Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
PLATE
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: PIG-POL
del.icio.us it!
|
PLATE . The word " plate " (connected with Gr. irXarts, See also:flat, See also:Late See also:Lat. See also:plata=lamina, and Span . Plata, See also:silver), in the sense to which it is restricted in the following See also:article, is employed to denote See also:works in silver or See also:gold which belong to any class other than those of See also:personal ornaments or coins.' As implying a thin See also:sheet of See also:metal, the See also:term has come to be used in various technical connexions, and has been transferred by See also:analogy to other materials (e.g. See also:glass) . A " plate," as the See also:common name for the table utensil (of whatever material), derives its usage partly from the metal prototype and partly from an etymological connexion with See also:French plat, dish, Latin plattus, flat . (See also See also:PEWTER; See also:SHEFFIELD PLATE; METAL-See also:WORK.) On See also:account of the ease with which gold can be worked and the pure See also:state in which it is generally found, it is probable that this was the first metal used by See also:man; and it is certain that, in some countries at least, he attained to the most marvellous skill in its manipulation at a See also:time when the other arts were in a very elementary See also:condition . As an instance of this we may mention a See also:sword of the See also:bronze See also:age, found in a See also:barrow near See also:Stonehenge, and placed in the museum at See also:Devizes .2 The hilt of this sword is covered with the most microscopically See also:minute gold See also:mosaic . A See also:simple See also:design is formed by fixing tesserae, or rather pins, of red and yellow gold into the wooden core of the handle . Incredible as it may appear, there are more than two thousand of these gold tesserae to the square See also:inch . The use of silver appears to belong to a rather later See also:period, probably because, though a widely spread metal ir almost all parts of the See also:world, it is usually found in a less pure state than gold, and requires some skill to See also:smelt and refine it . Though both these See also:precious metals were largely and skilfully used by prehistoric races, they were generally employed as personal ornaments or decorations for weapons . Except in Scandinavian countries, but little that can be called " plate " has been discovered in the See also:early barrows of the prehistoric period in western See also:Europe . See also:Ancient See also:Egypt.—An enormous amount of the precious metals was annually brought as See also:tribute to the See also:Egyptian See also:kings; according to Diodorus, who quotes the authority of Hecataeus, the yearly produce of the royal gold and silver mines amounted to 32 millions of minae—that is, about 133 millions See also:sterling of See also:modern See also:money .
Though this estimate is probably an exaggeration, the amount must have been very See also:great
.
The gold chiefly came from the Nubian mines in the western See also:desert in the See also:Wadi `Alaki and the neighbouring valleys
.
A See also:map of these mines, dating from the time of See also:Rameses II
.
(1300 B.c.), has been pre-served
.
Silver was not See also:mined in Egypt itself, and came mostly from See also:Asia See also:Minor even at the earliest period
.
Then gold was comparatively common, silver a great rarity
.
' Later, gold appears to have been relatively more abundant than silver, and the difference in value between them was very much less than it is now
.
In the See also:language of the hieroglyphs silver is called " See also:
On the walls of one of the tombs at Beni See also:Hassan there is an interesting See also:representation of a gold- and silver-See also:
But plate of really foreign type as well as origin was also brought to Egypt at this time by the Phoenician " Kefti ships " from Kefti, the See also:island of See also:Crete, where the " Minoan " culture of Cnossos and Phaestus was now at its apogee
.
