Vel. IIL] 
and the Roman government made a 
donation of the whole contents to the 
ladies who had the property of the 
foil. 
The ladies fold the chef, and ail that 
was in it, to Baron de SCHELLERSHEIN, 
counfellor of the King of Prutha; at 
that time refiding at Rome. Ona clofer 
inveftigation, however, ot the pteces of 
which this treafure confifted, it has been 
pronounced by antiquarians and the 
learned, one of the molt valuable and 
interefting dilcoverics ever made in the 
hiftory of fubterrancous refearches. 
The baron,’on difcovering the valug 
of thefe ancient remains, was not willing 
that they fhould be taken from Rome; 
and, on quitting that city, left them 
in the cuftedy of a third perton. 
A learned letter, giving fome account 
of them, has fince appeared in all the 
Italian Journals, written by the Abbé 
Visconti, Direétor of the Capitoline 
Mufcum, to LA JomMAGLIA, a prelate 
of Rome, and patriarch of Conttanti- 
pople 3 from which, and from other 
details, the following detcription 1s made 
up. Ey Fea eo mona : cae 
The circumflance which ftamps:fuch 
an immenfe felative value on this difco- 
wery Is, that we are hereby enabled to 
form an idea of the~ftate of the art 
of defign among the Romans, towards 
the latter end of the fourth ‘century. 
We are admitted, as it were, to a view 
of the principal pieces of houfehold fur- 
niture depofited in.the houfe of an illuf- 
trious family of Rome, in that century, 
moft curious utenfils of which made 
a part of the toilette of a lady of the 
fame family. 
ith regard to the intrinfic value of 
~~ 
this) ty 
one thoufand and twenty-nine cunces of 
remarkably pure filver, a2 great part of 
it: being alfo gilt ;—outweighing almoft 
all the streafares of filver (that 1s of 
pieces which are not current money ) 
that have been hitherto ditcovered. 
[ct may be alfo remarked, that the 
aifcoveries of this 
shp 
greater part of che 
Fi 7 3 z = 7 1 4 key, ? 
kind made beforé, lave -ocen ifolated 
fuch ag the fhlver buckler 
ANEIGUIIES 3 
c eas rp: Mes ee >% ¥ E 7A sa a 
found in the river. Rhone, near Avignon-3> 
another found in the Arve, near Geneva ; 
achird, of an engraving is given 
? of the Memoirs of 
: 3 fr , laftcriptions ; 
hi a 
exvinicly 
NV bah aa 
he 
ne 
as 
; 
iss 
Ait 
i 
7 
% 
€ Or 
Bs 
a 
Sop 
ar] 
Defeription of the Toilet of a Roman Ladys 
503 
we have a uumber of pieces, which, confi- 
dered as an ENSEMBLE, may prove of 
no little ufe in throwing light on the 
ancient ftate of the furniture in Roman 
families. The moft diftinguifhable of 
thefe pieces, for its magnitude and its 
beauty of workmanthip, is a fiver coffer, 
with a coverlid of a quadrangular form $ 
being two feet long, a foot and a half 
wide, and a foot high. Pzavs. was the 
generic name made ufe of by the Romans 
for the little coffers in which the ladies 
ufed to keep their jewels, as originally 
thofe depofitaries were made of box- 
wood ; afterwards. was added the name 
of the metal of which they were con= 
ftructed, as pixis argentéa, OY. aurea, .&c: 
his coffer is very much like that 
exhibited: in the feventh plate of the 
Second Volume of the Drawings of Her= 
culaneum; Wenus’ doves are feen draw- 
ing out of it, with their beaks, a collar 
of pearls. The beautiful fatue of Venus 
rifing out of the waves (the work of 
Menophantes, and now in the palace 
Chigi, at Rome) has, at her feet, a coffer 
fomewhat fimilar, although not precifely 
of the fame form, as that we are treating 
of. The figure of this laft is not that of 
a parallelipipedon, as are thofe which 
are to be feen on more ancient monu- 
ments ; the two parts of which it confifts, 
the inclofure and the coverlid, form two 
truncated cones on a rectangular bafe, 
difpofed the wrong way, and united 
together at their bales. This form, lefs 
fevere than the more ancient one, ap+ 
pearsto have come into vogue at the 
time when the arts began to decay. 
Thus we find, of a fimilar conftruction, 
the two coverlids which are on the two 
grand fepulchral urns in the Pio-Cle- 
mentize mufeum, and which are attri- 
buted to the age of Conftantine: one of 
thefe is fuppofed to have belonged to the 
tomb of Sc. Helena, and the other ta 
that of St. Conttantia. 
The batlo-reuievos on the outfide of 
the coffer, remove all doubts as to the ufe 
to which it was once applied. ‘They 
are .conneéted with the toilette table, 
with the ornaments of female drefs, and 
the paraphernalia of the nuptial cere- 
mony. They appettain to a newly- 
married lady, whofe portrait, together 
with that of her hutband (including the 
demicorps, ov half length) are engraven 
upon the coffer. 
Thefe bufts are difpofed in a manner 
exaétly fimuar to thofe which are to be 
feen oa Sarcopnagi, or uch as are painted 
on funeral glaties, Phe lady is exhibited, 
zb a Raiding 
