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THE GENESEE FARMER 



August 20, 1835 



From Feale's iNoieson Italy. 

 CURIOSITIES OF POMPEli. 



Another rainy day was well employed in 

 the Museum, examining the antiquities of 

 Herculaneuin and Pompeii. We commen- 

 ced witn a collection of gold bracelets, 

 chains, ear and linger rings, &c. most of 

 them rudely missive, particularly the brace- 

 lets, some ol which consisted of a double 

 row of rounded masses of gold like sections" 

 of bullets. In one case by themselves, were 

 the elegant bracelets, ear and finger rings, 

 and neck chain of a lady whose skull and 

 bones are shown in another room, together 

 with impressions of various parts of her fig- 

 ure in the matter by which she was smoth- 

 ered, in the villa of Dioinedes, at Pompeii. 

 She had taken refuge in a cellar from the 

 falling ashes or line pumice of the burning 

 mountain, but by a retiux ot the sea, which 

 a torrent of lava had driven back, the pum- 

 ice became a wave of mud, and pouring 

 down the windows of the cellar, uvei whel- 

 med her and some others of tlie family. 



Another case contains a curious collection 

 of eatables, which, having been suddenly 

 surrounded with melted red hot lava, that 

 flowed into the store, chambers and kitchens 

 at Hercul aneuin, were converted into char- 

 coal. The atmospheric air being excluded 

 till the lava cooled, prevented the articles 

 being reduced to ashes. In no other man- 

 ner could such delicate substances have 

 been preserved so long a time. Here is seen 

 the charcoal form of a loaf ol bread, neatly 

 fashioned into radiating lobes, on one of 

 which is impressed the baker's name. A 

 plate of eggs, or rather egtz shells, some of 

 which are not broken, retain their natural 

 whiteness ; preserved in glass cases aresam 

 pies of a great variety of carbonized articles, 

 found in stores and private houses : a thread 

 net for boiling c ibbages ; figs, prunes, ol- 

 ives, dates, nuts of various kinds; retaining' 

 the most minute characteristics of their ex- 

 ternal forms, though all reduced to one 

 quality of imperishable charcoal. A buck- 

 et, mortar, basins, skillets, mugs, cups, &c. 

 nil of silver, richly ornamented with bassi 

 relievi, fill another case. Among the orna- 

 ments of gold is a beautiful little model of 

 a lady's reticule, like those of the present 

 day. Here are, also, a variety of colors, 

 such as wee used in fresco painting, which 

 were found in pots in a painter's shop at 

 Pompeii. 



One chamber is filled with a vast variety 

 of articles made of glass, of which substance 

 it was supposed the ancient was ignorant 

 consisting of plates for window lights, bot- 

 tles, jars, mugs, phials, dishes, cups, lamps, 

 Sic. Some only blown into their shapes, 

 other moulded, and some afterwards ground. 

 These glasses are of every possible form, 

 and have a beautiful mother of pearl appear- 

 ance, occasioned by the heat to which they 

 have been subjected. One of them has been 

 carefully cleaned, and is found to be pre- 

 cisely like our common green glass ; yet 

 there are some articles of perfectly white, or 

 rather colorless glass, and others of a fine 

 deep blue. There is a great assortment of 

 little phials, or the kind which is customary 

 to call lacrymutaries which are found in a 

 shop in Pompeii. An attempt to catch the 

 tears of grief in these slender vessels, would 

 effectually disturb the sentiment and re- 

 strain the flood. It is much more reasona- 

 ble to believe that these little vessels wheth- 

 er of glass earthen ware, which are found in 



sepulchural vases, were used for odoriferous 

 liquids. Here, also, are several large glass 

 vases of a globular form found in tombs, 

 containing bones and ashes of the dead — a 

 rude kind of castor, made of lava, contain- 

 ing two bottles — several glass vases of mix- 

 ed colors, black and white, the white being in 

 blotches — tumblers of a long shaoe, with rai- 

 sed knobs and depressed grooves or else 

 identified at four opposite sides into great 

 cavities and a hexagon plate with flatedg 

 es, the bowl resembling our soup plate, moul- 

 ded and perfectly well ground. Altogether 

 there are two thousand six hundred speci- 

 mens of glasses. In the same room a case 

 contains a variety of objects of wrought 

 rock crystal, a spoon, necklace, &.C. A se- 

 ries of rooms is appropriated to articles of 

 kitchen furniture, there are various portable 

 fire-places, most of which have hollow bor- 

 ders to contain water which was kept hot by 

 the fire, (probably charcoal,) used in cook- 

 ing, and at the same time prevented the 

 fire place from becoming red hot, while tlie 

 water was drawn off by a stop cock, at one 

 s.de, cylindrical furnaces, also double, to 

 hold water, with a kettle, fitting into the top 

 for boiling and stewing; brass stew pans, 

 lined with silver, and pots of every size and 

 shape, many of which are solid silvei, but 

 generally of brass lined with silver, as if 

 the unwholesomeness of brass or copper was 

 known; one hundred and forty bronze can- 

 delabra about four feet high ; confectionary 

 moulds of various and beautiful forms, 

 strainers with silver bottoms, finely and 

 beautifully pierced ; an elegant hand lant- 

 en ; a variety of bronze seals and weights 

 rf stone, and steelyards, the weights of 

 which represent busts of men and women; 

 and lamps of every size and pattern, sus- 

 pended on tripons, in groups of various 

 forms, and larger massive lamps that were 

 hung in calls and passages. 



