40 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



of the solid silver. The art of enamelling on precious metals in the 

 high artistic acceptation of the term has been virtually lost to jewel- 

 lers for the last century and more. In India it still lingers among a 

 few families of the native jewellers ; in Europe it has almost disap- 

 peared. The Messrs. Elkington, of England, are now making an 

 effort to revive this lost art, and exhibited numerous objects illustra- 

 tive of their progress and success. The pattern is first cut out of the 

 metal ; on the hollow spaces thus formed the enamel is placed, and 

 fused under a violent heat. When cool, the rough surface is polished 

 on a stone lathe. A dessert service in this style was very beautiful, 

 being in the Pompeian style, the enamel employed being turquoise 

 blue, red, and black. Its value was ten thousand dollars. A magni- 

 ficent electro-plated dinner service, some of the pieces of which were 

 executed in the enamel style, made by this firm for the Duke de 

 Brabant, though not of silver, was so elaborate in its design, and so 

 finished in its execution, that its actual cost was estimated at thirty 

 thousand pounds one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Messrs. 

 Hunt & Koskill, of London, displayed an elaborate silver candelabra, 

 made for the Marquis of Breadalbane, to display his celebrated collec- 

 tion of the Poniatowski gems. It was so constructed as to hold lamps, 

 round the globes of .which, in silver-gilt bands, the gems were set, so 

 that the light shines through them, displaying the colors of each, and 

 the minute design which enriches them. The body of the candelabra, 

 from which these branches spring, likewise contains a magnificent belt 

 of gems, and into this, also, a light is introduced to set them off to the 

 best advantage. Between the plaques of repousse work here, the body 

 of the vase is filled up with iron, damascened all over with the most 

 exquisite and minute arabesques in gold. 



Emanuel, of London, showed a gold cup, representing the fable of 

 Perseus and Andromeda, in which advantage was taken of the pecu- 

 liar form of a very large topaz to cut it into the shape of a small nauti- 

 lus shell, and this stone forms the cup proper. All the rest of the 

 work, the stand, stem, etc., was of gold enamelled. The dragon, a 

 most^laffaelesque monster, is made to subserve the purpose of a han- 

 dle, and waits, open-mouthed, for the descent of Pegasus and his rider. 

 This cup sold during the Exhibition for SI 0,000. In the same case 

 with the above was exhibited a very fine specimen of gold work in the 

 shape of a toilet mirror, which was made for the late Sultan of Turkey, 

 as a present for one of the ladies of the harem. Its cost, it being pro- 

 fusely adorned with precious stones, was 10,000 ($50,000). With 

 this another present was to have been made to the same favored lady, 

 of a stereoscope in ivory, enriched with rubies and emeralds ; and this 

 costly work was also shown, though, as the laws of optics could not be 

 moulded to suit the requirements of jewellers' tastes and fashions, the 

 stereoscope in its dress of jewels remained quite as angular and ugly 

 in regard to shape as one of common mahogany. 



In the speciality of precious stones, the display of the Exhibition 

 was, probably, the finest and most extensive the world has ever seen. 

 It embraced the well-known Koh-i-noor, with a companion diamond, 

 weighing seventy-six and one-half carats, belonging to the queen; 

 the celebrated " Star of the South " diamond, larger than the Koh-i- 

 noor, and owned inAnisterdam ; and three of the finest rubies known, 



