver, Marc Antonio Raimondi, of the Italian school (1500-1540), supplied copies of the works of Raphael to the Limousin enamellers, and also to the Italian majolica painters. This engraver was the most celebrated of his time. He was a pupil at first of “Francia the Goldsmith,” learnt much from Albert Dürer and Lucas van Leyden, and was the engraver of many of the works of Raphael, which he executed in what is known as his Roman method.

In the British Museum there is the enamel of the twelve Sibyls of Léonard Limousin, painted about 1550.

Another well-known name is that of Pierre Raymond. He painted chiefly in grisaille, or in camaïeu, and not often in colour. His works date from 1534 to 1572 (Figs. 104 and 105).

The Pénicaud family (circa 1540) consists of four enamel painters of this name—Jean Pénicaud, the elder, Jean Pénicaud, junior, Pierre Pénicaud, and N. Pénicaud.

The elder Pénicaud was a good draughtsman, and often employed “paillon” to get the rich colouring in which he excelled. He executed portraits of Luther and Erasmus, which are signed with his initials.

Fig. 104.—Portion of a Salt-cellar, by Pierre Raymond.

The Courtois or Courteys family was another celebrated family of painters on enamel. Pierre Courtois was the eldest (circa 1550). He painted some of the largest enamels ever executed. These were large oval panels measuring 66 inches in height by 40 inches in width, on which were painted the subjects of the cardinal virtues and heathen divinities, and which formerly decorated the façade of the Château de Madrid, built by Francis I. and Henry II. They are signed and dated 1559. In his larger works Pierre Courtois does not show himself so good in his draughtsmanship as in his smaller enamels.

Jean Courtois (circa 1560) was a prolific enameller. His work is characterized by a profusion of arabesque ornament of the period of Henry II. His flesh tints and other parts of his compositions are generally highly coloured, the flesh having a salmon-coloured tint.

Fig. 105.—Vase; Painted Enamel, by Pierre Raymond.

Another member of this family signs his work I. D. C. His principal figures are usually hammered out in relief, and his work is of a high finish.

Jean Court (circa 1555) was also known under his other surname of “Vigier.” He was formerly confounded with Jean Courtois, but his work is different from the latter’s. His drawing is better, and his colouring not so strong but more natural than that of Jean Courtois.

Suzaune Court, as she signed herself, was an enameller of the school of Jean Courtois.

Martial Raymond (circa 1590) was an artist of considerable power, and a goldsmith, who worked at the end of the sixteenth century. His work is usually heightened with gold, and he used “paillon” very much.

Jean Limousin (circa 1625), and François Limousin (1633), were enamellers who carried out the traditions of the Limoges school in a worthy manner during the early part of the seventeenth century.

The former passes for the son of Léonard Limousin, and was supposed, from the fleur-de-lis that always appears between his initials on his works, to have been the director of the royal manufactory at Limoges, as his predecessor Léonard was in the reign of Francis I. Jean Limousin executed some beautiful enamels, in which the translucent birds, arabesques, and small figures were treated with rare delicacy.

In the reign of Louis XIV. (1643-1715) Jaques Nouailher introduced a new kind of enamel, which consisted of modelling in relief on copper with a white enamel paste, and afterwards covering it with a transparent coloured enamel.

Pierre Nouailher was another enameller of this family who was noted for his correctness of drawing.

The school of Limoges of this date exhibits a greater correctness of drawing, accompanied with a marked diminution of good colouring; the enamels of the seventeenth century show a decline of that splendour of colouring which characterized the former century. This was owing to the abandonment of the silver and gold “paillon” backgrounds, and to the exclusive use of the brush alone in the enamels of this period.

The process of painting with a preparation of opaque enamel colours on a gold ground direct, without previously using the heretofore black ground for the purposes of getting the shadows, is ascribed to Toutin (1632). This was the first step to the decadence of enamelling, as the system of Toutin was restricted to the production of portraits in miniature, and in course of time nothing else was done but miniatures. Many artists in the period of this decadence executed good work, amongst which may be mentioned the names of Gribelin, a fellow-worker with Toutin, Dubié, Morlière of Orleans, and Vacquer of Blois. The latter were pupils of Toutin.

Chartier, Petitot, and Bordier were three other noted miniature painters on enamel. The latter two worked in conjunction, and lived for some years in England, until the death of Charles I., when they returned to the Court of Louis XIV., and there painted the portraits in miniature of the principal people of the time.

The art of enamelling was carried on in Spain, in Italy, and in some parts of Germany during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but not to the same extent as in France. Such articles as crosses, crucifixes, rosaries, pendants, ewers, medallions, perfume bottles, rings, badges, small panels with figure subjects, and numerous small objects, particularly in jewellery, were made in enamels in these centuries throughout Europe.

Fig. 106.—Battersea Enamel. (S.K.M.)

In the seventeenth century, in England, a good deal of enamelling was done at Battersea, and at Bilston in Staffordshire. A kind of coarse enamel was made in England at that time on cast iron and on brass. The cavities were cast to receive the enamel. There are some candlesticks and fire-dogs in existence that are made in this way.

Stephen T. Janssen had his enamel works at York House, Battersea, in the years 1750-5. After this time the English practice of enamel-making died out. Kensington and the British Museums contain many specimens of Battersea enamel (Fig. 106). Snuff and tobacco boxes, scent-bottles, candlesticks, small dishes, crests, labels of wine-bottles, and miniatures are the principal articles of Battersea enamel. The decorations are chiefly small flowers and ornament on light-coloured or white grounds enclosing pastoral subjects. Some have prints of calendars, and other black and white subjects, printed by transferring. In the British Museum there are two large oval medallions with the portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, painted by the English enameller W. H. Craft.

Enamels of the Countries of the East.

China, India, and Persia have been famed from early times for their exquisite productions in enamels. Japan also has made, and continues to make, enamels of great beauty. The older or Cloisonné method is mostly in favour with the natives of the East, and very little Champlevé work is executed. Although enamelling is an old art in China, yet Chinese enamels are rare that have been executed before the fifteenth century. In the Ming dynasty, under the Emperor King-tai (1450-7), enamel working was in its highest state of excellence.

The designs on the enamelled vases are pretty much the same as on all their other works, such as textiles, embroideries, and porcelain. In fact, a Chinese enamelled vase is as a rule very similar in shape, colour, and decoration to a porcelain one of the same country, and sometimes the likeness is so great as to demand a close inspection to determine which is enamel and which porcelain.

The Chinese used as a rule light colours in their enamel grounds: light turquoise blue, light olive green, or a bright yellow ground; the latter colour was mostly used in the painted enamels of the Thsing dynasty, yellow being the national colour of this dynasty. The general type of the design is made up of such things as a very crooked tree or branch, decorated with large clusters of flowers and foliage, slightly conventional in drawing; sometimes with birds and butterflies, or with dragons; some vases have one large dragon occupying the greater part of the field.

The colouring is generally very bright, the ground light and brilliant; the flowers may be red, deep blue, pansy-violet, golden yellow, or white. The foliage is usually of a crude emerald green type. Borders of conventional cloud forms or other geometric forms surround the panels, or form belts to the fields of the ornamental compositions.

Religious vases, altar furniture, perfume-burners, candlesticks, lamps, screens, and table-tops are some of the articles in Chinese enamels made invariably in the Cloisonné manner.

The Chinese also make a species of enamel that has no metal foundation, which consists of a cloisonnage of network in which the enamel is skilfully fused between the divisions, and is of a semi-translucent character.

Japanese enamels are more modern than the Chinese, old pieces of Japanese being extremely rare. The enamels of Japan are darker in the ground colour than the Chinese, being generally of a dark olive green, or of a warm neutral grey tint. Some very large vases, braziers, and large dishes are made by the Japanese. These wonderful people are extremely clever in the use of the enamellers’ lamp and the blowpipe, for the purpose of fusing the enamel in sections, as the large pieces they made could not possibly be fired entire. The Chinese excel in the painting of enamels, but the Japanese do not seem to cultivate this art to any great extent.

Indian enamels are characterized by their extreme brilliance and splendour of colouring, in which qualities they excel the enamels of all other countries. The native enamellers work in the translucent, Cloisonné, and Champlevé processes, and the methods and secrets of their craft are kept in their families. Greens of the peacock and emerald hues, coral and ruby reds, torquoise and sapphire blues are the favourite Indian enamel colours.

Fig. 107.—Necklace; Punjaub. (B.)

The celebrated Jaipur enamels are of the Champlevé kind. In Cashmere and in the Punjaub jewellery is made of gemmed gold and enamels (Fig 107). The Queen and the Prince of Wales possess many articles that are masterpieces of Indian enamelling. The Haka stand lent by the Queen to the Indian Museum is a splendid specimen of translucent painted enamel in green and blue, of the Mongol period (Fig. 108).

Fig. 108.—Enamelled Haka Stand; Mongol Period. (B.)

A large plate of Jaipur enamel, said to be the largest ever made, was presented to the Prince of Wales. A unique and beautiful specimen of the same kind of enamel is the Kalamdan, or pen-and-ink stand in the shape of an Indian gondola (Fig. 109).

The stern is formed of a peacock’s head and body, the tail of which decorates in brilliant enamels the underneath part of the boat.

Fig. 109.—Enamelled Pen-and-Ink Stand; Jaipur. (B.)

The canopy of the ink receptacle has green, blue, coral, and ruby enamels laid on a gold foundation.

The vase, or Sarai (Fig. 110) in possession of Lady Wyatt is a fine example of Cashmere enamel, on which the shawl pattern may be seen.

Fig. 110.—Enamelled Sarai; Punjaub. (B.)

A kind of enamel is made at Pertabghar in Rajputana, which consists in covering a plate of burnished gold with a rich green enamel, and placing on the surface while it is hot thin plates of gold ornaments, which are fastened to the enamel by heat; afterwards these gold plates are engraved elaborately with incised lines, so as to bring out the design. Sometimes the enamel itself is engraved, and an easily fused gold amalgam is rubbed into the incised lines, and fused to form the decoration.

Persian enamels are applied mostly to the heads of “Kalians,” or tobacco water-pipes, jewellery, and coffee-cup holders. The foundations are gold or copper. A large tray enamelled on copper on both sides is in the Kensington Museum. It is decorated with flowers of various colours on a white ground, and has an Armenian inscription with the date A.D. 1776, and comes from Ispahan. In most Persian enamels the grounds are usually of a white or light tint, with brightly coloured flowers as decoration.

CHAPTER III.
IVORY CARVINGS.

In the former part of this work we have noticed the ivory carvings of the ancient world, and it is proposed in the following pages to give an outline of ivory carvings of the Middle Ages and of the comparatively modern periods.

One of the oldest and most important works in ivory carving of the sixth century is the celebrated Chair of St. Maximinian, now preserved in the metropolitan church of Ravenna. It is entirely overlaid with plates of ivory, and has five upright panels in the front and below the seat which are carved with figure subjects. The legs and back are overlaid with ivory plates, carved with animals, foliage, and figures, and on the rail in front of the seat is carved the Archbishop’s monogram. It is altogether a very fine and rich piece of Romanesque work.

