NOTICE. SYLVANUS URBAN requests his Friends to observe that Reports, Correspondence, Books for Review, announcements of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, &c., received after the 20th instant, cannot be attended to until the following Month.

DEANS OF PECULIARS. SIR,-With reference to the communication of Mr. Mackenzie C. Walcott, we may observe that a list of the Deans of Bocking is given at p. 270 of the "History of Hadleigh" by the Rev. Hugh Pigot, M.A.

We take this opportunity of stating that Dr. Ferris, sometime Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Rector of Great Stambridge, Precentor and Prebendary of Chichester and Dean of Battle (who died June 19, 1801), was named Thomas, and not Daniel.

C. H. and THOMPSON COOPER. Cambridge.

Vol. I. p. 804. By a typographical error, the publications of the Rev. John Buck, LL.D., are ascribed to the Rev. Edward Owen.

The Gentleman's Magazine

AND

HISTORICAL REVIEW.

ART APPLIED TO INDUSTRY.-V.
GOLD AND SILVER

WITH all its faults the present century can hardly be charged with ingratitude to its benefactors, or at least to those it considers to come under that title. In truth, the fault if any is quite the other way, for we can scarcely take up a newspaper without seeing that a testimonial has been presented to somebody or other. These testimonials take the most varied shapes, from gold medals which are utterly useless down to tea services which are just as much the reverse. More generally, however, the token of esteem will turn out to be a vase, or a candelabrum, or an epergne; but whatever form it may take, the design, and frequently the execution, but too often leaves a very great deal to be desired. To any one acquainted with what was done in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance there is really no sight more saddening than the interior of a silversmith's window; what little art is there to be found is generally of the latest and most debased rococo, with occasionally a soi-disant medieval chalice with proportions and engraving such as no mediæval chalice ever had. If, on the contrary, we look over any collection of old plate, however late, say such as we see in Mr. Lambert's shop, we are at once struck with the amount of hand-work displayed; and if we go further and handle it, we are surprised at its exceeding lightness it was hardly made to be sold at so much an

ounce.

At the same time thus much must be said in favour of the modern silversmiths, viz. that the fault does not rest entirely with them; they only buy or cause to be manufactured things which they think will command a quick sale, and a great part of the blame must be attributed to their customers, who have GENT, MAG. 1864, VOL. II.

B

the bad taste and want of education which leads them to buy such objects. A more general spread of art education will, it is hoped, remedy this evil: in the meantime it may be as well to examine what was the state of things with regard to the silversmith's craft in the Middle Ages. I say the Middle Ages, because we possess a great mass of evidence, both documentary and real, of what was then done, which unfortunately is not the case with regard to the classic era; for although a considerable amount of documentary evidence might be obtained by an industrious rummaging of the old authors, still the value of the metal has so completely caused the destruction of the articles themselves that there would be very little to point to in the way of illustration. We even learn very little from Pliny (who is usually so full of details of all the arts), beyond certain facts of the poverty of the early Romans in respect to plate, of the gradual increase of the precious metals after the victories of Paulus Emilius, and of the extravagances of later times; the most notable being the instance of Drusillanus, the slave of Claudius, who possessed a silver charger weighing 500 pounds, for the manufacture of which a workshop had to be expressly built: this charger being accompanied by eight other dishes each 250 pounds in weight. Our author finishes by sarcastically wanting to know how many of his fellow slaves would it have taken to introduce these chargers, and whether giants were the guests for whom such large dishes were wanted. The most interesting information we obtain from the "Natural History" is in chapters liii. and lv. of the 33rd Book. The former tells us of the enormous sums given for silver plate, and the latter mentions the names of the most celebrated artists. The Benvenuto Cellini of antiquity appears to have been one Mentor, whose works were so much esteemed that Lucius Crassus the orator paid 100,000 sesterces for two goblets chased by his hand. His most valued works, however, appear to have been dedicated in the temples, but in Pliny's time the conflagrations at Ephesus and in the Capitol had caused their destruction.

