ilar
in design to the bronze one mentioned above, and in another part of this
interesting book we have a description of an interior that is useful in
assisting us to form an idea of the condition of houses of a date which
can be correctly assigned to B.C. 860:--"Altogether in this place I
opened six chambers, all of the same character, the entrances ornamented
by clusters of square pilasters, and recesses in the rooms in the same
style; the walls were coloured in horizontal bands of red, green, and
yellow, and where the lower parts of the chambers were panelled with small
stone slabs, the plaster and colours were continued over these." Then
follows a description of the drainage arrangements, and finally we have
Mr. Smith's conclusion that this was a private dwelling for the wives and
families of kings, together with the interesting fact that on the under
side of the bricks he found the legend of Shalmeneser II. (B.C. 860), who
probably built this palace.

[Illustration: Assyrian Chair from Khorsabad. (_In the British Museum._)]

[Illustration: Assyrian Chair from Xanthus. (_In the British Museum._)]

[Illustration: Assyrian Throne. (_In the British Museum._)]

In the British Museum is an elaborate piece of carved ivory, with
depressions to hold colored glass, etc., from Nineveh, which once formed
part of the inlaid ornament of a throne, shewing how richly such objects
were ornamented. This carving is said by the authorities to be of
Egyptian origin. The treatment of figures by the Assyrians was more
clumsy and more rigid, and their furniture generally was more massive than
that of the Egyptians.

An ornament often introduced into the designs of thrones and chairs is a
conventional treatment of the tree sacred to Asshur, the Assyrian Jupiter;
the pine cone, another sacred emblem, is also found, sometimes as in the
illustration of the Khorsabad chair on page 4, forming an ornamental foot,
and at others being part of the merely decorative design.

The bronze throne, illustrated on page 3, appears to have been of
sufficient height to require a footstool, and in "Nineveh and its Remains"
these footstools are specially alluded to. "The feet were ornamented like
those of the chair with the feet of lions or the hoofs of bulls."

The furniture represented in the following illustration, from a bas relief
in the British Museum, is said to be of a period some two hundred years
later than the bronze throne and footstool.

[I