Very important works in ivory were executed in the time of the Roman Empire, in the nature of “Consulare” diptychs and triptychs. These Consular diptychs were originally made of wood or ivory, and were hinged tablets that folded over each other, the outside surfaces being carved elaborately, with a portrait or figure of the Consul or chief magistrate of the province in the centre, the inside surfaces being used for writing purposes. These consulares were also called “pugillares” from being portable objects that could be carried conveniently in the hand or fist. They were usually made as presents to be given to important people of distant provinces, or to very intimate friends of the Consuls. After the adoption of the Christian religion by the Roman Empire it was the custom of the Consuls to send these consulares in the form of a diptych or triptych, as a present to the bishop of a church in his province, to show his patronage and goodwill, and they were usually placed on the altar of the church, in order that the congregation should see them and remember the giver in their prayers. This custom led to the making of the diptychs (two-leaved) and the triptychs (three-leaved), for the purpose of the altar decorations, and usually on the plain inner leaves were inscribed the names of the newly baptized (neophytes) Christians, benefactors to the church, dignitaries of the same, and Christian martyrs. The use of these led to the later magnificent painted and carved altars of the triptych order in Christian churches. During the persecution by the iconoclastic Emperors of the Eastern Empire a great number of these triptychs were made in wood and in ivory of Greek workmanship, carved or painted on the interior faces with representations of saints and sacred personages. These were used as portable altars, and were carried about the person of those who used to pray before them in secret. Many of them were also of a good size, and became later important objects that were placed above or near the “prie-dieus” in private rooms or chapels. The smaller pugillares, and larger ecclesiastical diptychs were used in later times to form the coverings of costly illuminated books, and it is owing to this use of them that so many have been preserved to our day.

Byzantine sculpture and ivory carvings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were invested with the same severe and solemn character that was the distinguishing feature of the ceiling and wall mosaics of the same period. The figures were long and attenuated, the draperies very stiff and angular and arranged in parallel folds, which, with the German phase of Christian art, developed later into a still more angular and rocky character. In France, on the other hand, in the thirteenth century there arose a splendid and original school of sculpture, entirely native, whose richest efforts culminated in such masterly achievements as the figure sculpture of the cathedrals of Rheims, Chartres, and Amiens.

Fig. 111.—Coronation of the Virgin; Ivory Carving relieved with Colours and Gold; Thirteenth-Century French. (Jacquemart.)

Small statuettes in ivory were made in great quantities in the Middle Ages, and as an example of the French school of ivory carving of this period there is an exceedingly fine representation of the “Coronation of the Virgin” (Fig. 111) in the Louvre. In this work the figure of Christ has the dress and lineaments of Philip III. (the Bold), the son of St. Louis, and that of the Virgin is personified as Mary, his Queen, daughter of Henry III. (the Debonnaire), Duke of Lorraine and Brabant. This example dates from about 1274, and is certainly one of the most perfectly finished works of French sculpture of that time.

Fig. 112.—Image Painter; Fifteenth Century.

Colour and rich decoration were seen very much on the sculpture of the Middle Ages, for we find traces of it in the mediæval tombs, effigies, and all kinds of statuary.

Some of the ancient diptychs had both ground and figures coloured and perhaps gilt. Coloured and gilded statues and reliefs were common in Germany and France, and are so to-day in those of the Roman and Greek Christian churches.

Fig. 113.—Leaf of a Roman Diptych. (S.K.M.)

The dresses of the figures are semé (sown) all over with fleurs-de-lis and very rich diapers in gold and silver, on rich red, blue, and white grounds. Statuary painting was a profession in the Middle Ages. The illustration (Fig. 112), from a French fifteenth-century manuscript, shows an image painter at work.

Returning to the ivory plaques or diptychs, the illustration at Fig. 113 is that of the most perfect and most beautiful specimen of antique ivory carving that we have any knowledge of. It is now in the Kensington Museum, and represents the figure of a young girl, or Bacchante, with a younger girl attending her. The figure has a well-designed arrangement of drapery hanging in graceful folds. She stands at an altar, and is in the act of making an offering. A vigorously carved oak-tree with acorns and foliage occupies the left top of the panel, and a border of a Greek character surrounds it. The corresponding half of this plaque is in the Cluny Museum in Paris. It was found at the bottom of a well at Montier-en-Der, and is much injured. The latter half shows the figure of a female standing at an altar, and holding in her hands inverted flaming torches. These famous plaques, which measure nearly 12 inches by 5, are supposed to have formed the doors of a large shrine or châsse that was brought from Rome in the days of Childeric. They are supposed to be Roman work of the sixth or seventh century, though some think the work is earlier: they are undoubtedly executed by a Greek artist. There are many specimens of consular diptychs in the museums of London, Liverpool, and the Continent. The earliest dates from about A.D. 250, and the latest about A.D. 540. The Roman Consuls continued for nearly one thousand years: the last Consul of Constantinople was Basilius (A.D. 541), and the last Consul of Rome was Paulinus (A.D. 536).

There is a large plaque of ivory in the British Museum which measures 16 inches by nearly 6 inches in width—the largest known—on which is carved the figure of an archangel holding in one hand a globe and in the other a long staff. He stands on the top of a flight of steps under a round arch supported by Corinthian pillars. Its date is uncertain, but is probably of the seventh century; it is grandly designed and of excellent workmanship (Fig. 114).

A work of the same or slightly earlier period is the beautiful ivory vase (Fig. 115), which has well proportioned horizontal divisions and well-designed ornamentation. The style of design suggests a copy from metal work.

Triptychs, as we have seen, were used above and behind the altar tables, and were at first portable, so that they could be carried away after the service was ended; but later they became the “retables,” fixed altars, or “reredoses,” and were carved or painted, or were partly executed in both ways.

Fig. 114.—Ivory Carving with Archangel. (B.M.)

Fig. 115.—Ivory Vase; Roman, Seventh Century. (B.M.)

Many objects of secular art, and articles that the wealthy could afford to use in every-day life, were made in ivory during the Middle Ages, such as book-covers, toilet-combs, mirror-cases, chessmen, horns, hilts of knives, swords, and daggers, caskets, small coffers, &c., in addition to the objects required for use in religious ceremonies, as pyxes, croziers, crucifixes, crosses, and taus, the latter being an early form of the pastoral staff. The pastoral staffs of ivory are not very common, and most examples known belong to the thirteenth century.

Fig. 116.—Pastoral Staff; German, Thirteenth Century. (S.K.M.)

The woodcut (Fig. 116) of the pastoral staff shows the subject of the Crucifixion on one side and the Virgin and Child with attendant angels on the other. It is German work of the thirteenth century, and is now in the Cathedral of Metz.

An older specimen of the pastoral staff, which Mr. Maskell thinks is English work, is carved in bone with interlacing scrolls, and has a grotesque and serpent forming the crook decorations (Fig. 117).

Fig. 117.—Pastoral Staff; Bone Caning, English; Twelfth Century.

In the fourteenth century ivory carvings were in great demand, judging from the great number of the various ivories of that date which have been preserved.

Belonging to this period are the beautiful ivory hunting horns called “oliphants” (from elephant) that were much used by kings and nobles in hunting, and were sometimes mounted in gold.

The ivory carvings known as pierced or “open-work” are usually of very fine and delicate workmanship. The illustration (Fig. 118) shows two compartments of a larger plaque in the Kensington Museum, the full size of the originals that have sacred figures under Gothic canopies of fourteenth-century work. It is not known exactly to what country they belong, as ivory carvings as a rule are undated and unsigned, but the woodcut (Fig. 119) represents an undoubted piece of English work. It is one leaf of a diptych made for Grandison, Bishop of Exeter.

Fig. 118.—Ivory Carving; Fourteenth Century Pierced Work. (S.K.M.)

Few names of artists, as ivory carvers, have come down to us from the Middle Ages. One named Jean Lebraellier was the carver to Charles V. of France; Jehan Nicolle is another who has signed his name on an ivory pax in the British Museum. Henry des Grès was a “pignier” or carver of combs (1391). Héliot has dated work of 1392. Henry de Senlis, “tabletier,” plaque carver of 1454, and Philip Daniel, “pignier” and “tabletier” (1484), in Paris.

Fig. 119.—Ivory Diptych; English Work; Fourteenth Century. (S.K.M.)

The top of a Moorish casket from Spain, with Saracenic engraved ornament of the eleventh century, is shown at Fig. 120, and a beautiful casket from Italy, carved and engraved in bone, is illustrated at Fig. 121. This is fourteenth-century work. Caskets and coffers made of slabs of bone, carved and inlaid with figure subjects and armorial bearings, were made extensively in Italy at this period, and used as marriage coffers.

Fig. 120.—Lid of Ivory Cabinet; Spanish; Eleventh Century. (S.K.M.)

Combs and mirror cases were naturally objects that received much attention at the hands of the carver in ivory. A beautiful comb in the British Museum (Fig. 122) belongs to the eleventh century, the central scroll-work of which is very rich and ornate.

Fig. 121.—Coffer in Bone Carving and Engraved Work; Italian; Fourteenth Century. (S.K.M.)

Ceremonial combs, with finely carved ornamentation, have been found in tombs of bishops, and many are preserved in churches that date from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries. The mirror case, Fig. 123, is a beautiful example of fourteenth-century work. It has the carved subject of the “Siege of the Castle of Love”—a favourite subject for mirror case decoration—and four lions forming the corners to the circular ring.

Fig. 122.—Ivory Comb; Eleventh Century.

In reference to the ivory carver Héliot, mentioned above, Jacquemart quotes—when speaking of his work, the oratory of carved ivory tablets in the Cluny Museum that belonged to the Duchess of Burgundy—"Accounts of Amiot Arnant from 1392 to 1393. Paid 500 livres to Berthelot Héliot, ‘varlet de chambre’ of the duke (Philip the Bold), for two large ivory tablets with images, one of which is the ‘Passion of Our Lord,’ and the other the ‘Life of Monsieur Saint Jean-Baptiste,’ which he has sold for the Carthusians."

Fig. 123.—Ivory Mirror Case. (S.K.M.)

Many celebrated artists have doubtless worked in ivory, but there is nothing to prove this except the supposed hand-work of the artists. Michelangelo is credited with working in ivory; Cellini, Donatello, Agostino, Carracci, and other famous names in Italian art have been mentioned as ivory carvers; and in the seventeenth century a celebrated ivory carver named Copé, but better known as Fiamingo, who was Flemish by birth. He made many basins, ewers, tankards, and carved figures of children in bas-relief. Fiamingo worked and lived in Rome at the end of the sixteenth and during the first ten years of the seventeenth centuries. He died in 1610. His work, like that of many other artists of this period, was greatly influenced by the style of Rubens, and a strongly marked realism in the manner of treating allegorical subjects was the prevailing taste in painting and carving. Very fine tankards in ivory, and basins, were carved by Fiamingo with bacchanalian scenes in a realistic manner. The tankard from the Jones Collection (Fig. 124) is believed to be the work of Fiamingo. It is a Flemish ivory mounted in silver-gilt work of good design. The body of the tankard is spiritedly carved with the figures of a nymph and satyr dancing, Silenus, and some children carrying grapes.

Another Flemish artist in ivory was Francis von Bossuit, who spent a great part of his life in Rome, and whose figure carvings are of great value. Alessandro Algardi was an Italian artist of the seventeenth century, who carved the ivory bas-relief of St. Leo going out to meet Attila, now in St. Peter’s at Rome, and also a very fine bust of Cosimo II. de’ Medici. One of the best ivory carvers that ever lived was François Duquesnoy, known better as François Flamand (1594-1644); he was a native of Brussels, and went to Rome when a young man for the purpose of study. He supported himself in his wanderjahr period by carving little figures in ivory and wood. In the Cluny Museum and in the Louvre some groups, and bas-reliefs of females and children, may be seen, executed by Flamand, that are full of roundness and life, boldly conceived and extremely graceful.

Fig. 124.—Ivory Tankard, Silver-gilt Mounted; Flemish; Seventeenth Century. (S.K.M.)

