Ancient Egypt. —An enormous amount of the precious metals was annually brought as tribute to the Egyptian kings; according to Diodorus, who quotes the authority of Hecataeus, the yearly produce of the royal gold and silver mines amounted to thirty-two millions of minae—that is, about 133 millions sterling of modern money. Though this estimate is probably an exaggeration, the amount must have been very great. The gold chiefly came from the mines in the Bishári desert, about eighteen days’ journey south-east of Kum Ombos. These mines were constantly worked down to the time of the Arab caliphs, but now appear to be exhausted. It is not known where the silver came from. Gold appears to have been relatively more abundant than silver, and the difference in value between them was very much less than it is now. Tribute was paid to the Egyptian kings, not in coined money, which was then unknown, but in rings or ingots. Owing to the Egyptian practice of burying with their dead personal ornaments and jewellery, rather than other possessions less intimately connected with the person of the deceased, but few specimens of either gold or silver plate have survived to our times, whereas the amount of gold jewellery that has been discovered is very large, and shows the utmost amount of skill in working the precious metals. We can, however, form some notion of what the larger works, such as plates and vases in gold and silver, were like from the frequent representations of them in mural sculpture and paintings. In many cases they were extremely elaborate and fanciful in shape, formed with the bodies or heads of griffins, horses, and other animals real or imaginary. Others are simple and graceful in outline, enriched with delicate surface, ornament of leaves, wave and guilloche patterns, hieroglyphs, or sacred animals. Fig. 1 shows a gold vase of the time of Thothmes ÏII. (Dynasty XVIIL, about 1500 b.c.), taken from a wall-painting in one of the tombs at Thebes.

The figure on its side is the hieroglyph for “gold.” Others appear to have been very large and massive, with human figures in silver or gold supporting a great bowl or crater of the same metal.

In the language of the hieroglyphs silver is called “white gold,” and gold is the generic name for money,—unlike most languages, in which silver usually has this special meaning,—a fact which points strongly to the priority of the use of gold. On the walls of one of the tombs at Beni Hassan there is an interesting representation of a gold-and silver-smith’s workshop, showing the various processes employed—weighing, melting or soldering with the blow-pipe, refining the metal, and polishing the almost finished bowl or vase. In the time of Rameses III., about 1300 b.c., a clearly defined Assyrian influence appears in the decoration of some of the gold plate. A gold basket, represented in the tomb of this king at Thebes, has on its side a relief of the sacred tree between two beasts, the oldest of purely Aryan or Indo-European subjects, and quite foreign to Egypt.

The chief existing specimens of Egyptian plate are five silver phialae or bowls, found at the ancient Thumuis in the Delta, and now in the Bulak Museum (Nos. 482 to 486 in the catalogue). These are modelled in the form of a lotus blossom, most graceful in design, but are apparently not earlier than the 5th century b.c. The Louvre possesses a fine gold patera, 6½ inches across, with figures of fishes within a lotas border in repoussé work; an inscription on the rim shows it to have belonged to an officer of Thothmes III. {Mêm. Soc. Ant. de France, xxiv. 1858).

Assyrian and Phoenician Plate.— Among the many treasures of early art found by General Cesnola in the tombs of Cyprus none are of more interest than a large number of Phoenician silver phialae or saucer-like dishes, enriched with delicate repoussé and tooled reliefs, which in their design present many characteristics of Assyrian art mingled with a more or less strong Egyptian influence. A considerable number of bowls and phialae found in Assyria itself are so exactly similar to these Cyprian ones, both in shape and ornamentation, that they cannot but be classed together as the production of the same people and the same age. The British Museum possesses a fine collection of these bowls, mostly found in the palace at Nimrùd. Though they are made of bronze, and only occasionally ornamented with a few silver studs, they are evidently the production of artists who were accustomed to work in the precious metals, some of them in fact being almost identical in form and design with the silver phialae found at Curium and elsewhere in Cyprus. They are ornamented in a very delicate and minute manner, partly by incised lines, and partly by the repoussé process, finally completed by chasing. Their designs consist of a central geometrical pattern, with one or more concentric bands round it of figures of gods and men, with various animals and plants. In these bands there is a strange admixture of Assyrian and Egyptian style. The main motives belong to the former class, the principal groups being purely Assyrian—such as the sacred tree between the two attendant beasts, or the king engaged in combat and vanquishing a lion single-handed; while mingled with these are figures and groups purely Egyptian in style, such as the hawk-headed deity, or a king slaying a whole crowd of captives at one blow. Fig. 2 gives a silver dish from

