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Rh used. We accordingly find that almost all the remaining specimens of European workmanship are executed in this precious material. I have never heard of any examples in silver, and only one in copper.

It has been supposed that it is to the Greek goldsmiths of Byzantium that we are indebted for this process of enamelling. At any rate, whether it originated with them, or was borrowed from some more Eastern nation, they most probably introduced this particular process into Europe. The most important remains of the kind are all of undoubted Greek workmanship; and a considerable Byzantine influence may be traced in the greater part of those which seem to have been executed in other countries; added to which, we know of no other kind of enamelling being practised by the Greek artists of early times. This is probably owing to their more usually enamelling on the precious metals. Had they employed copper more frequently, they would no doubt have soon had recourse to the very similar process of embedding the enamel in the solid metal.

We have no trace of the existence of this art in Constantinople before the ninth century. The Iconoclastic fury raging in the East during the eighth century probably caused the destruction of most works of the kind, and prevented others being undertaken. The first notice we have relates to Basil, the Macedonian ( 868—886), who built in his palace at Constantinople, an oratory, which he ornamented with gems and other rich ornaments; amongst which were crucifixes, which are considered, from the expression used, to have been in enamel. Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 949, sent ambassadors to the Caliph Abd-ur-rahmán, at Cordova, with a letter "enclosed in a bag of silver cloth, over which was a case of gold, with a portrait of King Constantine admirably