Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/697

Rh bellows was placed on each side. For smaller amounts, the fire was placed in an earthen bowl and the blowpipe was used to fan the flame.

Goldsmiths. The goldsmith was held in higher esteem than any other craftsman. This regard was probably due, in part, to the fact that he prepared the images of the gods, the finer decorations for the temples, and the jewels and vessels for the royal household. The guild was under the direct control of the king, and was thoroughly organized by his command into goldsmiths, chief goldsmiths and superintendents of goldsmiths. The trade passed from father to son in a sort of family trade union. Plato says that in Egypt every particular trade and manufacture was carried on by its own craftsmen, and none changed from one trade to another or carried on several. As early as the twelfth dynasty, 2130 the Egyptian goldsmiths had attained a high degree of skill in their work; and the wonderful jewels found on the mummy of queen A'hhotep and in the tomb of Kha-em-uas, son of Ramses II., for elegance of design, delicate engraving and beautiful inlaying are not excelled at the present time. That some of this work could have been done without the aid of a lens, is considered impossible. A type of cloisonne work, the outlining of figures and the tracing of designs in delicate gold and silver wire to be filled in with precious stones or other metal, was a remarkable feature of the goldsmith's art. (The Chinese cloisonne work differs in that the filling is largely with enamel and porcelain, and is hardened in place by burning.) Gold plating was practised in very early times, and some of this work manifests a skill not to be scorned by the best workers of the twentieth century. The gold leaf was undoubtedly made with the hammer, and its uniform thickness speaks well for the skill of the goldsmith. Inlaid work with settings of precious stones and enamels was common. Gold was extensively used to overlay models in wood and other material in sculpture and architecture.

The tools used were of the simplest kind, probably including only the blowpipe, tongs, forceps, hammer and graving tools. A very large part of the work was done by softening the gold in the fire and pressing it into shape with forceps and tongs. The casting of gold was much practised in the latter part of the Middle Empire, about 1600 B.C.

In the inscriptions of the New Empire, various kinds or grades of gold are mentioned, as: 'mountain gold,' 'good gold,' 'gold of twice' (refining?), 'gold of thrice,' 'gold of the weight,' 'good gold of Katm, that is, of the Semitic countries. The 'gold-brick' and the tenderfoot are not peculiar to the present day. In one of the Tell-el-Amarna letters, written during the eighteenth dynasty, 1600-1400 the king of Babylon accuses Amenophis III. (or IV.) of Egypt of sending him a mass of base metal for gold. He says: 'The twenty minas of gold (you sent me) contained, when melted down, only five minas of pure gold.' In a letter from Mitani to the same monarch, the writer says: