USE OF METALS BY ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 691 



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 B.C., 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 Eamses 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 ex- 

 tensively 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 tender- 

 foot are not peculiar to the present day. In one of the Tell-el-Amarna 

 letters, written during the eighteenth dynasty, 1600-1400 B.C., 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 : 



