original gem, whether in cameo or intaglio. For camei of two or more strata, so many layers of different coloured glass must be employed, and the relief afterwards touched up with the usual engraver's instruments, to remove superfluities and to level the field. Some of the antique examples, thus worked over, can hardly be distinguished from camei in true sardonyx.
In that valuable storehouse of information upon every antique matter conceivable—the "Recueil d'Antiquités," Caylus gives a detailed account of experiments made by his friend, Dr. Majault, in attempting to recover the ancient process of paste-making, and which he justly styles "Un des articles les plus curieux et les plus interessans de ce Recueil."[1] The result of these experiments was the discovery of the method of producing all the beautiful patterns of inlaid flowers, the "millefiori" and "Egyptian Mosaic," so much admired in antique jewels of the sort; it is likely our own glass-makers might derive some valuable hints from the study of the researches in their art, carried on so sedulously by the indefatigable old Frenchman.
- ↑ Vol. i. p. 293. A fuller description of all the processes will be found in Mariette's Pierres Gravées du Cabinet du Roy, i. p. 209, in the section "Des Pierres gravées factices, et la manière de les faire," written at a period (1750) when the manufacture had been brought to its utmost perfection through the researches of the chemist Homberg, under the patronage of the Regent Orleans.
