A VISIT TO THE MINT—PISTRUCCPS WORKSHOP. IN our character of
Spectator, we leave no sight of interest unseen, no " Yarrow unvisited;" and if we have not always recorded what we have seen, it has been for want of space. As we do not intend to compete with the " Picture of London" in giving
a full, true, alid particular account of the Mint, we shall beg of the reader to step with us into a wherry at Waterloo Bridge, and participate in the very ordinary reflections that crossed our mind as we passed through the mouldering arches of Blackfriars ; where we thought of the kindred condi- tion of poor old Westminster, whose foundations •prove to be as rotten as any of the boroughs that send representatives to the great assembly at St. Stephens. As we approached the light and elegant bridge that now spans gracefully the Thames, we could not help thinking that Mr. REINAGLE, in his lecture at the London Institution upon the " Oval"—not that of Kennington—might have aptly illustrated his fine-spun argument by in- stancing the elliptic curve of these arches, a striking contrast in their beau- tiful simplicity to the Gothic porches of its ancient neighbour. Then we thought of the witty and philosophic poem of Bu RN'S, " The Brigs of Ayr," and how a inodern moralist and satirist might adopt that as the type of some dialogue between the " Auld Brig and New Brig" of London. Then, as we were " shooting the bridge" in desperate wherry, we naturally thought how soon that crazy structure, sinking snider the weight of associations and the pressure of broad-wheeled lVilggOnS, ShOUld lie " shot" for the last time in the shape of rubbish. Emerging from the eddying rush of the fall, we thought of that Reverend Stentor of Billingsgate Market, Boatswain SMITH, and his denunciations against impure soles ; we thought, too, of PE TO, as we passed by that " dreary pile" the Customhouse ; and lastly, as we stein out on the Tower Wharf, and threaded its winding archway ovtr the drawbridge, we thought of Sir FRANCIS Bo RM.: T, the Pride of Westminster and Orator for the People, and of Sir FRANCIS BURDETT the "Country Gentleman" and Champion of the " Landed Interests." As anv schoolboy, going over Tower Hill, would think of WALLACE and the Rebel Lords, Balm ERIN 0, Sm., we will say nothing about them—for here we are at the Mint.
The dark of machinery salutes our ears, and we watch with interest the beautiful nicety of each operation, from the casting, where the molten metal is poured a liquid ruby stream, with its sparkling scintillations, into a mould, from which it is thrown, a grey, leaden-looking lump—its progress through steel rollers, which successively reduce it to a dull copper-looking ribbon of metal—the flatting—the cutting into blanks, by means of an immense hori- zontal fly-wheel, which regulates the action of the punch—the raising of the rim by another ing,miotts machine—to the final process of stamping with the dies and the milling. Beautiful as is the precision with which every operation is performed, the completeness of adaptation and the facility and exactitude of this last are wonderful. A boy seated by a small cylindrical finmel fills it from time to time with blanks—not lottery blanks, gentle reader, but gold blanks—embryo sovereigns the machine displaces the stamped coin, and replaces it by a blank, supplying itself from the pile of them in the fimnel ; the die then descends with a momentary pressure of a ton and a half, and the coin is in its turn shoved aside by the machine, in the act of replacing it by another blank. Mere description can convey only an inadequate idea of this perfectly beautiful and magical process. Here the steam-engines and the various machinery seem to do all the work, the poor mortals being-merely waiters upon them—feeding with coal the in- satiate appetites of those tremendous leviathans of the mechanical world, the steam-engines, moving their brightly glancing limbs in supple silence and with unerring precision. The whole system, in short, is one of exact calcu- lation and the most perfect mechanism.
But of all the wonders of the Mint—the methodical and comprehensive arrangement—the niceness and order throughout this vast establishment, in whose economy even JOSEPH HUME himself could find no flaw—the Italian artist, Signor PisTittrect, is the crowning curiosity. Steam-engines and machinery are complicated and curious, but the mind of man is still more so; and accordingly, Pis-runs:es in his workshop interested us more than all the other wonders. This enthusiastic and self-taught artist learnt, when a boy, the trade of " making- antiques"—the art of cutting cameos, intaglios, and gems. His taste is derived from the study of the antique gems, and he works a stone into a beautiful design, frequently without a model ; the capricious nature of his material, winch only reveals to his eye, as the work proceeds, the depths of its colour, obliging him to rely upon his inventive ingenuity. He is indeed a sort of improvisatore of a gem sculptor. His cameos and intaglios are particularly admirable for vigour of marking even in these less-than-miniature sculptures: one in particular, a ruby cut into an antique head, was distinguished not only by the beauty and poetry of character, lett by the freedom and boldness of its marking, which in a gem of such hardness is wonderful. This original and ingenious man holds the office of medallist to the Mint, (that of "chief engraver" having been very properly given to an English artist) ; and he has been for a length of time, and is now, employed upon a pair of dies for a magnificent medal to com- memorate the Battle of Waterloo. This grand work is five inches in dia- meter, with a relief of nearly one-eighth of an inch ' • and the design is classical and appropriate, and in the best possible taste ; we have not room to describe it as it ought to be described—indeed it should be seen to be appreciated. The wax models of it are exceedingly delicate, and bold in their relief, and exhibit the artist's unique skill in giving fleshiness to his figures, small as they are. The dies, as far as we could judge from the impressions in clay, which were taken from parts of the work, are still more vigorous in the character of the workmanship. This will be, when completed, the largest medal ever struck. Amongst a great number of wax.models of miniature portraits, we remarked, in particular, a very fine and striking profile of the Duke of Sussex, which possessed a peculiar living character. Two of the King also exhibited the variety of style which the ingenious modeller gives to his works ; one of them being an exact portrait of the King as he is, the other a. more ideal head, remarkable for possessing that elegant character which Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE gave to his portraits, and was full of grace and beauty. The artist himself was not the least interesting part of the exhibition of which he was the centre and the soul : we were delighted to see him at work upon an oddly-shaped block of marble, which he had chiselled, without any models, into a group of medallions and bas-reliefs, guided in his progress only by his fancy and the shape of the marble, which looked like a heap of little sculptures. This extempore mode of working is peculiar to the self-taught genius ; and it is surprising to observe with what correstness of outline and musculation he premiums a figure from the living model (he had dne with him when we visited his studio) with his chisel from the marble, merely pen - tilling on its surface a slight outline. This practice is anti-academical, but it deinands original powers of hand, and eyes with compasses iii them. This universal artist, however, can use his pencil, chisel, and it with equal facility ; and with hounds large, brawny, and rough with years of toil, he produces the most delicate works, which can only be appreciated by studying them through a glass.
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