ty, rarity, or hardness." Cameos are usually
cut in onyx, the different layers and stratifications of colour
being cut away at different depths, so that the sculpture appears
to be rendered in one colour on another, and sometimes three or
four layers are recognized, so that a shaded effect is obtained.
Certain pearly shells are sometimes used for cameo cutting; these
were popular in Italy in the fifteenth century. In Greece and Rome
the art of cameo cutting was brought to astonishing perfection, the
sardonyx being frequently used, and often cut in five different
coloured layers. An enormous antique cameo, measuring over nine
inches across, may be seen in Vienna; it represents the Apotheosis
of Augustus, and the scene is cut in two rows of spirited figures.
It dates from the first century A. D. It is in dark brown and white.

Among the treasures of the art-loving Henry III. was a "great cameo,"
in a golden case; it was worth two hundred pounds. This cameo was
supposed to compete with a celebrated work at Ste. Chapelle in Paris,
which had been brought by Emperor Baldwin II. from Constantinople.

[Illustration: SARDONYX CUP, 11TH CENTURY, VENICE]

In Paris was a flourishing guild, the "Lapidaries, Jewel Cutters,
and Engravers of Cameos and Hard Stones," in the thirteenth century;
glass cutters were included in this body for a time, but after 1584
the revised laws did not permit of any imitative work, so glass
cutters were no longer allowed to join the society. The French work
was rather coarse compared with the classic examples.

The celebrated Portland Vase is a glass cameo, of enormous proportions,
and a work of the first century, in blue and white. There is a
quaint legend connected with the famous stone cameo known as the
Vase of St. Martin, which is as follows: when St. Martin visited
the Martyr's Field at Agaune, he prayed for some time, and then
stuck his knife into the ground, and was excusably astonished at
seeing blood flow forth. Recognizing at once that he was in the
presence of the miraculous (which was almost second nature to mediaeval
saints), he began sedulously to collect the precious fluid in a
couple of receptacles with which he had had the foresight to provide
himself. The two vases, however, were soon filled, and yet the
mystical ruby spring continued. At his wit's ends, he prayed again
for guidance, and presently an angel descended, with a vase of
fine cameo workmanship, in which the remainder of