Curium containing examples of all the above mentioned subjects. Some of the designs are exceedingly beautiful, and are arranged with great decorative skill: a favourite composition is that of antelopes walking in a forest of tall papyrus plants, arranged in radiating lines, so as to suit the circular phiale, and yet treated with perfect grace and freedom. In addition to the numerous silver phialae some were found, with similar decoration, made of pure gold. The Curium find alone is said to have included more than a thousand objects in gold and silver.

Etruscan Plate.— The Etruscan races of Italy were specially renowned for their skill in working all the metals, and above all in their gold work. Large quantities of the most exquisite gold jewellery have been found in Etruscan tombs, including, in addition to smaller objects, sceptres, wreaths of olive, and massive head-pieces. The Museo Kircheriano in Rome possesses a magnificent specimen of the last form of ornament; it is covered with nearly a hundred little statuettes of lions arranged in parallel rows. Little, however, that can be classed under the head of plate has yet been found. A number of silver bowls found in Etruscan tombs have ornaments in the Egypto-Assyrian style, and were probably imported into Italy by the Phoenicians; some almost exactly resemble those found in Cyprus.

The British Museum (gold ornament room) possesses a fine specimen of early plate found at Agrigentum in Sicily. This is a gold phiale or bowl, about 5 inches across, with central boss or omphalos (φιάλτ? μχσόμφαλος) which seems once to have contained a large jewel. Round the inside of the bowl are six figures of oxen, repoussé in relief, and at one side a crescent, formed by punched dots. A delicate twisted moulding surrounds the edge; the workmanship of the whole is very skilful (see fig. 3).

Hellenic Plate.— Discoveries made of late years on the plains of Troy, at Mycenae, and at Camirus in Rhodes have brought to light a large quantity of gold and silver plate of very remote antiquity. These early specimens of plate are all very similar in character, graceful in shape, hammered, cast, and soldered with great skill, but, with the exception of weapons and ornaments, mostly devoid of surface decoration. The most remarkable find was that which Dr Schliemann calls “Priam’s treasure,” including a large number of silver vases and bowls, with fine massive double-handled cups in gold, and a very curious spherical gold bottle. Fig. 4 shows a silver cup, with gold mounts, found in a tomb at Camirus in Rhodes, apparently a work of the same early date and class. Homer’s poems are full of descriptions of rich works in both the precious metals {Iliad xxiii. 741), showing that the taste for valuable pieces of plate was developed among the Greeks at a very early time—much more so probably than it was during the most flourishing period of Hellenic art, when the production of beautifully painted fictile vases seems to some extent to have superseded the more barbaric magnificence of gold and silver. During the 6th century b.c. the demand for works of this class, valuable not only for their material but for their workmanship, seems to have been very great under the last dynasty of Lydian kings, whose wealth in gold and silver has become proverbial. Croesus especially encouraged the art, and paid enormous sums for silver vases and cups to the most renowned artists of his time, such as Glaucus and Theodorus the Samian.

