Some of the minor kitchen utensils include flesh hooks and forks and

carving knives. There are spoons of every kind made in all metals, some

of the earlier examples being of brass and latten. In this connection

also may be mentioned ladles, fish slicers, and scoops. There are also

many curious little pastrycooks' knives, and knives used for cutting

vegetables and preparing a repast in olden time, many of them quite

decorative, even the common pastry-wheel frequently being carved. It was

at one time customary to expend much skill in decorating apple scoops,

those shown in Fig. 51 being very choice specimens in the National

Museum of Wales, in Cardiff. The one on the left hand of the picture is

made of bone, and is inlaid with a small brass name-plate; that on the

right-hand side is of ivory delicately turned, the scoop being

exceedingly thin; and those in the centre are all home-made out of the

metacarpal bones of the sheep, being slightly ornamented with cut

X-shaped lines and hatchings. In the same museum there are some

remarkably interesting coffee crushers and mortars and pestles, several

of these being illustrated in Fig. 50. In Fig. 53 we show a

representative selection reminiscent of the days when wooden spoons and

wooden platters were in common use. The trencher takes its name from

_tranche_, the old name of the platter which replaced the piece of bread

on which it was formerly customary to serve up meat; like the bread, it

was at first square. The minor kitchen accessories formerly in constant

use included many objects of wood, such as the charming little nutmeg

mills of turned rosewood, some of which are to be seen in the British

Museum. There are also antique pasteboards and rolling-pins for rolling

shortbread, pot stirrers of wood, and other utensils such as sand

glasses.

In Figs. 47 and 48 we illustrate two wooden food boxes, such as were

formerly used to carry food to men working in the field. They are now

deposited with other curios in the Cardiff Museum, where also may be

seen some little wooden piggins, and bowls used for porridge; the piggin

was an ancient vessel often mentioned in mediaeval days (see Fig. 52).

Warming Pans.

There are some household appointments which, like some of the brass

skimmers, platters, engraved foot and hand warmers, chestnut roasters,

and the like, have always served the double purpose of use and ornament.

Among these are warming pans which in modern days have been brought out

of their hiding-places, repolished, and hung up in conspicuous places by

the fireside. In the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as some of the

provincial museums, there are many very fine examples, those having

dates and names upon them being especially valued. As an instance of an

exceptional specimen in the Victoria and Albert Museum we may mention

one on which there is an engraving of reindeer, ducally gorged, the

inscription upon this pan reading: "THE EARL OF ESSEX. HIS ARMES. 1630."

Another elaborate warming pan is engraved with figures of a cavalier and

a lady, richly embellished with peacocks and flowers. The pan is of

copper, but the handle is of wrought iron with brass ornamental mounts.

Some pans have wooden handles, either walnut or oak, some of the more

modern being ebonized (see Fig. 40).

This brief review of kitchen utensils by no means exhausts the varieties

of old metal work and other curios which may still be found in kitchens.

There appears to be no end to the minor varieties in form and

decoration. This is natural when we remember that years ago kitchen

utensils were not made in quantities after the same pattern as they are

nowadays. They were the product of the local maker, the smith and the

village woodworker being frequently called upon to supply new kitchen

utensils, and it would appear that they did their best to make their

work successful in that the vessels they fashioned were lasting, and

during their use contributed in no small degree towards the

ornamentation of the home.

[Illustration: FIG. 52.--WOODEN PIGGINS AND PORRIDGE BOWL.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--WOODEN PLATTER, BOWL, AND SPOONS.

(_In the National Museum of Wales._)]

VI

HOME ORNAMENTS

CHAPTER VI

HOME ORNAMENTS

Mantelpiece ornaments--Vases--Derbyshire spars--Jade or spleen

stone--Wood carvings--Old gilt.

We are apt to wonder sometimes what it is that makes the house homelike,

and why there are such strong attachments to the old home. Surely it is

the familiar aspect of the furnishings, rather than the bricks and

mortar, that makes the old home so dear! To the original owners there

was an individuality about every piece, although to the collector the

same characteristics of well-known objects tell that in days gone by the

cabinet-maker followed stereotyped lines, and there were but few who

moved out of the regular ruts and made distinctive designs in home

ornaments and sundry furnishings. It is noteworthy, however, that

however much alike in furniture no two houses were alike in their

ornamental surroundings. The pictures and portraits on the walls have

peculiarities recognized and understood by those who have dwelt for many

years among them. Familiar table appointments, however humble, have a

homelike look, and there are odd bits of old china in the cabinet and

silver or pewter on the sideboard which distinguish one house from

another; and it has ever been so. Chimney ornaments, which may be quite

commonplace, have well-known characteristics which cannot be duplicated.

It is undoubtedly among the home ornaments that the tenderest thoughts

linger, and it is the trinkets of comparatively little value to an

outsider that members of the family store when the old home is broken

up. There are such ornaments in every household; and whenever there is a

sale there are those who gladly buy them because of their associations

with those by whom they were owned and valued. The collector rarely

gathers them on sentimental grounds, securing them as curious specimens

or characteristic styles wanting in his collection. Some specialize on

old china cups and saucers; others on rare porcelain figures; some on

the beautiful gilt and ormolu knick-knacks which looked so well on the

early Victorian drawing-room table, and others prefer odds and ends,

some of which are mentioned in the following paragraphs. It is, perhaps,

from the old ornaments of the home that we learn most about the true

home-life lived in former years. Wood carvers, silversmiths, leather

workers, glass blowers and potters fashioned their ornamental things

after the living models they saw about them, in the days in which they

worked. Thus in the groups of Staffordshire figures, now much sought

after, we learn something of the story of life in the Potteries in the

closing years of the nineteenth century. The story is recorded in the

earthenware "landlord and landlady," "lovers arm in arm," and rustic

cottages with which collectors are familiar.

[Illustration: FIG. 54.--BRASS CHIMNEY ORNAMENT (ONE OF A PAIR).]

Mantelpiece Ornaments.

There are many quaint brass chimney ornaments which were popular in many

parts of England fifty to sixty years ago much sought after nowadays.

They were of polished brass, usually in pairs, and when several were

arranged on a mantelpiece they presented a bright array. The one

illustrated in Fig. 54 is of the type much favoured in country

districts. It represents a shepherd with his crook, the companion brass

being a shepherdess. On the sea-coast fishermen were much fancied, and

in mining districts the miner with his pick and other industrial models

were extensively sold. These were varied with birds and animals and

miniature replicas of household furniture. The older ones are not very

common, and therefore have been much copied, for of these goods there

are many modern replicas.

Vases.

Ornamental vases have varied much in form, until a collection seems to

cover every style of art. Thus Egyptian and Roman influence is seen in

some; others of French origin, dating before the Empire period, are a

combination of French art with Egyptian ornament, brought out during the

Directoire, when after the Battle of the Pyramids French artists

introduced the sphinx and other Egyptian ornaments into their art

designs. During the Empire period, the style that is said to consist of

a blending of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian prevailed. Many of the

continental countries have been noted for glass ornaments--especially

vases. The beautiful Venetian glass is rich in colour, and the vases are

varied and graceful in form, especially those of ewer-like shape.

Bohemia has always been a noted centre of the glass industry. Then in

our own country some beautiful vases have been produced.

There are other materials which are met with in curiously shaped vases.

At one time the beautiful Derbyshire spars were much used. There are

biscuit china and Parian vases, and many exquisite vases of silver and

other metals. Much might be written of the Oriental vases and enamels,

especially of the artistic treasures of Old Japan and China, from whence

so much of our early vases and beautiful porcelain came. Of the products

of Chelsea and Bow, of Coalbrookdale and Derby, and of Bristol and

Nantgrw, writers and collectors of rare ceramics have had much to record

of the many-shaped vases with which the homes of the middle classes were

made beautiful in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These

are preserved with care, but many of the vases produced by the pioneers

of the potting industry in this country serve their original purpose

still, and glass and china and rare Wedgwood jasper ware ornament the

home of the twentieth-century reader of the "Chats" series, as they did

the "withdrawing" rooms of their original owners in the eighteenth

century.

[Illustration: FIG. 55.--BLACK AND GOLD DERBYSHIRE MARBLE VASE.

(_In the Author's collection._)]

Derbyshire Spars.

The Derbyshire spars and inlaid marbles just referred to were very

popular, some exceedingly ornamental and decorative pieces being

produced. Others were stiff and formal, and can scarcely be regarded as

beautiful. The variety of marbles quarried in Derbyshire gave the artist

ample opportunity of displaying taste in colour. The most beautiful are

those made of fluor-spar, the celebrated Blue John Mine providing the

most beautiful specimens. The purple shades present delightful tints,

and some of the old workers in Derbyshire mosaics were exceptionally

fortunate in their schemes of arrangement of the tiny pieces they inlaid

so carefully. The marble workers in this country have never been able to

produce those beautiful effects for which the Florentine school of

artists was famous, although it has been claimed by some that the

artists of the Peak produced in their larger works some equally as

effective. Among old household ornaments small Roman mosaics, so called,

are often met with. At one time the Florentine artists used gems and

real stones, whereas the Romans chiefly employed glass. Many will be

familiar with the Vatican pigeons and the fountain so frequently copied.

It is said that the Derbyshire workers in mosaic excelled themselves in

the production of a beautifully inlaid vase covered with flowers,

foliage, and birds, prepared for the late Queen Victoria, in 1842. Half

a century ago fancy shops were filled with the products of the

Derbyshire mines, but most of the best pieces are now among household

curios. The wide-topped vase shown in Fig. 55 is made from Derbyshire

black and gold marble, and was produced in Matlock about sixty years

ago. It may be interesting to collectors to mention that although the

Romans are believed to have worked the Blue John mines, it was not until

1770 that the lovely purple spar was rediscovered in the Hope Valley, a

workman passing through the Winnats being attracted by the pieces of

spar he saw lying about, eventually bringing them under the notice of

the owner of a Rotherham marble works. Besides the smaller objects there

are the larger tables, worked in the same materials, some of which are

sometimes met with second-hand for quite trifling sums.

Jade or Spleen Stone.

Among the rarer curios of the home are those wonderful ornaments cut and

carved out of jade, a beautiful stone which has been so highly prized by

the Chinese. Its special value lies in the exquisite tints of the

different hues. These marvellously varied stones were formerly quarried

from the Kuen-Kask Valley, where jade or yu-stone runs in

different-coloured veins through the rocks. It is said that jade in the

form of spleen stone first came to Europe from America. It is found

extensively in Mexico, and also in Burma, but the chief interest centres

in the grotesque and cleverly carved Chinese curios. The beauty and

value of these pieces lies not so much in their forms as in their

marvellous tints and the clever way in which the Chinese workmen, in

fashioning grotesque forms, have cut away practically all the colour

of certain intruding shades, leaving the figures in some brilliant hue

of green, red, or pink, standing out upon a base of some other shade.

