PLATE XXI.

COFFttET, OH JEWEL-CASE,

CARVED IN IVORY, EXHIBITED BY MATIFAT OF PARIS.

This beautiful casket, which, from the purity of its form and the delicacy of its execution, is worthyto have graced the toilet-table of a Faustina or a Poppaea , is the design of M. G. Dieterle. This young artist,was appointed principal designer to the Royal Manufactory at Sevres, immediately after the Revolution of1848 . He is favourably known to the Parisian public, not only as having originated many of the mostadmirable objects in the Sevres department of the Great Exhibition , but by his compositions for the decorationof the Louvre. In conjunction with M. Sechan Dupleschin, he has also contributed designs for much ofthe striking scenery, which has procured universal approbation, for the spectacles of the Grand Opera andother theatres of Paris .

The successful execution of the design now engraved has been presided over by the refined taste ofM. Matifat, who himself received an artistic education, having been articled at an early age to Vechte, thecelebrated sculptor and chaser in metals. Succeeding to the establishment of his father in 1842, he considerablyextended its capabilities; and bringing to bear upon his business the experience of his education, was enabledto elevate the productions of his atelier to the highest range of artistic excellence. In the last ParisianExposition he was awarded a silver medal; and his works received most favourable notices from the Frenchpapers, the “ Art-Journal/’ the “ Journal of Design,” &c. Among the principal objects which he hasexecuted may be especially noticed two splendid cabinets, in the style of old boule, for which he received acommission from Sir Watkin William Wynne, Bart.

M. Matifat’s contributions to the Great Exhibition were especially distinguished by their originality,and the amount of thought bestowed upon their fabrication. Whether we regard the variety of outline ofhis lamps, the forms and processes of ornament which decorate his vases, or the harmonious combinationof lines in his small bronzes, it would be unjust to refuse him credit for at least as much freshness andpower of design as was displayed by any other exhibitor in the same departments of industry.

The coffret, or casket, now engraved, is a charming specimen of the revival of the species of ait known

to the ancients as chryselephantine; that is, one in which the sculptor produces his effect by the combinationof ivory with gold and other metals. We propose, in the present notice, to give a brief sketch of the history

of that art among the ancients, as introductory to the subject of recent and actual lvoiy caivmg.

The many references in Holy Writ to the trade in ivory, and the singular relics of sculptuie in that materialwhich the Assyrian researches of Mr. Layard have brought to light, carry back to the remotest periods therecords of the abundance of that material, and the skill which had been attained in the art of carving it.We cannot, therefore, be surprised to find classic authors designating that mode of sculptuie, which consistedof a mixture of gold, wood, ivory, &c., as “the ancient” style. Its origin is by these wiiters usually ascribedto Daedalus. Two sculptors, whose existence is less fabulous—Dipsenus and Scyllis of Crete —are recorded tohave worked, not only in the Toreutic manner, but to have made the hair of their statues in ebony, andthe buskins in ivory. At the temple of Dioscuros , at Argos, the most ancient statues of this kind were to be found;and from the rude beginning they displayed, there can be little doubt that the most exquisite Greek chryselephantinestatues were subsequently elaborated. Twenty statues of gold and ivory, “ executed in the ancient style,” were