The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-18 00:00:00

CALIFORNIA.

In 1851. Value in round numbers.... £6,898,500
1852 If .... 9,155,800
1853 f f 10,781,400
1854 „ .. 10, 302, 000

1855. Estimated (on 9 months' produce) 8,644,000
THE COLONY OF VICTORIA.

Value in round numbers 214,000,0 W
ParLodf 1885521.
1853 „
•• • •
1854 „
IP • • • •
1855. Estimated (on the produce
of 9 months) .... 8,000,000
The author of the paper expected, that by granting
more liberal terms to the systematic companies of
diggers, increasing the facilities for obtaining and
accumulating water, adopting improved modes of
washing, etc., the produce of gold from the colony of
Victoria alone would not fall much below the value of
£6,000,000 per annum, for some years to come, which
was about double the amount of gold now obtained
from the Ural, or Siberian gold-fields.

11,500,000
8,300,000

ARTISTIC METAL WORK : NIELLO.—ThiS art, says
Mr. Skidmore, almost in disuse for the three past
centuries, was practised during many ages and in
different countries. There is a singular passage in
Pliny, to the effect that by an invention of the Gauls,
argentiferous lead was fused into works of brass, and

216

SUPP

the effect so produced was called incoctilia ; and he
remarks,—" That which was marvellous to behold in
the decoration of vases and articles of Roman luxury,

by them was used in the decoration of their horses,
the yokes of their oxen, and in their various kinds of
vehicles." I have seen in Scotland remains of Scan-
dinavian origin inlaid with the same material, proving
its use by this race of people. Slightly varied in its'
composition, it was called at its earliest periodlincoctile ;
lately it assumed the name, in Latin, of nigellum ;
in Italian, niello. It was thus used. The subject
intended to be delineated was first traced upon the
surface of silver, and the groundwork cut with tools
as in champ-leve enamel, leaving the figures raised in
silver : this was frequently reversed, and the subject
itself represented by the niello. In its composition,
silver, lead, sulphur, &c., are combined; and it is one
of the greatest difficulties of the process that in fusing,
either the sulphur destroying the nature of the niello,
or the silver reviving into a metallic state, covers the
surface of the niello with small white spots. Another
great evil frequently results from the heat necessary
for its fusion, causing its combination with the silver
in which it is worked, instead of forming the contrast
intended. In a ruin at Rome, a silver casket of
Roman workmanship was found, of about the date of
the fourth or fifth century, covered with enrichments
in niello, containing the requisites for the toilet of a
Roman lady, and will prove the use of niello at this
' period. Chalices and other articles were continually
enriched with it during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth centuries. Associated as it is with many
ages, expressing as it does in the decorative art, the
higher or lower degree of the perception of beauty
attained by people so differing in habits and manners,
it loses none of its interest from the fact, that it was
both the forerunner and origin of the art of printing
from engraving. We are informed by Vasari that
Maso Finiguerra, the goldsmith, of Florence, in
taking impressions in black ink from incised lines
intended to hold the niello, gave to the world the first
production of an art (engraving), which has developed
in the present day so much talent and skill, throwing
within the reach of the many those beautiful emana-
tions of genius, otherwise confined to the collections
of the rich alone.—The Builder.