Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/441

 FURNITURE AND OBJECTS OF THE TOILET. 401 We shall only quote one more of these Phoenician ivories, and that less for its decoration than for a sign it bears of its origin. It belongs to the British Museum. It consists of a thin, quad- rangular plaque with a slight cylindrical curvature. Upon its convex face a scarab with four outspread wings is sculptured in very low relief. Originally the carving was filled with coloured paste and heightened with gold. This paste has now fallen out FIG. 344. Ivory prism. Actual size. British Museum. FIG 345. Reverse of ivory prism. and left the ground bare ; it is on this ground, in the left wing of the scarab, that a beth is deeply cut into the ivory. Evidently it was covered by the paste and therefore not meant to be seen once the work was complete. Isolated letters have been found on other Phoenician objects ; they were most likely guides for those who finished and fitted the works on which they appear. 1 FIG. 346. Ivory tablet. Actual size. British Museum. In the West objects of ivory seem to have been much sought after. The finest Oriental carvings in that material have been found in the sepulchres of Latium and Etruria ; here we must be content with figuring a simple example from the famous treasure of Palestrina (Fig. 347) ; in a future volume we shall have occasion 1 CLERMONT-GANNEAU, Notes farcheolo^ie orientale, viii. (Raw Critique, 1884, I, pp. 12, 13). Our readers will remember the letters cut on the walls of Eryx (Vol. I. Fig. 34). VOL. ii. 3 *"