We have noticed how plentiful the ivory carvings were of the fourteenth century period; but at the end of that century ivory sculpture fell in abeyance, which lasted during almost the whole of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This was due to the very great impulse given to wood carving by the French, and even more so by the German wood sculptors. Large wooden altar-pieces, or “retables,” came into fashion, and also minute wooden portraits and statuettes, which for a long period superseded ivory carvings; and in Germany a good deal of carving was executed in “Speckstein” or Soapstone, a kind of drab-coloured lithographic stone that was not difficult to work. Albert Dürer and Lucas Cranach carved some very fine works in Speckstein. At the beginning of the seventeenth century ivory carving became again in great request.

The Germans carried the arts of ivory and miniature wood carving, as they did the larger style of wood carving, to great perfection; in fact to an astonishing degree of dexterity, that would compare with Chinese or Japanese carving, but lacking in the restrained artistic power of the latter nation’s productions. All kinds of astonishing creations are preserved in the museums of subjects such as little ivory carvings of skeletons in company with groups of female figures, miniature hunchbacks, and beggars with diamonds for buttons on their dresses. Leo Pronner, of Nuremberg, carved on a cherry-stone a hundred heads, that required the aid of a magnifying glass to see the expressions, and later Simon Troger, of the same city, produced many marvels in ivory figures with brown wood dresses and other accessories in wood.

Many good ivories have been the work of Spanish carvers, and as a rule they are tinted or coloured.

Nearly all the carvings in ivory that we have noticed have been statuettes, reliefs, or objects in which the human figure predominates.

As a matter of fact there are very few ivories of any artistic value in which the human figure is not the most important part of the composition, purely ornamental work being very rare. Even in Saracenic work, where the figure and animal representations are not found, the amount of carved ivory work is limited, and the specimens are very scarce.

Fig. 125.—Carved Ivory Panels of a Pulpit Door; Saracenic. (S.K.M.)

In an ancient Coptic church in Cairo there is a massive partition or screen of ebony, in which is a central door and two side panels. This screen has a rich display of inlaid ivory carved with arabesques, and has ivory crosses in high relief. The screen is believed by Mr. Butler—the author of “The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt”—to be a work of the tenth century, and also to be the model on which the ivory carving of the mosques was founded.

The ivory carvings in Saracenic work are usually found as carved or chased panels, with arabesque designs, and surrounded with geometric linear framing (Fig. 125).

The best of this type of work was executed in the fourteenth century. Objects made of ivory alone are very rare in Saracenic art. The illustration given of an ivory ink-horn is unique in this material, but ink-horns of the same shape are common that have been made in copper and brass.

Figure and animal carvings of Saracenic or Moorish design have been made in Spain, and in some other countries under the rule of the Saracens, but are not found in the Egyptian Saracenic.

China has always been prolific in the production of ivory carvings. There are numerous statuettes of Confucius, Cheoü-lao, the god of old age, of the Buddhist female divinity Kouan-in, and of other divinities. Necklaces, pierced plaques for waist-belt decoration, and the su-chus or rosaries, all are carved with a certain archaic quality and quaintness, but of a minute and unsurpassed dexterity of workmanship.

The Chinese ivory fans of pierced work are beautiful and as delicate as lace-work. Examples of these are very common.

Fig. 126.—Ivory Ink-Horn; Saracenic. (S.K.M.)

The pen-cases called pitongs are beautiful objects, carved with dragons, flowers, and quaint figures in toy-like houses and gardens.

The “puzzle balls” are amongst the most wonderful of the Chinese carvings in ivory, where quite a number of loose balls of lessening sizes are contained within each other, and are all carved out of a solid ball of ivory. The outer surfaces of each ball are also carved with elaborate ornamentation. The method of cutting out these balls consists in boring a number of holes at regulated distances on the surface to a measured depth of the thickness of each outer shell, and then to cut around the circumference of each hole with a steel tool made with a bent end to suit the concentric curve of the sphere, and turned until each shell is freed from its next smaller ball. The Chinese puzzle balls are not very perfect examples of accurate turning, as the ornamentation conceals the rough workmanship in a great degree, but still they are marvels of skill and patience.

The Japanese carvings in ivory are better in an artistic sense than the Chinese, and exhibit the same surprising beauty of finish and minuteness of detail. All kinds of little cases for pens, jewels, powders and perfumes; little divinities, small caskets and cabinets put together with plaques of slabs of carved ivory, gilt and coloured with lacquers, and also encrusted with lapis-lazuli, mother-of-pearl, and precious stones. There is also the most wonderful little ivory figure and groups of animal carvings called netsukes. These in many instances are works of the highest order. Many of them are meant as embodied jokes, puns, or satires. Some consist of groups of real or sham cripples, beggars with monkeys on their backs, wrestlers, boxers, all kinds of domestic scenes, warriors on foot and on horseback; other subjects full of dignity and grace, and animal groups carved as no other people in the world can do. These netsukes are used not only as ornaments that are treasured for their own sakes, but also as dress-fasteners and as articles of personal adornment by the better classes in Japan.

Many other uses for ivory carvings are found by the Japanese, such as handles of swords and daggers, and some of their beautiful lacquered panels have encrusted eagles and other birds beautifully carved, and perched on the branches of trees, the latter being made from mother-of-pearl, and sometimes the flowers, foliage, and fruit of tinted ivory minutely chased.

India is famed for its extremely elaborate ivory carvings. The elaborated richness of Oriental ornament is seen in the ivory carvings of India more than in almost any other material except the goldsmiths’ work; but this may be more excused in such precious materials as ivory, gold, or hand-made laces, where it is quite legitimate to give to the ornament that necessary character of elaborate detail which always adds to the preciousness of the material.

Sometimes the carved ivory cabinets from India have Biblical subjects in the panels, which proves them to be works made to the order of the European missionaries, by native artists.

The ivory jewel casket with gold mountings (Fig. 127) is thoroughly Hindu in design and execution. Deified females with outstretched arms form a natural palanquin for the seated figure of an Indian divinity; other figures act as palanquin bearers, and the intervening spaces are richly filled with characteristic foliage and fruit.

Fig. 127.—Ivory Casket with Gold Clasp and Hinge; Indian. (Jacquemart.)

Ivory carving is so extensively carried on throughout India that it would be difficult to say in what part of the country it was not done. In some districts ivory carving in certain articles is done to the exclusion of others. Bison horn is carved at Ratnagiri.

Tortoiseshell is plentifully used for carving in Bombay. The Hindoos, like the Chinese, carve fans in a wonderfully delicate manner. Ivory bracelets, little elephants with all their trappings, tigers, oxen, gondolas, fully-rigged ships, hunting scenes, gods and goddesses, &c., are all made in ivory throughout India.

CHAPTER IV.
Metal Work.

GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE, PEWTER, AND IRON.

The early Egyptian, Assyrian, Phœnician, and Primitive Grecian metal work has been noticed under the historic sketch of the art of these nations in the former volume.

We read in the Bible of the great magnificence of Solomon’s Temple, especially in the extreme richness and wealth of the gold, silver, and brazen vessels, utensils, and architectural decorations, in which the precious metals were used in the solid or plated manner on capitals, pillars, doors, seats, thrones, and on the decorations of the Ark; but no remains of all this magnificence have survived the wrecks of time or the greed and spoliation of the conquerors of Jerusalem.

The sculptured decorations of the Arch of Titus at Rome afford us the only tangible testimony as to the kind or shapes of the tables, vessels, and seven-branched candlesticks which were carried off by the Romans after the sacking of Jerusalem, A.D. 73. The workmanship and design of these objects were probably a mixture of Egyptian and Assyrian forms, passing through the hands of the probable Phœnician artificers.

Some of the earliest goldsmiths’ work that possesses a real artistic value consists of personal ornaments, such as wreaths, earrings, brooches, and diadems of Etruscan workmanship. Much of this work was made very thin, in plates or scales joined together, and was generally designed for funeral uses. Articles of personal adornment were very rich and beautifully made, having the usual character of Greek design (Figs. 128, 129).

Fig. 128.—Gold Brooch and Earrings set with Garnets; Etruscan. (J.)

Fig. 129.—Head of Bacchus, part of Necklace; Etruscan Jewellery. (J.)

Fig. 130.—Etruscan Bronze Vessel.

The Etruscans were greatly skilled in the making of all kinds of gold, silver, and bronze vessels, jewellery, cups, goblets, and articles of domestic use (Fig. 130). A remarkable bronze of a monster or chimæra was found at Arezzo, in Italy, in 1534, which no doubt was a representation of an Etruscan deity (Fig. 131). The art of the Etruscans was strongly imbued with a decided Oriental character of mysteriousness.

We have noticed before the gold and other metal work of primitive Greece that was found by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenæ and on the site of ancient Troy. Most of this work was in beaten and inlaid metals, but in later periods the arts of soldering grains and plates of gold, and fine wire drawing for delicate filigree work were well known. Minute grains of gold that had the appearance of frosted work were in reality soldered to the plate. Statues were made in gold, but more often were plated. Chryselephantine statues were common in the best days of Greek art, as those of Athene and Jupiter by Phidias, and the statue of Bacchus in his temple at Athens.

Crœsus made offerings of gold and silver vessels to the shrine of Delphi, and both he and Darius had images of their wives made in gold by Greek artists. Very few examples of Greek goldsmiths’ art have come down to us, for owing to the valuable nature of the material, nearly all such work has been, in the course of time, pillaged and melted down by the barbarians or conquerors, and it is only in a few isolated cases such valuables have been preserved by being buried or hidden purposely in the earth, and in late years have been brought to light. We are, therefore, indebted to the ancient historians for most of our knowledge concerning the goldsmithery of Greece and Rome.

Some very valuable finds have been brought to light, such as that of the Hildesheim treasures (Fig. 132), and the articles of bronze found at Herculaneum and Pompeii give a good idea of the richness and beauty of the metal work of ancient Greece and Rome. The wine crater (Fig. 132) is exceptionally beautiful in its delicate lines of arabesque tracery.

Fig. 131.—Bronze Chimæra at Florence.

There are some valuable examples in silver of the period of the late Roman Empire in the British Museum, which are the treasures of another “find.” They consist of a bridal casket 22 by 17 inches, and 11 inches in height; another round bridal casket; dishes on a low stand (Scutellæ); oblong-shaped dishes or trays (lances); horse trappings and ornaments (Phaleræ); seated figures representing Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch; various vases and vessels for holding perfumes and unguents. This treasure was discovered in the vaults of a house in Rome in 1793, where it was supposed to have been hidden from the barbarians who invaded and captured Rome in the sixth century.

Fig. 132.—Wine Crater in Silver; from the Hildesheim Treasures. Antique Roman.

The bridal caskets have the portraits of the bride and bridegroom in hammered or repoussé work, and mythological marine subjects. The style and execution is in the usual coarse manner that characterized the work of the period of early Christian Art, with some of the antique traditions still asserting their influence in the style of the design.

Tripods, candelabra, vases, bowls, caskets, spoons, besides articles of personal adornment made in the precious metals, have been found in the buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and in other places in Italy, France, and Germany, of antique Roman design. (See Fig. 417 in the previous volume of this work.)

The names of a few Greek and Roman goldsmiths occur in the writings of Pausanias, Pliny, and Martial, one of the earliest of which is named Mentor, who probably lived in a subsequent near period to Phidias. Acragras and Mys were the names of two others of a little later time. Stratonicus and Tauriscus are two others who lived in the third century B.C. Antipater is mentioned as the name of a goldsmith by Pliny.

Pytheas was a famous worker in gold and silver, who engraved figure compositions, and Posidanius of Ephesus excelled in hunting and racing subjects. Praxiteles was a silversmith who executed animal representations from the life, and “Alexander the coppersmith” is mentioned in St. Paul’s Epistle to Timothy.

The metal work of the Byzantine period—from the fourth to the eleventh century—is characterized by a subservience of the design to the material employed; in other words, what was lacking in good drawing and modelling was replaced by splendour and magnificence in the general effect.

