While the objects of ancient art contained in the Castellani
collection, recently placed on exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in this city, are individually of great rarity and
archaeological value, they derive additional importance from the fact
that, viewed conjunctively as a collection, they represent connected
histories of two great industrial arts extending over many centuries.
Both in the work of the goldsmith and of the potter, we are enabled to
trace progress from the earliest stages up to a period when the
greatest skill was attained, and even subsequently into the era of
decadence. In both industries, we find that ancient and mediaeval
workmen possessed knowledge which we do not possess; and among Signor
Castellani's treasures may be seen handiwork which is the embodiment
of two lost arts, the secrets of which the modern world, with all its
infinitely superior wisdom, has not yet rediscovered.

The productions, in the Castellani collection, of precious metal
workers dating from prehistoric epochs, the exact dates of which are
wholly unknown, and covering the long period ending in the thirteenth
century, are represented by the contents of some twenty cases. The
first three of these receptacles bear no dates. The ornaments which
they contain are of bronze, amber, silver, and glass (the latter
having become converted into opalescent silicic acid), and were found
in Praeneste (modern Palestrina, Italy), and in the territory which was
ancient Etruria. Case No. 4 bears date 700 B.C., and here is a rich
treasure of primitive Etruscan and Phoenician ornaments of gold,
adorned with granulated work. Signor Castellani considers that the
workmanship of these objects is so perfect that it is impossible at
the present time to explain the process of execution, and very
difficult to imitate it. The ornaments are of two kinds--those for
ordinary use and those for funereal purposes. The first are massive,
and might be worn for years without injury; the others are extremely
delicate. All are made of the purest gold, and their decoration
evinces the most consummate skill and taste on the part of the artist.
There is, for example, a small flask, shaped something like an antique
wine jar, and about five inches in height. It is of beaten gold, and
is covered with a pattern intended to imitate the similarly shaped
designs of variegated glass of the Graeco-Phoenician period. This
pattern is entirely produced by minute g