The Engraved Gems of Classical Times; With a Catalogue of the Gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 edition. Excerpt: ...above at page 59. The device sunk on the flat or signet side of the scarabaeoid is a standing figure of a bearded harp-player, and round the edge of the field is the inscription which Mr A. H. Smith gives as JVPIAJ fcrOlfS2. the gem itself is by no means above the suspicion of being the work of Natter, the name is probably a blunder for TNAIOC 1 Furtwangler is inclined to read the inscription ONAIA; see Jahrbuch Arch. Inst. 1888, p. 204. 2 Others read the name of the artist, not as Surias, but as Dories, AOM E-S; see Furtwangler, Jahrbuch Arch. Inst. 1888, p. 196, and PI. 8, No. 1. This is a quite exceptional gem: almost no others occur with an artist's signature till the 4th century B.C., to which period the various signed gems found at Kertch evidently belong; see page 73. In the case of Greek coins, artists' signatures were not uncommon during the latter part of the 5th century B.C., but the greater number belong to the first half of the 4th century. On Roman coins artists' signatures are unknown. On Greek vases painters' names were most common during Signed the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., and till about the middle of the 4th century. After the time of Alexander artists' names on pottery soon totally disappear. Artists' Names On Coins. As some guide to forming a judgment with regard to signatures on gems it may be well to consider the somewhat analogous case of coins which bear the artist's signature. With very few exceptions, the coins on which artists' Signed names occur are those of Sicily and Magna Graecia during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., especially coins of Syracuse, Catana, Metapontum, Tarentum, Heraklaea, Velia, Thurium, Camarina and a few others. The great decadrachms of Syracuse, signed by Kimon and Euainetos, are among...