Worlidge, Thomas: A select collection of drawings from curious antique gems: most of them in the possession of the nobility and gentry of this kingdom ; etched after the manner of Rembrandt (London, 1768) [Cicognara, 3073-1]

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they were sometimes induced to ascribe them to other persons ; so that,
though the name might authenticate its antiquity, it might not serve to
identify the artist. At least, such a fast is related of Phidias, who is said,
in order to oblige Agoracrites his pupil, to have set his name to several
of his own performances.
This circumstance, it must: be confesTed, is lingular, and argues a
very extraordinary partiality in the m aster for his scholar; but admitting
it to be the only instance of the kind, certain it is, that there is a greater
facility in merely copying an artist's name or device, than his work; nor
can it be supposed, that any person who mould attempt the one, mould
scruple to effect the other.
Nothing, therefore, but an application to the study of the manners,
and an intimate acquaintance with the works of the ancients, can qualify
the connoisseur to determine with any degree of certainty of these valu-
able remains, about many of which the best judges must still entertain
a doubt.
As to the substances on which the ancients exercised this curious art,
the Greeks employed first the agate, the sardonyx, and the red cornelian.
In proportion as luxury increased, and the artists by success grew bolder,
they made use of the amethyst, beryl, and other precious stones, not
excepting even the emerald. After the invention of glass, also, by the
Phoenicians, the ancients made use of factitious stones; such was the
tion on a block of marble, encmsted over with a factitious stone, on which was engraven
another pompous one, in honour of the reigning prince; the external crust decaying in
a few years, and leaving the inscription in honour of the artist fair and indelible.
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