6 DECEMBER 1919, Page 14

LOST ARTS.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

Snt,—Your delightful article on " The Romance of Disappear- ance" asks: " Are there any lost arts ? " I venture to suggest three: the secret of the once famous Tyrian purple; the secret of the hardened copper with which the ironless ancient Egyptians worked granite and basalt, true to the thousandth of an inch; and the art of making shagreen, in which our great-grandmothers loved to carry their spectacles.—I am, Sir,

&c., W. H. A. COWELL. St. Edward's School, Oxford.