ON CKRTAIN AXCIKNT KXAMKLS. 57

used. We accordingly find tliat almost all the remaining specimens of Em-opcan Avorkmansliip are executed in this precious material. I have never heard of any exami)les in silver, and only one in copper. It has been supposed that it is to the Greek goldsmiths of Byzantium that Ave are indebted for this process of enamelling. At any rate, Avhether it originated witli them, or was bor- rowed from some more Eastern nation, they most probably introduced this particular process into Euroj^c. The most important remains of the kind are all of und<)ubtcd Greek workmanship ; and a considerable Byzantine influence may be traced in the greater part of those which seem to have been executed in other countries ; added to which, we know of no other kind of enamelling being practised by the Greek artists of early times."* This is probably owing to their more usually enamelling on the precious metals. Had they em- ployed copper more frequently, they would no doubt have soon had recourse to the very similar process of embedding the enamel in the solid metal. We have no trace of the existence of this art in Constan- tinople before the ninth century. The Iconoclastic fury raging in the East during the eighth century probably caused the destruction of most works of the kind, and prevented others being undertaken. The first notice we have relates to Basil, the Macedonian (a.d. 868 — 886), who built in his palace at Constantinople, an oratory, wdiich he ornamented with gems and other rich ornaments ; amongst which were crucifixes, which are considered, from the expression used, to have been in enamel.^ Constantino Porphyrogenitus in 949, sent ambassadors to the Caliph Abd-ur-rahman, at Cordova, with a letter " enclosed in a bag of silver cloth, over which was a case of gold, with a portrait of King Constantino admirably ■• There are in the Louvre at Paris specimens we are noticing. Two of them three small medallions of silver, repre- have been engraved, and described by senting saints, that have much the ap- M. Longperier in the Cabinet de I'Ama- pearance of Greek art, in which the teur et I'Antifjuaire, vol. i., p. l.i"2. enamelled portions are embedded in the * Life of Basil by (^Dnstantine Porphyro- solid metal. The colours employed are a gonitus : — eV r] koto ttoWo. jxipT] koI^ v vermilion red, light blue, and light green. eeavSptKri rod Kvpiov fxopcpr) ft-fra. x^iJ-fvatus The faces are in silver. The enamels are iKTiTvirwrai. Published in the av/xfiiKTa very poor, and being unaccompanied by of Leo Allatius. Cologna, 162.5, p. 150. Greek inscriptions, they may have been For a dissertation on the word x<^Mf>""s, worked elsewhere. If Greek, they must see Lalbarte's Introduction to the Uebruge- belong to a date more recent than the Dumcnil Collection. VOL. VIII, I