The use of gold with enamels was a great feature in Byzantine art and throughout the Middle Ages. When the great Church of Santa Sophia was rebuilt by Justinian in the sixth century, the best artists were employed to make the great altar screen, and to decorate the sanctuary in resplendent works in gold, silver, and enamels. The altar was made in marble plated with gold in which was set precious stones and crusted enamels. It was supported by pillars thickly plated with gold.[gold.] The canopy or ciborium of the altar rested on four silver-gilt columns, and this canopy was overlaid with plates of silver, on which were figures wrought in niello work. The canopy had an orb surmounted by a cross made of gold and inlaid with large precious stones. The screen in front of the altar had its dado or lower part of gilt bronze, and the pillars and architrave silver-plated. It had also statues and panels of silver, the latter being engraved with figures of saints in niello work. The ambo or pulpit had a canopy of plated gold set with precious stones. The sanctuary of Santa Sophia contained forty thousand pounds weight of silver, and the altar vessels were made of gold set with stones of the greatest value.

The above description is given by Mr. J. Hungerford Pollen, in his handbook of “Gold and Silver,” to whom we are indebted for many of the illustrations and some interesting information on the subject of the precious metals.

It will be seen from this that Justinian had established a great school of goldsmiths and enamellers at Byzantium, and when Leo the Iconoclast in the eighth century, and Theophilus in 832, finally drove out the image-makers and many other goldsmiths from Constantinople—checking in a great degree the art of the metal-worker in the Eastern Empire—they were received with great welcome in Italy, Germany, and France, where they followed the practice of their art under more favourable auspices.

Under Basil the Macedonian, who died in 886, the images were restored, and a great encouragement given to all kinds of art; and during the reign of Constantine, his grandson (912-959), Constantinople was again a great art centre from which Italy and Germany procured their chief artists. The celebrated Pala d’Oro, or Altar of St. Mark’s, Venice, and the bronze gates of San Paolo, near Rome, were made in Constantinople.

The splendour and treasures of the imperial city remained intact until its capture by the French and Venetians in 1204, when a general sacking of nearly all of its treasures took place.

The Byzantine style of the scroll-work and acanthus was of the Greek type, and was admirably suited to show to advantage the rich quality of the precious metals, and a modified character of this leafage appears in the Romanesque metal work. The vine-leaf, grapes, and twisting tendrils were first used in a symbolic sense in the Byzantine style and subsequently in the Romanesque. The acanthus and the vine are treated very much alike in the conventional ornament of the latter style, which is really a connecting-link between the Early Gothic foliage and the Byzantine. This may be seen in the illustration (Fig. 133) of a portion of the base of the great candlestick at Milan, a work of the twelfth century.

A celebrated “find,” known as the “treasure of Petrossa,” was brought to light in 1837 by some peasants who were digging on the banks of Argish River, a tributary of the Danube. It consists of vessels of pure gold, vessels made of slices of garnet and other stones, a torque or collar of gold, a great dish, and some brooches of a large size. They have all been inlaid with precious stones, and have simple but well-designed ornaments. The workmanship is Byzantine, or it may have been done by Gothic artists after Byzantine models.

This treasure is now in the museum at Bucharest. The influence of the Byzantine school of metal workers spread, not only over the continent of Europe, but as far as England and Ireland; and many portable altars, shrines, and reliquaries were made to order in Constantinople, or given as presents to foreign churches.

During the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries it was customary for kings and queens to present votive crowns to their churches: these crowns were treasured with other precious articles, and hung up in the sanctuaries.

Fig. 133.—Base of Candlestick, Milan Cathedral. (P.)

There is still preserved in the Cathedral at Monza the Iron Crown of the Lombard kings. It was given to the cathedral by Theodolinda the Lombard Queen in 616. The Iron Crown is so called from its having a thin band of iron encrusted in the inside, said to have been made from a nail from the Cross. It is really a band or collar of gold, studded with tallow-cut precious stones.

St. Eloi, who rose from the rank of goldsmith to a bishop (588-659) made crowns and other articles for church uses for the Church of St. Denis at Paris.

The bronze-gilt chair of St. Dagobert (Fig. 134) is ascribed to him. He founded the Abbey of Solignac, near Limoges, where he established a school of working goldsmiths, which supplied many important works for various churches in France.

Fig. 134.—Chair of Dagobert; Seventh Century.

In the year 1858 at Guarrazar, near Toledo, in Spain, another valuable “find” was discovered, consisting of no less than eleven votive crowns or diadems, with other valuables, all buried close to the surface of the ground. The crowns are of pure gold, and are set with precious stones, such as sapphires and pearls. The rest of the treasure consists of three crosses, a large emerald stone, and several fragments of gold plates with chains attached.

Fig. 135.—Votive Crown of King Suinthila; Seventh Century.

The stones in these crowns, like those in the Charlemagne and Lombard crowns, and other jewellery of the Middle Ages, were “tallow-cut,” that is, they were polished in the round or oval shapes, without facets, and were also known under the name of “Cabochons.” On one of the crowns of the above treasure—which is now in the Cluny Museum—is the name of “Beccesvinthus Rex” (A.D. 649-672), and another has the letters forming the name of King Suinthila (A.D. 621-631) (Fig. 135). Others of a smaller size were probably those of Spanish queens. The design and work of the articles forming this treasure are in a kind of Romanesque-Gothic. The crown of Charlemagne has already been described under the head of enamels (see Fig. 96). The art of the goldsmith was fostered to a great degree under the rule of Charlemagne. This monarch’s great friend and adviser, the prelate Alcuin (735-804), was the chief spirit of his times in founding monasteries, which were, apart from their religious character, also great schools of art, especially in metal working, where all such articles as were required for church uses, as well as shields, swords, and jewellery for the king and nobles, were also made. Charlemagne was buried with most of his treasures about him, but his enamelled sword and crown are the only objects which belonged to him that now remain, both of which are at Vienna. Gold, silver, and bronze were worked in by Franks on the Continent and by the Saxons in England as early as the fifth and sixth centuries, many examples of which, consisting chiefly of articles of personal adornment, are now in our museums. That the goldsmith’s art was practised in England in the days of Alfred (871-900) we have evidence in the famous ring belonging to this king which is described on page 121.

Fig. 136.—Shrine of St. Patrick’s Bell. (S.)

Another gold ring belonging to Ethelwulf, of the early ninth or eighth century, the enamelled vase or situla found in Essex, the golden altar of St. Ambrose at Milan, and the beautiful Irish chalice found at Ardagh have been described in the chapter on enamels, all of which show evidence of the great skill of the European goldsmiths from the seventh to the tenth centuries.

Fig. 137.—The Tara Brooch. (S.)

Fig. 138.—Tara Brooch (reverse). (S.)

The tenth century was a barren one for Art in Europe, except in some of the monasteries of France, Italy, and in Ireland. In the latter country a great deal of good work was produced—in metals especially—in the ninth and tenth centuries. The amount of personal ornaments, such as torques or collars of gold, bracelets, brooches, belt-clasps, and croziers, shrines for sacred bells, and covers for the Gospels, that were wrought in gold, silver, or alloys must have been prodigious. The astonishing delicacy and intricacy of the Celtic ornamentation bear eloquent testimony to the great skill of the early Irish artists.

Fig. 139.—Irish “Trumpet Pattern.”

The shrine of St. Patrick’s bell, or the bell of Armagh, is a splendid specimen of Irish art (Fig. 136). It forms the cover of the ancient square-mouthed iron bell that formerly belonged to the patron saint of Ireland, and is plated with silver-gilt ornamentation and gold filigree work in both high and low relief. The ornamentation is composed of twisted and interlacing scrolls and knot-work, with some elongated animal forms in the composition. It has crystals and coloured gems set in the angles and other places. The large central stone is set in imbricated work.

There are five of these bells in Ireland and two in Scotland, but none of them are so fine as the St. Patrick bell. Another beautiful example of Irish metal work is the Tara brooch (Figs. 137 and 138). It is made of white metal, a hard bronze composed of tin and copper.

Fig. 140.—Cumdach or Case of Molaise’s Gospels. (S.)

The gold and silver ornamentation on this brooch and on the Ardagh chalice are of the same style of design and workmanship, which would point out that these two fine examples of Irish art were made about the same date, perhaps anterior to the tenth century. The “trumpet pattern,” which is not found on Irish work after 1050, occurs on the reverse side of the Tara brooch (Fig. 138). The ornamentation is of an extraordinary beauty, both in variety of style and pattern and in the execution. It is riveted or fastened with pins and held by means of slender bars to the foundation.

Fig. 141.—The Crozier of Clonmacnois. (S.)

Fig. 142.—Irish Crozier of Bronze, Edinburgh Museum. (S.)

The Cumdachs or book-cases used as covers for the books of the Gospels were also important works of the Irish goldsmith’s art. The illustration of the book-case or shrine for the cover of Molaise’s Gospels is a unique example (Fig. 140). This cumdach is made of plates of bronze, and on this foundation is riveted plates of silver with gilt patterns. In the panels may be seen rude and quaint figures or symbols of the four Evangelists, and in the centre is a cross in a circle. It dates from the first quarter of the eleventh century, and is one of the oldest of these Irish book shrines. Crosses and croziers were also made of bronze, with gold and silver inlays or relief ornamentation.

The Cross of Cong, of the twelfth century, now in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and the croziers of Lismore (end of eleventh century) and that of Clonmacnois (Fig. 141) are the most important examples of this kind of work, the latter being a very rich example. A simpler Irish crozier in bronze (Fig. 142) is in the Edinburgh Museum.

Spanish Metal Work.

During the Arab rule in Spain metal work was an important branch of the Moorish arts. The Arab rulers had in their train many accomplished Eastern artists in metal work, and such objects as caskets, jewellery, bracelets, rings, sword and dagger handles, and scabbards.

Fig. 143.—Sword of Boabdil, Madrid. (R.)

Fig. 144.—Spanish Monstrance, 1537. (S.K.M.)

The Moorish caskets are often made of wood, covered with silver or gold plates, the ornamentation being similar to that of the ivory carvings. The Arab or Saracenic metal work of Spain is executed in repoussé, or is chiselled niello work, filigree, or enamelled, and the ornament is usually mixed with the Arab laudatory inscriptions.

The treasure found at Guarrazar, already noticed, shows something of the early metal work of the Spanish Visigoths.

Moorish arms, such as sword sheaths and hilts, are very artistic, as may be seen in the illustration of the sword of Boabdil (Fig. 143), the last of the Moorish kings. The hilt of this sword is made of solid gold, and is enamelled in blue, white, and red. The axle is made of ivory, and is elaborately carved.

Triptychs, altars, processional crosses, and other church furniture were made in Spain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, of Gothic design.

Fig. 145—Spanish Chalice. (R.)

In the fifteenth century there was an astonishing quantity of silversmiths’ work produced. This was owing to the discovery of America and the consequent power and wealth of Spain at this time. The silver throne of the King Don Martin de Aragon belongs to this period, which still exists in the Cathedral of Barcelona. It is covered with a chased ornamentation in the metal work, and has rich embroidered work of gold and precious stones. Many silversmiths came from Italy, Germany, Holland, and France at this period and settled in Spain owing to the great demand for their services. Riaño gives the names of Enrique de Arphe, Jacome Trezzo, Mateo Aleman, Hans Belta, and others who were employed at this time, besides many Spanish goldsmiths.

Fig. 146.—Spanish Pax. (R.)

Fig. 147.—Spanish Jewel; Seventeenth Century. (R.)