Ambassadors from, Kefti also brought gold and silver vases as presents for the Egyptian See also: 1858) . Thutii's bowl is a typical specimen of the Egyptian plate of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and its design is precisely that of the hundreds of See also:blue glazed See also:faience bowls which were made at the time, and of which some perfect specimens and many fragments (especially from See also:Deir el-Bahri) are in our museums . These were imitated from metal originals, just as most of the early Cretan pottery vessels were . A splendid bronze bowl, which shows us what some of the finer gold and silver plate was like, was found in the tomb of Hetaai, a dignitary of the XVIIIth Dynasty, at Thebes a few years ago, and is now in the Cairo Museum (No . 3553 in von Bissing's catalogue) . The engraved decoration, representing birds and animals in the See also:papyrus-marshes, is very fine and evidently of native Egyptian work . The silver bowl at See also:Berlin, said by di See also:Cesnola to have come from Athienou in See also:Cyprus, is certainly of XVIIIth Dynasty date, but, though purely Egyptian in style, more probably of Phoenician than Egyptian workmanship . See also:Assyrian and Phoenician Plate.—The art of making gold and silver plate, whether it originated in Egypt and passed thence to Crete or not, was evidently on its own ground in Egypt and in Minoan Crete . In Asia it was an See also:exotic art, introduced from Egypt through the Phoenicians . In fact, it may be doubted whether any of the bronze imitations of plate found in See also:Assyria are of Assyrian manufacture; they are probably Phoenician imports . The See also:British Museum possesses a fine collection of these bowls, mostly found in the See also:palace at Nimrud, and so dating from the 9th and 8th centuries (reigns of See also:Assur-nazir-See also:pal to See also:Sargon) . Though they are made of bronze, and only occasionally ornamented with a few silver studs, they are evidently the See also:production of artists who were accustomed to work in the precious metals, some of them in fact being almost identical in form and design with the silver phialae found at Curium and elsewhere in Cyprus . They are ornamented in a very delicate and minute manner, partly by incised lines, and partly by the repousse See also:process, finally completed by See also:chasing . Their designs consist of a central geometrical See also:pattern, with one or more concentric F1c. z.—Silver Bowl, about 7 in. in See also:diameter, found in a tomb in Cyprus, with repousse reliefs of Egyptian and Assyrian style . bands See also:round it of figures of gods and men, with various animals and See also:plants, such as antelopes amid papyri, which are derived from the Egyptian designs of the XVIIIth Dynasty . Often there is a See also:strange admixture of Assyrian and Egyptian style . Fie . 1.--Gold Vase, from wall-paintings at Thebes . Bulls, for instance, are usually represented as with a single unornamented jugs with tubular suspension-handles on the mighty See also:horn, curving to the front (in the style of the ancient Babylonian See also:seals), rather than with both horns 'showing, in Egyptian See also:fashion . When figures of gods and men are shown, the See also:principal See also:groups are purely Assyrian imitations of Assyrian See also:temple-reliefs, in fact—such as the sacred tree between the two attendant beasts, or the king engaged in combat and vanquishing a See also:lion single-handed; while mingled with these are figures and groups purely Egyptian in style, such as the See also:hawk-headed deity, or a king slaying a whole See also:crowd of captives at one blow . Occasionally one See also:sees traces of the ancient Mycenaean influence, or perhaps rather of the See also:young Ionian art which had now arisen out of the ashes of that of See also:Mycenae . These Phoenician imitative designs are still See also:good imitations . But a century or so later we meet with them again on the silver bowls and dishes from Cyprus, in which the imitations have become See also:bad . The same mixture of subjects was still in See also:vogue, but confusion has been superadded to mixture, and we find kings in Assyrian See also:robes and Egyptian wigs slaying Syrian dragons with Egyptian wings, and so on . Fig . 2 gives a silver dish from Curium containing examples of the above-mentioned subjects . It is a characteristic specimen of this mixed Phoenician art, of which di Cesnola seems to have collected a remarkable number of examples . In addition to the numerous silver phialae some were found, with similar decoration, made of pure gold . To the same period as these bowls from Cyprus belong the similar specimens of Phoenician plate from See also:Etruscan See also:graves at See also:Praeneste and Cervetri in See also:Italy . Those from the Regulini-Galassi tomb can hardly be earlier than the 6th century, so that this See also:peculiar Mischkunst of the later type may well be dated to the 7th–5th centuries . (H . R . H.) Prehistoric See also:Greece: " Minoan " and " Mycenaean " Periods.