LAPIDARY WORK. The lapidary is the skilled cutter, polisher and engraver of precious and semi-precious stones. his work was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who excelled in it, as the aglyptie art, which term is used to this day to express the work done on intaglios and cameos. In the case of pre cious stones intended for jewelry or adorn ment the ancients at first had to satisfy them selves with rounding off the edges and irregu larities of the crude stone and then polishing their surface. These rounded or pebble forms are known as ((en cabochon') and are still usual in our carbuncles. The method of facetting to bring about a greater brilliance from light re flections on the many-faced surface required too great an amount of grinding until better abrasives were discovered, and the hardest gem stones, as the ruby and diamond, had to wait till the great cutting power of diamond dust was learned. See GEMS.
The invention of lapidary work dates back far behind the days of civilization, in fact to the time when the mind of the savage found that hard stones would cut softer ones. And hence we have our earliest extant engraved stone work on steatite, serpentine, limestone, lapis, etc., all of which are easily cut with splinters of flint or other hard stones available to the savage. Many specimens of real art engraving on stone are extant from such early states of civilization, as those of Babylonia, Egypt, the lEgean Islands, etc. These early engravings were done in the production of seals; those of the Babylonians, early Egyptians and Assyrians assumed the form of a stone cylinder, the incised characters on which were impressed on soft clay by the simple process of rolling, the engraved devices appearing in relief on the clay. Later we find the Egyptians reduced the proportions of their stone seals to what we would now call signet size, soon to receive a bored hole threaded with leather, wire or other material so as to be hung por tably on the person. Later again the religiously venerated scarab beetle was carved on the obverse side of the signet by the lapidary. Soon the loop was reduced and used for the circlet of a finger ring—the embryo of the finger ring was therefore a signet.
As to the lapidar•'s technique in early days we know a little but, not much, though the amount of deductive conjecture written by ex perts would cover many pages. The dose examination of the surfaces of extant ancient examples affords fair evidence that sharp splinters of stone or chisels of metal were the tools used. The point rendered by a splinter of corundum set in some kind of handle could furnish the work we find done on the earliest pieces; in fact there are proofs that just be fore Roman times this tool was in use. Be
sides incising, however, we come across work impossible by such method. Here the drill was used to obtain the depth of cutting, the fre quent use of holes is evidenced under a magni fying glass, the lines showing the drill per foration deeper than the chipped-out depths done between to bring the connected holes into a line. This work was, no doubt, done with the very ancient bow-drill, the bit or drilling piece being pointed with a quartz or corundum end moistened with corundum powder and oil to create a cutting edge. Ancient specimens found on the island of Crete show us they used tubu lar drills, thus permitting, at a single process, the cutting of a ring or circle. It may be here stated that the Chinese, even the Maoris of New Zealand, still use the tube drill; the ancient Aztecs also used it. A great advance in lapi dary work was brought about by the later dis covery of the disc tool. By the 5th century s.c. the Greeks created marvelous stone engraving through the use of the revolving disc as an adjunct with the drill. The cutting power of a rapidly revolving disc edge is comparatively speedy and produces lines of mathematical accuracy and cleanness of incision. The pot ter's lathe dates back to very early civilization, with its motion produced by foot power on a large wheel or disc near the ground. Such a machine was, no doubt, used by the Greeks.
So far we have discussed only the produc tion of incising devices in negative below the surface, the design being brought about in relief by impressing on soft surfaces (seals); such work is termed It was prob ably about the 5th century B.C. when the creation of positive engraving on stone, known as (see &isms), was started. By this method a design in relief is brought about directly by cutting away the background and carving the subject in different depths as is done by the sculptor. The lapidaries producing intaglio work were known as cavatores or signarii by the Latins, and the workers in cameo were termed crlatores or scaiptores. Recent discoveries in the production of metals for cut ting tools and inventions in lathes and other machines for lapidary work have aided our artisans to quicker production, but their output will not compare in quality and perfection of art with the marvelous intaglios and cameos of the ancients, done with great patience and paucity of tools. Consult Pannier, L., (Les Lapidaires francais du Mayen Age' (Paris 1882) ; Claremont, L., The Gem Cutters' Craft' (London 1906); Natter, L., de la Mithode antique de graver en Pierres fines, compare avec la Methode moderne) (London 1754).