Of all the arts, that of the goldsmith is the one which can with certainty be traced back the farthest in the history of human intelligence. On the day when man determined that one substance was more precious than others, he began to work upon it as on a labour of love, and devoted it to the embellishment of the temples which he reared to his gods, or to the adornment of his own person. All written records unite in proving this, - holy Scripture, Homeric poems, and even the oldest narratives of the farthest East. Museums have also confirmed the fact, and bear authentic testimony to this innate sentiment of luxury inherent in all the peoples of the earth. Who is there who has not admired the jewellery found in Egypt, in the tomb of the Queen Aah-hotep, of older date than the government of Joseph?

Who has not stood astonished before the perfection of those jewels of the Greeks displayed in our own gallery of the Louvre, or before those first attempts of unknown nations of the American continent, as barbarous as, and almost similar to those of Asia Minor?

Unhappily, by reason of their very intrinsic value, vases, and articles in gold or silver are doomed to disappear. In gathering precious spoils won from their enemies, the Hebrews hastened to transform them into objects consecrated to the worship of the Almighty : the conquerors of the Hebrews, in their turn, destroyed the sacred vessels to transform them into idols which, at a later period, Christianity was destined to destroy. (David had a crown of consecration made from a diadem which once encircled the brows of the idol Moloch).

The "spolia opima," dedicated in the temples, found there but a temporary resting-place whilst awaiting fresh vicissitudes, of which the most common and that most to be deplored was their conversion into money to meet the ever-growing necessities of the people and their rulers.

Is it not well-known that, among ourselves, the artistic forms given to the precious metals were but a provisional garb intended to impart an agreeable appearance to the portable wealth of our ancestors? Capital accumulated in this shape was readily moveable, and, alas! still more readily alienable; war, migrations, casual wants, all brought to the smelting-pot the gold and the silver which had erewhile been proudly displayed in vases, furniture, or in ornaments for the person.

Nor is it ancient times alone which have had to undergo such vicissitudes as we have spoken of. There is not an epoch in history which has not had its hecatombs of works of art, whenever the pressure of public requirements made itself sensibly felt. In Italy, the princes melted down their plate and jewels to carry on internecine wars; Louis XIV. made a like sacrifice; and, lastly, the Revolutionary period consigned to the mint what little had been spared by former ages, and special decrees were necessary to prevent the last vestiges of ancient art disappearing utterly from the treasures of the churches and the chateaux of the nobles.

It is then almost to chance that we owe the preservation of a few, a very few types of these ancient handicrafts; and we may esteem ourselves fortunate if, in bringing together these rare evidences of ancient art, and the writings which hand down their fame, we can in some sort resuscitate a history of which everyone can appreciate the interest.

Is it not with feelings of deep emotion that we contemplate the superb cup of massive gold presented by Thothmes III. to a functionary named Tothi, which, upon its polished disk with prominent boss which forms the centre of a rosette, displays five fishes, encircled by a wreath of lotus? This piece, of the eighteenth dynasty, may be regarded as a type, since we find in close proximity the fragments of a similar cup of which the material is silver.