Seals Finger Rings Engraved Gems Amulets Sassanian Bactrian Akkadian Greek Roman

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Seals, Finger Rings, Engraved Gems and Amulets in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; by Sheila Hoey Middleton.

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DESCRIPTION: Hardcover in printed boards. Publisher: Sutton Publishing UK (1998). Pages: 147. Size: 9 x 8 inches; 1½ pounds.. This is a catalogue of the rather nice collection of gems in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, consisting almost entirely of the bequests of Lt. Col. L. A. D. Montague in 1946 and of Dr N. L. Corkill in 1966. Together they document the history of seal engraving from 3000 BC to the nineteenth century, from the Near East, Greece and Rome, and the Renaissance, from Akkadian cylinder seals to Sassanian stamp seals and Bactrian ringstones.

CONDITION: LIKE NEW. Unread and in that sense "new", but shelfworn. Hardcover with printed, plastic laminated covers (no dustjacket, as published). Sutton Publishing (1998) 147 pages. The book is unambiguously unread, but it sat unsold on a bookshop backroom bookshelf for 20 years in sub-optimal conditions, and so shows some shelfwear. Inside the book is pristine; the pages are clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Outside the book possesses two sins. First there's overall shelfwear to the edges and corners, principally the corners, which are very lightly bumped. Laminate cover hardcovers are very unforgiving, and even the slightest bump against a bookshelf edge when shelving/re-shelving will leave a trace. And so the open corners, spine head, and spine heel are faintly bumped ("faintly bumped", NOT crushed). The second sin is that inasmuch as the covers are high gloss plastic laminate, they will show rub marks and faint scratching even merely from being shelved between other books. So if you hold the book up to a light source and examine it closely, you can see rubbing and fine scratching to the covers. Even in normal room lighting the high-gloss covers are not quite as high-gloss as they should be, they appear scuffed. However again, it is not a prominent blemish, it's merely something that close examination will reveal - and yeah, we're nitpicking...but in the interest of full disclosure. Condition is entirely consistent with "new" stock from a brick-and-mortar open-shelf bookstore environment (such as Barnes & Noble or B. Dalton), where otherwise "new" books might show modest shelfwear simply from the ordeal of being shelved and re-shelved. And unfortunately the book shows the effects of quite a lot of shuffling around over a period of two decades (plus) while the book sat unsold on a bookseller's shelf. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 30 days! #7674c.

PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES BELOW FOR DETAILED REVIEWS AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK.

PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.

PUBLISHER REVIEWS:

REVIEW: Sheila Hoey Middleton has a degree in modern languages f4rom Victoria University, New Zealand, and studied Art History at University in Florence and Oxford. She subsequently pursued her interests in these fields while living in Iran, Malaysia, Yugoslavia, and Korea with her husband. Her publications include: “Engraved Gems from Dalmatia from the Collections of Sir John Gardner and Sir Arthur Evans in Harrow School, at Oxford and Elsewhere”, published by the Oxford Committee for Archaeology; and “A Collection of Choson Dynasty White Ware Sherds”; published in “Oriental Art”.

PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS:

REVIEW: The museum holds about one hundred cylinder seals, engraved gems, and amulets, almost all most of which are from the complementing bequests of L. A. D. Montague in 1946 and N. L. Corkill in 1966. Together they illustrate the long history of the practice from about 3000 BC to the 19th century AD. Middleton draws from a background in both modern languages and art history to describe the artifacts and discuss their history and meanings. She includes black-and-white photographs of all of them and color photographs of 20 [Book News].

READER REVIEWS:

REVIEW: A fabulous reference resource! Lots of photos.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Ancient Jewelry: The art of the jeweler. Metalsmiths' shops were the training schools for many of the great artists of the Renaissance. Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Verrocchio, Ghi-berti, Pollaiuolo, and Luca della Robbia all were trained as goldsmiths before they embarked upon the higher arts. The goldsmith made silver vases for the dinner tables of cardinals; knights sent sword blades to be mounted in rich hilts; ladies came to have their jewels set; princes needed medals to commemorate their victories; popes and bishops wished to place chased reliquaries on the altars of their patron saints; and men of fashion ordered medallions to wear upon their hats.

Although many materials-including iron-have been used for jewelry, gold is by far the most satisfactory. One could not expect the same results from any other metal, for the durability and the extraordinary ductility and pliancy of gold and its property of being readily drawn out or flattened into wire or leaf of almost infinite fineness have led to its being used for works in which minute-ness and delicacy of execution were required. Gold may be soldered, it may be cast, and any kind of surface, from the rough to the highest possible polish, given to it. It is the best of all metals upon which to enamel.

