lobules of metal soldered to
the surface in tiers of zigzag or Vandyke patterns. Another specimen
is a strip of gold covered with granulated lines and bearing a row of
birds in relief. On other ornaments are exquisitely carved heads and
flowers, produced apparently by hammering on the reverse of the
object, but with a delicacy and precision of touch which is simply
marvelous.

The closest students of this ancient handiwork are entirely at a loss
to understand how the processes of melting, soldering, and wire
drawing, which were employed in the art, were performed. Modern
workmen have failed in their attempts exactly to imitate the old
ornaments; and it is certain that the secret of the mechanical agents,
whereby it was possible to separate and join pieces of gold hardly
perceptible to the naked eye, is lost. Signor Castellani has taken
great pains to solve the problem, reading all the treatises of
mediaeval goldsmiths, inquiring of all classes of Italian jewelers, and
experimenting with all kinds of chemicals, in the hope of finding the
solder wherewith the minute grains were attached to the surface of the
metal. At last he found some of the old processes still employed in a
remote district, hidden in the recesses of the Apennines, far from the
great towns. Bringing away a few workmen, he gave them much more
instruction, and at last succeeded, not perhaps in equalling, but
certainly in rivalling the ancient productions.

We question whether the Etruscans used fire at all in their soldering,
as it would be almost an impossibility to keep the excessively fine
tools necessary for the work at a proper heat. Mr. Joshua Rose offers
the plausible suggestion that a cold flux was employed, with which the
workman followed the lines or dots of his pattern. Then the gold
granules were possibly sprinkled over the surface, and adhered only to
the solder, the superfluous grains being brushed off after the solder
had set.

There is also a fragment of a finely woven fabric, made of threads of
pure gold, found on the body of a woman in a tomb at Metapontum. This
is without doubt the material to which the Psalmist refers in speaking
of "the King's daughter" having "clothing of wrought gold;" and in the
Pentateuch there is reference to gold threads being used upon looms.

As we follow the various objects in the twenty cases above mentioned,
the decline of the goldworker's art when the use of enamels came into
vogue is evidenced. Conti