A special feature of church furniture of this period in Spain was the Monstrance, or Custodia, an object of architectural design made in gold, silver, or bronze-gilt metals, which has a central part—the lumule or viril—generally made of rock-crystal, in which the sacrament was exposed; sometimes a sun with rays is represented on the monstrance, and usually it is surmounted by a cross in gold and set with jewels (Fig. 144). The designs are in the Renaissance and sometimes in the Gothic style, and they are often eight feet in height. Some of them are carried in procession on Corpus Christi Days. Many works in gold and silver are in Spain that have been made in Mexico, but of Spanish design, in which forms of American flora and fauna are worked into the designs.

A Spanish chalice of Gothic outlines with some Renaissance details is shown at Fig. 145. A beautiful pax of Renaissance design in the Kensington Museum is shown at Fig. 146.

The pendant jewel of the seventeenth century shows the beginnings of the decadence in design (Fig. 147), and the silver dish (Fig. 148), though very rich in effect, is a pronounced step in the direction of unrestrained space-covering that characterizes the design of the late seventeenth century in Spain as well as in other European countries.

Fig. 148.—Spanish Silver Dish; Seventeenth Century. (R.)

Fig. 149.—Moorish Lamp, Bronze; Fourteenth Century. (R.)

Bronze-casting was practised in Spain by the Moors as well as the Spanish themselves. The Moorish hanging lamp (Fig. 149) is a beautiful specimen of bronze-working in pierced open-work. It bears the date of the Hegira, 705 (A.D. 1305). Important works in bronze of the Renaissance period, such as candelabra, monstrances, &c., are still preserved in many of the churches.

From the earliest historic times Spain has been celebrated for the excellent quality of its iron and steel arms and armour. The Romans patronised the Spanish armourers extensively for their swords and other arms after the Carthaginian War. The best swords were made at Bilbilis or Calatayud in Aragon, and were short and wide, with double edges—about 15 to 19 inches in length. A sickle-shaped sword was also made 22 inches in length.

Toledo blades were proverbial for their excellent tempering, and were famous as early as the days of the Romans. Seville was also noted for the excellence of its steel blades, and the Arabs, as we have seen, were highly skilled in metal working, and especially in the making of all kinds of arms and armour, including its ornamentation.

The celebrated sword of Boabdil had a Toledo blade, and including the hilt was 39 inches in length.

The Spanish warriors of the eleventh century had dresses, arms, and armour not unlike the Normans, as represented on the Bayeux Tapestry, which were in imitation of or borrowed from the military habits of the Saracens.

The sword manufactory at Toledo was in its most flourishing state during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; it was re-established in the last century, and is in existence at the present day.

Fig. 150.—Spanish Rapiers. (S.K.M.)

Two rapiers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are represented at Fig. 150.

Muskets, crossbows, saddles, coats of mail, knives, scissors, and many other objects in steel have been made in Spain from the earliest periods, and many Spanish goods in manufactured steel even at the present day still preserve the Moorish forms.

Metal Work in Italy, Germany, France, and England.

In Italy during the eleventh century an endeavour was made to revive the art of the goldsmith, and many objects of Byzantine workmanship were brought from Constantinople, and also many articles for church uses were made within the walls of the great Benedictine monasteries throughout Italy. An important Romanesque example of metal work of the time of the Emperor Henry II. (1003-24) is now in the Cluny Museum. It is a golden altar front (Fig. 151) that was given by this Emperor to the cathedral of Bâsle, and is nearly 6 feet in width. Figures of the Saviour, three archangels, and a figure of St. Benedict, are in relief of beaten gold and stand each under Romanesque arches.

In England we read of reliquaries being made in the eleventh century having images of gold, the work of Richard, an abbot of St. Albans. Brithnodus, an abbot of Ely, Leo, and Elsinus are names of others who made reliquaries and objects in metal.

Hildesheim in Hanover was a centre of great activity in metal work in the eleventh century, and in the Cathedral of Hildesheim there are candlesticks, crucifixes, and chalices of this period.

At this time in Germany were made great coronas or crowns of light that sometimes spanned the nave of the churches, like that made by Bishop Bernaward (992-1022), and his successor Hezilo for the Cathedral of Hildesheim, a cast of which is now in the Kensington Museum.

The twelfth century was very fertile in important works in gold, silver, bronze, and copper. Metal work was carried to a high degree of elaborate finish and intricacy of design.

Fig. 151.—Golden Altar Front; from Bâsle. Cluny Museum. Eleventh Century.

Some wonderful achievements in casting, plating, and gilding of metals have been performed during this prolific period. The celebrated Gloucester candlestick, now in the Kensington Museum, is a good example of the elaborate style of the twelfth-century metal work (Fig. 152). This is one of the most elaborate and intricate examples of ornamentation that could well be seen in the metal work of any period. Nothing could exceed the fanciful ingenuity of its design: it would, perhaps, have been better if some parts of the design had been left plainer, as a foil for the others. The material of its composition is a kind of white bronze, with a good proportion of silver in the alloy.

Fig. 152.—Gloucester Candlestick;
Twelfth Century.

The churches of this century were, as a rule, furnished with large standing candlesticks or coronas for holding lights, many of which were of good design, were made of silver, and sometimes enamelled. The large seven-branched candlestick of the Cathedral of Milan—before mentioned—is an important work of this period, a copy of which is in the Kensington Museum. The material is gilt bronze, and the candlestick is over 14 feet in height; the design is extremely rich (Fig. 153), the base being composed of four winged dragons with voluted tails; the spaces between the dragons are filled with elaborate scroll-work, and symbolic subjects fill the volutes (Fig. 154). The lower boss is richly ornamented, but the other five are plain. Three pairs of graceful branches spring from the central stem to hold the lights.

The whole design is a reminiscence of the Jewish seven-branched candlestick. One smaller in size is in the Brunswick Cathedral, and another one is at Essen.

Censers, reliquaries, and shrines were made at this period in the shape of little churches (Fig. 155). The reliquaries contained the bones of saints or other precious relics. Sometimes they were made in the form of a human head, with a band or ribbon around it set with gems. This kind of reliquary was called a “chef”; one of this description is in the Cathedral at Bâsle.

Fig. 153—Seven-Branched Candlestick in Milan Cathedral.

The bronze censer (Fig. 156) of the twelfth century is a good specimen of the architectural design in the Romanesque metal work of this time. The reliquaries are usually of copper-gilt and enamelled, or are occasionally in gold. These objects have been noticed in the chapter on enamels. The larger coffer-shaped ones with sloping roofs are called châsses, some of which are six and seven feet in length. Most of them are of copper-gilt and enamelled, and are German work, made for the most part at Cologne and in the Rhenish Provinces, and were generally of Romanesque or Gothic design even up to the sixteenth century.

Fig. 154.—Lower Boss of the Milan Candlestick; Twelfth Century.

Fig. 155.—Shrine or Reliquary, Copper Gilt; Twelfth Century.

The shrine of St. Sebaldus by Peter Vischer already mentioned is a curious mixture of Gothic and Italian forms. The celebrated shrine or silver reliquary of the Church of Orvieto is made to represent the church itself; it is said to weigh 600 pounds, and is enriched with panels of translucent enamel and small statuettes. It is the finest work of the Italian goldsmith’s art of the fourteenth century, and was made by Ugolino (1338), an artist of Siena. Heads of the croziers and bishops’ pastoral staffs were often designed in elaborate architectural compositions, and generally speaking Gothic ornamentation is enthralled by architectural forms even to the smallest details when the plan of the object to be decorated is architectural, which happens in most cases; when, however, the plan is not so, the freedom and fancy of the designer revelled in the beauty of the curving, twisting, foliage, and grotesque work, as may be seen in the metal work of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Gloucester and Milan candlesticks will afford examples of this.

In the twelfth century Limoges was very active in the making of articles for secular purposes as well as for religious uses. Common jewellery of enamelled bronze was exported to all parts, such as brooches or morses, buckles, armour decoration, and monumental plates with effigies, one of the latter being that of Aylmer de Valence in Westminster Abbey, made at Limoges and brought to England.

The monastic establishments were the schools and workshops of all the art produced in the Middle Ages, and not only splendid examples of metal work, but manuscript illuminations, wood and stone carving, and many other kinds of works were produced within their walls. After the beginning of the thirteenth century the arts were passing into the hands of the laymen, and artists were at the same time beginning to receive greater encouragement from the patronage of wealthy persons.

Fig. 156.—Censer; Twelfth Century.

Almost every kind of article was now made in gold, silver, and bronze, such as cups, jugs, bowls, standing cups, mazer and wassail bowls, articles for the table, such as salt-cellars, ewers, basins, and nefs, etc.

Fig. 157.—Mazer Bowl; 1450; Ironmongers’ Hall.

The Nef was a kind of table ornament or sweetmeat dish in the form of a fully-rigged ship, and was sometimes mounted on wheels: the modern épergne corresponds to the nef. A mazer bowl was so called because it was made usually of maple wood—masere being the old word for maple.

Fig. 158.—Hour-glass Salt, given 1493, at New College, Oxford.

These bowls have usually a silver or gold rim, and were often lined with silver, but the name is wrongly applied to bowls made entirely of metal, as it sometimes is. Fig. 157 is an illustration of a mazer bowl of the fifteenth century belonging to the Ironmongers’ Company of London. Salt-cellars were also important table decorations. The salt was put on the table in such a position as to mark the dividing line between the guests of different rank. There is a salt in the form of a giant, a work of the fifteenth century, at All Souls’ College, Oxford, and some other salts of this period and earlier were often made in form of hour-glasses (Fig. 158).

Very few specimens of household plate have come down to us from the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, although we have many records of the great quantities of jewels and plate that belonged to the kings and feudal lords.

Spoons and knives were made and used at a very early period of the world’s history, but forks do not seem to have come into general use until some time in the fourteenth century. Sacramental cups and chalices, and all kinds of drinking cups, were made at this time. The beautiful cup of Gothic design with translucent enamels, now in the Kensington Museum, is probably a work of the fourteenth century, and of Burgundian origin. (See Fig. [103].)

Three sacramental chalices are illustrated at Fig. 159, and belonging to the fourteenth century, and two at Figs. 160 and 161, of the fifteenth century, all of which are Gothic in design; two also are given of the sixteenth century (Figs. 162 and 163), the latter being of Spanish origin designed in the style of the Renaissance, which is interesting as showing the development of the standing cup from the chalice, this example being in the transitional stage.

Fig. 159.—Gothic Chalices; Fourteenth Century.

The difference between the Gothic and Renaissance cups is very marked, the foot of the former being either trefoil, or more often hexagonal in plan (Fig. 164), with the distinctive central knot or boss on the plain upright stem for grasping purposes, while the Renaissance cups are usually round in the plan of the foot, or sometimes octagonal, and have a horizontal character which is obtained by the use of mouldings cutting the cup into parts. (See Spanish chalice, Fig. 163.)

Fig. 160.—Chalice; Fifteenth Century.

Fig. 161.—Chalice; Fifteenth Century.

This upright character of the Gothic cup is well emphasized in the beautiful enamelled cup belonging to the corporation of King’s Lynn (Fig. 166), and the horizontal features in the foot, stem, and bowl may be seen in the standing cup of Renaissance design in the Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Fig. 165).

Fig. 162.—German Chalice, with Paten; 1520.

Fig. 163.—Spanish Chalice; 1549.

The base of the Gothic cup splays outwards from the knot downwards, while the Renaissance base mouldings may be enclosed by a line of the opposite curvature, forming a dome of a semicircular section; and lastly the calyx of the bowl of the latter cups is always a richly ornamented feature, in opposition to the plain or almost plain bowl and calyx of the Gothic varieties. Many Gothic cups and hanaps show decided architectural constructions, as may be noticed in some of the illustrations, and some have quite a landscape treatment, as in the curious gilt metal hanap (Fig. 167), which is probably of Nuremberg manufacture.

