901 



INSURANCE, LIFE. 



INTAGLIO. 



90S 



through their representatives in parliament, recently obtained an 

 advantage over other classes of the community by the repeal of the 

 duty upon insurance of farm produce. 



The value of property insured against fire in the United Kingdom 

 may be ascertained from the gross amount of the duty collected ; this 

 value in 1858 was 1.001,872,815^.; and the value of farm produce 

 insured was 73,570,481?. 



INSURANCE, LIFE. [REVERSIONS.] 



INSURANCE, MARINE, was probably introduced into this country 

 from Italy by the Lombards, together with many other commercial 

 institutions, about the 13th century. The earliest specific record of 

 its existence in legal history is a reference in Lord Coke's ' Reports,' 

 part vi., 47 b, to a case decided in Michaelmas Term, an. 30 & 31 

 Eliz. ; but the antiquity and prevalence of its practice is evidenced by 

 a statute passed shortly afterwards, in the 43rd year of the reign of 

 Elizabeth, whereby, after reciting that such assurances had existed 

 tune out of mind, a particular court called the Court of Policies of 

 Assurance (since fallen into disuse) was constituted for the deter- 

 mination in a summary manner of disputes arising out of insurances. 



A marine insurance is a contract entered into between persons 

 having some pecuniary interest in ships, their cargo, or their earnings, 

 on the one side; and other persons, who, in consideration of a 

 premium or money payment, varying with the risk, but payable in any 

 event, undertake to indemnify (insure) the former against specified 

 losses at sea. The insurers ore ordinarily termed undtrwriteri, because 

 they write their names at the foot of the policy opposite that portion 

 of the whole amount to be insured which they severally insure. 



Underwriting is a business still carried on principally by individuals ; 

 indeed, until 1824, it was, by statute, illegal for any partnership or 

 corporation other than the Royal Exchange Assurance, and the London 

 Assurance Companies, chartered to underwrite a marine policy. In 

 that year the monopoly was abolished, and there are now three Cither 

 companies that also insure against marine risks. Even prior to 1824 

 numerous clubs, or associations of shipowners, for mutual assurances 

 were established, but these are now generally limited to small risks 

 and short or coasting voyages. 



The largest underwriting business in the world is transacted by the 

 underwriters who assemble at Lloyd's,* & . name which has thence 

 acquired an unrivalled celebrity upon eyery sea. These underwriters 

 constitute a powerful association, and their agents are established in 

 every port. The losses insured against are ordinarily perils of the seas, 

 comprising all the dangers incident to navigation ; capture by a public 

 enemy, or by pirates, or thieves ; fire ; jetsons, that is, the voluntary 

 throwing overboard of goods or merchandise in time of distress; 

 arrests or embargoes laid on by public authority; and fraudulent 

 conduct (called barratry) of the master or mariners. Against all these 

 risks the underwriters severally engage to indemnify during the par- 

 ticular voyage, or for the period of time specified in the policy ; and 

 even if the vessel should in fact be lost at the time when the policy is 

 executed (the circumstance being then unknown to both parties), the 

 insurance is, by the ordinary form of these contracts, binding, it being 

 the practice in our English policies to insure, " lost or not lost," words 

 not usually inserted in the insurances of other nations. But the 

 voyage marked out in the policy must be always exactly pursued ; for 

 the slightest deviation from it, except under circumstances of absolute 

 necessity, will render the insurance ineffectual ; and that, whether the 

 loos be occasioned by the deviation or not, and whether the ship 

 resume her proper course or not, before the loss happens. Every 

 marine policy for a specific voyage is made under an implied warranty 

 that the ship shall, at the time of the commencement of the risk, be 

 seaworthy, that U, in a condition to perform the voyage ; and if the 

 fact turns out to be otherwise, the assured is not entitled to recover in 

 the event of a loss, whether the loss proceed from the defects in her 

 condition or from any other cause. 



The assured is entitled to claim upon the policy, not only where he 

 is able to give direct proof of the low, but where he can show circum- 

 stances from which & loss may reasonably be presumed, as that a 

 reasonable time has elapsed for receiving intelligence of the vessel 

 since her departure, and that none has been received ; for it will be 

 inferred, under such circumstances, that she has foundered. (Payment 

 by underwriters, under such circumstances, is accepted by the Court 

 of Probate as very strong evidence of the death of those on board.) 

 But f where direct proof of the calamity is given, it may turn out that 

 it is either a total, or a partial (called also an average) loss. A total 

 loss, again, may be either actual or constructive ; the first, where the 

 thing insured is absolutely destroyed, so as to remain no longer in 

 specie, or so damaged that it cannot ever arrive in specie at the port 

 of destination ; the second, where the injury it has sustained, though 

 nhort of that above supposed, is so great as to make it reasonable that 

 the assured should claim as for a total loss, leaving the underwriter to 

 recover what he can out of the shipwreck or other calamity. And 

 this case seems to arise whenever the nature of the loss is such as to 

 atford reasonable ground to the assured for relinquishing the voyage 

 altogether, as where the ship or goods, as the case may be, are so 



Formerly a coffee-house In Abchurch-lane, Lombard-treet, now a nb- 

 tcrlptlon.room for the transaction of the bunlneu of marine assurance (connected 

 with " Merchant*', Captain*', and Refreshment Hoonui ") in the Boyal Exchange. 



damaged as not to be worth the expense of repairs or of being 

 forwarded. But in order to claim as for a total loss by construction 

 only, the assured is bound formally to cede or abandon all his remaining 

 right in the property to the underwriter ; and unless notice be given 

 him of such abandonment, within a reasonable time after intelligence 

 of the circumstance is received, the loss may be treated as a partial 

 one only. In every ease of partial loss, the underwriter is liable to 

 pay such proportion of the sum he has subscribed as the damages 

 sustained by the subject of insurance bears to its whole value at the 

 time of insurance ; in the case of a total loss, he is liable to the entire 

 amount of his total subscription, not exceeding the value of the 

 interest in the thing lost of the person claiming under the policy. 

