The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-04-01

are engraved, but, on the contrary, are
Wtremely liable to be split or chipped.
thhs in relief, moreover, if buried in
;nH stsSpnd with other debris, becomes
foy ths I'D defaced; this will account
remaining pumber Of unique canoes
only one Greek shell canoes there is
head of nymph i99e1 existing, the
Vulci. This one specim, IN a vase al
quite: sufficient to prove t6.- however,
on shells was practiced by Creek l .:
The frailty of the material renders:
little surprising that no others have been
discovered.
Cameo cutting was an art much es,
teemed in the Augustan age, when
Greek artists were encouraged to settle
in Rome, in order to supply the de-
mand for these beautiful ornaments.
Canoes have always been truly oIjets de
luce, and were used among the Romans,
not only to decorate their persons, but
the service Of their table, especially
those cups called gemme potariG.
Many Of these beautiful cups are pre-
served in the cabinets OF collectors.
But few Roman artists arrived at so
great degree Of perfection in carving
and engraving as the Greeks. They
were less skillful in design, and were
for the most part content to copy from
tntagii and other sources. The de-
mand for canoes became so great in the
latter days of the Empire that in
wealthy houses, slaves were regularly
employed in cutting canoes, just as
they were in transcribing manuscripts.
OF course these slaves were not all art
lists, not all even skillful copyists; thus
the art OF cameo cutting became de-
graded.
There are few antique canoes OF so
small size as to fit rings they are
mostly of holder workmanship, in order
to be effective at a distance; though
Senaca mentions ring set with the
head Of Tiberius in cameo. The rea-
son why these cameo rings are rare is
obvious; among the ancients, rings
were little used, except as signets, for
which engraved gems were, of course,
only applicable.
The stones principally used by the
Greeks and Romans for Cameo.cutling
were the agate, onyx and the Indian
sardonyx; the latter was the most
priced on account of the variety Of tint
in its different beds or layers, and its
beautiful warm transparent comedian
like ground In these stones there are
two or three, or sometimes even four
layers OF various contrasting hues as
white on dark red, or white on black.
In others the upper layer is blue or
brown, the center one white, and the
base black or warm brown The real
Oriental onyx is now scarce, and there
fore valuable. A stone the size Of a
crown piece is worth about thirty pounds
These precious pebbles were formerly
found in India plentiiully enough in the
beds OF the torrents The Indians were
in the habit Of boring holes through
them and wearing them as necklaces
The Romans purchased them in their
original round or oval shape, and cut
them down into flat discs, to work
upon according to the disposition OF the
strata The cameo-cutters priced these
pebbles the more when perforated, as
they considered the hole warrant for
the genuineness Of the article In the
Pulski collection there is a cameo cary
ed on an onyx that has been perforated
in this manner, and in the hole is still
bit Of the wire by which the stone was
originally suspended.