MR. URBAN,

London, June 18.

BY one of those chance occasions that sometimes occur with regard to objects of art, I picked up last summer a collection of the rare works of the Italian goldsmiths of the 15th century, called Nielli; valuable in themselves as beautiful objects, and curious, from their being the medium of the accidental discovery of engraving on copper for the purpose of printing from, and thereby disseminating engravings of the works of the great painters; in short, practical engraving.

Nielli are not unknown to connoisseurs in this country, and I may instance the splendid and unique collection of the late Sir Mark Sykes, which was sold by auction in London in 1824; but they are so little known to the public, that you will perhaps allow me to state some few particulars on the subject. Nielli, then, are designs for the most part scriptural, pagan, or arabesque, engraved on silver, varying in substance, according to the purposes the Nielli were severally intended for, and the portions taken out by the graver were afterwards most commonly, but not always, filled with black enamel, called by the Italians niello, from which comes their name.

The text-book on the subject is the work of the elder Duchesne, the learned curator of the engravings in the Royal Library, Paris; his Essai sur les Nielles, is an 8vo. Volume, printed at Paris in 1826, after the sale of the collection of Sir Mark Sykes: in this work, he gives not merely a bare catalogue, but, con amore, a catalogue raisonné of all the Nielli that were then known to him, in Italy, Germany, and England, as well as in France, comprising all known collections, both private as well as public. He enumerates not only the Nielli in their original silver states, but also the impressions from them in sulphur up to the time of Finiguerra, and on paper since the discovery hereafter noticed by that great artist, taken by the artists themselves, and of the period; they being one and all now called by the general name of Nielli. The Nielli in paper are by far the most numerous and best known; the origin silver, mostly remaininc next in point of

number; and the sulphurs the most scarce. Of the sulphurs he enumerates but 23, and of the silver 165; the rest of the 428 known to him, are consequently in paper.

In the Royal Library at Paris they are not so fortunate to possess a Niello in silver; but, notwithstanding, the collection is rich there, as they possess 75 in paper, and a suite of 12 in sulphur, comprising the life and passion of our Saviour, purchased at the sale of Sir Mark Sykes in 1824, for 554 guineas. (See Duchesne, p. 161.)

The collection in the British Museum has been made from other collections since the work of Duchesne in 1826, and is but poor; it has one indifferent Niello in silver, some few in paper, and one in sulphur; this sulphur, however, which the late Duke of Buckingham possessed, and for which he gave £250, is a singular curiosity, as it is an impression from the finest and largest Niello known-that in the Museum of Florence-the Pax of Masso Finiguerra, the identical work by which that artist discovered in 1452 the fact, that Nielli, previously to being filled in with enamel, would yield impressions of their designs with fidelity to paper; the great discovery I have before alluded to, that ultimately led to practical copper-plate engraving.

The works of the Niellists did not cease however on this discovery, nor for some time after. This is evident from the number and variety of those, especially in paper, that have survived the accidents of time, since Finiguerra made the first impress on paper* from metal, as well as the sulphur before mentioned from his celebrated pax at Florence, to serve him merely as recollections of his work, as the sulphurs previously, and the paper Nielli subsequently, were for the same purpose alone, taken by the artists themselves; moreover Duchesne, at p. 30, quoting Cellini, states that Nielli were executed so late as 1515; and at pp. 225 and 226, he particularly mentions in his catalogue a fine one of the Galatea after Raphael, done by Marc Antonio, a proof of the correctness of Cellini.

*Now existing among those in the collection of the Royal Library at Paris.

premacy. In more modern times the arms carved and painted are made to surmount the chancel screen, an undoubted abuse, which has been copied in Spitalfields Church, and carried to a still greater extent in one or more of the city churches, where the arms are most indecently placed over the altar itself. In Wren's churches the royal arms of the monarch in whose reign the buildings were completed, are placed in some conspicuous situation, but never at the altar: the greatest of our modern ecclesiastical architects never would have allowed or sanctioned so gross a breach of propriety. I think few who have inspected the city churches, will fail to arrive at the conclusion that in the setting up of these arms the sole object of Wren was to shew, in accordance with the ancient practice, a mark of respect and dutiful loyalty to the reigning sovereign. I beg to offer these remarks in answer to your correspondent CLERIcus, in April Magazine, p. 338.

Yours, &c. E. I. C.

MR. URBAN, Bitton, June 10. I HAVE been waiting with interest and expectation, to see some reply to the enquiry of CLERICUS (Min. Corr. April 1841), as to the existence of some old law requiring the Sovereign's Arms to be set up in Churches. The extract from the document at Lambeth in your number for this month is very interesting, as furnishing an authority for the long establishment of the custom, though it fails as a proof of the existence of any law on the subject of the Royal Arms. The passage from an old book which I now send you, can make no higher pretensions, indeed; but it will be found to be of importance as a proof of the practice at a still earlier date than that which the Lambeth document bears. And there does, I think, appear to be a reference to some law or ordinance or injunction on the matter, in the commencement of the concluding sentence. There can be little doubt that the

royal arms were introduced into churches at the Reformation, when the King's supremacy was asserted in the place of the usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome. Some of your readers may possibly have seen some emblazonries of the bearings of Henry VIII. though it is most probable that they would have been destroyed by Mary. I have myself seen emblazon. ries of the Arms of Queen Elizabeth.