The curiously smoked mutton-fat colour is one of the rarest, but to the

amateur the more transparent and brilliant tints possess the greatest

beauty.

[Illustration: FIG. 56.--TEMPLE GUARDIAN, CARVED FROM THE GNARLED ROOT

OF A TREE.

(_In the Author's collection._)]

True jade, or nephrite, is a native silicate of calcium and magnesium,

and does not exhibit either crystalline form or distinct cleavage. In

addition to the "mutton-fat" shade spoken so highly of there are lovely

shades in green, emerald, moss, tea and sea green, violet and yellow,

and white and camphor; but the rarest of all combinations is violet,

mutton-fat, and emerald green.

Wood Carvings.

Many of the more decorative household ornaments are made of wood. To cut

down a tree or to whittle a stick has been the favourite occupation of

men of all ages, and the possession of a pocket-knife the ambition of

the schoolboy from time immemorial. Something to cut keeps him out of

mischief and calls forth any ingenuity he may have. Some of the most

wonderful curios have been cut by hand, fashioned with skill. Some are

remarkably realistic in their forms, faithful copies of living

originals, or of objects of still greater antiquity with which the wood

carver has been familiar. Carvers have sometimes allowed themselves to

run wild in their imaginations as they have cut and shaped a block of

wood, giving it the most fantastic form, picturing myths and fables in a

wonderfully realistic way. There seems to be no end to the variety of

wooden ornament. The carver has found a place in architectural design,

too, many old houses being enriched with his handiwork. In the days when

walls were panelled with oak, the carver and the wood worker delighted

in cutting deep and intricate mouldings and in giving that delightful

linen fold to the panels which would otherwise have been plain. That was

the ambition of the household decorator of Elizabethan days. Tudor beams

were cut and carved and quaint mottoes engraved upon them. The old oak

settles--sometimes portable, at others fixtures--were carved all over,

and the fronts of oak chests were often made into pictures of wood. They

told the tale of the family tree by the coats of arms and the shields

emblazoned by the cutter of wood, sometimes being enriched with colour;

at others the picture forms were created by inlaying and superadding

fretwork. There were intricate carvings of the Sheraton and Chippendale

periods, and there were the wonderful floral sprays, cherubs, and other

ornaments so cunningly wrought by Grinling Gibbons and his followers.

Wooden ornament in those days took the form of over-doors, and wreaths

running down the lintels; and massive mantelpieces of oak were carved

deeply. There were vases of wood full of flowers cut from the same

material standing on wooden pedestals. The floral sprays, it is said,

were in some cases so delicately cut that they shook like natural

flowers when any one crossed a room or a post-chaise rumbled along the

street. Some remarkable picture frames were cut and carved by amateurs,

corresponding well with the handiwork of the needlewoman they

enshrined. The cutting and carving of banner screens was a work of art,

and many times a labour of love.

[Illustration: FIG. 57.--CARVED PLAQUE STAND.]

There are quaint relics of other countries in wood carving among the

curios of the home. Some remarkable pieces of carved cherry-trees have

been brought over from Japan, the black trunk or root of the tree being

turned into a grinning demon, similar to the one illustrated in Fig. 56,

which resembles the "temple guardian." Others have been fashioned like

ancient idols or apes, many being an intermixture of different-coloured

woods, varying from almost red-brown to black, throwing up the carving

in relief. The Oriental was a clever wood carver, and with his primitive

tools he cut and fashioned a piece of wood according to his own sweet

will, evolving from it intricate works of art in wood. Perhaps the most

remarkable examples of the wood-worker's skill are those tiny miniatures

of which there is such a splendid collection in the British Museum,

notably the almost microscopic reliquaries. The Japanese and Chinese

have shown remarkable skill in carvings, and especially in the way they

have set off china plates and bowls intended as ornamental objects; a

truly magnificent example of such work is shown in Fig. 57.

Old Gilt.

The highly decorative work known as old gilt, very fashionable in the

early Victorian drawing-room, has quite recently been hunted up, and

many pieces have been restored to positions of honour. The gilt,

so-called, was in reality eighteen-carat gold overlaid upon soft brass

by a process not now practised. Delightfully decorative trinket stands,

card trays, and little baskets were made in this way; and as they were

afterwards coated over with a transparent varnish, they have preserved

their colour; indeed, when found black with age, after carefully washing

in soap and water, they frequently come out bright and untarnished. Then

if brushed over with white of egg or some transparent white varnish they

will keep their colour for many years to come. These decorative

ornaments, often perforated as well as embossed, were frequently

enriched with imitation jewels. Those shown in Fig. 61 are typical of

the style of ornament referred to. Sometimes scent satchets and jewelled

caskets are found fitted with quaint reels for sewing silk and curious

needle holders. The more elaborate pieces are often ornamented with

floral sprays made of porcelain; some of the baskets filled with coral

and seaweed have curiously made little birds and butterflies, many of

them being genuine Chelsea. Others are the framework for holding Bow

figures or painted plaques. This Victorian gilt is at present not

over-scarce, and as it is not as yet much in demand collectors have an

exceptional opportunity of securing interesting specimens at moderate

cost.

Old Ivories.

Much might be written about old ivories. Ivory has been a much-valued

material for ornamental decoration from quite early times. In almost

every home there are curios and pieces of furniture in which ivory

has either been overlaid or inserted as panels. At one time it was much

used for overlays, and in very thin plates made up into all kinds of

decorative models.

[Illustration: FIGS. 58, 59.--MINIATURE COPPER AND SILVER KETTLES.

FIG. 60.--MINIATURE IVORY COFFEE BOILER.]

[Illustration: FIG. 61.--TWO OLD-GILT JEWELLED ORNAMENTS.]

There are carved tusks from Africa and India, and quaint native curios

made of ivory cunningly wrought. It is from the East that we receive so

many beautiful curios, and especially so from India, China, and Japan.

The three remarkably handsome ivories illustrated in Fig. 62 will serve

to illustrate the beautiful and oftentimes costly curios found in so

many homes.

Miniature Antiques.

Some of the most pleasing little antiques are silver models of

children's toys. The original models made contemporary with the

furniture or household gods they purport to represent were frequently

the gifts of godparents, and many are most elaborate in their designs,

every detail found in the larger originals being faithfully reproduced.

Some of these little silver toys, with which probably children were

seldom allowed to play, represented common objects outside the home,

such as the dovecote in the garden, the travelling coach with its

prancing steeds, the pack-horse ascending the slope towards a bridge

over a stream, in some instances objects of husbandry and agriculture,

being given to children familiar with the country.

Another favourite type of model curio is found in the remarkably tiny

objects workmen sometimes prided themselves upon making--such curios,

for instance, as the silver and copper kettles and coffee pot shown in

Figs. 58, 59, and 60. The larger specimen (drawn larger than the

original) was made from a copper farthing, the smaller kettles being

hammered out of threepenny-pieces; the coffee pot is of ivory--a

charming model.

There are a few sundries which should not be overlooked when collecting

curious things reminiscent of home-life as it once was. Among these are

the glass pictures once so much prized by well-to-do folk, now valued

only by the collector of such things. These were really "prints from

prints." The method of their preparation was most inartistic, although

it was effectual. A piece of glass was coated with varnish, the print

was then placed upon the varnish, and when dry and quite hard the paper

was washed off, leaving a "print" upon the prepared surface, which was

then painted over at the back, the picture thus being made complete.

Much store was formerly set by the little plaques and medallions which,

with silhouettes, hung upon the walls. Among the gems of such ornaments

were the exquisite tablets and cameos made by Josiah Wedgwood, whose

beautiful vases and miniature bottles, as well as tea-sets in the same

wares, were so much admired.

[Illustration: FIG. 62.--THREE FINE OLD IVORIES.]

VII

GLASS AND ENAMELS

CHAPTER VII

GLASS AND ENAMELS

Waterford, Bristol, and Nailsea--Ornaments of glass--Enamels on

metal.

Glass is used in every home. It is seen in its ornamental forms, and is

necessary in almost every department. In kitchen and pantry there are

dishes and tumblers and wine glasses and decanters ready for use. Among

these there are often found old glasses--that is, glass vessels which

from their rarity or age have attained a curio value; indeed, many

housewives are unaware that their kitchen cupboard contains what would

be valued as interesting specimens gladly purchased by collectors of

glass. Many of the old tumblers are beautifully engraved, often having

floral ornament and dainty rustic scenes. They are now and then

commemorative of events which the glass maker has recorded with his

graving tool, and sometimes they have been prepared to catch the passing

fancy. The styles of table glass have changed, and their shapes and

sizes have altered according to the popular custom of imbibing certain

liquors.

When punch ceased to be the customary drink, and lesser quantities of

ale were consumed, punch bowls and tankards were less in request. Their

places were taken by wine glasses of more delicate forms, and charming

tallboys and crinkled vessels of glass took the place of the older mugs

and pewter cups. The glasses used in proffering and drinking toasts have

changed much during the last century, and the "fiat" glasses of the

Jacobite period, and those curious glasses with portraits of the Old

Pretender and the Young Pretender upon them, are curios only, for they

are no longer needed, neither is the toast of "The King" drunk "over the

water." Spirit glasses and decanters have altered in form, but among

those which have survived and are still sound are some rare examples of

cutting, made in the days when the glass cutter worked with primitive

tools, and such methods as the sand blast, chemical etching, and some of

the newer processes were unknown.

Waterford, Bristol, and Nailsea.

Among table sundries are glass salts and cruets; the latter, however,

have been modernized and reduced in size, and the bottles and curiously

shaped oil and vinegar cruets of a hundred or more years ago look quaint

when compared with those of the present day. Even the flower vases which

formerly adorned the table, and the more decorative dishes used for

fancy sweetmeats and confections, have changed, leaving in the process

many of the older pieces, relegated to the store-cupboard, where disused

glass so often remains until in due time it is rescued from oblivion by

the collector of household curios. Among the eighteenth-century cut

glass jugs and trifle bowls are many beautiful vessels, for the making

of which certain districts from time to time became famous. The old

Waterford glass is especially noteworthy, and as a speculation, apart

from the interest it possesses for collectors, is worth securing.

