Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/234

 190 PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF ances of evcrv-tlay life aud domestic uses, half-a-dozen bronze lares, or statuettes of 'more than ordinary interest as relics of antique art. These include tiirures of Jupiter, Juno, Mercury, and other pagan deities. Of some of these uhjects photographs are sent for the inspection of the membei-s of the Institute ; they are all in a very good stylo of workman- ship. There is also a very extraordinary grotesque bronze figure of Priapus, formed with rings for suspension, aud supposed by some who have had occasion to examine it, to have been the eqidpomlium of a stilyard, but more probaldy intended for suspension to avert the evil eye ; a lamp or some other pensile object may have been originally con- nected with it. A Roman relic of somewhat similar fashion has been fit'ured by the Count de Caylus. A full account of the discovery at JiTiden will be given with engravings of the principal bronzes, in the forthcoming f;isciculus of the InJicateur of Swiss antiquities, pubUshed at Zurich. One of the fine examples of antique art represented in the i>hotographs submitted to the Institute is a bust of Juno, of unusual beautv and merit in its design ; there is no plinth to support it, in the usual' fashion of a lar, and this bronze may possibly have been formed to serve as an equipondinm for a lihrUla or stilyard ; the bronze objects that were destined for these homely uses were frequently, even in the provinces remote from the gi-eat emporia of luxury in Rome, of remarkable beauty in their design and quaintness in their forms or decoration. There is also a full-length figure of Mercury, with the customary attributes of that deity ; this figure, placed upon a pedestal, is in much better style of art than the greater jiart of the Roman bronzes occurring in Switzerland. Its graceful and spirited design has been successfully reproduced in the photograph. Lastly, in the little selection from the recent find at Baden, may be noticed a seated l'riapu.s, a favourite household god in Roman times, having his lap filled with fruit. This little figiu-e is by no means devoid of spirit in its exe- cution. With the bronze deities that have been briefly mentioned there were also found a number of Roman culinar^-and household ajipliances of })ronze and iron. Of objects of this homely description the examples arc comparatively uncommon, except in the ricidy-storcd depositories of such remains as have been disinterred at Pompeii or llerculanoum, and on lization it will be remembered that the entire contents of the dwellings, even to the least important relics of daily life, have been found over- whelmed in the fearfid catastrojihc, and now ])reseiit at the Museum at Naples that detailed nunute evidence in regard (<> domestic usages that we seek elsewhere in vain. Amongst the various culinary or other apjdi- nnces found at I?aden with a gi-ouj) of hou.^Lhold gods, or not far from the spot where they la}', were two obji-cts of rcinarkal)le description ; one of these is an iron implement with six small hemi.sj)lieiical cu[)8 affixed at one end of a long slend(.'r handle. It is BU|ipo.sed that this implement Wiw used for cooking eggs, i)os.sil)]y for i)oacliing them {iviifs rn viiroir). A sketdi in (jutlinc?, of the Kaine dimensions as the original, will show the constriH-tion with accuracy. The other implement is a fine lihrifla, or Htilyard, of bronze, of excellent W(»rkmansliip ; length, nearly 4 ft. In present tiincH witrkein in metal excel in the use of the file but the Roman and the Middle Age artilicers were more skilled in wielding the hammer. A second hlilyurd was also found ; these olijecta
 * i few other ancient sites ; and in those great centres of luxurious civi-