Читать книгу Cameo Cutting онлайн

4 страница из 9

Messrs. Francati & Santamaria,ssss1 of Hatton Garden, were the largest and almost the only dealers in shells for Cameo work in the Metropolis, and they cut them up to the exact size required for engraving. I have seen in their cellars many thousands of Conch-shells brought from foreign seas for the purpose of being cut up for export to Italy or Paris. Mr. Santamaria, upon one occasion, showed me a magnificent Black Helmet shell, which he said was the only one that had been discovered out of about ten thousand. A shell of ordinary size only produces, on being cut up, three or four large workable pieces, and these are worth from 3s. to 5s. each; but the Bull Mouth, of small size, may be purchased for a shilling. A face or figure engraved upon a shell looks well, particularly when the taste of the artist enables him to cover every knob with figures, and form an appropriate border of leaves round the whole; even the circles round the apex of the shell lend themselves to ornamentation, and shells carved all over are much sought after. An experienced workman will often employ his leisure in covering a large shell with work in this way. In the centre he places the principal design, always a classic figure or group of figures, and around, such ornamentation as his taste approves. One of these, cut in Hatton Garden, was sold recently for a hundred guineas; and another, almost entirely cut by Mr. W. King, a young Englishman then in the employment of Messrs. Francati & Santamaria, sold for £80.