Bristol glass to the uninitiated appears to be a misnomer, in that the

beautiful white milk-like surface upon which so many exquisite floral

designs have been painted looks more like egg-shell porcelain, but when

held up to the light is found to be of glass-like nature, pellucid

although semi-opaque.

Nailsea glass has many peculiar characteristics about it, notably the

curiously introduced waved and twisted lines in colours. Many objects

which were essentially curios, their utilitarian purposes having always

been secondary, were made at Nailsea. There are gigantic models of

tobacco pipes, formerly hung up against the walls as ornaments. As

fitting companions to the pipes were walking-sticks of glass, some very

remarkable designs which might at one time have been carried by the

gallants of that day. They were often filled with sweetmeats and

comfits, ornamented with bows of ribbon, and presented to ladies of

their choice by devoted swains. A few of those curious sticks or

shepherd's crooks, as they were called, are to be seen in most

representative museum collections. The so-called rolling-pins of glass,

made at Sunderland as well as at Nailsea and Bristol, were known as

sailors' love tokens, and are referred to more fully in Chapter XIII. In

the Taunton Castle Museum there are some interesting specimens of old

glass, notably one of the very rare dark bottle-glass linen smoothers

which came from South Petherton. Such smoothers were at one time

favoured in the kitchen laundry in the days when servant-maids excelled

in getting up linen, and prided themselves on the beautiful gloss they

were able to impart--in the days before public laundries with their

modern glossing machines were instituted.

Some of our readers may have seen the curious glass tubes, one yard in

length, into which ale was poured in the days when it was considered a

desirable attainment to be able to drink at one draught a "yard of ale."

Of the larger vessels such as wine bottles, the chief collectable

feature about them is the old glass-bottle-makers' stamps, very

frequently found on fragments of bottles, such stamps often turning up

among the oddments of kitchen drawers which have probably been

undisturbed for many years. To collect bottle stamps is certainly an

uncommon hobby, but one that is not altogether devoid of interest.

Ornaments of Glass.

Of household ornaments in glass there appears to be no end. There are

the glass Venetian vases and ewers, beautiful and graceful in form,

richly ornamented in gold; and there are the old English and French

vases, the colouring of which is not always in accord with modern taste.

Cut glass, in whatever form it is met with, is appreciated, in that the

workmanship involving so much studious labour is recognized. Continental

glass has at all periods been imported into this country, and especially

so Bohemian glass, of which there are decanters of ruby, claret,

blue, and other rich colours; some remarkable effects have been produced

upon red glass by adding tinted colours and white decoration

interspersed with gold. Glass lustres have acquired an antiquarian

value, and chandeliers and mantelpiece lustre candlesticks are sought

after by the collector, who sometimes finds interspersed with cut glass

lustre pretty coloured china droppers.

[Illustration: FIG. 63.--BATTERSEA ENAMELS.]

Pictorial Art in Glass.

Stained-glass windows are associated with ecclesiastical edifices. Old

English houses, however, not infrequently contain armorial panels, coats

of arms in leaden frames, and curious little pictures in colours which

can be hung against modern windows where the light will throw up the

rich colouring of the old-time painters. Little patches of colour, too,

were often introduced in otherwise plain diamond-shaped lattice panes.

There are glass pictures, so-called, oftentimes consisting of coloured

prints pasted on one side of the glass, a softened effect being produced

by the glass through which they were seen; but they must be

distinguished from the more costly paintings _on_ glass sometimes met

with.

In many an old house the glass shade with its contents so inartistic,

although removed from its place of honour on the parlour table, found a

niche where it is preserved. Under such shades were preserved wool-work

baskets filled with artificial flowers, among which were often small

porcelain figures, butterflies and birds. Sometimes a Parian vase has

been filled with wax flowers, the making of which was a favourite

pastime half a century ago. The dried plant called "honesty" was

frequently covered with a glass shade. Glass ships were exceedingly

popular in seaport towns, and little miniature replicas of household

furniture in glass are met with; indeed, there seems to have been no

limit to the fancies and freaks of the glass blower, who has at

different periods provided the present-day collector with curious, if

very breakable, curios.

Enamels on Metal.

The art of enamelling on metal has been practised from very early times.

In its earlier forms it was chiefly an art applied to jewellery and the

ornamentation of ecclesiastical metal work. In time, however, it was

applied as a convenient method of decorating utilitarian household

articles such as fire-dogs and candlesticks. Those who frequent the more

important museums often associate enamels with the costly and rare

enamels of Limoges, and the choice bits of Italian enamels seen in the

cases of metals where the most valuable curios are gathered together.

Such vessels as those marvellous effects produced by the enamellers of

Limoges are indeed rarely found among household curios; it is well,

however, to note that the processes by which those effects were produced

changed as time went on. The earlier translucent enamel of the Italian

artists was laid over an incised metal ground, the design previously

prepared showing through. In the later Limoges enamels the surface with

which the copper base was overlaid was painted, very much in the same

way as the miniature painters on enamels operated in after-years.

The process of covering metal with enamels made of a species of glass is

very ancient, but the basis of all enamels is the application of fusible

colourless silicate or glass in pattern or design, mixed with metallic

oxides, the prepared surface being afterwards fired until the enamel

adheres firmly to the copper or other metal. The processes varied, but

the firing or fusing was the same throughout. The name "enamel" is

traceable to the French word _enail_ and the Italian _smalto_, both

having the same root as the Anglo-Saxon word "smelt." The enamels of

China and Japan so extensively imported into this country of late years

are chiefly made by filling cloisons or cells formed of fine metal wires

or plates with coloured enamels and then firing them. As the collector

advances in his appreciation of the old craftsmen, he soon recognizes

the difference between the antiques sent over by Oriental merchants and

the modern works made on present-day commercial lines, and not the work

of men whose time was deemed of small account if they acquired notoriety

for the beauty of their work.

The household enamels of English make consist chiefly of those beautiful

little boxes, trinkets, and domestic objects made at Battersea and

Bilston in the eighteenth century. The enamels used for the ground were

tinted rose, blue, and other shades, and ornamented with painted

pictures and mottoes. A very fine group of Battersea patch boxes is

shown in Fig. 63.

VIII

LEATHER AND HORN

CHAPTER VIII

LEATHER AND HORN

Spanish leather--"Cuir boulli" work--Tapestry and

upholstery--Leather bottles and drinking vessels--Leather

curios--Shoes--Horn work.

That "there is nothing like leather" has been believed by people of all

ages, and in many countries the general belief has been put into

practice, for many indeed are the uses to which leather has been put. As

a lasting material it has been proved to possess excellent qualities.

The artist, too, has found that leather is capable of being treated so

as to give the effect of delicate carvings, and to serve well many

purposes of decoration.

In the East leather was used in patriarchal times, the skins of animals

making excellent water bottles. In mediaeval England leather black jacks,

cups, and flagons withstood the rough usage of those roisterous times.

The collector seeks both useful and ornamental, and finds much to

delight among the old leathern objects hid away as being now quite

useless or antiquated.

Spanish Leather.

As early as the fifteenth century Cordova, in Spain, was celebrated for

its workers in leather, and for the fine ornamental leather vessels

produced there. Some of the designs favoured by Spanish craftsmen were

gruesome in the extreme. Indeed, many were fashioned for the purpose of

creating fear in the use of the vessels so ornamented.

A few years ago a remarkably fine collection of old Spanish leather work

was exhibited in London. There were some hideous and grotesque figures,

which it was said had been designed for the mental torture of the

victims of the Inquisition. Some of the larger specimens were remarkably

well executed, especially so some of the wine bottles which imitated

very realistically the pose of men and women. Some of the female figures

were represented wearing flowing gowns and costumes of the height of

fashion--tall and noble women. By way of contrast there were little

manikin wine jugs of the most grotesque forms.

The Spaniards made leather upholsteries of remarkable designs; they also

ornamented boxes, trunks, and cases for knives and costly trinkets.

"Cuir boulli" Work.

Most of the decorated leather work of that period, examples of which are

not very difficult to secure, was made by the _cuir boulli_ process. The

leather, after being boiled down to a pulp and salt and alum added, was

then moulded to any desired form, the decoration being imparted in the

process.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is very rich in fine examples, and a

description of some of the typical pieces there may serve as a guide to

collectors hopeful of including some objects moulded by this process

among their household relics.

The work was carried on at Cordova and other places for a long period,

some of the museum examples dating back to the fifteenth century. There

are cases for holding what were then rare books and manuscripts, and a

remarkable scribe's case with a red cover has loops on either side to

which a cord was attached. The scribe was an important personage in

commercial and private correspondence in the days when even rudimentary

education was by no means general.

In the same collection is a leather box for holding a knife and fork; on

the outer case is a medallion, in the centre of which is a

representation of the two spies returning from Canaan with a large bunch

of grapes. There are also cases which have once held wine bottles, some

ornamented in colours; indeed, the stamped, cut, and embossed designs of

the _cuir boulli_ work were frequently enriched by the addition of red,

yellow, and gold.

There are some specially interesting examples of Italian work,

representing a period covering nearly the whole of the Renaissance. In

this connection there are pilgrim bottles of yellow glass encased in

wonderful leather covers, cut and embossed. There are leather snuff

boxes with trellis-work ornament and scroll borders, one very

interesting piece being varnished to imitate tortoiseshell. There are

also some attractive toilet objects, evidently antique presentation

pieces. One is a most elaborately cut and incised comb case, on the

exterior of which is the motto or legend: "DE BOEN AMORE." In the same

collection there is a fine leather case for a cup or tankard. Such cup

cases are not uncommon, many being the receptacles for treasured

heirlooms. Perhaps one of the most noted examples of the use of embossed

and decorative leather work is the ancient case of stamped leather

intricately foliated, a highly decorative work of art in which is

enclosed that remarkable goblet of legendary fame known as "The Luck of

Eden Hall."

Tapestry and Upholstery.

Stamped and embossed leather work is very conspicuous in domestic

upholstery. In very early times the leather work, hung upon the wall in

panels, took the place of more modern wall-coverings, and it was truly

lasting. Much of the Cordovan leather is still very fresh in appearance,

although several centuries old. Some of the panels hanging on the walls

at South Kensington look remarkably fresh, and, richly decorated in

colours, many of them are very effective. A special branch of this work

was that devoted to the decoration of chair backs; stamped leather work

for upholstery has been used in this country to a large extent, and some

of the large oak chairs are still upholstered in the original ornamental

leather produced by boiling the hides by a special process, so that the

material could be readily moulded. In more modern times, however, the

decoration is effected by embossing and stamping, supplementing such

ornament by the use of an immense quantity of small brass nails, which

are arranged in geometrical patterns or straight lines, oftentimes names

and dates being included in the design.