 The underwriter is also, by the effect of a special clause usually 

 introduced into policies, made liable to indemnify the assured in 

 respect of any payment he may have properly made for salvage (that 

 is, for the defence, safeguard, or recovery of the ship or goods), or in 

 respect of general average, which latter subject is of a kind to require 

 special notice. [AVERAGE.] 



A stamp duty is levied upon all policies of marine insurance, whicl 

 is very unfairly made to increase with the risk. (Stephen's ' Comms.,' 

 4th edit., voL ii., p. 128 ct teq. See further Arnould, ' On Marino 

 Insurance.') 



INTAGLIO, an Italian word composed of in and tagliare,to cut. 

 It U a term of art applied to small works of the gem class, in which the 

 design is indented, or engraved, to distinguish them from those in 

 which the subject or device is raised, called CAMEOS, and under which 

 head will be found a brief notice of the history of both kinds of gem 

 engraving. The French call such sunken works " en creux." Dies 

 from which coins and medals are struck are also engraved in intaglio, 

 but the process is technically known as DiE-SlNKixo, and has been 

 treated of under that head. The present article will be confined to the 

 depressed or incisexl engraving of precious stones. 



The earliest reference to works in intaglio is in the sacred writings, 

 where they are spoken of as being employed for stamps or seals for 

 giving authority to decrees, contracts, and similar purposes. In the 

 Old TestaaBR'frequent notices of them occur, as among others, when 

 Tamar desired a pledge from Judab he gave her his signet (Genesis, 

 xxxviii. 18). Another instance is in the description of the sacerdotal 

 breastplate, where we ore told the stones that were set in it were to be 

 " like the engravings of a signet,.every one with his name." (Exodus, 

 xxxix.); showing by this general reference that such engraving, or 

 working in intaglio, must have been welrknown at that time. 



Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the art of engraving in 

 intaglio was extensively practised, from the custom of wearing a signet 

 ring being general among freemen. The Greeks carried this branch 

 of the fine arts to the same perfection which their genius and feeling 

 for the beautiful enabled them to reach in all others to which they 

 devoted their attention ; but we do not trace its existence among 

 them to a very remote date. It has been supposed that as Homer 

 does not allude to seals they were not used in his time. The earlier 

 engravings for signets probably were mere rude symbols ; the exquisite 

 designs produced by Pyrgoteles and others of the more renowned seal 

 engravers of the best period of Greek art were the ultimate results of 

 a prolonged course of experiment, practice, and observation, pursued 

 concurrently with the progress of the arts of design generally. As was 

 said under CAMEO, the art of gem engraving reached its highest point 

 of perfection in the time of Alexander, and it continued to flourish for 

 a long period afterwards. And the Greek engravers also found ample 

 patronage in Rome, where the possession of choice engraved gems both 

 intaglios and cameos, became a passion. The extravagant fondness of 

 the Roman matrons for engraved gems was satirised by Juvenal, and 

 gave rise to the remark of Pliny, that they " loaded their fingers with 

 princely fortunes." This profusion gradually extended itself to the 

 wearing apparel of both sexes ; and among the opulent classes almost 

 every article of use or dress glittered with engraved gems. The end- 

 less quantities of intaglios and cameos to be found in private collections 

 as well as in the public museums of Europe would alone suffice to prove 

 that there could have been no exaggeration in the statements of con- 

 temporaries. Many of these ancient intaglios are of the most exquisite 

 design and execution ; pure in taste, refined in drawing, and modelled 

 with almost faultless delicacy and precision. Many of course are of 

 very inferior quality, and it is only due to admit that though essentially 

 imitative in style many of the cinque-cento intaglios are little inferior 

 in execution to the finest of the antique specimens. 



The gems employed by the ancient intaglio engravers (scalptores) for 

 engraving on, were chiefly some of the many varieties of the agate, as 

 cornelians, chalcedony, onyx, sardonyx, Ac., with jasper and other 

 opaque varieties of quartz; and sometimes even the amethyst, hya- 

 ciuth, garnet, and other transparent precious stones. They likewise 

 employed artificial gems or pastes, and some of the finest intaglios 

 remaining are of this kind. 



There has been much discussion as to the process by which the 

 ancient gem engravers executed works which are now justly referred 

 to as the best examples of the art. It has been a question with anti- 

 quaries whether the lathe was known ; but though it is not described 

 by any ancient writer, the works themselves eeem to afford evidence of 

 its employment, and Pliny refers to the invention of an instrument 

 which he calls " tornum ' r (' Nat. Hist.' lib. vii.), which may fairly be 