Fig. 164.—English Chalice, Corpus Christi College, Oxford; 1507. (C.)

Clocks were also objects which received a pronounced architectural treatment. A favourite design was a church tower, or a fortified tower, embattled, and having a spreading base, in which were open archways.

Fig. 165.—Standing Cup, Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge;
1599. (C.)

Fig. 166.—Enamelled Cup at King’s
Lynn; 1350. (C.)

The goldsmiths of Italy in the sixteenth century were painters and architects as well, and a decided architectural construction is clearly seen in most of the gold and silver-smithery of this period. The monstrance (Fig. 168) is a good illustration of this, and another is the pax (Fig. 169). The church altar furniture and silver plate of the period also partook of the prevailing architectural features.

Fig. 167.—Hanap; German. (S.K.M.)

Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) is the greatest name among the many great ones of the sixteenth century in the art of the goldsmith. Some of his work has already been noticed in the chapter on enamels. Cellini represents the art of the Italian goldsmith and enameller at its best period. He was famous for his designs in jewellery, in which he set precious stones in cartouche work combined with griffins, masks, and well-modelled little figures (Fig. 170). Many cups made in lapis-lazuli, sardonyx, and rock-crystal are attributed to him. He was also a successful worker in bronze, the best of his works in this metal being the statue group of Perseus and Medusa, and the colossal bas-relief of the Nymph of Fontainebleau, copies of which may be seen in Kensington Museum. A graphic and very interesting account of the casting of the Perseus group is given in his autobiography. A fine shield in damascene work by Cellini is in Windsor Castle. His smaller works in gold and jewellery probably exist in greater numbers than can be verified owing to the absence of his signature or other identifying marks. According to his own account, when besieged with the Pope, Clement VII., in the Castle of Angelo, by the Spanish, he unset the precious stones and jewellery, and melted down at the command of the Pope about two hundredweight of gold and silver crowns, tiaras, cups, and reliquaries of ancient workmanship in order to convert them into money and medals as required by the Pope. This gives us a good idea of how the fine treasures of the Middle Ages must have been destroyed under similar circumstances, and excites our wonder how any valuable piece of goldsmith’s work has escaped the melting-pot, which was generally the sequel to the pillaging of conquering troops or the exigencies of war. Cellini’s visit to France and his work in that country gave a great impulse to the style of the Renaissance, and his countryman, Primaticcio the sculptor, spread the style still further in France.

Fig. 168.—Monstrance; Italian; Fifteenth Century. (S.K.M.)

Some names of Italian goldsmiths about or immediately after Cellini’s time are—Luca Agnolo, Valerio Vicentino, Pilote, Piero di Mino, Vincenzo Dati, Girolamo del Prato. The latter was a native of Lombardy. Benedict Ramel, François Desjardins, Delahaie, and François Briot are names of French goldsmiths of the sixteenth century. Many models of vases, ewers, plates, cups, and tankards were made by Briot in pewter that are still in existence. These pewter models were usually made by goldsmiths, no doubt, as models for their gold and silver work, or in some cases were casts taken from the finished works, and kept as mementos or as replicas in design of their more costly works, and were also sold to those whose means would not permit them to indulge in the more costly gold and silver plate. Briot’s pewter models are among the best examples of design and workmanship in metal of the sixteenth century.

In Germany the art of the metal worker flourished in the sixteenth century in its greatest perfection at Nuremberg and Augsburg.

The German goldsmiths’ work, especially at the end of the century, was almost identical with that of the Italian school. The similarity is seen in the details of the ornamentation, the masks and figures; the difference may be noted in the extraordinary development of the cartouche and strap-work of the German work, more especially in that of the Netherlands.

Many German artists of this time, who were chiefly engravers, designed for the goldsmiths and produced engravings from which goldsmiths’ work and enamel paintings on metal were executed.

Fig. 169.—Pax; Italian; Sixteenth Century. (S.K.M.)

Fig. 170.—Pendant, attributed to Cellini, in the Library at Paris.

Virgil Solis, of Nuremberg, Theodor de Bry, of Liége, the Collaerts—father and son—of Antwerp, are some of the principal engravers who designed very largely for jewellery and other goldsmiths’ work.

These German engravers and designers of ornament went under the designation of the “Little Masters,” but in point of fact some of their work would compare favourably with the compositions of many of the so-called “Great Masters.” Generally speaking, they were pupils or followers of Albert Dürer.

As a designer and engraver of figure work, Hans Sebald Beham must be placed first in the rank of the “Little Masters,” and for ornament purely the name of Heinrich Aldegrever must head the list.

Albert Dürer, whose great name overshadows all German art, though he tried his gifted hand at ornament, as in the car of the “Triumph” and in the “Book of the Hours,” designed for the Emperor Maximilian, was not altogether successful in the matter of ornament, for his work in this line is much too loose and florid, with much unrestrained and naturalistic flourishing.

Hans Burgkmair, of Nuremberg, his contemporary, was better at ornament than Dürer, and was the chief artist of that great work, the “Triumph of Maximilian,” in which he strove to unite the Gothic and the style of the Renaissance. His work generally takes the form of elaborate heraldry.

Hans Holbein, as well as being a great painter, was also a famous designer for goldsmiths’ work, and was a master in ornament, especially in the application of the figure to ornamental purposes. He was in some measure a pupil of Hans Burgkmair, and was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the Renaissance. Holbein the elder—his father—was a well-known artist, who worked in the old German Gothic style.

The younger Holbein began his artistic career as a goldsmith, and his designs of sword and dagger handles, in which the figure forms so admirably follow the lines of the composition in a remarkable degree of ornamental fitness, reveal his fine sense and feeling for ornament.

In Italy the sculptor, Luca Signorelli, employed the figure and animal forms with an equal degree of skill, and with the same feeling for ornament. Both artists thoroughly understood the correct laws of ornamental composition, which was not by any means a universal gift with the artists of the Renaissance period.

Holbein designed many cups, one of which was a rich example of a standing cup and cover which was designed for Jane Seymour, one of the wives of Henry VIII. of England. The drawing for this cup is preserved in the British Museum.

During the sixteenth century the art of metal working in Germany, especially at Nuremberg, Swabian Augsburg, and Lübeck, reached a high state of perfection under the great patronage of wealthy families, such as the Fugger family, of Augsburg, and others. Holbein, and other German, Dutch, and Flemish artists, worked in England, and besides much German and Flemish Renaissance work found its way into England, and influenced in a great degree the style of the metal work of this country.

In addition to the gold and silver plate of the kings’ palaces and of private families, corporations and colleges accumulated great quantities of plate, and before banks were properly established, gold and silver plate and jewellery were the chief store of wealth that could, when necessary, be easily converted into money.

King Henry VII. had a service of plate valued at twenty thousand pounds. This monarch employed the Italian sculptor and goldsmith, Torrigiano, and other foreign artists.

Henry VIII. also employed many Italian and German artists and goldsmiths, and it is believed that Cellini executed some of his finest jewellery for this king.

Not only Henry VIII., but his great lords and ministers, had extensive collections of plate. Cardinal Wolsey had a large safe or cupboard, barred all round for protection, in which was displayed a goodly show of gold cups and other sumptuous vessels for use at his table.

Fig. 171.—Apostle Spoons; 1566; at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. (C.)

“Apostle spoons” were made at this and subsequent periods, and were so called from their having little figures of the Apostles modelled on the tops of the handles (Fig. 171).

Fig. 172—Silver-gilt German Cup; Sixteenth Century.

The silver, gold, and bronze work in Queen Elizabeth’s time in England was made in the style of the Renaissance, like that of Germany. Italian and German work at this time was almost identical (Figs. 172 and 173); and even when the Rococo decadence was prevalent in architecture, both on the Continent and in England, goldsmiths’ work was the last industry that fell under its influence, especially when we compare it with the contemporary pottery, furniture, and other decorative art. Of course, at the latter end of the seventeenth and during the eighteenth century, the design in metal work in France, and also in England, was sacrificed to display and ostentation; but at the same time a comparative purity of style is seen in much of the plate made in the reigns of William and Mary, James II., and Queen Anne, of English manufacture. The silver and gold plate of the “Queen Anne” period (1702-14) is highly prized for its beauty of design and massive character, some examples of which will be noticed presently.

Fig. 173.—Bronze Candlestick; Italian; Sixteenth Century.

In the metal work, especially in gold and silver of the seventeenth century, towards the middle of the century a certain heaviness of design gradually crept in; although a good deal of fine work was still produced by the artists who belonged to the older schools, and, as a matter of course, the best work belonged to the earlier part of the century.

A fine freedom of line and handling is seen in the Flemish salver (Fig. 174) of Renaissance design. The French example of a silver-gilt cup and cover is unusually simple for French work of this century (Fig. 175), and an English silver casket of the same date (Fig. 176) shows a similarity of style: the serpent handles and covers are almost identical.

About the middle of the seventeenth century silversmiths’ work in Germany began to assume a bulbous or lobed character, and gradually became more florid in design (Fig. 177). This bulbous or gadrooned work was carried out to a greater degree in English work of this period, of which the gold cup rat Exeter College (Fig. 178) is a good example. The decoration of metal work in England at this time consisted of flowers and foliage chased on the repoussé surfaces, and often large rich acanthus-leaves were used, especially on the vases and silver furniture of Charles II.’s time. The lobed panel work of Germany was developed in England into lozenge and pine-shaped raised surfaces, and the details of the French Louis Quatorze were added as decoration.

Fig. 174.—Flemish Salver; Seventeenth Century. (S.K.M.)

Tankards were made in silver, or sometimes in pottery richly mounted in silver or pewter. The tankard has a wide base, the body narrowing towards the mouth, and has usually a cover (Fig. 179), while the beaker or drinking cup is the reverse in shape—narrow in the base, and widening towards the mouth, and is without a handle or cover.

Fig. 175.—Cup with Cover, Silver-gilt; French; Seventeenth Century. (J.)

The English silver tankards were straight-sided, with naturalistic decoration. Modern tankards for beer-drinking uses are made in pewter or Britannia metal.

Fig. 176.—Silver Casket; Seventeenth Century.

Fig. 177.—Nuremberg Tankard.

In the Rhine Provinces, in Germany, and in Switzerland stoneware tankards with metal covers and mountings are still in use. Tankards in the seventeenth century were made with pegs inserted in the sides at regulated distances, so that each drinker might quaff his measured portion when the vessel was handed round.

Fig. 178.—Cup of Gold, circa 1660-70, at Exeter College, Oxford. (C.)

In the reign of James I. many sumptuous objects in services and toilet furniture were made in gold and silver. The baronial halls in England were extremely rich in large pieces of plate: huge salvers, vases, basins, jugs, cups, toilet services, and even tables, chairs, mirror-frames, and fire-dogs were made in silver.

Fig. 179.—English Tankard; Seventeenth Century.

In France, during the reign of Louis XIV., similar gold and silver vessels and sumptuous furniture were made in the rich and massive style of the period. Balin and Delaunay are mentioned among others who were skilful goldsmiths to that monarch, and who worked under the directions of the chief painter and tapestry designer, Lebrun.

England not only made a good deal of this silver furniture, but also imported it largely from France; most of it, however, was melted down to pay for the wars of Charles I.

A few remaining examples are still at Knole Park, in Kent, consisting of silver tables, mirror-frames, fire-dogs, &c. (Fig. 180). Similar objects of this period are now at Windsor Castle (Fig. 181), of which copies in electrotype are in the Kensington Museum.

Some of the gold plate preserved in the Tower of London with the regalia is of this period.

After the date of 1660 gold and silver-smithery becomes fluted and less florid in decoration, but some of it still keeps the gadrooned and bulbous character.