In this connection also are screens of painted and gilt leather, chiefly

of eighteenth-century manufacture. There is a good deal of this leather

work to be found in old houses still, and much of it is capable of

improvement by properly cleaning and touching up here and there so as to

revive the old colours. Here and there hung up as wall decorations may

be seen leather-covered boxes which were specially made to hold deeds;

in the older examples there is a large circular piece below the narrow

box, arranged so that the seal could hang in its proper position from

the end of the deed; they were, of course, in common use before the days

of safes and other methods of preserving parchments and property deeds.

One in the Victoria and Albert Museum is stamped on the exterior with

the description of the deed it originally contained, the inscription

commencing thus: "THE GRAUNT OF HEN: THE 5 TO THE ABBOT OF RADING."

Chests and Coffers.

Before modern travelling requisites were known and in the days when

journeys were few, the leather-covered coffer contained the whole

travelling outfit of perhaps some noble lord and his household. There

were also large coffers covered with leather used as permanent

receptacles of clothing, covered with ornamental embossed leather work,

some very decorative. There were smaller coffers, too; possibly they

were jewel caskets in their day. There are others which may have been

presentation cases, for their decoration is especially elaborate. In

making these continental craftsmen seem to have excelled. In the

Victoria and Albert Museum there is a curious German casket of wood

covered with leather, strongly bound with iron, having three immense

hasps from which locks once hung, altogether too massive for the little

casket. One would think such precautions were of not much avail against

theft, for the box itself could be removed readily! There is another

charming little casket, with a circular or dome-shaped top, decorated

and banded, a veritable prototype of the tin trunks generally in use a

quarter of a century ago. There is also a remarkable piece, a wood box

covered over with leather embossed by the _cuir boulli_ process. The

chief design takes the form of two armed horsemen, surrounded by

grotesque ornament on the top, on the sides being hunting scenes,

episodes of the chase. This curious example of the work of

seventeenth-century artists in leather measures 16 1/2 in. in length by

12 1/2 in. in width. Another typical piece, of a highly decorative

allegorical character, is a rectangular coffret with arched lid, the

ornament being in colours and gilt. On the front is a knight and a lady,

on the lid two paladins mounted on griffins, two savages with clubs and

shields, and two images of the sun, these typifying the story of the

delivery of a captured lady by a knight.

Leather Bottles and Drinking Vessels.

Several interesting specialistic collections of leather bottles and

drinking vessels have been got together, showing the varied forms of the

almost imperishable vessels, so suitable as liquor carriers and drinking

cups in olden time. In the Guildhall Museum are several different types

of bottles, black jacks, and silver-rimmed cups. Until comparatively

recent times many old inns were famous for their leather drinking cups,

but as the coaching days came to an end such vessels were gradually

dispersed. Now that motor-cars have popularized the road once more, and

old inns are again frequented, the collector seeks in vain for what were

once quite common. In another noted collection there is a drinking cup

or bottle moulded like a negro's head, and there are what are called

pilgrim bottles, some of which are of ornamental type. The so-called

pots have sometimes lids and loosely fitting covers; the black jacks,

however, are chiefly open, ill-shaped vessels. Some of the black jacks

were very large, one in the Taunton Museum measuring 19 in. in height.

It was originally used in the servants' hall at Montacute House, which

is one of the finest old buildings in Somerset. This famous jack was in

olden time filled with beer every morning and placed on the servants'

breakfast table. Those smaller cups with silver mounts and shields, on

which are often engraved crests or initials of their former owners, are

of the rarer type, but they are not infrequently found among the relics

of an old family. There is a fine collection in the Hull Museum, and in

other places where they are found in excellent condition, proving the

truth of the rhyme published in _Westminster Drollery_ in the

seventeenth century in praise of the black jack, which runs as

follows:--

"No tankard, flagon, bottle, or jug

Are half so good, or so well can hold tug;

For when they are broken or full of cracks,

Then must they fly to the brave black jacks."

Leather Curios.

Some very fine pieces of leather work have been modelled as curios and

ornaments. Some of the most notable are models of old warships and fully

rigged galleons made of leather. Leather pictures were made some years

ago; a little later leather modelling of baskets of flowers, and the

making of picture frames of leather was a popular amusement, some of the

ornamental brackets made of leather being specially effective. The

surrounds of picture frames made of leather cut to shape, carved and

modelled, had a very similar effect to the beautiful carved wood work of

an earlier period. Some of the powder flasks of leather which were used

a century or two ago are valued curios, as well as the leather cases

stamped and embossed so decorative and appropriate to the pistols and

knives they were made to contain. Of the finer objects there are small

curios like leather snuff boxes and trinket cases.

Of the more utilitarian leather work there is the wearing apparel of

former days, the leather clothing of Cromwellian times and the leather

boots. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a remarkably

interesting case of leather shoes showing the evolution in style and

appearance. There are some very pointed shoes worn in the fourteenth

century, a slightly different shape in the fifteenth, both contrasting

with the change in fashion which had come about in the sixteenth

century, when the boots were square and some of the shoes very rounded.

The Wellington boots of a later period are not yet much valued; there

may come a time, however, when they will be regarded as museum curios.

Leather gloves date back many centuries, and some of the old specimens

with gauntlets and decorative cuffs are interesting antiques, as well as

leather wallets, purses, and girdles.

Shoes.

Among sundry Eastern curios quaintly shaped and sometimes beautifully

embroidered shoes are met with, such as those which have been brought

over to this country from China and Eastern lands. Most of the shoes

worn in the East are slipped off easily, and, like Persian and Turkish

slippers, are made of red leather beautifully embroidered, silk, satin,

and velvet being overlaid and embroidered with silver and sequins. The

old practice of compressing the feet of young girls in China is dying

out, but some of the curious little shoes which gave such pain to their

wearers are seen as museum curios on account of their curious

decoration. Indian shoes are met with at times, especially those

embroidered with silver thread, and with green and other coloured silks.

A curious ceremony is associated with the marriage of a Turkish bride,

who wears a pair of clogs carved all over, sometimes with symbolical

significance, on her way to her prescribed ceremonial visit to the

bath. At one time it was customary for a Jewish bridegroom to present

his bride with a shoe at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony, this

custom being not far removed from that of throwing an old shoe after a

newly married couple for luck.

Horn Work.

Art in horn work was practised more a century ago than it is to-day, the

material being then a favourite one for drinking cups and a variety of

ornamental work. Old snuff boxes were frequently made of horn impressed

or stamped with beautiful designs, such as hunting scenes and

mythological figures. Horn can either be cut, moulded, or turned, its

natural elasticity making it very durable and difficult to break. Its

source of supply is chiefly from the horned cattle, the buffalo and the

bison, the horns of these beasts in their natural state frequently being

mounted on shields just as in later years the horns of smaller animals,

such as the South African varieties of the ibex, springbok, and similar

horned sheep and cattle, are brought over to this country and mounted as

ornaments. It is said that the old art of impressing or stamping horn

and tortoiseshell has long been discarded, and is only retained for

stamping buttons. Fancy hair ornaments were frequently so moulded, the

horn or tortoiseshell being afterwards decorated with inlaid silver and

gold.

Some of the pressed work is extremely beautiful and has every appearance

of being done by hand, but much cheaper, of course, as the patterns

could be multiplied to any extent after the dies had been cut. Thin

plates of horn were formerly used in lanterns, and a similar piece of

horn was used as a protector over the ancient alphabet and child's

spelling tablet that gave it the name of the horn book. Among household

curios are drinking horns elaborately etched, and frequently turned in a

lathe. They were popular in the seventeenth and early eighteenth

centuries, and the turned patterns then so common were copied by the

silversmiths, who made silver tankards and drinking cups on the same

models. The cornucopia or horn of abundance figures frequently in

sculpture, paintings, and works of art. The horn is one of the early

instruments of music (see Chapter XV), and has long been associated with

sports. It has sounded the "Tally Ho" of the fox hunt, and played an

important part in coaching days. In some old houses veritable horns are

found hung in conspicuous places as relics of the past, but the coaching

horns just referred to are for the most part of metal.

The Worshipful Company of Horners is still in evidence at City feasts.

The work of the craft in olden time, as recorded by the chaplain of the

Company in a little book he has prepared, giving the history of the

Horners, was practised in the days of King Alfred. At least two hundred

and fifty years before the Norman Conquest many of the patens and

chalices used in churches were made by horners, and at one time cups,

plates, and other vessels made of that useful material were in daily use

in English homes.

IX

THE TOILET TABLE

[Illustration: FIG. 64.--ANTIQUE DRESSING OR TOILET GLASS.

(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

CHAPTER IX

THE TOILET TABLE

The table and its secrets--Combs--Patch boxes--Enamelled

objects--Perfume boxes and holders--Dressing

cases--Scratchbacks--Toilet chatelaines--Locks of hair--Jewel

cabinets.

The mysteries of the toilet table are sometimes revealed in the curious

furnishings of the dressing-room. The numerous accessories which are

purchased from the beauty specialist, and as the result of speciously

worded and attractively illustrated advertisements, in the present day,

indicate that it is not at all unlikely that the fashions of all ages

have demanded a plentiful supply of toilet requisites in order that the

Society beauty might vie with her nearest rival. The curio collector is

not so much concerned with the cosmetics, salves, pomades, and hair

washes and dyes, the use of which has called forth receptacles for them,

as with the choice boxes, cases, and implements of the tonsorial art

which their use involved.

To search for such things and to secure some hitherto unknown instrument

or receptacle is ever the ambition of the energetic curio hunter. The

field is large enough, for such curios are found in the tombs of the

prehistoric dead, and among the household gods of the primitive savage

in the few remaining unexplored inhabited countries to-day. Such objects

may with a fair prospect of success be looked for among the relics of

Assyrian and Egyptian races, and among the bronze curios of Ancient

Greece and Rome; and excavations reveal relics of Saxon and mediaeval

England among the ruins which have been covered up for centuries.

Coming down the ages, the mysteries of the toilet table, as pictured in

the not always refined engravings of the copper-plate artists of a

century or so ago, tell of habits and conditions prevailing among the

ladies of Society then which would hardly be deemed polite and refined

now.

