Each nation which in ancient times practised the glyptic art, produced a certain style or quality of execution. After serious study of the general subject of glyptology, one finds that the work of each epoch, and of each nationality, bears some unmistakable trait. These features we can almost always recognize as emanating from a certain people. So completely have we acquired an acquaintance with the various characteristics of each nation’s handiwork in engraving gems, that we are enabled also to discern the epoch; not to a year, but within a century or even a decade. In proportion to the rudeness of the incisions we recognize the barbaric condition of the people among whom they were incised; also in proportion to the fineness of the incision, beauty of conception, and execution of the design, do we estimate the civilization of the epoch and of the people. Some of the nations who have bequeathed us engraved gems were, in two respects, the first sculptors. They were first, not only because none of ability had preceded them, but rather were they first in art rank, and in excellence of conception; their execution has never been surpassed; their statues and high reliefs have never been equalled in modern times. Many of those colossal art works in stone have been transported to the Vatican, to France, England, Austria, Germany, Russia, some even to America; we are all conversant with them. Therefore, you can readily imagine how we define and classify the work of each epoch and nation, when a miscellaneous mass of engraved gems are placed before us for classification. [Illustration] EGYPT. Everyone in these days is familiar with those colossal stone figures of Rameses, Osiris, Thotmes, and others in the sands of Egypt. Their heavy, placid countenances, almost seeming to dream, while their inert arms and hands hold forth the insignia of autocrats of Egypt under the Pharaohs. In Egypt, especially in the earlier or more remote dynasties, man seems to have had the intention of handing down to posterity the records of his power, his possessions, and of his own appearance, on great stone statues, obelisks, and basso-rilievos, in the most indestructible manner. Besides the colossal stone bequests created for generations unborn, happily they produced the same portraitures and cartouches in miniature gems. The majority of the temple decorations in stone have crumbled, while we can possess and enjoy the glyptic relics which have survived the ravages of time uninjured. SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION. [Illustration: 467] [Illustration: 480 obverse.] [Illustration: 489 obverse.] [Illustration: 458] [Illustration: 480 reverse.] [Illustration: 489 reverse.] [Illustration: 456] EGYPTIAN.