as knowfi to the Egyptians. 11^ 



dern times ;'' and cites, as another proof of their great skill in 

 its manufacture, the vase preserved in the Palazzo Barberini at 

 Rome, which, from the manner in which the layers of colour 

 were united " had been mistaken for a real sardonyx.'' It is 

 the same that is now in the British museum, and known by the 

 name of the Portland Vase.* 



That the Egyptians, at the early period of the eighteenth dy- 

 nasty, were well acquainted not only with the manufacture of 

 common glass, for beads and bottles of ordinary quality, but 

 with the art of staining it of divers colours, is sufficiently pro* 

 ved by the fragments found in the tombs of Thebes ; and so 

 skilful were they in this complicated process, that they imitated 

 the most fanciful devices, and succeeded in counterfeiting the 

 rich hues and brilliancy of precious stones.-|- The green eme- 

 rald, the purple amethyst, and other expensive gems, were suc- 

 cessfully imitated ; a necklace of false stones could be pur** 

 chased at a Theban jeweller's to please the wearer, or deceive 

 a stranger, by the appearance of reality ; and the feelings of 

 envy might be partially allayed, and the love of show be gra* 

 tified by these specious substitutes for real jewels. 



Pliny states, J that the emerald was more easily counterfeited 

 than any other gem, and considers the art of imitating precious 

 stones a far more lucrative piece of deceit than any devised by 

 the ingenuity of man ; Egypt was, as usual, the country most 

 noted for its skill in this manufacture, § and Strabo|| says, 

 " that an earth found there was the only kind which would 



* Some imitations of it were made by "Wedgewood. 



+ Seneca says that Democritus first shewed the method of polishing ivory 

 and of imitating precious stones (Epist. 90) ; but this was long after the art 

 was common in Egypt. Vide Plin. (xxxvi. 26) " Fit et album et murrhinum 

 aut hyacinth OS sapphirosque imitatum (vitrum) ;" and Herodot. ii. 69, who 

 calls them X/^/va x'^''""'^ ^^ melted composition of stone. 



X Non est smaragdo alia imitabilior gemma mendacio vitri ;" and " ex cryS* 



tallo tingentur smaragdi, neque est ulla fraus vitse lucrosior," lib. xxvii, 



c. 12. 



§ Vide the Memoir of M. Boudet, ** Sur I'Art de la Verrerie nc^ en Egypte," 

 in that valuable work the Description de I'Egypte, vol. ix. p. 213. I can- 

 not agree with M. B. respecting the trees and the water of the Natron Lake^, 

 p. 239, note C. 



II Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 521, ed. Cas. 



VOL. XXV. NO. XLIX. JULY 1838. H 



