Catalogue Of Coloured Chinese Porcelain Exhibited In 1896

The habit of collecting engraved gems for the sake of their beauty is known to have been occasionally indulged in by private individuals in ancient Greece, but no public collection of them appears to have been formed in that country with the view of educating the general taste. The nearest approach to anything of the kind was to be seen among the treasures dedicated in temples, such for example as in the Parthenon at Athens. The treasures of the Parthenon have perished, but several inventories of them exist, which, dating from about b.c. 400, contain numerous entries of gold and silver rings set with seals.

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