—In the early See also:history of the See also:goldsmith's art no period is more important than that of the See also:Greek Bronze age, the period of the prehistoric See also:civilization which we See also:call " Minoan " and " Mycenaean," which antedated the classical civilization of Greece by many centuries, and was in fact contemporary and probably coeval with the ancient culture of Egypt . In Greece during this, her first, period of civilization, metal-work was extensively used, perhaps more extensively than it ever was in the history of later Greek art . So generally was metal used for vases that even as early as the " See also:Middle Minoan " period of Cretan art (some 2000 years B.C.) the pottery forms are obvious imitations of metal-work . The art of the metal-worker dominated and influenced that of the See also:potter, a circumstance rarely noted in Egypt, where, in all See also:probability, the toreutic art was never so much patronized as in Minoan Greece, although beautiful specimens of plate were produced by Egyptian and Phoenician artists . Also but few of these have come down to us, and we are forced to rely upon pictured representations for much of our knowledge of them . It is otherwise in early Greece . We possess in our museums unrivalled treasures of ancient toreutic art in the precious metals from Greece, which date from about 2500 to 1400 B.C., and as far as See also:mass and See also:weight of gold are concerned are rivalled only by the Scythian finds . These are the well-known results of the excavations of See also:Schliemann at See also:Troy and Mycenae and of others elsewhere . They do not by any means suffer in point of additional See also:interest from the fact that they were made and used by the most ancient Greeks, the men of the Heroic age, probably before the Greek language was spoken in Greece . The most ancient of these " treasures " is that discovered by Schliemann in 1873 buried, apparently in the remains of a See also:box, deep in the fortification wall of Hissarlik the ancient Troy . It consists of vases and dishes of gold and silver, and of long See also:tongue-shaped ingots of silver . In consonance with the early date (perhaps about 2500 B.C.) to which they are probably to be assigned (Schliemann ascribes them to the second Trojan See also:city) these See also:objects are all of simple type, some of the vases being sides . Here we have metal imitating stonework, as, later, pottery imitates metal . These are of silver . A unique form in gold is a See also:boat-shaped See also:cup with handles at the sides (Plate I., fig . 23), at Berlin, which weighs 600 grammes . One vase is of See also:electrum (one See also:part of silver to four of gold) . A treasure of much the same date (the second " Early Minoan " period, about 2500 B.C. or before) was discovered in May 1908 in graves on the island of Mochlos, off the See also:coast of Crete, by R . B . Seager . This is, however, of funerary See also:character, like part of the treasures discovered in the See also:shaft-graves of Mycenae, and, while including diadems, golden See also:flowers, See also:olive branches, chains, and so forth, for the adornment of the dead, does not include much gold used by the deceased during See also:life . The much later Mycenaean treasures include both funerary objects of thin gold and objects of plate that had actually been used . Among the former should be especially noted the See also:breast-plates, diadems and masks which were placed on the bodies of the chieftains whom Schliemann, great in faith as in works, honestly believed to be See also:Agamemnon and his See also:court (and he may not have been very far wrong) . Among the latter we may mention the small flat objects of gold plate, little sphinxes and octopuses modelled in relief, small temples with doves, roundels with See also:spiral designs, and so on, which were ornaments for clothing, and the golden plate decorations of weapon-handles . The great See also:cast-silver See also:bull's See also:head with the gold rosette on its forehead may perhaps have been regarded simply as a beautiful See also:object of See also:price, and buried with its owner . Similar protomae of bulls (of gold or silver) were brought by Minoan ambassadors as presents to the Egyptian court in the reign of Thothmes III . Gold and silver vases were found both in the shaft-graves, in the treasure-See also:pit See also:close by, and in chamber tombs at Mycenae . The most usual shape in the shaft-tombs is that well known to us from the vases of Vaphio, described below; among other types may be mentioned specially the S See also:ras &µdcKU7rEAAov with doves feeding above its handles (Plate I., fig . 21; from a restored See also:reproduction) — 3ocat S~ sreXEcabes &µhis &auras xpbaaac vepEOovro; the golden See also:jug with spiral decoration from the See also:fourth See also:grave; and the cup with lions of Egyptian See also:appearance chasing each other round its bowl, found in grave 5 . The fragment of a silver vase with a See also:scene in high relief of slingers and bowmen defending their See also:town against besiegers from grave 4 (Plate I., fig . 