The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-10-31
tVrom the Magazine Of Art.1
ys~srua smdea OF ART Treasu res.

II Is not many years since Spanish mule
teer wastvaversing one night with DIS string
ri nuI<s a rather wild track In the neigh
torbouS Of Guarrazar not far from Toledo.
The neon was bright, and the torrents OF
Tn Fuente de Guarrszar had recently been
swoltsn, but,had now shrunk low In their
beds. Something glistening in the path OF
The uroonbeam scaught his eye or that OF
woUsn who rode one Of his mules. They
stopped; twas something OF bright metal.
Tbey scrapsd the loose, wasbed.up soil
awsy and disinterred golden iewelled
crswn. This Is no fairy legend, but fact
OF eur own day. They found royal crown
OF gold and precious stones. The effect on
these rude peasants minds OF such sight,
at such q moment, must be left TO the
reeder's imagination TO realize. Their dis
iaterrod treasure, moreover. was not alone;
. buried hoard OF untold. value, hastily bid
away in some moment OF peril and never
recovered, had come to light after more than
a thousand years OF oblivion. Ten crowns,
circlets OF gold with pendants OF precious
stones, were ultimately exbumed, together
with other objects. Another and most iRi-
poriant one afterwards rewarded the saga
city OF some patient searcher, who suspect.
ed that the torrent might have swept part
OF the golden spoil further down its bed.
At first these precious relics were shared
ausong the peasants Of the district; few
objects were sold and melted at Toledo but,
bappily, there was near the spot some enc
keen enough to suspect their importance.
A Frenchman in the neighborhood heard
OF the "6nd" and saw some Of its pro-
duce; this, as may be supposed, whetted
his curiosity by degrees he obtained nearly
all that had come 10 light-eight votiye
-crowps-and these he carried 10 Paris, and
offered them for sale at the Museum OF
Antiquities in the Hotel Cluny, Paris. The
director purchased them at once, and there
they are now exhibited, chief among the
treasures OF that rich collection. They are
rightly called "votive" crowns, that is,
objects not for personal wear, but intend
ed TO be offered at q shrine and TO be sus
pended.near the altar. Their peculiar form
would prove this, the circlets being OF d.
mansions unsuited for wear-some too
large, others too small I'm diameter, and
having long pendants descending from
them; some enriched with perforated pre-
cious stones, sapphires, ~amethysts, etc.
10 all probability they bad been so suspend.
ed as an offering at some shrine-a Christian
sanctuary existed in The Visigothic period
near the spot-and nj some dangerous crisis |
had been carried away either by a spoiler,
or, more likely, from their perfect state of
preservation. by one seeking to save them.
Thus they may have been hidden rudely |
in haste and fear in the first remote spot |
that offered chance OF secure cOncealment,
for in their placement there was no sign OF
the deliberate care and precaution against
injury occasionally evinced in the discovery
OF treasure-tr0ve, as, for example, in the
wonderful find OF antique Roman silver
vessels exhumed few yeais ago al Hides !
helm, In Hanover. Those who in the |
wild and rugged district Of Guarrazar
buried this treasure no doubs themselves |
persisted, and their secret died with them. |
Thus the silent and forgotten grave OF these |
kiugly offerings seemed to have closed over |
them forever, till some such cause az pro. |
badly aided their entombment. the action OF
mountain torrent, at length suficed to dis
close them, aud they have come forth from
their bidiDg-place, TO be set upfor the gaze,
more curious than reverend, OF tens OF
he