BKAl'TY <>!' WORKMANSHIP. 5 



vincial towns of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, show a most 

 wonderful collection of antiquities which stand unrivalled in 

 Central and Northern Europe for their wealth of weapons and 

 costly objects of gold and silver, belonging to the bronze and 

 iron age, and every year additions are made. 



The weapons found with their peculiar northern ornamen- 

 tation, and the superb ring coats-of-mail, show the skill of the 

 people in working iron. A great number of their early swords 

 and other weapons are damascened even so far back as the 

 beginning of the Christian era, and show either that this 

 art was practised in the North long before its introduction 

 into the rest of Europe from Damascus by the Crusaders, or 

 that the Norsemen were so far advanced as to be able to 

 appreciate the artistic manufactures of Southern nations. 



The remnants of articles of clothing with graceful patterns, 

 interwoven with threads of gold and silver, which have for- 

 tunately escaped entire destruction, show the existence of 

 great skill in weaving. Entire suits of wearing apparel 

 remain to tell us how some of the people dressed in the 

 beginning of our era. 



Beautiful vessels of silver and gold also testify to the taste 

 and luxury of those early times. The knowledge of the art 

 of writing and of gilding is clearly demonstrated. In some 

 cases, nearly twenty centuries have not been able to tarnish or 

 obliterate the splendour of the gilt jewels of the Northmen. 

 We find among their remains either of their own manufac- 

 ture or imported, perhaps as spoils of war repousse work of 

 gold or silver, bronze, silver, and wood work covered with the 

 thinnest sheets of gold ; the filigree work displays great skill, 

 and some of it could not be surpassed now r . Many objects 

 are ornamented with niello, and of so thorough a northern 

 pattern, that they are incontestably of home manufacture. 

 The art of enamelling seems also to have been known to the 

 artificers of the period. 



Objects, many of which show much refined taste, such as 

 superb specimens of glass vessels with exquisite painted 

 subjects unrivalled for their beauty of pattern, even in the 

 museums of Italy and Russia objects of bronze, &c., make us 

 pause with astonishment, and musingly ask ourselves from 