The next room contains about two thou- 

 sand articles of bronze, with many of which 

 was found in temples, and used in the cere- 

 monies of sacrifice, consisting in large and 

 elegant vases and dishes, inlaid with silver; 

 a multitude of little domestic goods; a tea 

 urn, exactly like those of our times, with a 

 tube in the centre to hold a hot iron, sur- 

 rounded by water; a handsome consular 

 chair, couches and seats of honor, which has 

 served as patterns 'or the modern fashions of 

 Paris, a water bucket, the handles of which 

 in two sogments, hinged at the centre, con- 

 stitute an ornamental rim, studded with sil- 

 ver ; a great variety of mugs, Stc. 



A dark room contains many curious and 

 some elegant specimens of armor — helmets, 

 breast plates, shields, axes, spears, locks, 

 nails, hinges, Sac of iron and bronze; and 

 iron stocks, in which were found the legs, 

 with skeletons of three men, who must ha e 

 been suffering this punishment when the city 

 of Pompeii was destroyed. A splendidly 

 wrought helmet, as found in Herculaneum 

 and weighing thirty-three pounds, too heav- 

 y for use, is supposed to have been made 

 for some ornamental purpose ; the high rai- 

 sed figures on it represent the Trojan war. 



Beyond these are various musical instru- 

 ments, of bronze, ivory and bone; tables of 

 laws deeply cut in brass; ivory tickets of 

 admission to the theatre, dice, brass fish- 

 hooks, reticul< s and bronze, belonging to a 

 lady's toilet table ; bronze mirrors, &c. 



Finally, other apartments are filled with 

 an immense, elegant, and varied collection 



of vases, made of baked clay of all sizes, and 

 of every imaginable form, ornamented with 

 figures, many of which are beautiiully out- 

 lined, and descriptive of histories, fables, and 

 festivals. These vases served as articles of 

 decoration in dwelling houses, and were af- 

 terwards entombed with their owners, as 

 representing models of tombs, in the same 

 apartment. Two of these vases are very- 

 large, and the figures on them drawn with 

 great beauty and accuracy ; they were pur- 

 chased by this cabinet for eleven hundred 

 dollars, and others for no less than four 

 thousand five hundred dollars. Here are 

 various drinking cups, shaped like the heads 

 ol sheep, horses and birds. 



The walls of two large apartments, on 

 the ground floor, are covered with fresco 

 paintings taken from Pompeii. One of the 

 rooms contain such pieces as were procured 

 on thefiist discovery of the mysterious city, 

 which, happening to be in part inhabited by 

 tradesmen, did not furnish the most elegant 

 specimens of the arts. The judgements 

 winch were consequently propagated fiom 

 one antiquarian critic to anothei were unfa- 

 vorable to the ancient painters, who were 

 pioiiounced inferior to contemporary sculpt- 

 ors, and 1 norant of grouping, foreshoiten- 

 ing and perspective. Later, and especially 

 recent excavations, or rather disinterments, 

 have fortunately been in a direction across 

 the vineyard to a inoie sumptuous portion of 

 the city, where splendid temples, halls of 

 j.istice, theatres and spacious dwellings gave 

 occasion lor the best employments of the 

 arts.' Here not only the finest statutes have 

 been found, but fresco paintings of great el- 

 egance and beauty ; p .riicularly lour ot a 

 square form, on a circular giound, (former- 

 ly puit of a circular room) which are of un- 

 common merit, and most decidedly indicate 

 the high state of painting, as it was practi- 

 ced in Greece and Italy at the same period 

 when these statutes were executed, which 

 evinced such perfect knowledge of the hu- 

 man form and the principles of grouping.— 

 The best of these paintings have been only 

 recently discovered, and prove that the an- 

 cient painters were perfectly acquainted 

 with the rules of perspective end foreshort- 

 ening 1 have no doubt fiom these beauti- 

 ful works done on walls, mostly by inferior 

 erlists, that, on other occasions, as in move- 

 able pictures, their best painters must have 

 painted in a manner to correspond with the 

 high rank of their sculpture, and the extra- 

 ordinary accounts given them by cotenipora- 

 ry writers. 



These specimens of ancient fresco paint 

 ing have been cut out of the walls, where 

 they were executed, with great care, and 

 transported here in strong cases, which 

 serve as frames. When first found they are 

 pale and dull ; but on being varnished their 

 colors are brightened up to their pristine 

 hues, and exhibit to the astonished eye, eve- 

 ry stroke of the brush, slightly indenting the 

 fresh mortar, which wi s given by hands 

 that perished, with the genius that directed 

 them, nearly eighteen hundred hears ago, 

 yet appearing as the rich and mellow pen- 

 ciling of yesterday. Most of them are taken 

 from shops and ordinary houses, and repre- 

 sent all kinds of objects, drawn with remar- 

 kable spirit and truth. Many of the better 

 kind served to decorate apartments in which 

 there were no windows, where they must 

 have been executed, and afterwards seen on- 

 ly by lamp light. 



