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Gold Plate and Inlaying

There remain still two points to be considered; the manufacture of gold plate and the process of inlaying, of which latter art both the last described earring and the bracelet are good examples. It is difficult to understand how the gold plate, of which the Egyptians made so great a use, can have been produced, without the aid of some machinery of the nature of the flatting-mill of the present day. It is certainly possible to hammer fine gold into a thin sheet, but this can only be done by placing it between vellum, or some similar substance, and subjecting it to heavy blows by the hour. On the naked anvil it would be scarcely possible to produce an even surface, and then only by means of finely-polished steel hammers, which the ancients can scarcely have possessed. Yet it is easier to believe that they hammered their gold into plate on the anvil than that they possessed so complicated as machine as a rolling or flatting-mill.

As to the inlaying, Dr. Birch tells us, speaking of the relics of Queen Aah-hept, that "they are encrusted in a kind of cloisonné of opaque glass of blue and red colour, and are not enamelled. This latter class of work not being known prior to the Roman Empire." Again: "the principal substances used for this purpose by the Egyptians were lapis lazuli, root of emerald, or green felspar, jasper, obsidian, and opaque glasses imitating them, and the delicate blue of the turquoise." The bracelet before us appears to have been inlaid mainly with lapis-lazuli, alternating with thin plates of gold, also inlaid, and altogether representing that peculiar zigzag which was employed by the Egyptians to represent running water. The present drawing has been taken from the side, instead of the front, of the bracelet, in order to represent this more fully. The question now arises, by what means did the ancients cut their precious stones and coloured glasses into the required shapes? We know they were expert engravers on stone, but it is hardly to be supposed that they had invented the lathe, and engraved their figures and inscription by means of the points and small disks of the modern seal-engraver. Yet something of this kind they must have done; for, assuming that their seal-devices and writings were cut by small chisels, or by friction with the points of harder stones, which is possible, but extremely laborious, how could they have shaped their seal-stones for setting or for inscription without a lapidary's mill? Even more necessary would such an implement be for the purposes of inlaying; for granting that the Egyptian or Assyrian workmen were able, by some rude means, to fit their separate pieces of mosaic into the places prepared for them, how would they level the whole surface, as they have undoubtedly done, smoothing it and polishing it to a high degree, without the action of some machine, revolving with rapidity, which should make a clean sweep of it?

It is impossible to answer these questions. The utmost we can do is to make careful guesses from visible facts. It may be said that it was quite possible for the ancients to effect all they did in the manufacture of jewelry without any of the tools of the modern art workman, given the requisite time and patience. Doubtless, this is one solution of the difficulty; for we know from later works, executed under difficult circumstances by prisoners and others, that it is almost impossible to impose too hard a task on the ingenuity and perseverance of man. But then, in such cases, time and labour must count for next to nothing.

Whatever the implements at his command, it is clearly evident that the Egyptian and the Assyrian workman could melt and alloy the precious metals; could flatten them into thin plate, draw them into fine wire, prepare punches to strike them into ornamental shapes, and solder these shapes together. Further, that he could chase and engrave; that he could "mount" the metal he had prepared into any form his taste might suggest, and could inlay his mounted work with coloured glasses and stones. Also, that he could make moulds, and cast solid ornaments, could gild metal, and weave wire-chains. Lastly, that he could cut, engrave, and polish the hardest stones; could set them in rings and as amulets; and that his taste had in it so much of vitality that it lives and inspires his successors even to this hour. In fact, we may deny this ancient craftsman the possession of many tools which appear to us indispensable at the present day, to effect the same object, but in doing so we only acknowledge, and must the more admire, his skill and his perseverance.