the exotic work of his day in England. "Rachel at a well, under
an imitative palm tree," he remarks, "draws, not water, but ink;
a grotto of oyster shells with children beside it, contains... an
ink vessel; the milk pail on a maiden's head contains, not goat's
milk, as the animal by her side would lead you to suppose, but a
taper!"

One great secret of good design in metal is to avoid imitating
fragile things in a strong material. The stalk of a flower or leaf,
for instance, if made to do duty in silver to support a heavy cup or
vase, is a very disagreeable thing to contemplate; if the article
were really what it represented, it would break under the strain.
While there should be no deliberate perversion of Nature's forms,
there should be no naturalistic imitation.




CHAPTER II

JEWELRY AND PRECIOUS STONES

We are told that the word "jewel" has come by degrees from Latin,
through French, to its present form; it commenced as a "gaudium"
(joy), and progressed through "jouel" and "joyau" to the familiar
word, as we have it.

The first objects to be made in the form of personal adornment were
necklaces: this may be easily understood, for in certain savage
lands the necklace formed, and still forms, the chief feature in