Fig. 180.—Silver Fire-Dog at Knole Park.

Towards the end of the century, in the time of William III., the flutings were less in number, and consequently became larger in scale, and in the early part of the eighteenth century the metal work in England became plainer, depending more on the lines of its contour for effect than on its decoration (Fig. 182). Mouldings were plainer, and broad spaces of convex and concave shapes producing a massive and, in many cases, an elegant appearance (Figs. 182, 183), which gave to the Queen Anne plate a mark of great distinction.

Fig. 181.—Silver Table at Windsor Castle.

About 1750 the forms in silver work partook, in many instances, of the prevailing fashion in the chinaware of that date, though without the extravagance in the decoration. From 1770, and for about ten years later, the designs became more attenuated, and were peculiar in having the dividing lines of the design composed of fillets of beads (Figs. 185 and 187). The beaded style of silversmiths’ work and in all metal work, pottery, and furniture of this period was due to the development of classic design that took place in France and in England consequent on the discovery of the buried city of Pompeii in 1770.

The brothers Adam in England designed a good deal of silversmiths’ work, of which the three illustrations given are examples of their style. Light wreaths, medallions, fillets of beads, festoons, masks, feet and legs of animals composed the decoration of the Adams’ style.

The brothers John and Robert Adam had travelled in Italy, and had brought with them pronounced classic ideas which not only influenced their own and other contemporary work in architecture and furniture designs, but in silversmiths’ work also their influence was widely felt (Fig. 188).

Fig. 182.—Wine Fountain; 1710. (C.)

In France the classic ideas were also very prevalent about this period in silversmiths’ work. The “Louis-Seize” candlestick (Fig. 189) is one of a pair from the Jones Collection in the South Kensington Museum, and is an admirable example of the style; though it is said to have been made at Turin in Italy in 1783, it is certainly of French design. It has the square base so peculiar to French work of this period, with the wreaths and medallions so characteristic of the style in question, that of Louis XVI.

Fig. 183.—Candelabrum, Haberdashers’ Hall, London. (C.)

Another candlestick (Fig. 190) from the Jones Collection is probably Italian in style and manufacture, and belongs to the early part of the eighteenth century.

Fig. 184.—Eighteenth-Century Bowl. (S.K.M.)

Fig. 185.—Tureen at Windsor Castle, 1773.

Fig. 187.—Silver Vase; 1770.

Fig. 186.—Chocolate Pot; 1777. (C.)

Fig. 188.—Vase by Adam.

At the time of the Revolution, and immediately after, the style of the silver work deteriorated in France. Vast quantities of plate were seized and sent off to the Mint by the Revolutionary army, and naturally an art like the goldsmith’s, that ministered to the needs of luxury, was in those times at a low ebb.

Fig. 189.—Candlestick, Silver-gilt; Louis Seize. (S.K.M.)

Fig. 190.—Candlestick, Silver-gilt; Italian; Eighteenth Century. (S.K.M.)

In England in the early part of the nineteenth century some good work was executed from the designs of Flaxman and Stothard, chiefly in the classic style; the Wellington Shield may be mentioned as an example; but about the middle of this century gold and silver work was characterized by even a greater degree of naturalism in design than that of the French debased style from which it was copied. Nothing could exceed the vulgarity and bad taste in the design of silversmiths’ work made about fifty or forty years ago. All architectural principles that should guide the design of relief modelling and construction were thrown to the winds, and naturalism unnaturally applied and mixed in any heterogeneous way was quite fashionable. For instance, we have huge épergnes where stags and other animals from the Highlands of Scotland or the Welsh mountains are decorating silver rock-work from which the tropical palms of Africa are seen to grow out of their clefts, affording grateful shade to the natives of the British moorland. The art of the silversmith in England about this period had suffered more than any other artistic industry, and in the matter of design it seemed to have reached the twilight state of semi-insanity, and was utterly devoid of any artistic merit.

A great improvement is, however, to be seen in the work of respectable firms and in that of many private craftsmen of to-day, but many shop windows are still filled with costly work in the precious metals that are worthless from an artistic point of view.

Niello-work and Damascening.

Niello-work has been mentioned on a previous page. It was an important branch of the goldsmith’s art, as well as that of damascening. From the earliest times the nations of antiquity have engraved on metals and filled up the lines or grooves of the engraving with a black species of enamel composition—niello—or with other metals such as silver, gold, and electrum; the latter process has been called damascening, from Damascus, where gold and silver inlaid in iron or steel was practised in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

It was a favourite method of decorating metals during the Middle Ages throughout the countries of Persia, Syria, and in most European countries, especially on such objects as arms, armour, and different kinds of vessels.

Fig. 191.—Italian Damascene Work; Sixteenth Century.

The celebrated Italian metal-worker, Maso Finiguerra, worked extensively in niello, and to him is ascribed the discovery of the art of engraving on copper and printing from the copper plate. He was a goldsmith and a native of Florence, and was the pupil of Ghiberti and Masaccio. In the year 1452 he made a pax, on the flat panel of which he engraved a design to be filled in afterwards with the black composition of niello, but before he had completely finished his work he took a “squeeze” in clay of the engraving in order to judge of the progress he had made, and from this squeeze he made a mould in sulphur, and filled it with a black pigment, and on pressing this sulphur block on a sheet of damp paper the pattern appeared similar to the niello effect. This led him to fill the lines of the actual silver plate with a more durable ink, and to print off impressions on paper. It was by thus experimenting that Finiguerra discovered the art of engraving and printing from the metal plate. The original pax with its impressions are preserved at Florence.

Damascening is executed in three ways. First, where the steel or copper is engraved with an undercut line and a thread of gold or silver is forced in by hammering or pressed by a burnisher into the grooved lines. Second, the plated method, where the plate of metal to be encrusted is enclosed between slightly raised walls in the foundation metal. Third, where the foundation metal is roughened by a sharp tool in all directions and the gold or silver is laid on thinly and pressed or hammered in. The last method is the latest and least durable. Sometimes the lines of the engraving are punched with holes at regulated distances, which serve as keys to hold the inlaid metal when hammered in.

Fig. 192.—Shield Damascened in Gold; Indian. (B.)

The famous bowl called the “Baptistery of St. Louis,” now in the Louvre, is made of copper inlaid with figures of horsemen and hunting scenes. It is an example of “Mosil work,” or Mesopotamian damascening, of the thirteenth century, in which silver only is used as the inlaid metal.

A delicate design in Italian damascene work is shown at Fig. 191, and an Indian example at Fig. 192. The Italian example shows the Arabian influence in some of the details of the ornament. The Japanese are perfect masters in the art of damascening. Sword-blades of the thirteenth and later centuries have beautiful designs inlaid as intaglios or in damascene work; sword-guards of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are remarkable for this kind of decoration, and for the exquisite chasing of the iron, which in some cases is cut out like fret-work, and in others are carved as delicate as decorative ivory work.

Indian Jewellery.

The jewellery of India is one of the most important art industries of that country, and the trade of the gold and silver smith is an established institution in every village and district. The variation in style and method of fabrication has very marked features, according to the fashion that finds favour in each locality. The extreme love for trinkets of a brilliant and dazzling nature amongst all grades of the people has in a great measure directed the fabrication of Indian jewellery, which tends to make the most of the precious metals by using them in thin plates or in a filigrain work, and in order to get the flashing effect and rich colouring, scales or flakes of diamonds are more often used than the more valuable and solid gems, and inferior gems, or even coloured glass, are set to the best advantage, and used indiscriminately: anything, in fact, is used in order to get the gorgeous variety of brilliant colouring and dazzling effect. Much of the Indian jewellery is of a flimsy character as regards its lightness and thin nature of the material; but the latter is generally of the best quality, and the artistic workmanship lavished on most of the jewellery more than makes up for its want of inherent solidity.

Fig. Fig. 193.-Primitive Silver Bracelet: Dinajpur, Bengal. (B.)

Jewellery ought to be light in character and of good design and workmanship if it is intended to fulfil its use in decorating the person, as nothing is uglier than heavy jewellery, which can only be valuable in the light of representing the wealth of the owner.

Some of the Indian jewellery is, however, fairly solid and heavy, as in the chopped gold form of cubical, octahedron, and oblong shapes of the metal which are strung on silk cord as necklaces, and the nail-head variety of earrings made at Ahmedabad and Surat in Western India.

Fig. 194.—Silver Neck Ornament, from Sindh. (B.)

Girdles, torques or neck collars, bracelets, and anklets are made of twisted gold wire, which are common throughout India, and in the western provinces are made in the twisted form of the Matheran knotted and woven grass collars.

Fig. 195.—Native Silver Jewellery of Cuttack. (B.)

Fig. 196.—Filigrain Jewellery of Cuttack. (B.)

Some of the native jewellery in many parts of India still keeps its primitive character and bears a great likeness to the very early Celtic jewellery found in Ireland and in other countries of Europe, which would probably suggest the same Celtic origin for all (Fig. 193).

Fig. 197.—Native Jewellery of Trichinopoly, Madras. (B.)

The silver filigrain work of India, especially the designs of the Sindh jewellery and that made at Cuttack, Trichinopoly, and Travancore, recalls the methods of fabrication and design of the ancient Etruscan jewellery. (See Figs. 194, 195, 197.)

A certain analogy may also be noticed in the native jewellery from the above places to the Phœnician, primitive Grecian, and even Scandinavian, which goes a long way to prove the intercourse between, and the migrations of, the people of India, Thibet, Turkestan to Asia Minor and the continent of Europe.

Some Indian jewellery, though possessing shapes common to other countries, has very distinctive national characteristics in the decoration, which may be seen in the illustration (Fig. 198) of the gold plate from Bombay. In these cases the design is usually symbolical.

Fig. 198.—Native Gold Jewellery of Bombay. (B.)

The Indian jewellers of the Mogul period have produced some exquisite work in the setting of gems on jade carvings and on small vases of jade.

The deftness and cunning of the Indian jeweller may have been equalled by the Etruscans and ancient Greeks, but he has not been surpassed in his delicate workmanship by any nation of modern times.

Iron Work in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and England.

Ornamental iron work was executed in France and in England before the Roman occupation of these countries, but any early remains of this work that have been found in either country are supposed to be of the Roman period. The Romans were not skilled in the working of iron, although well conversant with the manufacture of bronze objects.

Remains of iron hasps, escutcheons, window grilles, candlesticks, folding chairs, &c., have been found in France and in England, of the Romano-Gaulish and British periods, that have a great similarity of style, and, indeed, up to the fifteenth century the style and design of iron work in both countries were pretty much alike.

The most interesting examples of the blacksmith’s art of the Middle Ages—in England especially—are the hinges to the church doors. The first hinges were simple single straps of iron that passed from back to front of the door, the socket being formed out of the solid piece at the angle on one side. The front side of this strap by degrees was clawed out, or otherwise elaborated, to cover as much of the door as possible, so as to form an armour of defence against predatory robbers, such as the barbarous Norse pirates who were continually invading the British shores.

A favourite form of the hinge was the crescent shape; sometimes the hinge branched out in a simple crescent with curved and bifurcated endings that may have symbolized the snake or birds’ heads, and often two or three of these crescents branched out from a central bar. Between the hinges additional bars or straps were sometimes run across the door to strengthen it, and elaborate foliated crosses often occupied the central part, as in Fig. 199.

Fig. 199.—Hinges, &c., to Haddiscoe Church.

On some of the old Norman doors, in addition to the hinges, as at Stillingfleet Church, there are designs in iron work which consist of mystical signs of Danish origin, such as a viking ship or sun ship, the swastika or fylfot, moon signs, and rude images of the human figure.

