Catalogue of the Collection of Antique Gems Formed by James, Ninth Earl of Southesk, Volume 1B. Quaritch, 1908 - Gems |
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Common terms and phrases
Abraxas Agate ancient Anubis Aphrodite Assyrian Athens bearded bearing beneath brow bull bust cameo carnelian Chalcedony chipped chlamys Chnuphis coiled collection crescent curved deity downward draped drapery Egyptian engraved Etruscan exergue female field fore-legs Furtw Gnost Gnostic goddess Gold holder Gold ring Gold swivel Greek Green Jasper gryphon Hæmatite hair in diadem Harpocrates head in profile helmet Herakles hind-legs holding horizontal inscription intaglio Isis King knee left arm left hand left leg lion lion-headed milled border Mithraic Mithras Montigny Coll MYSTIC VASE neck nude Onyx Phoenician Phrygian cap Plate present gem Professor Furtwängler Red Jasper reverse right arm right hand raised Roman round Sapphirine Sard Sardonyx scarab scaraboid seated serpent Short Coll shoulder Silver swivel Sotheby's specimen standing stone style symbol tail talismanic thyrsus tunic Tyszkiewicz upright W. L. Nashe wings workmanship
Popular passages
Page 184 - Darkness, when the wreath is offered to him (a sword being placed between as if in semblance of martyrdom) and then about to be set on his head, he is warned to put forth his hand and push the wreath away, transferring it to, perchance, his shoulder, saying at the same time, My only crown is Mithras.
Page 172 - Rameses, Who gives joy to the region of Heliopolis, When it beholds the radiance of the solar mountain. He who does this is the Lord of the world, The Pharaoh, guardian of justice, Approved of the sun, son of...
Page 185 - There is a talisman, which, from its frequent repetition, would seem to be a badge of some particular degree amongst the initiated, perhaps of the first admission. A man, blindfolded, with hands tied behind his back, is bound to a pillar, on which stands a gryphon holding a wheel ; the latter a most ancient emblem of the sun.
Page 194 - King" ; and also for the " South." The Lizard, which was believed to conceive through the ear, and to bring forth through the mouth, is the type of the generation of the Word, that is, the Logos, or Divine Wisdom.
Page 34 - ... position of the womb — the navel being considered in the microcosm as corresponding to the sun in the universe, an idea more fully exemplified in the famous hallucination of the Greek anchorites touching the mystical
Page 78 - Museum is a small seal tablet, of beautiful yellow jasper, carrying on one side a hollow backed horse ; on the obverse is a bull standing at rest, with the cartouche of Amenophis II. (1450 BC). Black jasper, an extremely fine, close-grained substance, and perfectly opaque, Mr. King tells us, has been employed by the Greeks, as the material for some of their finest intagli ; for example, the fragment of the head of the dying Medusa (Praun collection). A seated sphinx, a Greek work, in this stone is...
Page 179 - Abram here means the Seir-Ampin, the Primitive Man of the Kabbalists, made up of 243 members, the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the name.
Page 189 - The sacred names lao and Sabao were at las degraded into mere charms for making fish come into the net. The mediaeval doctors read lao as Aio, and construing it as representing the sound of the peacock's cry, promised wonderful effects from a stone engraved with the bird, having a sea turtle below, and the word inscribed in the field."— King, ' Gnostic*,
Page 118 - No. 28). 549. — Intaglio on amethyst ; portrait of a lady to the left. A work probably of the second century. An Arundel gem (Cat. Thee. A, No. 24), called Crispina. 550. — Intaglio head on a red jasper to the left, of a lady with head-dress similar to one of those among the Cyrene marbles at the British Museum. Probably of the Antonine period.
Page 37 - Athene Promachos encouraging the Greeks to the attack. The most spirited intaglio in the mature Greek style known to me. Sard. (Hertz.) 4. Diomede stealing the Palladium. The slain guardian lies at the foot of the altar. Onyx. (Beverley.) 5. The jealous Minerva transforming her rival Arachne into a spider.