Ancient Jewelry, 7 



been drawn then, as now, through a graduated series of holes, 

 made in some much harder substance than itself. Indeed, it 

 seems difficult to conceive of a wire draw-plate in any less 

 durable and compact metal than steel. A mere rude hole in a 

 piece of iron would not answer the purpose, as it would rip 

 and break the metal — the more so with so soft a metal as fine 

 gold — and at the best would only produce wire of its own 

 shape. A wire draw-plate is a very exact piece of workman- 

 ship, in which the holes are carefully graduated in size, so as 

 nQt to produce too great a strain upon the metal at one time, 

 and brightly polished so as to cause as little friction as possible, 

 as well as to produce a wire of a perfectly round and smooth 

 surface. Even when made of the finest steel, such plates wear 

 rapidly, and the modern improvement is to substitute an eyelet 

 of sapphire, or similar hard gem, in which the hole is made, 

 instead of in the bare metal. Notwithstanding these diffi- 

 culties, we must suppose that the Egyptians possessed some 

 more or less perfect wire draw-plates, and, in addition, the 

 vice and draw-plyers, in some shape or other, without which 

 the first would be useless. 



The consideration of the earring, No. 7, and the bracelet, 

 No. 8, has been reserved to the last, because they present 

 features of a character very different to the other examples. 



The earring, which is from Babylon, is, to judge from its 

 elaborate character, the most recent production of any here 

 shown. It is not without a certain beauty of form, and is 

 peculiar in the number of pieces of which it is composed, and 

 in the fact that it is a "mounted" piece of work. Its com- 

 ponent parts are neither cast nor struck with a punch, but 

 made up in pieces from thin plate, soldered together, and 

 filled with gum. It is made, in fact, in the same way as it 

 would be made at the present day, with the exception of the 

 gum ; and could only be executed by a skilful hand with the 

 aid of small round and flat plyers. Here, again, we are forced 

 to the belief that such tools were known to the Babylonians 

 at least, if not to the Egyptians. The lozenge-shaped stones 

 are inlaid and flat, supported by the gum ; the others are cut 

 cabochon. The bracelet, although apparently a complicated 

 piece of workmanship, is in reality very simple; and this 

 again is " mounted" out of thin flat plate and chaneer, i. e., 

 hollow wire. Its great peculiarity is that it is jointed. The 

 skill required, and the tools necessary for the drawing of wire, 

 has already been dwelt upon, but the difficulty of making 

 hollow wire from flat plate is even greater. Yet this is no new 

 feature in Egyptian jewelry, for among the relics of Queen 

 Aah-hept, b.c. 1800, 3600 years ago, is a bracelet having a 

 joint containing fifteen divisions, technically called " knuckles ;" 



