SHELL CAMEOS 



219 



of the shell. This is a necessary precaution as it prevents the cracking of 

 the shell, and the cement is supposed to adhere only to the under layer. 



The cement cold, and the handle fixed in the wooden chancery of a 

 notched board, cleaning the shell surface with pumice follows, and a more 

 careful drawing on the white expanse in pencil. Ten implements may 

 figure in the steps toward the finished product. These are steel gravers 

 with sharpened, variously inclined and shaped ends of differing thickness 

 and width, not remotely resembling the burin of the wood-engraver, and 

 intended to be used as gauges, planes, scrapers and line points. These 

 tools are sharpened on Turkey stone, moistened with olive oil. The cameo 

 completed, the background is developed by rubbing it gently with the end 

 of a square-sided stick of boxwood cut to a flat point and dipped first in 

 crushed pumice stone and oil, then into a mixture of rotten stone and a few 

 drops of sulphuric acid. This rubbing polishes and brightens the surface, 

 evokes the deeper shades of color, and conveys to the cameo the contrast 



As contrasted with the treatment of the Diana motive this carving of Phoebus in his 

 chariot shows extreme ie laboration of detail, a finely burnished surface and the last refinement 

 of evenness in the relief 