Ladies who used patches and cosmetics and dressed their hair in such a

mode that it was rarely let down and brushed, needed many accessories

now obsolete. Moreover, the gradual change which passed over Society,

and the privacy of the modern toilet as compared with the days when much

that is now deemed curious and antique was in common use, has brought

about a new order of things, and made other trinkets than patch, powder,

and salve boxes acceptable gifts between lovers; hence we scarcely

realize the sentiment that induced the donors of toilet requisites to

bestow them on the ladies of their choice, or the recipients to welcome

some of the curios obviously given from sentimental motives.

The illustrations in books published many years ago incidentally

recorded the use of some of the curios then in the making. The artists

certainly were not over-modest, and far from bashful in the lucid way in

which they pictured or caricatured the toilet table, and the maiden who

in those days was acquainted with the uses of the little relics of her

day which are now among the household curios appropriately grouped under

the heading of this chapter.

The Table and its Secrets.

It is before the looking glass, the central object on, or forming a part

of, the toilet table, that the chief mysteries of the toilet are

performed. It is obvious, therefore, that the table, to be in accord

with the use its name suggests, should be the grand receptacle for all

the minor preparations and their boxes or covers, as well as for the

brushes and combs and mirrors and sundries a Society beauty may require.

It is scarcely necessary to tax the mental faculties in imagining what

may have been the equivalent to brushes and combs with which the

prehistoric woman of thousands of years ago brushed and combed her

tangled tresses. She was ingenious enough to break off and trim sharp

prickly thorns, and to use them as pins to fasten her scanty home-made

garments, no doubt; and she would probably find in Nature's supply what

served her when making her toilet, and viewing herself in clear pool or

stream. Artists have pictured such toilets, and poets have told of the

toilet and the bath of Greek and Roman maidens of olden time.

It is said that the toilet of a Roman lady occupied much of her time.

After she had risen and taken her bath she placed herself in the hands

of the _cosmotes_, slaves who possessed the secrets of preserving and

beautifying the complexion of the skin. She frequently wore a medicated

mask and went through what would to-day be considered very painful

operations. Her skin was rubbed with pumice stone, and superfluous hairs

were removed with a pair of tweezers. Grecian slaves were adepts at

colouring eyelashes and eyebrows and treating the lips with red pomade.

The mirror was in frequent use. Many of the polished metal mirrors of

those days were adorned with precious stones and had handles of

mother-o'-pearl; and silver and gold were common in the fashioning of

the framework. Hair appointments, including combs, were very decorative,

frequently being made of ivory, and many beautiful carved specimens are

to be seen in our museums.

The dressing table as we understand it to-day was of later days, for

many centuries elapsed between the toilet of the ladies just mentioned

and that of English dames whose odds and ends are to be found in most

houses to-day--for few are without family relics of the toilet.

The toilet or dressing table was originally quite small, and made solely

for the purpose named. It opened very much like a small desk or bureau,

and was seldom more than 18 in. or 20 in. in width. The desk-like flap

served the purpose of a table; behind it was a number of tiny drawers in

which the secret mysteries of the toilet were hidden. There, too, were

the lady's trinkets and jewellery, safely housed in the depths of those

curious recesses. Such a table was surmounted by a looking glass of the

type now spoken of in a generic sense as Sheraton. In line with the more

elaborately fitted tables were independent glasses fitted with a small

drawer--a poor substitute, however, for the toilet table and glass,

combined or used in conjunction, in front of which the ladies of the

eighteenth century performed their toilets.

In Fig. 64 is illustrated a very beautiful glass of the Oriental style

of japanned decoration. The slide supports of the desk-like flap are on

the principle adopted in the construction of contemporary bureaux. There

is also a drawer, full of compartments, which draws out and discloses

their covers and some of the instruments and articles of the toilet they

contain.

Combs.

The combs of olden time were much more elaborate affairs than they are

to-day. It would appear that the comb which must so frequently have been

viewed by the fair user was considered the most appropriate toilet

requisite on which to expend care and to lavish costly labour in order

to make it truly a thing of beauty, to be retained and even jealously

guarded.

The precious metals and ivory were used as well as hard woods. Alas!

like the fate of modern combs, the teeth--coarse and fine--snapped one

by one, and oftentimes a rare and beautiful back, between the two rows

of teeth that once were, is nearly all that is left of the once perfect

comb. Many combs of ivory, however, carved all over with exquisite

miniatures, have been preserved, and the scenes upon them have been

incidents of the chase, classic love scenes, and sometimes reproductions

in picture form of well-known biblical scenes, not always of the most

delicately chosen subjects.

Not long ago a very remarkable gold comb of first-century workmanship

was found near the village of Znamenka, in Southern Russia, where

excavations in a burial mound had brought to light the tomb of a

Scythian king, whose head was adorned with this beautiful comb. The

upper portion represented a combat between three warriors, one mounted

on a charger. That comb, however, should be classed among "dress" combs

rather than dressing combs.

The ivory combs for combing the hair vary in size and in the strength of

their teeth. Sometimes a comb made of boxwood was inlaid with ivory, and

delicately pierced panels were inserted in the centre of the comb. In

some instances a small mirror is found instead of a carved panel;

especially is that the case with the smaller combs carried in a reticule

or bag.

Inscriptions were common, such, for instance, as those which breathed

the sentiment on a boxwood comb in the British Museum, which is

inscribed in French: "Accept with goodwill this little gift"; it is a

pretty piece of early work, dating probably from the middle of the

sixteenth century.

[Illustration: FIG. 65.--THREE OLD SCRATCHBACKS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 66.--SILVER CHATELAINE TOILET INSTRUMENTS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 67.--ANOTHER CHATELAINE SET.]

Patch Boxes.

The accessories of the toilet table--useful and ornamental--are many. It

has ever been so, and in the change going on many odds and ends are left

behind and become relics of former practices. Perhaps among the most

interesting of these curios are the little boxes of porcelain, enamelled

wares, and wood, which were once used as "patch" boxes, and as

receptacles for the pigments employed when gumming patches upon the

cheeks and forehead was the height of fashion, and when painting the

face was the rule rather than the exception.

It may be contended by some that these mysteries of the toilet are not

unknown in the present day, but as yet the modern accessories of the

toilet table do not come within the ken of the curio hunter. It was at

the Court of Louis XV of France that the practice of gumming small

pieces of black taffeta on the cheeks originated, the patches soon

afterwards becoming common in this country. From simple circular discs

were evolved stars, crescents, and other curious forms; then, as in so

many other instances, extremes of fashion brought the practice into

disrepute, for so extravagant became the style that the "coach and

horses" patch and others as absurd came into favour. The famous Sam

Pepys recorded in his Diary the first time he saw his wife wearing a

black patch; apparently it caught his fancy, for he wrote: "My wife

seemed very pretty to-day, it being the first time I had given her lief

to wear a black patch." Incidentally it may be noted that the famous

Pepys controlled even his wife's toilet, and that she was obedient to

him even in the mysteries of the dressing table!

Enamelled Objects.

The receptacles for all these compounds varied; some were of wood,

beautifully carved, often embellished with brass mountings, the insides

being lined with silk, and small mirrors were inserted in the lids. The

pretty trinket trays, curiously coloured and decorated, boxes, and

little candlesticks for "my lady's table," made of Battersea and other

enamels, were much in favour a century or more ago.

Some remarkably charming boxes are met with stamped with the name of

Lille, in France, where many such objects were made--the English enamels

of that period are rarely if ever marked.

It would appear that very many of these little articles were the gifts

of friends or purchased as souvenirs of the comparatively rare visits to

fashionable places of resort. Many of those given by friends were chosen

because of the mottoes and emblems with which they were decorated; for,

like the combs, they were made use of to convey messages of love and

friendship. We can well understand the fear that might arise lest

patches became loose and rendered the fair wearer ludicrous; hence the

little mirrors so often found within the boxes, which it may be

mentioned were carried about in the pocket ready for use when

opportunity served.

Many of the older specimens are found with mirrors of steel which, owing

to exposure to damp, have become very rusty, and, in some instances,

have perished altogether. Others with silvered glass mirrors show spots,

and are much blurred from the same cause. The colourings of enamels

vary; in some the groundwork is white, in others pink or rose-colour or

blue. Little picture scenes are varied with the quaint mottoes or

sentimental lines so much in vogue then.

The illustrations given in Fig. 63 are typical of the choicer

decorations, showing the floral style as well as the pictorial miniature

scenes for which the artists of that time were famous. Some of the

toilet sundries took the form of scent bottles, others etui cases and

boxes for toilet requisites, including manicure sets.

Perfume Boxes and Holders.

Perfume has always been associated with the requisites of the lady's

toilet. Sweet-smelling spices are referred to in biblical records, and

even to-day the offering of perfume is a symbol of honour to the guest

in the East; and some very beautiful Oriental scent sprinklers and spice

boxes are now and then met with among Eastern curios. The long-necked

rose-water sprinkler is the most common form, supplemented by betel-nut

boxes and receptacles made by Persian artists for the famous attar of

roses. Scents and "sweet odours" became fashionable in Europe in the

fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; articles of clothing were scented,

and there was a profusion of scent for the hair and in making the

toilet.

The pomander box, the favourite perfume holder of the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries of England, was in the form of an apple, the

perfumes and spices being made up like a ball. It is said that the

perfume was prepared from a sixteenth-century recipe, the basis of which

was sweet apples or apple pulp, and scented gums and essences. From the

pomander box smaller receptacles were evolved, and more elaborately

prepared scents were kept in them. Some of the preparations consisted of

camphor, mint, rosemary, and lavender in vinegar, a piece of sponge

being saturated with the liquid. Then came the use of aromatic vinegar,

and gradually beautiful little silver vinaigrettes were introduced. Many

of them were very ornamental in shape, highly decorated with miniatures

and floreated embellishment, the monogram or name of the owner often

being added. In the outer case was usually a cover of perforated gold

which closed over a piece of sponge, upon which aromatic vinegar or some

similar preparation was poured. The best vinaigrettes are those bearing

the hall-marks varying from 1800 to about 1840, when the making of

vinaigrettes declined and other scents took their place.

The burning of perfumes in bedrooms and the fumigation of wardrobes and

chests by means of a fumador was a custom much resorted to by Portuguese

ladies in the eighteenth century. Sweet lavender is still used in the

linen cupboard, although its use was much more general in the days when

London street cries were heard.

Dressing Cases.

When people travel and visit their friends their luggage includes among

other things a dressing case, for there are many toilet requisites which

are of a personal character, and cannot well be substituted by others.