Yours, &c. H. T. E.

"Arms of Elizabeth Regina," [here follows a description of the emblazonry.] "Thus, who readinge, and marking the order of the Blazon of the said most Noble in any Church, Castle, or other place, Armes, and seeing the same afterwarde but by and by he will know the same,

and remember the reverence thereunto due, and not that onely, but will break out, and say, God save the Queene, God save her Grace. Which woordes so saide, and hearde of others, bringeth all the hearers in remembrance of their obediecen, and dutie to her, being our Most lawful Prince and Governor. And these Armes are of all men livinge under her and her Lawes, and within all her Dominions, to be extolled, and set up in the highest place of our Churches, Houses and

Mansions, above all other estates and degrees whosoever they be. And this example of our Soveraignes Armes, I first put forthe, as principally above all others to be knowne, for the causes aforesaide."*-Worke of Armorie, by John Boswell, Gent. Anno Dni. 1572. 4to.

London, June 18.

MR. URBAN, BY one of those chance occasions that sometimes occur with regard to objects of art, I picked up last summer a collection of the rare works of the Italian goldsmiths of the 15th century, called Nielli; valuable in themselves as beautiful objects, and curious, from their being the medium of the accidental discovery of engraving on copper for the purpose of printing from, and thereby disseminating engravings of the works of the great painters; in short, practical engraving.

Nielli are not unknown to connoisseurs in this country, and I may instance the splendid and unique collection of the late Sir Mark Sykes, which was sold by auction in London in 1824; but they are so little known to the public, that you will perhaps allow me to state some few particulars on the subject. Nielli, then, are designs for the most part scriptural, pagan, or arabesque, engraved on silver, varying in substance, according to the purposes the Nielli were severally intended for, and the portions taken out by the graver were afterwards most commonly, but not always, filled with black enamel, called by the Italians niello, from which comes their name.

The text-book on the subject is the work of the elder Duchesne, the learned curator of the engravings in the Royal Library, Paris; his Essai sur les Nielles, is an 8vo. Volume, printed at Paris in 1826, after the sale of the collection of Sir Mark Sykes: in this work, he gives not merely a bare catalogue, but, con amore, a catalogue raisonné of all the Nielli that were then known to him, in Italy, Germany, and England, as well as in France, comprising all known collections, both private as well as public. He enumerates not only the Nielli in their original silver states, but also the impressions from them in sulphur up to the time of Finiguerra, and on paper since the discovery hereafter noticed by that great artist, taken by the artists themselves, and of the period; they being one and all now called by the general name of Nielli. The Nielli in paper are by far the most numerous and best known; the originals in silver, mostly remaining in Italy, are next in point of

number; and the sulphurs the most scarce. Of the sulphurs he enumerates but 23, and of the silver 165; the rest of the 428 known to him, are consequently in paper.

In the Royal Library at Paris they are not so fortunate to possess a Niello in silver; but, notwithstanding, the collection is rich there, as they possess 75 in paper, and a suite of 12 in sulphur, comprising the life and passion of our Saviour, purchased at the sale of Sir Mark Sykes in 1824, for 554 guineas. (See Duchesne, p. 161.)

The collection in the British Museum has been made from other collections since the work of Duchesne in 1826, and is but poor; it has one indifferent Niello in silver, some few in paper, and one in sulphur; this sulphur, however, which the late Duke of Buckingham possessed, and for which he gave £250, is a singular curiosity, as it is an impression from the finest and largest Niello known-that in the Museum of Florence-the Pax of Masso Finiguerra, the identical work by which that artist discovered in 1452 the fact, that Nielli, previously to being filled in with enamel, would yield impressions of their designs with fidelity to paper; the great discovery I have before alluded to, that ultimately led to practical copper-plate engraving.

The works of the Niellists did not cease however on this discovery, nor for some time after. This is evident from the number and variety of those, especially in paper, that have survived the accidents of time, since Finiguerra made the first impress on paper* from metal, as well as the sulphur before mentioned from his celebrated pax at Florence, to serve him merely as recollections of his work, as the sulphurs previously, and the paper Nielli subsequently, were for the same purpose alone, taken by the artists themselves; moreover Duchesne, at p. 30, quoting Cellini, states that Nielli were executed so late as 1515; and at pp. 225 and 226, he particularly mentions in his catalogue a fine one of the Galatea after Raphael, done by Marc Antonio, a proof of the correctness of Cellini.

Now existing among those in the collection of the Royal Library at Paris.

Duchesne, from p. 84 to p. 90, gives some indications by which to distinguish these objects; stating, that the largest do not exceed four inches, and for the most part they are of smaller dimensions; that the grounds are generally black, although not always so; that an inscription on a Paper Niello, in the body of the work, should read from right to left in short, the general rules as regards a Niello in silver, appear to me to be, that it should be of the period, coupled with a self-evident proof that it was made as an object of art for itself, and not destined for the purpose of printing engravings from, or, to use his own more comprehensive and authoritative words, "qu'elle n'était pas destinée à fournir des Epreuves:" see also his Table générale des Matières, p. 373, for a list of those with a white ground.