Pliny (A r . H., xxxiii.) gives a valuable account of the sources whence the Greeks and Romans derived their precious metals, their methods of refining, and the sculptors who were most celebrated for their skill in making articles of plate. Among the Greeks and Romans the greatest artists of the day did not disdain to practise this branch of art. The same sculptor who produced noble and colossal statues for the temples of the gods would at another time put forth his utmost skill and artistic talent in chasing and embossing some small silver cup or vase. In this way ancient pieces of plate ranked among the most perfect productions of art—very different from the custom of the 19 th century, which leaves its plate to be executed by some dull mechanical craftsman, after the pompous designs supplied by a tradesman whose only standard of merit appears to be the pretentiousness of the design and the number of ounces of silver it contains.

In the best times of Greek art, the chief works in gold and silver seem to have been dedicated to religious purposes, and to have been seldom used for the ostentatious pomp of private individuals. Vessels for the use of the temples, tripods in gold or silver of the richest work, and statues of the gods were the chief objects on which the precious metals were lavished.

The gold used by the Greeks probably came from Asia Minor or Egypt, while the mines of Laurium, in the mountains which form the promontory of Sunium in Attica, supplied an abundant amount of silver for many centuries. According to Pliny, Phidias was the first sculptor who produced works of great merit in the precious metals; he mentions a number of other Greek artists who were celebrated for this class of work, but unluckily does not give their dates. The chief of these were Mentor and Mys (both of the 5th century b.c. ), Acragas, Boethus, the sculptors Myron and Stratonicus, as well as the well-known Praxiteles and Scopas. In Pliny’s time many works in gold and silver by these artists still existed in Rhodes and elsewhere. Among later workers he specially mentions Zopyrus, who made two silver cups, embossed with the scene of the judgment of Orestes by the Areopagite court, and Pytheas, who made a bowl with reliefs of Ulysses and Diomedes carrying off the Palladium. Enormous prices were given by wealthy Romans for ancient silver plate made by distinguished Greek artists; according to Pliny, more than .£300 an ounce was paid for the last-mentioned cup.

Though a large quantity of later Graeco-Roman plate still exists in various museums, the specimens of Greek silver-work of the best period are extremely rare, and mostly unimportant in point of size. In 1812 Dr Lee discovered at Ithaca a very beautiful vase or cyathus 3∣ inches high (see fig. 5) and a phiale or patera, 9∣ inches across, both of silver, repoussé and chased, with very rich and graceful patterns of leaves and flowers—suggesting a slight tinge of Assyrian style. These are probably not later than the 5th century b.c. A good many silver mirror-cases, with repoussé figure-subjects in high relief, have been found at various places; as, for instance, one with a beautiful seated figure of Aphrodite found at Tarentum and now in the British Museum. The South Kensington Museum contains a most exquisite little silver vase found in the baths of Apollo at Vicarello in Italy (fig. 6), enriched with a band in low relief of storks devouring serpents, executed with gem-like minuteness and finish — probably not later than the 3rd century b.c. The British Museum has a little vase of similar form and almost equal beauty, though perhaps later in date; it is decorated with bands of vine branches in a graceful flowing pattern, and is partly gilt. The most important find of Greek silver plate, mingled with pieces of

Roman or Graeco-Roman work, was that discovered in the crypt of the temple of Mercury Augustus, at Villeret, near Bernay, in France (the ancient Canetum), in 1830. It consists of silver vessels and two silver statuettes, sixty-nine pieces in all, the gift of various donors to the temple. It is in itself a small museum of specimens of ancient plate, containing objects of great variety of date and workmanship, from fine Greek work of about 300 B.c. down to the coarser Roman production of the 2nd or 3rd century a.d. The shapes of the vessels composing this treasure are very numerous—ewers, bowls, paterae, large ladle-shaped cups, and drinking cups with and without handles. Those of Greek workmanship are in slight relief, while some of the Roman wine-cups and bowls have heads and figures almost detached from the ground. Some of these latter much resemble some silver canthari found in Pompeii. The dedicatory Roman inscriptions, in some cases, appear to be later additions, made by the various donors who presented these treasures to the temple. It is interesting to note that two vases among the Bernay treasure have reliefs of the theft of the Palladium, like the celebrated cup by Pytheas mentioned by Pliny; another subject described by him as decorating silver plate by Zopyrus, the judgment of Orestes, is represented on a fine cup found at Antium, apparently of Greek design, which is preserved in the Cor · sini Palace in Rome. These may possibly be copies from originals by those much-renowned artists.