The crescent hinge may have had a symbolical meaning, perhaps Scandinavian, or it may have originated in the Saracenic crescent, and may have been brought from Sicily, the birthplace of Norman architecture.

The art of the blacksmith in the Middle Ages was more developed in France than in any other country of Europe, and the art of stamping the leaves, stems, and rosettes with steel or chilled iron dies and punches was practised there earlier than the thirteenth century, and at a period a little later in England. The ornament was in style very little more than the Romanesque type of the conventional vine, or other leaf of a like nature—the cinquefoil, trefoil, rosettes, and scrolls, but these few elements were used in the most effective manner (Fig. 200).

The magnificent hinges on the Porte Ste. Anne of Notre-Dame at Paris show to perfection the French stamping on the leaves and other parts. These unrivalled hinges (Fig. 201) are of the Early French style of the thirteenth century. Nothing, however, is known of their origin, nor even the name of the smith who forged them. Each hinge is composed of six large scrolls springing from the central bar or stem, all of which are richly clothed with spirals, foliage, birds, and dragons; the whole design is supposed to represent the terrestrial Paradise.

Exceedingly rich, but not so elaborated as the hinges of the Church of Notre-Dame, is the herse, or grille, of English work of the same period, which surmounts the tomb of Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey (Fig. 202). This fine example of English smithery was made by Thomas de Leghtone in the year 1294. It is a clever adaptation of hinge-work to the design of a grille. Mr. Gardner supposes Leghtone to be connected with Leighton Buzzard, as the same kind of iron work as the Eleanor grille occurs in the hinges of the parish church door of that place, and also from the fact that similar work is found on many other church doors of the same period in Bedfordshire—at Eaton Bray and Turvey, for instance; also at Norwich, Tunstall, Windsor, Lichfield, and Merton College, Oxford, are examples of the same kind of work, which no doubt was executed by Thomas de Leghtone and his assistants.

Fig. 200.—Press Door in the Church of St. Jacques, at Liége. (G.)

After the end of the thirteenth century examples are scarce of genuine wrought-iron work, for the fashion changed at that time in the manner of working the metal. Sheets and bars of iron were cut in the cold state into various patterns by the use of chisels and files, the pieces being fastened together by rivets and small collars or ties of metal. Much of this work, was done in Italy, in imitation of marble and wood panelling, and a very common method consisted in making the grilles in Italy of riveted quatrefoils. A fine grille of this character is in the Church of Santa Croce of the date of 1371. In the churches and palaces of Venice, Florence, Verona, &c., there are many good examples of grilles that resemble in a great degree joinery work in iron.

Fig. 201.—One of the Hinges to the Porte Ste. Anne of Notre-Dame, Paris. (G.)

Fig. 202.—Grille or Herse on Queen Eleanor’s Tomb, Westminster Abbey; 1294. (G.)

In Germany the love for iron work was not developed so early as it was in France and England, and it was not until Gothic architecture took a firm hold in that country in the end of the thirteenth century that the first serious attempts were made in the use of decorative iron work, and, like their architectural forms, the German wrought-iron work was inspired by French examples.

German work in iron of the thirteenth century is very scarce: one of the best-known examples occurs in the iron work on the doors of the Church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg, near Cassel, which consists of branching scroll-work clothed with vine-leaf endings.

In the fourteenth century the Germans developed the French vine-work into lozenge-shaped leaves, and for a change interspersed them with fleurs-de-lis, and occasionally some tracery patterns, all of which were borrowed from the French. The stamped work of the English and French blacksmith was not developed in Germany.

In the fifteenth century German iron work was greatly influenced by the fine work which was being produced at this period in the Low Countries. Brussels had been noted for its extensive works in iron and steel from the fourteenth century. The brawny Flemish smiths were celebrated throughout Europe for their great achievements in moulded and hammered iron, such as in the spires of the cathedrals of Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges, well-covers, railings, fonts, cranes, and grilles. The historical well-cover in front of the Cathedral of Antwerp has usually been ascribed to Quentin Matsys the painter, but as he was only twelve years old when this work was completed, it could hardly have been made by his hands. The explanation is that he has been confounded with another Quentin, a blacksmith and the son of Josse Matsys, the architect, smith, and clockmaker of Antwerp. The well-cover is more likely to have been the work of Josse Matsys. The design is Gothic in feeling and is very picturesque with its interlacing stems and vine-leaves, flowers, and figures. A rich font crane in iron work in the Cathedral of Louvain is said to be the authentic work of Josse, and a twelve-branched corona in the same church is ascribed to his son, Quentin Matsys. To the hand of the latter is also ascribed the rich Flemish gates of Bishop West’s Chapel in Ely Cathedral.

Brabant was celebrated for its iron work, particularly in pierced and filed work in such things as locks, hinges, candelabra, tabernacles, and guichets (little windows or wicket gates), most of these objects taking pronounced Gothic architectural forms, for the most part being composed of flamboyant tracery and little buttresses (Fig. 203). Much of the Brabaçon iron work found its way into England and Germany. This work is characterised by its flamboyant tracery, which is found on locks of doors and Flemish coffers, and in the design of the guichets, a fine specimen of the latter now being in the Kensington Museum. The locks of the doors in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor and in some other places are of Brabaçon workmanship. This Flemish style of lock work was imitated very much in England, but the workmanship was less refined although of a stronger character than the Flemish.

The Germans, especially of Augsburg, Nuremberg, and in the Rhine Provinces, more particularly at Cologne, developed the chiselled iron work to an astonishing degree of elaboration.

While the shapes of the lock-plates were of a decided Saracenic character, the design of the pattern ornamentation was either of an elaborate architectural composition, as in the large lock in the Klagenfurt Museum (Fig. 204), or of designs mainly developed from the thistle-plant.

Fig. 203.—Tabernacle Grille from Ottoberg, Tyrol; Fifteenth Century. (S.K.M.) (G.)

The thistle was distinctly characteristic of German iron work, and also the trellis-work pattern as seen on the doors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Fig. 205). Armorial bearings fill the panels between the trellis-bands, with richly forged rivets or nail-heads on the lozenge intersections. Sometimes the decoration was gilt or silvered, and the ground underneath painted red or black. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the iron work in Europe and England partook of the character of the Renaissance, and towards the end of the former century had all the foliated character of that style.

Fig. 204.—Lock, 18 inches high, in the Klagenfurt Museum; German; Fifteenth Century. (G.)

The illustration (Fig. 206) shows a typical example of French work of the end of the sixteenth century.

Fig. 205.—Iron-bound Door in the Monastery of Krems; Late Fifteenth Century. (G.)

In Flanders, Holland, and in England, especially during the eighteenth century, decorative iron work was again in great demand, and some beautiful work in gates, grilles, and railings were executed. Among the finest works of this period are the celebrated gates or screens designed in the style of the Renaissance and made by Huntingdon Shaw for King William III. for his palace at Hampton Court. These gates, which are fine examples of hammered work, are now in the Kensington Museum. The iron gates and railings made in the reign of Queen Anne and later were often of beautiful design, in which the capabilities of the material were excellently expressed. Some fine examples still exist in the gates and railings of the old houses in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and some good ironwork of this type may be seen in the screens in St. Paul’s Cathedral. This beautiful style died out during this century, when a more extended use of cast iron crept in, and if we except the work of the late Alfred Stevens and of a few other designers and architects, there has been nothing of an artistic value that one can point out in England in the domain of cast-iron productions. In fact, it is a curious but common expression to say of a bad design for almost anything that it “looks like cast iron.” Designers for cast-iron work might take some good hints from the old Roman or Pompeian bronzes.

Fig. 206.—Mirror, Wrought Iron; French Work; Sixteenth Century.

CHAPTER V.
Furniture.

ANTIQUE: EGYPT, ASSYRIA, GREECE, AND ROME.

The furniture of the antique nations has been noticed in some instances in the former volume of this work, especially in the cases of Egyptian and Assyrian examples, where fortunately we can point out the many representations of it that occur on the bas-reliefs. It is from these that we chiefly form an opinion as to how the palaces and interiors must have been furnished, for, owing to the great lapse of time, nearly every vestige of furniture of these old nations has passed away.

The British Museum and the Louvre contain a few Egyptian chairs or seats that have been made in ebony and ivory, which owe their preservation to the lasting nature of the material.

Two Egyptian chairs or thrones are illustrated at Figs. 146 and 147, in the first part of this work, and a wooden coffer at Fig. 149. At Fig. 148 carpenters are represented as occupied in chair making, the feet and legs of the chairs being designed from animals’ limbs, and the stools on which the workmen are sitting are blocks of wood hollowed out at the top. The Egyptian couch was of a straight-lined design in the body with a curved head like an ordinary sofa, the legs, feet, and other salient points being carved with heads, feet, and tails of animals. Some boxes and coffers with gable tops dovetailed together, small toilet boxes having carved or painted decoration, and mummy cases of cedar-wood having elaborate hieroglyphic decorations, may be seen in the British Museum and in the Louvre. Chariot and horse furniture are well represented in the reliefs and wall paintings. Egypt was famed for chariot building, and exported them in trade to the surrounding nations. We read that King Solomon imported his war-chariots from Egypt.

Fig. 207.—Assyrian Throne.

Fig. 208.—Assyrian Seat.

If examples of Egyptian furniture are scarce, the furniture of Assyria is practically non-existent, as the climate of the latter country was not so dry or preservative as that of Egypt, so that all examples that have not been wilfully destroyed have long ago perished. Many ornaments of bronze and of ivory decorations have been discovered that have been used as mountings to feet, ends or legs of seats, chairs, or thrones. The bas-reliefs of the latter enable us to form a fairly accurate judgment of the nature and style of Assyrian furniture, the decoration of which was of a heavier and coarser character than that of the more elegant Egyptian (Figs. 207 and 208). Forms and parts of animals were used by the Assyrians and nearly all Oriental nations as furniture decorations. The human figure was used also, but generally in the representation of slaves or conquered peoples, who were degraded to the position of bearing the weight of the seat or throne of the monarch (see Persian throne, Fig. 256, first vol., from Persepolis, which was an adaptation from an Assyrian throne). The Egyptian chairs had also carved human figures as captives tied under the seat (Figs. 146, 147, first vol.).

Fig. 209.—Greek Chair.

The furniture of the Hebrews was doubtless of the same kind as the Assyrian. From the description of King Solomon’s throne it was apparently similar to those of the Assyrian kings. It had lions for the arm supports, and had six lions in gold and ivory on the six steps on either side of the throne.

In the manufacture of the furniture of the nations of antiquity the principal materials were—in woods, ebony, rosewood, walnut, pine, teak, and, above all, cedar-wood; ivory, gold, silver, bronze, and electrum were also much used for inlays and for solid mountings.

The furniture and the chariots of the Greeks in their early period were simply copied from Egyptian and Asiatic sources, with less of the animal forms and more of plant forms as decorative details (Figs. 209, 210). Folding stools and chairs were made in wood and in metal, and the backs of the chairs were upright, or nearly so couches resembling modern sofas, elaborate footstools, and arm-chairs with sphinxes for the arms were made by the Greeks (Figs. 210, 212).

Fig. 210.—Greek Folding Stools and Chairs, &c.

Fig. 211.—Greek Chair.

In the British Museum are some small models of Greek chairs made in lead, and wooden boxes showing the dovetail construction.

In the later Greek periods the furniture was inlaid with ivory, ebony, gold, and silver. Tripods were made of bronze, and had ornamented legs in the shapes of the limbs of lions, leopards, and sphinxes. The Roman bronze tripods were very similar to the Grecian ones in design, and were not only used for sacred purposes in the temples, but also to support braziers for heating purposes, or for burning perfumes in the houses of private people (Fig. 213).