It is true that the need of portable dressing cases has increased of

late years owing to greater travelling abroad. Dressing cases, however,

are by no means modern, for some very beautiful examples with

silver-topped bottles, hall-marked in the days of Queen Anne, are among

the collectable curios. There is a still older example in the Victoria

and Albert Museum--a case of tortoiseshell, filled with a complete

toilet set, consisting of four combs and thirteen toilet instruments,

partly of steel and partly of silver. It is an historic case, having

been presented by Charles II to a Mr. T. Campland, who is said to have

at one time sheltered him. Many old families have interesting and

valuable examples, and not infrequently isolated cut-glass bottles with

Georgian hall-marked silver tops which have formed part of the equipment

of dressing cases are met with.

Scratchbacks.

Old English scratchbacks are among the rarities of the curios associated

with the toilet table. It is unnecessary to comment upon the habits and

customs of those periods when scratchbacks were found necessary, or to

refer to the hygienic conditions of the toilet then conspicuous by their

absence. It is sufficient to allude to these curious little

instruments, mostly shaped like a hand, often of ivory, and always

fitted with a handle in length from 12 to 15 in. The hand in some cases

is large in proportion, measuring as much as 2 1/2 in. in length, sometimes

as an open hand, at others with the fingers closed, often very

beautifully modelled. Horn and whalebone were favourite materials for

the handle, although some were of ebony and other woods. Scratchbacks

appear to have been made both in lefts and rights in this country; but

the scratchbacks of the Far East were invariably rights. The

accompanying illustrations, Fig. 65, show the usual types of these now

obsolete toilet requisites, which it may be noted were sometimes

duplicated by miniature scratchbacks carried about on the person, hung

from the girdle.

Toilet Chatelaines.

The chatelaines worn by the ladies of olden time were bulky, and the

various objects deemed necessary to carry about the person rendered them

cumbersome in the extreme. A bunch of keys was always in evidence, and a

glance at a few old keys indicates how large the keys of even quite

small boxes were in olden time. There were the keys of the store

cupboard, of the linen chest, and of the larder and the wine cellar.

Drawers and cupboards and boxes, as well as the bureau or desk, were

always locked, and to deliver up the keys was indeed to surrender one of

the privileges of the matron and housewife which were jealously guarded.

[Illustration: FIG. 68.--FINE ORIENTAL LACQUERED BOX.]

[Illustration: FIG. 69.--SMALL LACQUER CABINET.]

[Illustration: FIG. 70.--A PAGODA-SHAPED CASKET.]

[Illustration: FIG. 71.--DECORATED JEWEL CASE.]

There were articles of toilet use, too, worn at the girdle. It is

recorded that Queen Elizabeth carried her earpick of gold ornamented

with pearls and diamonds. The little set, which was worn at a lady's

chatelaine in the eighteenth century, shown in Fig. 66, consists of

toothpick, earpick, and tongue scraper of silver, whereas the set

illustrated in Fig. 67 includes tweezers, a nail knife, and other

instruments. There are some charming manicure sets extant, as well as

isolated nail files of ivory and steel, and curious little instruments

for simple surgical operations, such as strong-nerved ladies were not

averse to perform in the good old days.

Locks of Hair.

Although long since separated from toilet operations, mention of locks

of hair so carefully preserved may not inappropriately be made here.

Many of these are associated with happy memories of childhood, others of

more saddened recollections. It has been a common practice to preserve

locks of hair of departed friends and relatives. In former days these

locks of hair were often enclosed in lockets, some of which were very

large. The simple lock did not always satisfy, for there are many

artistic plaits and beautifully formed sprays, imitating feathers and

even flowers, which were in years gone by cunningly interwoven and

artistically arranged on cardboard preserved by glass, often in golden

lockets and frames. Some persons have made quite important collections,

one of the most noted being that of Menelik II, the Abyssinian king, who

possessed upwards of two thousand locks, varying from light to dark, and

from fine to coarse, each lock being labelled with the date and

particulars of its acquisition. It would be well perhaps not to enter

too closely into the source of some of these specimens, which had

peculiar interest to the dusky king. It is said that some of them were

chiefly admired for their settings, which included mounting with rare

emeralds. The collection of emeralds, of which he had some of marvellous

beauty and lustre, was another of that monarch's hobbies.

Jewel Cabinets.

In association with the toilet table are the numerous boxes which have

been made as receptacles for jewels. From the days when the dower chest

contained a small compartment for valuable trinkets the furniture of the

lady's boudoir has been incomplete without a jewel box or some article

of furniture where the knick-knacks of the home could be kept, and more

especially the wearable jewellery. The Chinese and Japanese have ever

been clever in the fashioning of small cabinets, and many delightful

little boxes, cabinets, and jewellery receptacles have been brought over

to this country.

Some of the old lacquer ware is exceptionally interesting, the

decorations upon such pieces being doubly so when the legends they

depict are fully realized and understood. The accompanying illustrations

represent four Japanese jewel cases which are exceptionally fine curios.

Fig. 70 is decorated on the outside of the doors with a view of

Itsukushima; and there are two peacocks on the top, and the two elders

of Takasago are depicted on the back. The bamboo and the plum are

designs symbolical of longevity. This truly exceptional piece was sold

in the auction rooms of Glendining & Co., who also disposed of the

remarkable jewel box shaped as a pagoda, illustrated in Fig. 71, a very

beautiful piece elaborately decorated with birds and landscapes, and the

box illustrated in Fig. 68 and small cabinet, Fig. 69.

X

THE OLD WORKBOX

CHAPTER X

THE OLD WORKBOX

Spinning wheels--Materials and work--Little

accessories--Cutlery--Quaint woodwork--The needlewoman--Old

samplers.

Under the generic term of "workbox" the curios of the household

associated with the industrial handiwork of former days may well be

reviewed. There is no record of when receptacles for ladies' work were

first introduced, although, no doubt, in very early days small oak

boxes, carved, and bearing the owner's initials, and other indications

of ownership, would be the chosen receptacles for the numerous oddments

which are required in the practice and pursuit of every home handicraft,

and especially those connected with plying the needle. There was a time,

however, when the fabrics used in the making up of clothing were

home-made, when the seamstress and the needleworker stitched and

embroidered upon cloths spun if not actually woven by the housewife and

her handmaidens. In the barrows containing remains of people of the

Stone Age, and the peoples of the early Bronze Age, among the few

ornaments and personal adornments buried with them were spinning

whorls--the curiosities which remain to us of the earliest known form of

textile craftsmanship.

Spinning Wheels.

In old pictures and woodblock engravings some curious illustrations are

met with showing Englishwomen using the distaff. St. Distaff's Day was

formerly the 7th of January, for it was then that the women resumed work

after the Christmas festivities were over. The distaff and the spindle

belonged to an age little understood now, and the occupations of the

women of that date are almost forgotten. The spinning wheel was the

outcome of the simpler distaff and spindle, and although the spinning

wheels we find among the most interesting of household relics look

primitive indeed compared with the complex machinery seen in the

spinning mills to-day, those dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries must have been considered ingenious contrivances when compared

with the older models, just as the latest types of sewing machines show

a wonderful advance from the early machines invented in the beginning of

the nineteenth century.

Very clever indeed were many women in manipulating the spinning wheel,

and there seems to have been some competitive contests for notoriety

among country women, who found a pleasing though perhaps at times

tedious occupation in spinning the wool for the local weaver who wove

the home-made cloth. It is recorded that in 1745 a woman at East Dereham

spun a single pound of wool into a thread of 84,000 yards. She was

far outdistanced, however, a few years later, when a young lady at

Norwich out of a pound of combed wool produced a thread computed to

measure 168,000 yards.

[Illustration: FIG. 72.--OLD SPINNING WHEEL.

(_In the collection of Mr. Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin._)]

To secure a fine spinning wheel is the ambition of collectors, and many

ladies point with pride to the old relic placed in a position of honour

on an oak chest of drawers, or, perhaps, standing on a coffer in the

hall. An exceptionally fine wheel is shown in Fig. 72; it is one of many

secured by Mr. Phillips, of the Manor House, Hitchin. Another

illustration is taken from a sketch of a spinning wheel in the Hull

Museum (see Fig. 73). It appears that early in the nineteenth century

Hull encouraged the training of domestic spinners, and at that time

supported a spinning school. _Apropos_ of that institution reference may

appropriately be made to Hadley's "History of Hull," in which the

historian, in reference to Sunday Schools, which had then quite recently

been founded, says: "From the Sunday School reports for this year [1788]

it seems they did not take. To whatever cause this may be attributed, it

by no means warrants the aspersions thrown upon the town on that

account, which has with equal ardour and wisdom espoused that useful

establishment of Spinning Schools, in preference to a preposterous

institution replete with folly, intolerance, fanaticism, and mischief."

In explanation it has been remarked that, "Evidently wheels were

plentiful in Hull and Sunday Schools a novelty." To-day we can reverse

the statement, for schools are plentiful but spinning wheels are rare!

Collectors eagerly secure anything in the way of a genuine antique

wheel, although the fastidious have the choice of two distinct

types--those worked by hand and those operated by a treadle. Sometimes a

spinning wheel made for the foot could be worked independently by the

hand, just in the same way as modern sewing machines are made for hand

or treadle, and sometimes a combination of both methods. The very

general use of the spinning wheel is accounted for by the fact that this

useful machine was met with in every cottage in the days when homespun

yarns and wools were prepared by hand, and they were also found in the

mansion and the palace, where they served to amuse the ladies of the

household.

There are many varieties of spinning wheels, among them the old oak

spinning wheels used in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries, and the more decorative used until quite late in the

eighteenth century, from their ornament and lightness, apparently used

more for preparing the material for fancy work rather than for really

utilitarian purposes. Some highly decorative spinning wheels inlaid with

mother-o'-pearl and ivory have been brought over to this country from

Holland and other continental countries, perhaps the most decorative

being those made by French workmen in the Chinese style, the wood being

lacquered blue and ornamented with gilt.

Mr. John Suddaby, who presented the spinning wheel we have illustrated

to the Hull Wilberforce Museum, named after William Wilberforce, paid a

high tribute to the famous philanthropist, who he declared to be

associated with the spinning schools of the town. The old wheels of

early date were gradually improved until they were rendered obsolete by

the greater inventions of machines which could be worked by steam

engines, thus originating the factory system of textile production.

Among the sundry curios associated with the spinning wheel are

handsomely carved wood distaffs of boxwood, curiously turned spindles;

and now and then a pewter vessel of circular form, puzzling in its

identity, turns out to be the rim cup from the distaff of an old

spinning wheel.

Materials and Work.