22), is an object unrivalled in ancient art . On this, as on the bull's head, we have gold overlaid on silver (with an intermediate plating of See also:copper); on a silver cup from the same grave we find gold inlay, and on. another silver cup, from a chamber-tomb, See also:enamel and gold inlaid . How the Minoan goldsmith could combine silver with gold and the two with bronze we see on the marvellous inlaid See also:dagger-See also:blades from Mycenae, with their pictures in many-coloured metals of lion-hunts, See also:cats chasing birds, and so forth, which show that he was perhaps the greatest See also:master of all time in this art . We speak of him as " Minoan," because most of the metal objects found at Mycenae are, if not of actual Minoan workman-See also:ship and imported from Crete, at any See also:rate designed in accordance with the Minoan See also:taste of the " Great Palace Period " (Late Minoan i. and ii.) at See also:Cnossus . They are only " Mycenaean " in the sense that they were found at Mycenae . Of the art of the gold vase maker in the Mycenaean period properly speaking (Late Minoan iii.) we obtain an idea from the pictures of golden Bugelkannen with incised designs of zigzags, &c., represented on the walls of the tomb of Rameses III. at Egyptian Thebes . The objects from the Mycenaean shaft-graves are much older than this, as are also those from the next treasure we shall mention, that from See also:Aegina, now in the British Museum . The gold cups and other objects of this treasure,' with their fine but simple decoration, are certainly to be ascribed to the best Minoan period, although when first published Dr A . J . Evans was inclined to assign them to so late a date as c . A.D . 800 . They See also:ate surely some seven See also:hundred years older, having no characteristic of the decadent " sub-Mycenaean " period, as Dr Evans would doubtless now agree . These objects were probably found in a tomb . Dr Evans's excavations at Cnossus, those of the Italians at Phaestos and Hagia Triada and those of the British school at Palaikastro have not produced any very striking examples of the Minoan goldsmith's art in his own See also:country, though splendid bronze bowls and vases have been found, which give us a good idea of what the plate must have been like, as do also the gilt steatite imitations of plate mentioned below . One of the bronze vases from Cnossus exactly resembles one of gold and silver which was brought to Egypt by the ambassadors in Queen Hatshepsut's time (See also:fresco in the tomb of Senmut) . But we possess a fine silver cup (of the Middle Minoan period) from the See also:American excavations at Gournia, and two examples of the finest Minoan gold plate, which were discovered outside Crete, in the famous "Vaphio cups," with their embossed representations of bull-netting, which have been illustrated so often as triumphs of ancient art (Plate I., See also:figs . 24, 25) . These are of Cretan workmanship, though found in See also:Laconia, and are no doubt contemporary with the vases of See also:black steatite with reliefs showing a See also:harvest-See also:home procession, gladiatorial combats, and a king receiving or bidding farewell to a See also:warrior with his armed followers, which have been found by the Italians at Hagia Triada in Crete . These were originally overlaid with gold See also:leaf, and are undoubtedly imitations in a cheap material of golden embossed vases of the same style as those found at Vaphio . Next in See also:order of time came the objects of gold and silver plate found by the expedition of the British Museum at Enkomi in Cyprus, which perhaps represent a somewhat later phase of Minoan art, but certainly cannot now any longer be regarded as belonging to the very late period to which they were at first assigned . One silver vase found at Enkomi is of the " Vaphio " shape, which first appears in Cretan pottery as early as the Middle Minoan period, contemporary with the Xllth Egyptian Dynasty (c . 2000 B.c.), and even then is clearly an See also:imitation of a metal See also:original . Slightly modified, this type remained late in use, as we find it represented among other golden vases on the walls of the tomb of Imisib or Imadua, an Egyptian See also:official of the time of Rameses IX . (c . 1100 B.c.) at Thebes . But some, at least, of the Enkomi finds must be earlier than this . The Egyptian representations of Minoan vases of gold and silver in the tomb of Senmut at Thebes (c . 1500 B.c.) and of later Mycenaean golden Bugelkannen in that of Rameses III . (c . 1150 B.c.) have been mentioned already . During the age of Mycenaean and sub-Mycenaean decadence the art of the Greek goldsmith necessarily passed through a period of See also:eclipse, to arise again, with the other arts, in See also:rich and luxurious See also:Ionia probably . The Homeric poems preserved for later days a traditional See also:echo of the glorious works of the metal-workers of the Heroic age . Etruscan Plate.—The Etruscans were specially renowned for their skill in working all the metals, and above all in their gold work . Large quantities of exquisite gold jewelry have been found in Etruscan tombs, including, in addition to smaller objects, sceptres, wreaths of olive, and plates decorated with See also:filigree-work and See also:animal figures, which were used as personal ornaments (breastplates, girdles, diadems, &c.) . In the Museo Kircheriano in See also:Rome is a magnificent specimen of the last form of ornament; it is covered with nearly a hundred little statuettes of lions arranged in parallel rows; and the Vatican (Museo Gregorian()) possesses a very fine collection of similar objects from the " Regulini-Galassi " tomb at See also:Caere . Little, however, that can be classed under the head of plate has yet been found . Hellenic Plate.