Graeco-Roman and Roman Plate.— Of what may be called Graeco-Roman plate a much larger number of specimens still exist. Even during the 1st century the growing pomp and ostentation of the wealthy Romans led to an enormous demand for large and elaborate pieces of plate, while their good taste induced them to prefer the works of Greek coelatores, — a branch of art which even at that time showed but little signs of decay. It was no doubt the desire for objects which should combine intrinsic value with artistic merit, and also be of a more durable sort, that by slow degrees gave the death-blow to the art of vase painting. It is not always easy to distinguish the best works in silver of this Roman period from the more purely Greek works of an earlier time. They are often of the highest merit both in design and execution. The finest collection of these was found in 1869 at Hildesheim in Hanover, and is now in the Berlin Museum. They consist of a large number of cups, bowls, vases, dishes, and tripods, all of silver, some decorated with gilding and enriched in the most elaborate way with figure and scroll-work reliefs of the greatest beauty and finish; these, except one or two of very rude work, can hardly be later in date than the first century after Christ. The most remarkable is a cylix, inside which a geometrical Greek border in slight relief forms a frame for a seated figure of Athene—an “emblema” soldered on, in very high relief. The attitude of this figure, the folds of the drapery, and other details are arranged with extreme grace. Almost the only point which recalls the fact that this exquisite piece does not belong to the best period of Greek art is the very salient relief of the figure, whereas in earlier times the silver-worker was content with a more moderate amount of relief, and thus decorated the surface of his vessel without injuring its main contour. A large silver crater in the same set (fig. 7) is free from this fault. It is covered outside with delicate floral scroll-work, growing in graceful curves all over the surface of the vessel, with very slight projection from the main surface,—a perfect model in every way for the treatment of silver. Pliny specially mentions the custom of Roman generals and other officers travelling on military expeditions with magnificent services of plate; and it appears probable that this had been the case with the

Hildesheim treasure; defeat or some other disaster may have forced the Roman owner to hide and relinquish the whole set.

The museum at Naples contains a very large number of silver cups found in Pompeii, encrusted with figure-subjects or branches of ivy and vine in relief. In cases of this sort the cup is made double, with a smooth inner skin to hide the sinkings produced by the repoussé work in relief on the outside. Silver vessels ornamented in relief were called by the Romans coelata or aspera, to distinguish them from plain ones, which were called levia. i

Among later specimens of Roman plate the most remarkable is the gold patera, nearly 10 inches in diameter, found at Rennes in 1777, and now in the Paris Bibliothèque—a work of the most marvellous delicacy and high finish—almost gem-like in its minuteness of detail. Though not earlier than about 210 a.d., a slight clumsiness in the proportion of its embossed figures is the only visible sign of decadence. The outer rim is set with sixteen fine gold coins— aurei of various members of the Antonine family from Hadrian to Geta. The central emblema or medallion represents the drinking contest between Bacchus and Hercules, and round this medallion is a band of repoussé figures showing the triumphal procession of Bacchus after winning the contest. He sits triumphant in his leopard-drawn car, while Hercules is led along, helplessly intoxicated, supported by bacchanals. A long line of nymphs, fauns, and satyrs complete the circular band.

The so-çalled “shield of Scipio,” also in the Paris Bibliothèque, which was found in the Rhone near Avignon, is the finest example of Roman plate of the 4th century. It is not a shield, but a large silver patera, about 26 inches in diameter, with a repoussé relief representing the restoration of Briseis to Achilles. The composition and general design are good, but the execution is feeble and rather coarse.

The British Museum possesses good specimens of Roman silver work in its last stage of decline. These are two large caskets or toilet boxes,...