CHAPTER VI.
SILVER TEXTURES, &c., OF THE ANCIENTS.
EXTREME BEAUTY OF THESE MANUFACTURES.
Magnificent dress worn by Herod Agrippa, mentioned in Acts xii. 21--Josephus’s account of this dress, and dreadful death of Herod--Discovery of ancient Piece-goods--Beautiful manuscript of Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, who lived in the ninth century--Extraordinary beauty of Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, and other manufactured goods preserved in this manuscript--Egyptian arts--Wise regulations of the Egyptians in relation to the arts--Late discoveries in Egypt by the Prussian hierologist, Dr. Lepsius--Cloth of glass.
The Evangelist Luke, in Acts xii. 21. speaks of the “royal apparel,” in which Herod Agrippa, king of Judea, was arrayed when he received the ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon, sitting in great state upon his throne at Cæsarea. “And upon a set day, Herod arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”
Josephus describes the same garment, which was a tunic, as “all made of _silver_, and wonderful in its texture.” He adds, that the king appeared in this dress at break of day in the theatre, and that the silver, illuminated by the first rays of the sun, glittered in such a manner as to terrify the beholders, so that his flatterers began to call out aloud, saluting him as a god. _He was then seized with the painful and loathsome distemper, of which he soon after died[124]._
[124] _Ant. Jud._ L. xix. _cap._ 8. § 2. p. 871. _Hudson_.
We extract the following curious account of the discovery of Ancient Piece-goods and manufactured stuffs from a late number of an English publication called the “Mining Review.”
Discovery of ancient Piece-goods and manufactured stuffs.--“It is more than a thousand years since Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, gave to Notre Dame du Puy en Velay a beautiful manuscript, containing the ancient Testament, the chronography of St. Isidor, and other pieces, the whole distributed into 138 articles; which he presented in token of gratitude for his deliverance from the prison of Angers, where he was confined in the year 835. It was on Palm Sunday that year, while Louis Le Debonnaire was passing, that he began to sing a well-known Canticle, which the Catholic church _has since then_ introduced into its ceremonies. This precious manuscript, in a state of perfect preservation, is to be seen in the archives of the Bishopric of the Puy en Velay, department of the Haute Loire. A portion of the manuscript is written on leaves of common parchment, in letters of red and black, with a few of gold intermixed. The other portion is inscribed on leaves of parchment, dyed purple, with _letters of gold_ and _silver_, among which are observed, ornaments of different kinds and colors, designated the “_Byzantine style_.” The manuscript, remarkable for its beauty and preservation, is still more valuable for the manufactured stuffs which it contains. When Theodolphus composed his manuscript, with the intention of preserving from contact and friction the gold and silver characters (which, in time, would have tended to displace and obliterate them), he placed between each page a portion of the manufactured tissues peculiar to the era in which he lived. These specimens of the silk, and other pieces of goods of the time are thus curiously preserved[125]. Till lately, little attention was paid to these tissues, which are principally of India manufacture, bearing scarcely _any analogy_ to the products of the _modern loom_. Some are CASHMERE SHAWLS of those patterns, which the French call _broucha_ and _espouline_, and are made in the Indian fashion, but with this difference, that they are limited to _four_ colors, and demonstrate the greatest antiquity by the primitive simplicity of their colors and design. Others are CRAPES and GAUZES, against the luxury of whose transparent tissues, the fathers of the church at that time so perseveringly fulminated their censures. The rest consist of _muslins_ and _China-crape of exquisite beauty_. The components of the majority of these tissues are of goats’ or camels’ hair of exceeding delicacy and fineness. Like the manufactured stuffs of ancient Egypt, painted on the walls of its palaces and tombs, or substantially preserved amidst the envelopes of mummies, the designs are limited to four colors, which are in fact the _four sacred ones of China_, _India_, _Egypt_, and the _Hebrew Tabernacle_. Nevertheless, the Egyptian designs, _identical with those of India_, are many of them of exquisite beauty. The consummate skill of the silk and cotton manufacturers of ancient Egypt, 4000 years ago, _the beauty and richness of their fabrics_--the little alteration which has taken place in the economy or machinery of the factories, as well as in their product, has been recently demonstrated in the great work of Champollion. All the details of the silk and cotton factories of Egypt, under the Pharaohs of the 18th dynasty (which then monopolized the commerce of the world, and sent a colony of weavers, from the overburthened population of Lower Egypt, to found Athens, and the subsequent civilization of Europe), are laid open with vivid accuracy in that splendid work[126], and brought with all their startling analogies before the eye of the modern reader by drawings from the temples, palaces, and tombs which it contains. It proves, indeed, that there is ”_nothing new under the sun_.”
