Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/42

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Back. An Egyptian Stamp for Impressing Bricks. [From Jackson.] on the plastic clay by the sudden pressure of a xylographic block, is seen by the oblique position of the square inscription on the brick, in the nicety of the engraving and its uniform depth, in the bulging up of the clay on the side, where it was forced outward and upward by the impression. In old Egypt, bricks were impressed by the same method of stamping, but not to such an extent as they were in old Assyria. The cuts annexed represent the face and back of an old Egyptian stamp discovered in a tomb of Thebes. The stamp is five inches long, two and one-quarter inches broad, and half an inch thick, and is fitted to an arched handle. The characters are engraved below the surface of the wood, so that an impression taken from the stamp on the clay would show the engraved characters in relief. The inscription on the stamp
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