  The coenaculum (dining-room), properly so called, was the place in the upper part of the house where they eat. The dining-room was commonly decorated with fasces of arms and trophies, The Emperor Nero, who carried this taste for the beautiful rather too far, devised a sort of vault, in the most elegant style, and entirely composed of movable leaves of ivory, which exhaled sweet DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XXV. No. 1. Large vase, or cratÈre; a vessel which was placed in the banqueting-room, and also on the empty space left on the tables. In it was put wine and water, which was taken out with a simpulum, a kind of small cup, fixed to a very long handle, bent at the extremity as a hook, to fill the cups of the guests. When the cratÈres were not fixed on tripods (engytheca, or angotheca), which supported them, they only differed from the cups by their size. Some were of such dimensions that Herodotus speaks of two cratÈres, one containing 300 amphorÆ, and the other 600; there vases commonly exceeded ten-fold the size of the cups, to which they were very similar in shape and handles. No. 2. A glass vase, with two handles, for iced water. No. 3. Glass bottle, with its cup, placed on the table for each guest. perfumes, and whence flowers fell on the guests. In another of his dining-rooms admiration was excited by a magnificent dome, the rotary movement of which imitated, day and night, the course of the celestial bodies. Studious people, or those who wished to appear so, covered some part of the dining-room with books; for it was a custom introduced into Rome to have recitations or readings during the repast. The Greeks yielded willingly to this intellectual pastime at the commencement of the banquet, whilst incense and other perfumes filled the room with a light vapour. Opposite the entrance-door stood a buffet, sometimes of iron, but more generally among the Greeks of sculptured wood, bronze, or silver, on which were represented the heads of oxen or satyrs. The buffet of the Romans,—a sort of sideboard, of rare workmanship,—was appropriated to the same use. DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XXVI. No. 1. A glass vase, with two handles. No. 2. A glass vase, with three handles. No. 3. Etruscan vase, with three handles, terra cotta. No. 4. A large silver vase, to hold wine and water; when placed on the table, the liquor was taken out with simpulum, to fill the drinking cups. No. 5. A large-bellied cantharus—“Herculaneum.” was replaced by a large urn, and two cups of Bacchus were gracefully balanced at either extremity of the yard, The buffet of the Greeks and Romans survived the ruins of those two celebrated nations; we find it again in the middle ages, and even in more modern times. Then also, rich people loved to display their plate on a very apparent piece of furniture, which, being dressed, took the name of “dresser.” Monstrelet, describing the magnificence of the Duke of Burgundy during his sojourn in Paris, relates: “that in the room of his mansion in which he eat was a square dresser (dressoir) with shelves, which dresser was covered and loaded with very rich gold and silver plate.” Sovereigns who affected great munificence had buffets of metal; there were three—one for silver, one for silver-gilt, and one for gold. At the banquet which the King of France, Charles V., gave to the Emperor Charles IV., his uncle, each of the three buffets was of the same metal as the plate it supported. After the birth of a child, ladies, when they received visits, had a dresser placed in their room. Those of countesses and great ladies had three shelves; those of the wives of the younger sons of baronets had two; women well-connected but not titled could have no shelf. Those who enjoyed the honours of the court placed by the side of the buffet a little table, covered with a white cloth, destined for the hippocrass and spiced wine they offered their visitors, The great lords also indulged in metal dressers, The Hebrews probably knew nothing of chimneys. When King Jehoiakim burned the book which Jeremiah had written, “he sat in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.” When, among the Greeks or Romans, they wanted to warm the They also made use of two kinds of stoves to warm the dining-room—the one was concealed under ground in the massive wall, and little pipes extended from its orifice to the apartment; the other, portative and light, disappeared whenever it was judged expedient. Among the pagans, the dining-room was lighted by torches made of a resinous wood, In the middle ages, the sovereigns and the great lords had, in the middle of their dining-rooms, fountains playing, which poured fourth wine, hippocrass, and other liquors. Some gave rose-water and divers odoriferous liquids to perfume the banqueting-hall. Rubruquis found in Tartary a Parisian goldsmith, Guillaume Boucher, who had settled under the sway of the Khan, and had made him one of those fountains. DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XXVI B. The Duke of Brunswick’s Vase.—This is one of the finest monuments we have yet seen, which has reference to the mysteries and sacrifices of Ceres and Bacchus. It is a precious vase, made of one single piece of onyx, from the cabinet of the Duke of Brunswick, and of the size represented in the engraving. It was published, and learnedly explained, in 1682, by Jean Henry Eggeling, and printed in the same year. This vase is of a singular form; has one handle, and on the other side a spout, which begins at the bottom, and finishes by a bend towards the top, to pour out the liquor. Eggeling believes that this vase is of the number of those the ancients called guttus, because the liquor came out drop by drop: he comes to that conclusion from a passage of Varro—“Quo vinum dabant, ut minutatim funderent, a guttis guttum appellarunt.” The vase is divided in three parts by two bands of gold, by which it is girdled: that of the middle, which forms the largest space, contains also a larger number of figures. The third diminishes towards the foot, and has figures also, all of which represent the mysteries and sacrifices of Ceres and Bacchus. The reader will probably feel interested how this vase came into the possession of the Duke of Brunswick. It was in the cabinet of the Duke of Mantua. When that city was taken and sacked, in 1629, a soldier, who had possession of the vase, offered it to Francis Albert, Duke of Lower Saxony, his commander, who gave him a hundred ducats as a reward. This prince left it by will to the Princess Christina Marguerite of Mecklenburg, his wife, who left it in the same way to her sister, the Princess Sophia, Duchess of Brunswick. She also gave it by will to her son, Ferdinand Albert, Duke of Brunswick. The lapidaries thought so much of it, that they offered, in turn, from sixty to ninety thousand imperials. In the inventory of the Princess Sophia it was valued at one hundred and fifty thousand imperials. The municipal bodies adopted them. At the entrance of Charles VII. into Paris, one of this kind was seen in the Rue St. Denis:—“One of the tubes spouted milk, another vermilion-coloured wine, another white wine, and another pure water; and persons stood all round with silver cups to give drink to the passers-by.” In the 17th century playing fountains were still used at repasts. |
|
