PLATE Cl.
We should be exceedingly unjust did we not award great praise, both to the artistic and manipulativeskill displayed in the three daggers and their sheaths represented in our Plate. The motif of the designls ^ke Cinque-cento style, which is carried out in a very able manner through the ability of Mr. Alfred Stevens ,whose long studies in Italy , under the best professors of art in that country, have qualified him in a peculiarmanner for the task. The only exception which we should take would be to the scabbard of the secondexample; the ornamentation of which reminds us rather of the classic age of Severus than of the sixteenth century.Should the manufacture continue in the same path of improvement, the time may arrive when the productions°f Sheffield and Birmingham will be ranged in the European museums by the side of the works of Cellini, Negroli,a fld Carradosso.
The practice of ornamenting armour and arms is almost coeval with their invention, and, without detainingthe reader with accounts of the golden shields of Solomon or the mythic shield of Achilles, the breastplate°f Agamemnon or the sword of Ajax, we will briefly mention one or two examples of Roman work whichare still preserved. Among them is a very beautiful helmet, covered with empsestic work, found at Ribchester,and engraved in Vol. IV. of the “ Vetusta Monumenta.” Another, nearly similar, was found at Pompeii , togetherWith some greaves, very beautifully ornamented. The shoulder-guards now in the British Museum , and commonlySa id to have belonged to Pyrrhus , although not of Roman manufacture, are among the finest specimens wepossess of the art of the classic ages. We must not omit the sword ascribed to the Emperor Tiberius ,found near Mayence , now in Mr. Farrer’s possession, the sheath of which is of bronze, ornamented with figures,foliage, architecture, &c., many parts being decorated with small pieces of gold. This was exhibited at thelast meeting of the Archaeological Institute. Several other specimens of enriched antique armour might beln stanced, but we must content ourselves with the testimony of Pliny as to the extent of the practice in histime:- “Cum capuli* militum, ebore etiam fastidito, coelentur argento, vaginae batillis, balthei laminis crepitant,”& c - &c. Julius Caesar is said to have encouraged his soldiers to ornament their arms, with the view to givethem a greater inducement to keep them from being taken by the enemy.
During the dark ages we meet with scarcely any notices respecting the subject of our inquiry ; doubtlessfhe possession of beautiful arms must have been a desirable object to men whose occupation was frequentlyNothing but war. The workmen of that time, however, had but little skill; and it is not unlikely that many ac hef-d oeuvre of empaestic and toreutic art was often seen in strange juxtaposition with the ruder productions°f the Lombardic or Gallic armourer.
The first object of that period we are enabled to identify is the celebrated sword of Charlemagne , now atVienna. The scabbard is remarkable for the insertion of several pieces of cloisonne enamel, upon a ground set^ kh pearls. It is still an undecided question whether Rome or Byzantium has the honour of this work, but
* Capulus, a hilt.