Gold was easily retrieved from the gravel of river beds, where it was washed from the eroded rocks; hence it is one of the oldest metals known. Unlike most metals, gold does not tarnish on exposure to the air but remains brilliant. Pure gold is too soft for general use, but it can be hardened and toughened by alloying with most of the other metals. Color is one of its important qualities. When the metal is pure, it is nearly the orange-yellow of the solar spectrum. When it contains a little silver, it is pale yellow or greenish yellow; and when alloyed with a little copper, it takes a reddish tinge-all so effective in varicolored jewelry.

These alloys have an ancient history, electrum, an alloy of gold and silver which assured beautiful hues, having been used by the Egyptians, Greeks, and other ancient peoples. The ancients, from the most remote times, were acquainted with the art of beating gold into thin leaves, and this leaf was used for other purposes besides personal adornment. Gold leaf was used in buildings for gilding wood, and Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were adepts in applying it. It was no great departure to introduce gilded backgrounds to paintings or figures in mosaic and finally to illuminated manuscripts.

In the use of gold Byzantium went beyond Rome or Athens. When more skill was attained by painters, backgrounds in perspective took the place of those in gold. Early examples of leaf work in this exhibition may be seen in the headdress and jewelry of Queen Shubad's ladies-in-waiting from the excavations of the royal tombs at Ur in Mesopotamia. They date from a period between 3500 and 2800 B.C.

A second step was the cutting of gold leaf into thin strips to make wire. It is still a question whether the art of wire-drawing was known to the ancients. Plaited wire-work, as used in many places and over a wide period of time, is well represented in ancient history. Fusing and soldering are also ancient techniques. Granular work, the soldering of minute grains of gold one beside the other in a line or disposed ornamentally over a surface, was known to the ancient Egyptian jewelers, as well as to the classical, oriental, and barbarian gold-smiths. This traditional technique can be traced through the centuries, splendid granular work of the ancient and modern civilizations being well represented in archaeological finds.

Filigree, the arranging of wires in patterns, usually soldered to a base, is often associated with granular work. The oriental nations, especially the Moors, knew how to execute filigree with rare delicacy and taste, this technique adapting itself particularly to their designs. Embossing and chasing are techniques of widespread use. The relief effect of embossing is produced by various means. A thin pliable sheet of metal may be pressed into molds, between dies, or over stamps, or it may be molded free hand. An excellent example of an embossed gold sheet which was pressed or hammered may be seen in the Greek sword sheath from South Russia. In handwork the sheet of metal is placed against a ground with a yielding surface and the design is raised from the back by a series of punches.

The work of the chaser is closely related to that of the sculptor, the ornament on the face of a casting or an embossed work being finished with chisels or chasing tools. Jewelry was often enriched by stamping, a simple process by which a design is made in depression with a punch, and the gold fixed by heating to redness; and the surface finally burnished. In all countries the work of the lapidary was combined with that of the goldsmith.

Much jewelry depended for its splendor of effect chiefly upon its inlay of brilliantly colored stones, jaspers, agates, lapis lazuli. Much of the commoner kinds of jewelry, such as buckles for the belts of warriors or brooches for the vestments of ecclesiastics too poor to buy silver or gold, were made of bronze, enameled and mercury-gilded. Mercury-gilding is a process of great antiquity. The object was first carefully polished and rubbed with mercury; thin gold was then laid on and pressed down, the mercury being subsequently volatilized, and so forth, or upon colored glass inlays.

The Egyptians and Greeks were incomparable artists in intaglio (cutting concave designs or figures) in gold, and one notes with astonishment the mastery they possessed over the stubborn hard stones, including the sapphire. A Greek gold ring with an intaglio engraving of a girl stretching herself is one of the finest in ancient history. The engraver's art both in cameo and in intaglio attained a high degree of excellence about 500 B.C., which lasted until about the third or fourth century A.D. The classical artists used rich and warm-tinted oriental stones, the increased intercourse with the East after the death of Alexander the Great having a marked influence on the development of the art.

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  • Condition: Like New
  • Condition: LIKE NEW. Unread and in that sense "new", but with moderate shelfwear. See detailed condition description below.
  • Book Title: Seals, Finger Rings, Engraved Gems and Amulets
  • Ex Libris: No
  • Topic: Ancient Rings, Ancient Seals, Ancient Amulets, Ancient Engraved Gems, Ancient World, Cultural History, History of Technology, Jewelry, Regional History, World History
  • Format: Oversized illustrated hardcover w/laminate covers
  • Publication Year: 1998
  • Publisher: Sutton Publishing
  • Genre: Art & Culture, History
  • Narrative Type: Nonfiction
  • Number of Pages: 147
  • Features: 1st Edition, Illustrated
  • Author: Sheila Hoey Middleton
  • Personalized: No
  • Language: English
  • Intended Audience: Young Adults, Adults
  • Length: 147 pages
  • Dimensions: 9 x 8 inches; 1½ pounds
  • ISBN: 1855225875

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