Nos. 382-386. Buttons of Wood, covered with plates of gold, highly ornamented. Sepulchre IV. Actual size.
WONDERFUL CROSS-BUTTONS.
There were further found with the five bodies of the fourth sepulchre twelve buttons of wood, in the form of crosses, plated with gold, which present a most magnificent ornamentation of intaglio and repoussé work (see Nos. 377-386).[329] The largest of them (No. 377) is a little more than 3½ in. in length and is 2⅛ in. broad. The most curious thing is, that all the wooden buttons present exactly the same beautiful ornamentation as the gold plate which covers them, as can be seen on the aforesaid large button in the place where part of the gold plate is missing. The question, therefore, naturally arises, in what manner this effect can have been produced. On mature reflection, we arrive at the conviction that it cannot possibly have been done in any other way than the following. The pieces of wood were first shaped, and on them was carefully and artistically carved in low-relief all the ornamentation which we now see on the gold plate in repoussé work. After that, the wooden buttons were covered with the gold plate, which, having been well attached on the reverse side, was hammered on the buttons, and in this manner the low-relief ornamentation of the wood was reproduced in the gold plate. When this had been done, the intaglio work was made in the gold plate, which being very thin, all the cuts were at once impressed as deeply into the wood as into the gold. I think this is the only way to explain this wonderful work.
The form of all these cross buttons is that of a lozenge; nine of them being ornamented at each acute, as well as at each obtuse angle, with two protruding globular pieces, each of which has four concentric circles in intaglio. Only two of the cross buttons (Nos. 382 and 384) have on each acute angle three such protruding globular pieces, and one (No. 380) has three of them at all four corners. The button (No. 378) has, in its interior lozenge, a broad border, adorned with thirty-two beautiful little crosses, each of which has a point in the centre, and within this border, two spirals in the form of an Omega, which stand opposite each other, and are crowned with branches, apparently, of a date tree; to the right and left are small rosettes. On the large button (No. 377), the border of the interior lozenge is filled all round with small circles in intaglio, and within we see in the middle a double circle, filled with a spiral ornamentation, likewise in intaglio, and on each side of the circle a spiral, in the form of an Omega, and some smaller spirals and signs, all in repoussé work. No. 379 has simply a border of two lines, within which is a circle with a spiral ornamentation, and in each acute angle a spiral in the form of an Omega. On this button only the last-named spiral is repoussé, the rest is intaglio. Still more simple is the ornamentation of No. 381, in which the border consists also of two lines, and the internal space is filled by two signs in form of Omegas, and by four small flowers, which latter alone appear to be repoussé, the rest intaglio work. The button (No. 380) has no border; the whole space is filled by concentric circles in intaglio, with only two or three small ornaments in repoussé.
On the other hand, on the button (No. 382) all the ornamentation is produced by repoussé work; even to the border line of the interior lozenge, within which we see a circle filled with small ones, and above and below it a curious sign, which is very frequent on the Trojan whorls. On the large button (No. 383) we again see a border filled with twenty-eight crosses, and in the interior lozenge, in the middle, a double circle, a 卍 with curved arms, in each of which, as well as in the centre, is a point to mark the nails by which the two pieces of wood for the production of the sacred fire were fastened. The two acute angles are here again filled up with the same sign which we noticed on the preceding figure. The border with the crosses is of repoussé work; the circle, with the 卍, of intaglio.
In the figure No. 384, the border of the interior lozenge is ornamented with horizontal strokes; in the interior we see, in the middle, two spirals like Omegas, standing opposite each other, and in each acute angle a small ornament, perhaps a flower; the latter and the border are here the only work in repoussé, the remainder being intaglio. The button (No. 386) has an identical ornamentation of two spirals which stand opposite each other, and resemble Omegas. Finally, the large button (No. 385) has a broad border filled with twenty-eight small circles in repoussé work, and of the same work is also the small encircled cross in each acute angle, whilst the large circle with the
