for badges
and mottoes by noble families. The custom flourished most in Italy,
where the _impresa_ of a noble house spoke to the eye at once, whether
it was found on a sword-hilt or over a church-door. We give as an
instance, in Fig. 3, that adopted by the bold Dukes of Burgundy,
sovereigns in their own dominions, and exciting much terror of rivalry
in the minds of the kings of France themselves. Their _badge_, or
_impresa_, was indicative of their rude power; a couple of knotted
clubs, saltier-wise, help to support a somewhat conventional figure of
the steel used for striking the flint to produce fire; the whole
surmounted by the crown, and intended to indicate by analogous
reflection the vigour of the ducal house. As a bold defiance, a rival
house adopted the _rabot_, or carpenter's plane, by which they indicated
their determination to smooth by force the formidable knots from the
clubs of the proud rulers of Burgundy.

[Illustration: Fig. 4.]

[Illustration: Fig. 5.]

The art of enamelling, which had reached a high degree of perfection in
the Roman era, was refined upon in the middle ages, and ultimately its
character was so much altered thereby that it ended in rivalling
painting, rather than retaining its own particular features, as all arts
should do. It may be fairly considered that originally it was used
simply to enrich, by vitrified colour, articles of use and ornament.
Metal was incised, and the ornamental spaces thus obtained filled with
one tint of enamel colour, each compartment having its own. By this
means very brilliant effects were often produced, all the more striking
from the pure strength of their simplicity. It was not till the twelfth
century that an attempt at floating colours together was made, and this
led ultimately to a pictorial treatment of enamel which destroyed its
truest character. The very old form was, however, practised in the
latest days of its use; and our engraving of the very beautiful
knife-handle designed by Virgil Solis at the end of the sixteenth
century (Figs. 4 and 5), was intended to be filled with a dark blue
enamel, in the parts here represented in black, while the interstices of
the cross-shaped ornaments above would receive some lighter tint of
warmer hue. The birds and foliage would be carefully engraved, the lines
of shadow filled with a permanent black, thus assuring a general
brilliancy of effect. Such knives were by no means an uncommon
decoration of the table