[125] A shred of gold cloth is preserved in the Museum of Antiquities at Leyden, which is supposed to have been discovered in one of the ancient tombs at Tarquinia in Etruria. In this tissue the gold forms a compact covering over bright yellow silk.
[126] See Plate II.
That the Egyptians excelled in science and art is evident from their monuments, paintings, and sculptures, whereon they are depicted. It is also proved by Scripture, which speaks of the “wisdom of Egypt” with reference to art; and from the fact that Egypt was deemed by other nations the fountain of arts and sciences, and that their philosophers were wont to resort thither to collect some of the “droppings of Egyptian wisdom.” According to Diodorus, all trades vied with each other in improving their own particular branch, no pains being spared to bring each to perfection. To promote the more effectually this object, it was enacted that no artisan should follow any trade or employment but that defined bylaw, and _pursued by his ancestors_. No tradesman was permitted to meddle with political affairs, or hold any civil office in the state, _lest his thoughts should be distracted by the inconsistency of his pursuits_, or the jealousy and displeasure of the master in whose service he was employed. They foresaw that without such a law constant interruptions would take place, in consequence of the necessity or desire of becoming conspicuous in a public station; that their proper occupations would be neglected, and many would be led by _vanity_ and _self-sufficiency_ to interfere in matters which were out of their sphere. They considered, moreover, that to pursue more than one avocation would be detrimental to their own interests, and those of the community at large; and that, when men, from a motive of avarice, engage in numerous branches of art, the general result is, that they are unable to excel in any. If any artisan interfered in political matters, or engaged in any employment other than the one to which he had been brought up, a severe punishment was immediately inflicted upon him.
The eminent German hierologist, Dr. Lepsius, now employed in Egypt by the Prussian government, after mentioning, in a recent letter, the many discoveries he had made of ancient ruins, tombs, &c., writes as follows:
“With the exception of about twelve, which belong to a later period, all these tombs were erected contemporaneously with, or soon after, the building of the great pyramid, and consequently their dates throw an invaluable light on the study of human civilization in the most remote period of antiquity. The _sculptures_ in relief are surprisingly numerous, representing whole figures, some the size of life, and others of various dimensions. The _paintings_ are on back grounds of the finest chalk. They are numerous and beautiful beyond conception--_as fresh and perfect as if finished yesterday_! The pictures and sculptures on the walls of the tombs, represent, for the most part, scenes in the lives of the deceased persons, whose wealth in cattle, fish-boats, servants, &c., is ostentatiously displayed before the eye of the spectator. All this gives an insight into the details of private life among the ancient Egyptians. By the help of these inscriptions I think I could, without difficulty, make a “Court Calendar” of the reign of King Cheops[127]. In some instances I have traced the graves of father, son, grandson, and even great-grandson--all that now remains of the distinguished families, which five thousand years ago, formed the nobility of the land.”
[127] We do not find in these researches, that the ancients were acquainted with the arts of spinning and weaving glass, or of giving it any required shade of color. This invention, therefore, must be considered as belonging to the nineteenth century, and the honor of the discovery is due to M. Dubus Bonnel, an ingenious Frenchman, a native of Lille, and for which he obtained patents in Great Britain, and various countries of the European continent in 1837.
“When we figure to ourselves an apartment decorated with cloth of glass, and resplendent with lights, we must be convinced that it will equal in brilliancy all that the imagination can conceive; and realise, in a word, the wonders of the enchanted palaces mentioned in the Arabian tales. The lights flashing from the polished surface of the glass, to which any color or shade may be given, will make the room have the appearance of an apartment composed of pearls, mother-of-pearl, diamonds, garnets, sapphires, topazes, rubies, emeralds, or amethysts, &c., or, in short, of all those precious stones united and combined in a thousand ways, and formed into stars, rosettes, boquets, garlands, festoons, and graceful undulations, varied almost ad infinitum.”--L’Echo du Monde Savant, &c. No. 58, Feb. 15, 1837.--_Translated from the French._
The warp is composed of silk, forming the body and groundwork on which the pattern in glass appears, as effected by the weft. The requisite flexibility of glass thread for manufacturing purposes is to be ascribed to its extreme fineness; as not less than from fifty to sixty of the original threads (spun by steam engine power) are required to form one thread of the weft. The process is slow; for no more than a yard of cloth can be produced in twelve hours. The work, however, is extremely beautiful and comparatively cheap, inasmuch as no similar stuff, where bullion is really introduced, can be purchased for anything like the price for which this is sold; added to this, it is, as far as the glass is concerned, imperishable. Glass is more durable than either gold or silver, and, besides, possesses the advantage of never tarnishing.