The Industrial Arts in Spain With Numerous Woodcuts: South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks

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by Juan F. Riaño

GOLD AND SILVER WORK.

THE Greek and Latin authors who have described the Spanish Peninsula, state that the quantity of gold and silver ore found there was very great, and that hence the district became an important centre of commercial activity of Phœnicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans. Some authors have gone so far as to assert that the Phœnicians made the anchors of their ships of gold and silver, and that the Carthaginians were astonished to find in Andalusia, that the mangers and vases for holding wine and oil were made of the same materials. These references have been constantly mentioned in ancient Spanish authors. Ambrosio de Morales, in his "Antiguedades de España," Alcala 1577, enters into every detail on this subject.

I have seen a specimen of this period, a bowl of an earlier and different style to Roman silversmiths' work, which belongs to a collector in the province of Cordova. This bowl is of a conical shape: it is perfectly plain, and has an inscription in Iberian characters engraved on one of its sides: there are signs outside and at the bottom which indicate that this bowl was made on the wheel. Velazquez in his "Ensayo sobre las letras desconocidas," Madrid, 1752, describes a silver bowl of a similar kind, which was found in Andalusia in 1618 full of Iberian coins: this bowl weighed ten ounces. Several ornaments, chiefly consisting of necklaces and earrings, may be studied at the Academy of History, and private collections, in Madrid; they have been classified by antiquarians as belonging to this uncertain period, and are similar in style to others which have been frequently found in England and the north of Europe. The most interesting objects of this kind which I have seen in Spain, are gold ornaments proceeding from Galicia; they were found there by Sr. Villaamil, who gave a description of them in the "Museo Español de Antiguedades," vol. iii. p. 545.

The information and remains which have reached us illustrating silver and gold work of the Roman domination are more important; we find, however, in this and similar artistic industries that, as a general rule, the Romans imposed their style and system on the inhabitants of the countries which they conquered, and it is not easy to point out any one example which can be given as an exception to this general rule. It is, undoubtedly, a fact that objects of all kinds in gold and silver were used in Spain to a very great extent—for, notwithstanding the destruction of ages, we still possess inscriptions which allude to silver statues, and a large number of objects in the precious metals exist in museums and private collections. See "Inscrip. Hisp. lat.," by Dr. Emile Hübner, Berlin, 1869. Of these it will be sufficient to mention one of the most important. It is known in the province of Santander by the name of the dish of Otañez; and belongs to a gentleman who lives in that locality. It was found at Otañez at the end of the last century, buried in a stone quarry. This dish is made of silver, it weighs thirty-three ounces, and is covered with an ornamentation of figures in relief, some of which are gilt, representing an allegorical subject of the source of medicinal waters. In the upper part is a nymph who pours water from an urn over rocks; a youth collects it in a vessel; another gives a cup of it to a sick man; another fills with it a barrel which is placed in a four-wheeled car to which are yoked two mules. On each side of the fountain are altars on which sacrifices and libations are offered. Round it is the inscription: SALVS. VMERITANA, and at the back is engraved, in confused characters, the words: L. P. CORNELIANI. PIII.

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