Excerpt from Handbook of Engraved Gems

My 'Antique Gems and Rings' is now out of print, and will not be republished. During the interval since its appearance, so much additional information has flowed in upon me, more particularly from the Oriental quarter, that I should not be satisfied with another edition of that work, unless the great stock of fresh materials which I have collected should be incorporated, and also large additions made - a long and laborious undertaking for which present circumstances have rendered me totally unfit. But as the Publishers are contemplating a fresh edition of my smaller Treatise upon the same subject, a way seems opened out to me of carrying knowledge forward (at least in some degree) towards the point at which I have myself arrived. The chief utility of a Treatise of this nature lies in its bringing under the eye of the student the largest possible number of examples that shall illustrate the rules laid down in the text, and for this purpose I have selected the most important gems from amongst those figured in the previous edition of the two books. Interspersed with these will be found newly executed engravings of curious and unpublished types, which recent discoveries have brought within my reach. These additions have afforded me an opportunity of leading the reader, with little trouble, into "fresh fields and pastures new." This plan, besides the being more simple and expeditious than that of blending the new matter with the original text, has the advantage of bringing it more prominently under the student's notice, because the "Description of the Plates" usually finds more readers than any other part of the volume. Of these new lights, the most novel, and to my mind the most interesting, are the series of Roman-British Signets, for what curious thoughts do they not stir up through their connexion with the earliest history of our country? and of such memorials the kindness of friends has enabled mo to exhibit a much larger array than I had hoped, on first attempting their collection for the present purpose.

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