Page 60

60                  The Slumber of Modern Goldsmiths. 
cott is busying in the sculpture court. Above the galleries, it is curious
to 
note the infinite variety of cases in progress for goldsmiths' work, pottery,
glass, &c. A few days will, doubtless, see the goods themselves displayed.
All this goes on amid the perpetual din of workmen and occasional roar- 
ings of Mr. Willis's great organ, said to be the largest in England, which
now 
and then tries its lungs to get them   in order, no doubt, for the National
Anthem on the 1st of May, which will peal forth to welcome our Queen to her
Crystal Palace. Our correspondent goes on to say, "Call it what you
will, 
with its admirers entitled the World's Fair! the Temple of Peace! the Crystal
Palace ! the Alhambra of Commerce ! the Palace of Industry! or with its de-
tractors sink these appellations, and substitute those of the Great Green-house
or the Great Glazed Railway Station'; yet we defy any Briton, with his heart
in the right place, to enter and walk through the edifice for the first time,
even 
in its present state of incompleteness, without feeling proud that we were
the 
first nation to do all this, and that the future annals of the world will
have to 
record that England first stepped forward to welcome all nations to her shore,
and to provide such a reception for them and their works of industry. We
doubt not that by the 1st of May the promises will be realised, and the great
mental feast ready for the thousands of guests eager to partake of it."
THE SLUMBER OF MODERN GOLDSMITHS. 
IT is a singular fact, that while every one of any respectable education
is 
familiar with the name and merits of Benvenuto Cellini, and discourses fluently
on the wonders of his handicraft, so little should be popularly known of
his pro- 
ductions in art, or of the processes by which they were elaborated. This
Nefi- 
ciency of precise information in the matter of his works may be readily ac-
counted for by their comparative rarity; but, in the case of the processes,
it 
is somewhat remarkable, since the artist, in his celebrated Treatise on Gold-
smiths' Work, has'revealed every mystery of his craft, and drawn up that
curtain of the marvellous which he had himself, in his Autobiography, cast
over 
every action and proceeding of his life. One would have imagined that no
goldsmith, jealous and zealous for the advancement Of his "craft and
mystery," 
would have failed, aS a first step to success in life, to have studied deeply
the 
"wise saws," sound advice, and pithy preepts, afforded to him in
the wrtings 
of the man whose name rises first to his lips, when it suits his purpose
to 
boast to the world of the great artists who have condescended to work at
the 
goldsmiths table. And yet we very much doubt whether one out of fifty 
of the very respectable jewellers of the day, men probably worth more money
than Cellini ever boasted of having spent, could tell the nature of the contents
of the celebrated "Trattato dell' Oreficeria." 
The only inference to be drawn from this circumstance is, either, that there
is nothing worth reading or knowing in Benvenuto's treatise, or that some
of 
the parties whom it may most concern are fast asleep. Now, as we have 
every reason to believe that there is much most pleasant and profitable matter
concealed beneath the great Florentine's pomposity of style, so we cannot
well 
help throwing ourselves on the latter horn of the dilemma, and concluding
that a somewhat unhappy listlessness is the spell which binds many a "sleep-
ing beauty" we would fain recall to life and activity. 
The Exhibition of 1851 will, perhaps, develope energies and capabilities
hitherto unrecked of; but even if it should prove that our insinuations as
to 
the influence exercised by the drowsy god over the workers in the precious
metals are vile calumniations, it will not be able to shew any sufficient
reason 
why it should be necessary to send to Paris to get a piece of fine enamelling
done, when a few hours' reading would reveal to any one anxious to cultivate
the art the exact practice followed by Benvenuto, and the precise rules for
the 
tender manipulation of the graceful Caradosso. 
The question naturally presents itself, why has not Cellini's treatise been
translated ? Its pleasant, gossipy, pragmatical style alone would render
it