gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio, Rome, Roman gems, history of gemology, Greek, Greece, Egypt

Sinkankas notes that this catalogue is intended to replace the list compiled by J. H. Middleton some eighty years ago, when Lewis bequeathed his collection to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where it still resides. As Henig observes, scholars have too often overlooked what is undoubtedly one of the finest collections of Graeco-Roman intaglios in Britain, largely because Middleton illustrated very few pieces and none by photography. A short appendix lists a cache of glass intaglios and cameos, evidently discovered together, likely in the Eastern Mediterranean, and sheds light on the manufacturing techniques used for the glass gems in the Lewis Collection. While several direct photographs of the gems are included, most illustrations are taken from impressions. See Middleton, J. H., 1891.