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Otago Daily Times, Issue 316, 24 December 1862, Page 5

Wonderful Piece of Wouk.—The Paris correspondent of the Nelson Examiner thus describes a steel chair exhibited at the South Kensington Mv scum. " One of the most astounding triumphs of rnauual skill to be found in this .collection is a large arm-chair in cast-steel, finished by hand, the ornamentation of which is co elaborate as to defy description, but of which the most staking features are the bands of figures extending across the back, and re- ■ presenting a triumphal procession, with soldiers, knights in armor, the victor in his chariot, drawn by richly-caparisoned .horses/ with musicians, lictors towers, trees, and various other objects, of marvellous delicacy ancL spirit.' These little figures four abreast, that is to say, standing in complete relief, side by side, four deep, as it were, in the substance ofthe steel, look as though cutoutof it, as the Chinese carve their figures, one under the other, in a piece of ivory. This wonderful seat is, in fact, a skeleton, chair, every part of it 3 frame being ornamental, and offering an immense variety of figures, reliefs, snake?, <vc, all most wonderfully finished. The date assigned to this astonishing piece of metal-work, black as though carved out of ebony, or Cannel coal, is circa a. j>. 1500. No living workman, it is asserted, could produce such a work which, indeed, maybe said to stand in the same category with the bronze gates of tbe Baptistry of Florence, the work of the thirteenth century; "which no subsequent age has evea attempted-o rival." iA. CASTLEKAiNAro Criticism —Ye?t>rday nn-ht a h33ture was delivered by the Rabbi H. Z. Sneersoha at the^Teehanics^ lustitute/on the subject (as described in thei advertisement) of the V* Redemption of Israel,", thef History of Jerusalem,'?* and ■'•* The Suf- ' feriiigs of the Jewa id. their own land, and their wesehtcondition.' 1 The adnussion being tickets, the hiill was consequently very full. The ■'■*; Ilabbi spoke in Hebrew, and the Venerable the irchdeacpn ot Gastleraaine interpreteia. f shall not tLt~ tempt to give a^report ;<&^the^lecture, for we believe thje wholes thingww aflagrant imposture, in wirich. wei regrftt that a digniteryofi lie Episcopal Churoh. ofiiciated asTan »g«nt. i^lfeweU aware that the Rabbi Sneejesohn comes to us recommended by t6stlmonials from Sir Henry J3arkly,th(> Bishop' of Melbourne, the Bey. Adam Cakns, and other notabilities; but we neveirtheless regard tbe JRabljias an ; adventurer, who is'endeavoring to "pOP w& way* through the colonies by trading on the easyWmpathiesoftbe people whom he aadregises,' Th Tan»our sincere impression, and we record our beTior that the people -who contribute the mon'sy^ itf^pctoonee to iho' ilabbi Sneersohn's appeal, are whb ' deserve to be victimised. The BsohjMji l)iia p&l^dr " up by papers elsewhere, but t^a t s> Mail renisos to"assist the design^ (^ a yontttr/ib^tnot^a x > l inexperiencSi,* huittbug^ Tij»eJ^WiUid^ft|iisrtsni ?«,, % who last night bo cordiallrapn^ae^;,thQuMTthav: f^ did not understand, tb^RHbWdW'lahgTiß^SE. ■ to feel oooftiwid<^ly^riiamed^f tte«aa»W<^i3 ni|iMbii;^ P% ? >Js