Duchesne, at p. 24, quoting preceding authors, gives a list of the articles for which works in Niello were made to ornament; from the substantial sword-handle, similar to that, the solitary Niello in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, to the more delicate inlayings by compartments, of the ebony cabinets, which in Italy, according to the wealth of the husband, he states, were destined as marriage presents to the wife: but it is very singular, that, although he specifies thus particularly these ebony cabinets and their uses, yet, in his catalogue, not one does he describe; and it is clear he knows only that they have existed: doubtless, the series of 12 medallions with the life of our Saviour above mentioned, together with those with the History of Adam in sulphur,-and of Abraham in paper, described by him from p. 129 to p. 135 in his work, were confirmatory to him, of the statement of the authors he quotes.

Some of the extraordinary prices paid for these small objects of art, measuring merely inches and portions of an inch, beautiful though they certainly are, have already been incidentally cited. Duchesne in a note, at p. 114, is of opinion, that the original silver at the Museum of Florence, of the sulphur Niello now in the British Museum, would have sold at the time he wrote, for more

than twice the value of the sulphur, which had then, he writes, been sold for 2500 francs :-a mistake, for it had when he wrote, as he previously states, been sold to the Duke of Buckingham for £250, which is 6,000 francs : again, a Niello in paper, smaller than the Pax at Florence, or that in paper in the collection of the Archduke Charles at Vienna, has sold for 300 guineas: and a smaller one in silver, 3 inches by 2 inches, has sold for 315 guineas.

Having thus, with your permission, stated these particulars, you and your readers will now be the better enabled to appreciate my discovery and purchase, scarcely less extraordinary, after the general ransacking of the last half century, than would be the picking up a pendant to the Transfiguration of Raphael, by a similar hazard; no less than three of these ebony cabinets, inlaid with silver Nielli in their original states, which, as I have before stated, were quite unknown to have been spared by time, even to Duchesne.

The collection 1 have, consists altogether of 33 original Nielli in silver, 28 inlaid in the cabinets, the compliment being 5 by Marc Antonio in a book bound in silver in original state, brought from a convent near Ancona : forming, if I may rely on the work of the learned Duchesne, the largest and finest collection, of these most scarce works, that is yet known in the world; all of them too, of the most delicate kind, made to be regarded by the eye, and not of that more substantial sort, made for use and handling, of which the great majority of those in silver preserved, saved from their little, or non use, consists.

The cabinets or caskets, covered with an age of dirt, were said to have formed part of a consignment, of the clearing out of cinque-cento chairs, picture frames, and furniture, from a palace at Venice; and curious enough, at the same time, I bought a Florentine cabinet in Pietra dura, on the door of which is a representation of a palace at Venice, which may, or may not be, the palace, from whence the Nielli were sold and ejected, as so much antique rubbish, to feed the auction rooms in London.

I am expecting shortly the arrival

MR. URBAN,

Norfolk, May 18. YOUR correspondent ROUGedraGON, in his notice of the family of Archbishop Sancroft, contained in your May number, does not seem to be aware of the pedigree contained in Doyly's Life of that eminent Prelate, compiled from authentic documents in the hands of the representatives of the family, and by which the descent of the Archbishop is deduced from William de Sandcrofte, who was living temp. Hen. III. It is there stated that by a charter without date about the time of Hen. III. or Edw. I. Adam le Bavent, (not Wavent), son of Roger le Bavent, granted lands in Fressingfield, in the hamlet of Chepenhall, to Henry, son of William de Sandcrofte, and Margery his wife. If this was only a confirmation of an earlier grant made by the deed referred to by Mr. King, perhaps he would have the kindness to favour me with an extract from the abstract of it to which he alludes.

I subjoin a continuation of Doyly's

I cannot conclude without offering my thanks to Monsieur Duchesne, from whose interesting work, aided by seeing other collections, I have gathered all I know on the subject; and also to Mr. Dominic Colnaghi, for the present of the work of Duchesne, which he most kindly gave me, on my first acquiring my collection.

Yours, &c. S. P. Cox,

pedigree, shewing the lineal descent from Thomas Sancroft the elder, and, I believe, only brother of the Archbishop; but it is not improbable that there were descendants of his uncle Dr. William Sancroft, Master of Emmanuel, who has doubtless been confounded with the Archbishop, and from whom the James Sancroft of Yarmouth, whose obituary has called forth Mr. King's communication, may have been descended. That there were other branches of the family is certain; and by a deed dated in 1703, by which William Sancroft, in compliance with a request of the late Archbishop, granted a rent-charge out of lands in Fressingfield, for the benefit of the poor of that parish, a Mr. Charles Sancroft is, with Thomas Sancroft and others, constituted a trustee. This Charles Sancroft was a linen-draper in London, and living in 1735, which is all I able to state respecting him.