Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/189

Rh PLATE 179 within a lotus border in repouss6 work ; an inscription on the rim shows it to have belonged to an officer of Thothmes III. (Mem. 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 phiake or saucer-like dishes, enriched with delicate repousse 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 phialse 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 Nimrud. 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 phialai 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 repousse 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 van quishing 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 FIG. 2. Silver Bow], about 7 inches in diameter, found in u tomb in Cyprus, with repousse reliefs of Egyptian and Assyrian style 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 phialte 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 quanti ties 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 Home possesses a magnificent speci men of the last form of ornament ; it is covered with nearly a hundred little statuettes of lions arranged in parallel rows. 1 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 Phrenicians ; 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 FIG. 3. Atcliaic Gold Phiale, found at Agrigenrum, now in the British Museum. It is shown in section below. It is 5 inches in diameter. across, with central boss or omphalos (&amp;lt;ia/Y&amp;gt;7 which seems once to have contained a large jewel. Round the inside of the bowl are six figures of oxen, repousse 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 &quot; Priam s treasure,&quot; 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 1 Another, very similar, exists in the Vatican Mus. Gregor.