Old workboxes appear to be very numerous. The older ones were mostly of

wood, but the external decoration seems to have been a matter of taste,

some preferring inlays. In early days moulded plaster ornament, richly

gilded and coloured, was much favoured, and in still earlier times deep

relief carvings in the oak of which the boxes were made. In the Stuart

and later periods ladies worked the exterior ornament in silks and

satins and embroidery. Among the workboxes in the Victoria and Albert

Museum there is a painted box in distemper and gilding, the subject

chosen for the ornamentation of the lid being the story of David and

Bathsheba, round the sides being floral devices. This decorative workbox

has drawers and compartments, a sliding front facilitating their use.

In the same collection there are workboxes overlaid with straw work in

geometrical patterns relieved by colour. Straw-work decoration was much

favoured at the commencement of the nineteenth century, its origin being

traceable to the French military prisoners in this country during the

Napoleonic wars between the years 1797 and 1814, when many officers and

men were detained at Porchester Castle, near Portsmouth, and at Norman

Cross, near Peterborough. The grasses, of which the boxes were covered,

were collected and dried by the prisoners, who obtained the different

shades and tints which render this class of work so effective by

steeping them in infusions of tea, according to a note by Dr. Strong,

who visited the barracks at Norman Cross.

The workboxes, so rich in gilding and relief, came from Italy, when, as

early as the year 1400, caskets were covered with a species of lime

which was moulded, the gesso, as it was called, on a gilt ground of

white compo, giving it a very rich effect. Leather was used with good

effect, too, for the ornamentation of workboxes, red morocco being much

favoured in England early in the nineteenth century. Fig. 76 illustrates

three very beautiful little fitted boxes with inlaid ornament and straw

work.

Little Accessories.

The contents of an old workbox are many and varied. Among the odds and

ends it is no uncommon thing to find relics of lace-making, by which so

many cottagers have been able to maintain themselves for generations.

[Illustration: FIG. 73.--SPINNING WHEEL.

(_In the Hull Museum._)]

[Illustration: FIG. 74.--OLD LACE BOBBINS.

(_a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, and _f_, reading from left to right.)]

There is something very remarkable about the manufacture of pillow lace,

in that it is carried on in the villages of Buckinghamshire just as it

was two or more centuries ago, and the pillow and the bobbins are almost

identical in form and design--indeed, the patterns of the lace have

changed little, for the workers cling tenaciously to the old designs,

Flemish in their characteristics, just as they do to the old bobbins.

Some of these little spools or bobbins have been handed down from mother

to daughter as heirlooms, and many of them carry a romantic story, if it

were but known. Just as the Welsh lovespoons and the Sunderland glass

rolling-pins were given as love tokens, many of these bobbins are the

result of patient labour, their decoration having often been the work of

days; ivory, bone, wood, and metal being cut and shaped, gilded and

stained, in order to provide the favoured one with a bobbin unlike any

other and quite distinctive in design. In the making of pillow lace,

pins, cleverly placed so as to form the pattern, were inserted into the

cushion, and the threads on a dozen or more bobbins deftly twisted in

and out and tied round the pins. The glass beads, many of the older ones

of odd shapes and colours, hand-made, made the first distinction, and

their weight helped to keep the light turned wood bobbins in place. It

was the bobbins which were ornamental, and some of the older ones--those

made in the eighteenth century--are very decorative, and now much sought

after by collectors. Those illustrated in Fig. 74 have been selected

from a large collection for their representative types: (A) is the

oldest; the ornament is of pewter let into the wood, it has a very small

spool; (B) is ivory, the incised parts stained green; (C) is bone, the

incised pattern filled in with gold beaten into a thin plate; (D) is

also of bone with a band of brass and coloured inlays; (E) walnut wood,

turned in the deep grooves are six loose silver rings, some of the heads

are of brass gilt; (F) the most modern type, such as may be seen in use

in Buckinghamshire to-day, the present revival of the hand-made lace

industry being due to the efforts of the North Bucks Lace Association.

Of such handwork Cowper wrote:--

"Yon cottager who weaves at her own door,

Pillow and bobbins all her little store:

Content, though mean, and cheerful, if not gay,

Shuffering her threads about the livelong day."

The lace-maker, and the housewife who occupied her leisure moments in

lace-making, left behind many collectable curios. The worker of samplers

and those advanced in the higher arts of needlecraft had also their

little work necessaries. Very clever indeed were the workers of

silk-embroidered pictures, and the instruments they used were fine and

delicate, different indeed from the coarser needles of the knitter and

the meshes of the netter. In later years the workbox became more

substantial, and less attention was given to the exterior, for the

interior fittings of the workbox became beautiful, and a wealth of art

was shown in the carving of the ivory accessories, and the pearl tops of

the thread and silk reels and winders and the curious little wax

holders. There were cleverly contrived measuring tapes, and beautiful

little baskets of ivory and wood, some filled with emery, others serving

the purpose of receptacles for pins and needles. From these evolved the

needlebooks and the more modern companions.

[Illustration: FIG. 75.--OLD PIN POPPETS AND ANCIENT PINS.]

In Fig. 77 are shown several beautiful oddments taken out of an old

workbox; they are all made of ivory, carved and fretted in such delicate

tracery that it is a wonder that they have survived for a century or

more without injury. Ivory work holders, in which ladies rolled their

needlework when they went out to tea, were often beautifully carved;

they, too, are charming additions to ivory workbox fittings.

Cutlery.

The cutler has contributed to the curios of the workbox. The knives and

scissors, bodkins, and stilettos from an old workbox look strangely out

of date when compared with those bought in the shops to-day. The chief

thing that is so noticeable to the critical observer is the cutting of

the steel and the hand ornamentation of those days. Some of the

embroidery scissors were engraved all over with fancy patterns, and

there are some remarkably quaint button-hole scissors, on which the

owner's name or initials were often engraved.

Some time ago an old lady made a small collection of thimbles. It was

not a very expensive hobby, but the variety she secured was truly

remarkable. There were thimbles of bone, ivory, steel, brass, enamel,

silver, and even gold. Some were chased and engraved, some stamped and

punched. There were thimbles of huge size and others with open ends, the

same that sailors use.

It is said that the thimble dates back to 1684, when one Nicholas

Benschoten, of Amsterdam, sent one as a present to a lady friend with

the dedicatory inscription: "To My frouw van Rensclear this little

object which I have invented and executed as a protective covering for

her industrious fingers." It is said the name in this country was

originally "thumb-bell," so called because of the shape being of

bell-like form. Of the thimbles of the wealthy it is recorded there are

thimbles of onyx, mother-o'-pearl, and of gold, encrusted with rubies

and diamonds--the seamstress has, however, to be content with useful if

less costly "baubles."

Quaint Woodwork.

By way of contrast the outfit of the worker often includes wooden

needles and occasionally utensils made of wood, but covered with

evidences of love and tender regard for those who were destined to use

them. The knitter seems to have been peculiarly fortunate, for knitting

sticks and sheaths afforded the amateur carver ample opportunities of

showing his skill; and, like the carved lovespoons, of which there is

such a famous collection in the Cardiff Museum, the knitting sheaths and

sticks seem to indicate that in a similar way the amorous swain gave

vent to his feelings in the curious designs, mottoes, and names which he

carved upon knitting sticks and kindred objects used by the lady of his

choice. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there are some beautiful

boxwood needle sticks; one example is cleverly carved with emblems of

Faith, Hope, and Charity. Another beautiful needle stick in the same

collection is mounted with silver. On some of the woodwork used for

similar purposes there are cleverly designed pictures, and these were

not always associated with private use, for the clothworkers in many

districts used quite fanciful tools, especially in the villages, where

time was of small moment, and the long winter evenings could be occupied

with cutting and carving the handles and framework of the tools which in

everyday practice served such a useful and often wage-earning purpose.

In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a remarkable cloth-measure

made of walnut, bearing date 1745, three-sided, one being covered over

with letters of the alphabet cut in deep relief, thus serving a useful

purpose in the home or as an educational standard. On the second side

there are cleverly designed pastoral and hunting scenes, and on the

third the arms of the Swiss cantons. Other portions of the measure

illustrate the implements and tools used by clothworkers at that period.

Switzerland has long been famous for its wood carving, and many of the

curios found in this country have come from the Swiss mountain villages.

No doubt some of our readers have come across the old pin poppets which

boys and girls carried with them to the village school half a century or

more ago. The girls filled them with pins and needles, bodkin and

stiletto, and the boys with pencils and pens. In Fig. 75 two curious old

pin boxes are illustrated. The _pins_ shown on the same page are,

however, of much older date; they are, in fact, merely thorns; these

interesting and authentic relics of the "common objects of the home," or

perhaps more correctly described, of dress, are to be seen in the

National Collection of Wales at Cardiff, the measuring stick shown in

the photograph giving their size. The pin poppet, as its name denotes,

was, however, intended originally for the requirements of the early

needleworker who at the dames' school won renown in those great

achievements--the samplers of old. These, however, do not exhaust the

wood-carving curios of the workbox, but they may serve to remind

collectors of what they may hope to discover in their hunt for household

curios.

The Needlewoman.

The curiosities much prized to-day, the work of the needlewoman, or

those who plied the needle chiefly for purposes of amusement or to give

pleasure to those on whom they bestowed the products of their skill, are

met with in many distinct forms. This is not a work on needlework, or we

might tell of the various stitches which are indicative of certain

periods. It is, however, admissible to mention some of the household

curios, the product of such patient labour applied to the skilful

manipulation of silks and threads and cottons and wools, of all colours

and substances, embroidered or worked on canvas or other fabric.

[Illustration: FIG. 76.--THREE OLD WORKBOXES.

(_In the collection of Mr. Phillips, of Hitchin._)]

The mistresses of the old English homes were very industrious. They

worked crewel bed hangings and cross-stitch and tent-stitch upholstery

in the seventeenth century, and in still earlier times richly ornamented

linens and other fabrics with flowers and scriptural subjects. Writing

in reference to Queen Mary, the wife of William III, Sir Charles Sedley

said:--

"When she rode in coach abroad

She was always knotting thread."

And her example was followed by many in humbler circumstances. In later

years women have wrought needlework and beadwork pictures, and have even

threaded their needles with human hair when no silk could be found fine

enough.

Of the permanent ornaments of the home--now valued curios--there are

cases formerly used on a lady's toilet table, embroidered with floss

silk and frequently dated. Some were made to hold devotional books,

others were portable boxes, the covers of which were worked on white

satin with coloured silks and beads, oftentimes scriptural scenes being

depicted in silk; one very favourite scene in the seventeenth century

was the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon.