Other artists are also mentioned as well as the subjects on which they worked; these appear to have consisted of embossed figures of Sileni, Cupids, Centaurs and Bacchantes, hunting and battle scenes, the court of the Areopagus, and trial of Orestes, &c. Thus much for antiquity; but if we want to

form a just idea of what plate really ought to be we must go to the Middle Ages and to the early Renaissance.

In those times, when there were no bankers, when usury was forbidden, and when the acquisition of land or houses was apt to bring the possessor into suspicion with the ruling powers if he belonged to the middle classes, or to form an inconvenient security for his good behaviour if his station of life were higher, it was often exceedingly desirable to possess property in the form of plate, which in peaceful times was useful and occasionally afforded a means of display, while, on the contrary, should disturbances arise, it could easily be hidden away or sent to the coiner, who made it into money. In those days it was also the custom to give and receive presents pretty much as it is at the present time in the East, and in the royal accounts will be found numberless instances of this custom. Froissart, the mediæval Herodotus, in his quaint gossipping manner always winds up his account of any embassy or visit of one distinguished person to another with the fact that rich presents in jewels or plate were given and received. It is obvious that all this must have made good trade for the goldsmiths, who were then artists working in their own shops and producing their own work, not tradesmen who buy things out of manufactories or have them made to order. Out of such goldsmiths' shops great artists used to proceed: thus Pliny tells us that Mentor made statues in bronze; William Torel, who executed the effigies of Queen Eleanor and Henry III., was a goldsmith; so was Francia the painter, and so was Benvenuto Cellini, who has become the representative man of the craft, although almost the only authentic works of his now remaining are in bronze. How is it that we never hear of goldsmiths turning artists in the present day? I do not mean that artists do not occasionally work for goldsmiths, for they do, as in the case of the late Mr. Cotterell, and of Mr. Armstead and Vechte. But somehow or other we never hear of men who keep a shop, as Francia and Cellini did, turning sculptors or painters; the fact being that Torel, Cellini, and Francia were both tradesmen and artists, whereas our present silversmiths are simply tradesmen whose utmost accomplishments are to know the value of precious stones and of good workmanship. As the precious metals were rarer in the Middle Ages than at the present day, it was by no means uncommon to execute vessels in copper or

latten gilt; and from a passage in Sacchetti it is by no means improbable that their manufacture constituted a separate trade, as he speaks of an orafo d'ottone. At the present day this industry is represented by what is called or-molu, but a glance at any of the shops where fashionable nicknacks are sold will be sufficient to prove that the orafo d'ottone has taken leave of art quite as surely as his confrère who uses the more precious metals.

Before entering into a short description of the various articles required for ecclesiastical and secular use in the Middle Ages, it may be as well to take a glance at the various processes by which they were enriched. The simplest of these was engraving. Here the lines were not of varying thicknesses, but the same throughout; they also terminated in a blunt end, like the engraving on the monumental brasses. The lines were filled up either with a black composition somewhat like our heel-ball, or by enamelling, or by niello, an art almost lost at the present time; the platina vessels made in Russia being the best modern specimens of it. I need scarcely say how common was its use in Italy, or tell the well-known story how Maso Finiguerra discovered the art of taking impressions on paper while trying the effect of his niellos.

A great deal of engraving is done now-a-days, but it is almost inconceivable how difficult it is to get small figures engraved in good strong lines like the old work. The engravers do not want skill, but unfortunately they cannot draw the figure, and even the most skilful copyist must fail if he does not exactly know what he is about. Here, again, is a case for the schools of design. I must say, however, that I have never had to complain of the engraving done by Hardman and Co.; and why? simply because not only has the engraver been well trained, but one of the firm, Mr. J. Powell, is an excellent artist, and the work being submitted to his inspection, it is not allowed to go out if incorrect.

BOSSING UP. This process is described by Theophilus and Cellini; the former would appear to refer to reliefs, but the latter directs his attention more particularly to statuettes. First of all the intended figure was modelled, then cast in bronze, and a thin plate of silver hammered over it, and when completed this silver was cut off in pieces, soldered together, filled with pitch, and afterwards finished with various tools,