—The period of " geometrical " art which followed the Mycenaean age was one of decline in material prosperity and See also:artistic skill . We possess some specimens of the work then produced in the precious metals in the gold diadems placed on the head of corpses interred at See also:Athens (Archaologische Zeitung, 1884, pls. viii., ix.; cf . Athenische Mittheilungen, 1896, p . 367; and G . See also:Perrot and C . Chipiez, Histoire de l'art clans l'antiguite, vii . 245) . , The period of See also:Oriental influence is represented by the finds of gold ornaments made at Camirus in See also:Rhodes (see GREEK ART, fig. x r) . Fig . 3 shows a silver cup, with gold mounts, also found at Camirus, apparently a work of the same early date . A remarkable find of gold objects was made in 1882 at Vettersfelde in See also:Brandenburg; the principal piece was a gold See also:fish (see GREEK ART, fig. ro) with ornaments in relief . These objects recall by their style early Ionic art, but were probably produced in one of the Black See also:Sea colonies, since similar objects have been found, together with later work, in See also:Crimean graves (see below), and exchanged for the See also:amber of the Baltic coasts . See also:Croesus especially encouraged the art, and paid enormous sums for silver vases and cups to, the most renowned artists of his time, such as See also:Glaucus and See also:Theodorus the Samian . The British Museum possesses a fine specimen of archaic Greek plate, found at See also:Agrigentum in See also:Sicily . This is a gold phiale or bowl, about 5 in. across, with central See also:boss or omphalos (g(6.Xrl ,aev6µcpaXos) which seems once to have contained a large See also:jewel . Round the inside of the bowl are six figures of oxen repousse in relief, and at one side a See also:crescent, formed by punched dots . A delicate See also:twisted moulding surrounds the edge; the workmanship of the whole is very skilful (see fig . 4) . See also:Pliny (N . H. xxxiii . 154 sqq.) gives a brief valuable account of the art of silver chasing (caelatura, Gr . 7opev71Kit) . In the best times of Greek art the chief works in gold and silver seem to have been dedicated to religious purposes, and to have been seldom used for the ostentation of private individuals . Vessels for the use of the temples, tripods in gold or silver of the richest work, and statues of the gods were the chief objects on which the precious metals were lavished.' The gold used by the Greeks probably came from Asia Minor or Egypt, while the mines of See also:Laurium, in the mountains which form the promontory of See also:Sunium in See also:Attica, supplied an abundant amount of _silver for many centuries . According to Pliny,of Ulysses and See also:Diomedes carrying off the See also:Palladium . Enormous prices were given by wealthy See also:Romans for ancient silver plate made by distinguished Greek artists; according to Pliny, the last-mentioned cup, which weighed 2 oz., was sold for io,00c denarii (L3 Jo) . It is worthy of See also:note that a large number of the artists named by Pliny were natives of Asia Minor; and it is very probable that the Asiatic school of silversmiths had at least as much influence on See also:Roman caelatura as that of See also:Alexandria, whose importance has been overrated by See also:Schreiber . The finest extant examples of Greek plate are those found in the tumuli of See also:south See also:Russia, especially in the neighbourhood of Kertch, the ancient Panticapaeum . Fig . 5 shows a silver vase found in 1862 at See also:Nikopol in the tomb of a native Scythian See also:prince . The native See also:horse-tamers of the See also:steppes are represented on the See also:shoulder with wonderful See also:naturalism, and the work is beyond doubt that of an Athenian artist of the 4th century B.C . Splendid examples of goldwork were found in the See also:tumulus of Kuloba, about 62 kilometres from Kertch, which was excavated in 183o and found to be the See also:burial-See also:place of a Scythian prince and his wife . The jewelry and plate found in this tomb, which were clearly of Greek origin, comprised (amongst other objects) an electrum vase 13 cm. high, representing Scythians in their native See also:costume, one of whom is extracting a See also:neighbour's tooth, another binding up a See also:wound, a third stringing a See also:bow, besides several silver vases and two gold medallions with reproductions of the head of the See also:Athena Parthenos of See also:Pheidias .
In these Crimean tombs are often found golden crowns in the form of See also:oak leaves, some of which belong to late Roman times
.
The finest extant example of a gold See also:wreath, however, is that discovered at Armento in south Italy and preserved in the Antiquarium at See also:Munich; it bears an inscription of the 4th century B.C., showing that it was dedicated by a certain Kreithonios
.
In 1812 Dr See also: |