CHAP. 49. (11.)—INSTANCES OF LUXURY IN SILVER PLATE.
The caprice of the human mind is marvellously exemplified
in the varying fashions of silver plate; the work of no individual
manufactory being for any long time in vogue. At one
period, the Furnian plate, at another the Clodian, and at
another the Gratian,[1] is all the rage—for we borrow the shop
even at our tables.[2]—Now again, it is embossed plate[3] that
we are in search of, and silver deeply chiselled around the
marginal lines of the figures painted[4] upon it; and now we are
building up on our sideboards fresh tiers[5] of tables for supporting
the various dishes. Other articles of plate we nicely
pare away,[6] it being an object that the file may remove as
much of the metal as possible.
We find the orator Calvus complaining that the saucepans
are made of silver; but it has been left for us to invent a plan
of covering our very carriages[7] with chased silver, and it was
in our own age that Poppæa, the wife of the Emperor Nero,
ordered her favourite mules to be shod even with gold!
1. So called from the silversmiths who respectively introduced them.
The Gratian plate is mentioned by Martial, B. iv. Epigr. 39.
2. "Etenim tabernas mensis adoptamus."
3. "Anaglypta." Plate chased in relief. It is mentioned in the Epigram
of Martial above referred to.
4. "Asperitatemque exciso circa liniarum picturas,"—a passage, the
obscurity of which, as Littré remarks, seems to set translation at defiance.
5. He alludes, probably to tiers of shelves on the beaufets or sideboards
—"repositoria"—similar to those used for the display of plate in the
middle ages. Petronius Arbiter speaks of a round "repositorium,"
which seems to have borne a considerable resemblance to our "dumb
waiters." The "repositoria" here alluded to by Pliny were probably
made of silver.
6. "Interradimus."
7. "Carrucæ." The "carruca" was a carriage, the name of which
only occurs under the emperors, the present being the first mention of it.
It had four wheels and was used in travelling, like the "carpentum."
Martial, B. iii. Epig. 47, uses the word as synonymous with "rheda."
Alexander Severus allowed the senators to have them plated with silver.
The name is of Celtic origin, and is the basis of the mediæval word "carucate,"
and the French carrosse.