with pen-and-ink sketches by Albert Dürer, and the earliest works after
the invention of printing. Among these latter was a book published by
Faust and Schaeffer, at Mayence, in 1457. There were also Mexican
manuscripts written on the aloe leaf, and many illuminated monkish
volumes of the Middle Ages.

We were fortunate in seeing the Grüne Gewölbe, or Green Gallery, a
collection of jewels and costly articles unsurpassed in Europe. The
first hall into which we were ushered contained works in bronze. They
were all small, and chosen with regard to their artistical value. Some
by John of Bologna were exceedingly fine, as was also a group in iron
cut out of a single block, perhaps the only successful attempt in this
branch. The next room contained statues, and vases covered with reliefs
in ivory. The most remarkable work was the fall of Lucifer and his
angels, containing ninety-two figures in all, carved out of a single
piece of ivory sixteen inches high. It was the work of an Italian monk,
and cost him many years of hard labor. There were two tables of
mosaic-work that would not be out of place in the fabled halls of the
Eastern genii, so much did they exceed my former ideas of human skill.
The tops were of jasper, and each had a border of fruit and flowers in
which every color was represented by some precious stone, all with the
utmost delicacy and truth to nature. It is impossible to conceive the
splendid effect it produced. Besides some fine pictures on gold by
Raphael Mengs, there was a Madonna, the largest specimen of
enamel-painting in existence.

However costly the contents of these halls, they were only an
introduction to those which followed. Each one exceeded the other in
splendor and costliness. The walls were covered to the ceiling with rows
of goblets, vases, etc., of polished jasper, agate, and lapis lazuli.