Many beautifully embroidered trinket boxes record the patience with

which they were worked, and were undoubtedly a labour of love. Among the

smaller objects, gifts from friend to friend, were pincushions, some of

which bear dates in the seventeenth century. These were worked in

coloured silks on canvas, the ornament often taking the form of a fruit

or flower basket, birds and insects. The favourite material and colour

for the back of such pincushions was yellow satin. A rather pleasing

variety consisted of bag and pincushion worked to match, the two being

united by a cord of plaited silk. Of purses there were many varieties,

chiefly made of coarse canvas worked in cross and tent stitches with

coloured silks and silver threads, couched or laid over silver thread,

and then stitched to the canvas concealing it. There are also miniature

pincushions worked in silk like the old samplers and brocade pocket

books, some of which were woven in France in the seventeenth century.

There are also holdalls and needle cases in embroidery and cross stitch.

The favourite colours worked by English ladies in the eighteenth century

were pink, orange, and light green. On these were often worked mottoes

and rhyme. One will serve as a sample:--

"When Judah's daughters captive led

Behold their mighty kings subdued."

Loyal mottoes were frequently worked, especially during the days when

the Pretenders were carrying on their hopeless campaign. There is a

subtle reminder of the desire to make known loyal feelings, intermixed

with prudence in concealing them, in the quaint embroidered garter in

the British Museum which is inscribed "GOD BLESS P.C."

To smokers were given embroidered tobacco pouches in green, pink, and

silver; one charming old beadwork tobacco pouch in Taunton Castle is

embroidered "LOVE ME FOR I AM THINE, 1631." There were necklaces and

bracelets of needlework, and some of coloured glass beads, as well as

the long watchguards worn round the neck, chiefly of the nineteenth

century.

[Illustration: FIG. 77.--OLD WORKBOX FITTINGS.

(_In the Author's collection._)]

Old Samplers.

Old samplers may well be regarded as educational, belonging to the

schoolroom as well as to the workbox. They were intended to teach

needlework, and served as reminders of alphabets, sums, and mapping.

Many worked in silk on yellow linen in the eighteenth century were quite

elaborate pieces of needlework. Those of the seventeenth century,

chiefly of linen, were much cruder and simpler in design. During the

latter half of the eighteenth century samplers were mostly worked on

canvas or sampler cloth, a material which was used almost as long as

samplers were in fashion. Different stitches were employed; there was

the early drawn and cut work, and then the silk embroidery showing the

girl's acquirement of the darning stitch.

Some early tapestry maps are numbered among the educational curios in

which samplers are so prominent. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society own

two unique specimens of sixteenth-century tapestry, formerly in the

possession of Horace Walpole. They measure about 16 ft. by 12 ft., the

sections including Herefordshire, Shropshire, Gloucestershire,

Oxfordshire, and a part of Berkshire. These remarkable maps are vividly

coloured and show excellent pictorial scenes indicating villages, parks,

and country seats. Such maps are rare, but now and then really

interesting examples of needlework mapping are met with.

Collectors keep an eye on preservation, but they are keen on dated

specimens, and those with ornate and quaintly picturesque borders. The

condition adds to the beauty, but not always to the value, for many of

the older and less well-preserved samplers are now becoming scarce. They

have been retained by those who have no interest in antiques because

they bore the name of some fair ancestress who lived and worked on her

sampler more than a century ago, leaving it behind as a memorial of her

skill in the use of a needle for future generations to admire. How many

ladies of the twentieth century are preparing permanent records of their

skill in needlework for those who are to come to hand on to generations

unborn? is a question some may like to ponder.

XI

THE LIBRARY

CHAPTER XI

THE LIBRARY

From cover to cover--Old scrap books--Almanacs--The writing

table.

The library is usually where the master of the house conducts his

business correspondence and, if a student, spends much of his time among

his favourite books, or, perchance, engages in literary work. In days

gone by, when there were fewer opportunities of visiting public

libraries, and when circulating libraries were few and far between, the

man of letters accumulated around him standard works and ancient tomes,

possibly seldom read. When such a library, perhaps scarcely examined for

a century or more, comes to be dispersed, it often happens that

curiosities are brought to light.

The furniture of the library is full of interest, for a quaint writing

table, bureau, or desk full of oddments is an exceedingly prolific field

of research. In the following paragraphs a few of these curiosities are

referred to; there are others, however, that the collector will

discover, possibly one of the scarcer curios of the library, some of

which realize unexpectedly high prices when they are brought under the

hammer.

From Cover to Cover.

The books which constitute the library are often curious, and there is

much that receives its monetary value on account of its antiquity and

rarity. An old library will frequently include black-letter printing and

old volumes illustrated with wood blocks, and, perchance, illuminated

initial letters. Some of the volumes may be printed on vellum, and there

may be some in manuscript. The bindings of presentation books may be of

rich calf and tooled in gold; some may even have edge paintings and

choice hand-painted illuminations. The subject-matter of the volumes

often gives rise to specialistic collections. Some will find amusement

in tracing the progress of a great industry through published

information, like those curious old time tables in the early days of

railways, and the pamphlets which are classed by the collector as

"Railroadia," and from them learn the story of the "iron horse." There

are others who collect books and prints relating to ballooning, the

microscope, and many of the earlier sciences. There are topographical

curiosities and historical marvels. Some books will be valued because of

their illustrations, for the work of a master hand may be recognized by

the expert searcher after valuables. The rare mezzotints, stipples, and

delicate line engravings, to say nothing of the more valuable colour

prints, often realize far more than the books themselves. Ancient art is

more valued than the literary efforts of past masters of wielding the

pen!

It is thus that the books are often thrown away after the pictures or

even superadded illustrations or mere name-plates have been removed. The

collector of bookplates searches for his treasures. Some talk of the

vandalism of the collector of ex-libris, but they must remember that it

is quite easy to remove a bookplate without injuring the volume, and

there are many worthless books. The name labels or bookplates found in

English libraries range from the early dated plates of the close of the

seventeenth century to the present day. The different styles of ornament

in vogue in the respective periods of their engraving were with few

exceptions adhered to by the printers of such plates. Thus the collector

classifies his albums and rejoices in the variations and details of the

engraver's fancy, while he separates them into such well-defined groups

as early armorial, Jacobean, Chippendale, ribbon and wreath, urn,

pictorial, armorial, and simple shield. To other than the enthusiastic

collector, bookplates may possess merit in that they have belonged to

famous men, and are souvenirs taken from the volumes which were once

handled by distinguished statesmen, divines, and men of letters.

Old Scrap Books.

The making of scrap books or the filling of portfolios was not always an

amusement for children, neither did older folk make those quaint scrap

books with such assortments of literary and pictorial odds and ends

solely for the amusement of their visitors. Many enthusiastic collectors

stored their treasures in such books, the binding of which was often

very costly and quite gorgeously ornamented. Some pointed with pride to

collections of prints, others to albums of frontispieces, printers'

marks, and tailpieces, some of which were beautiful little pictures.

In modern times collectors rescue from the flames old tickets, pictorial

benefit tickets, theatre passes, and quaint pictures which tell us of

great events which happened in days gone by at Ranelagh, Vauxhall, and

other places.

Ranelagh, where the entertainments of which relics in the shape of

beautifully engraved tickets are to be found, was at Chelsea, and the

gardens visited by Walpole, Johnson, and Goldsmith were famous for their

promenades and for the music and singing which might be enjoyed, among

the evening pleasures being displays of fireworks and masked dances. In

the summer tea and coffee were sipped under the trees, and there were

water carnivals on the river. There were also masquerade balls and

dances, for which tickets engraved by Bartolozzi and other famous

artists were issued. It is these tickets which are preserved and

collected now.

The autograph hunter extends his hobby by adding old parchments and

deeds with seals, for among the odd bundles of parchments in old

libraries are many documents attested with thumb-marks and seals--"His

mark," of days when many of the landed proprietors could not write their

own names.

[Illustration: FIG. 78.--ANCIENT CLOG ALMANAC.]

The joys of St. Valentine's Day, remembered by older people still, are

unknown to the present generation, but collectors perpetuate February

14th as it was kept in the past by filling albums with such old

valentines as they may be able to secure.

Watch Papers.

Another comparatively small collection can be made up of pictorial watch

papers, those rare little pictorial views which once reposed in the

interior of the cases of old watches. Watches are by no means common

curios of the household, but now and then an old silver verge or a

decorated watch case thought little of is found to contain one of those

pretty pictures which were chiefly engraved and printed in the

eighteenth century. Many of the designs were printed on satin; some were

devices in needlework; again others were cut out in the most lace-like

designs. Theatrical celebrities were often pictured; thus the theatrical

amateur would buy his watch paper representing the celebrated Miss

Gunning, or possibly Mr. Garrick. The pictures were really gems, too,

for great artists such as Angelica Kaufmann, Cipriani, and Bartolozzi

did not disdain to engrave watch papers.

Old Almanacs.

Some of the best finds when libraries have been overhauled have been the

curious old almanacs published when superstition was rife. The oldest,

perhaps, were the clog almanacs, although some were common in

Staffordshire until about 1820. The accompanying illustration (see Fig.

78) was engraved in an old book referring to that county published more

than a century ago. In Camden's _Britannia_ some information is given in

reference to these early clog almanacs, in which it is said holidays

were distinguished by hieroglyphics; in some the Massacre of the

Innocents was denoted by a drawn sword; SS. Simon and Jude's Day by a

ship, because they were fishers; and St. George's Day by a horse. In the

Norway clog almanacs St. Martin's Day is marked with a goose, the custom

of eating a goose now being transferred to Michaelmas. In the

illustration given in Fig. 78 the first section embraces January,

February, and March; the second, April, May, and June; the third, July,

August, and September; and the fourth, October, November, and December.

Conspicuously inscribed on the clog will be noticed the ring for New

Year's Day; the star denoting the Epiphany; the axe for St. Paul;

February 14th is indicated by a lover's knot; a spear denotes St.

George's Day in April; and May Day by a tree branch. The keys of St.

Peter are noticed as indicating the 29th of June; the scales of St.

Michael are seen at the end of September. St. Catherine's wheel figures

in the middle of November, immediately under it being the somewhat large

cross of St. Andrew. Other symbols will doubtless be recognized on this

interesting relic.

The study of the almanac is not now one of the chief diversions of the

fair sex. At one time, however, when ladies had fewer amusements than

they have now, they spent much time poring over almanacs, and placed

implicit trust in what they found recorded there, especially in the

forecasts and prognostications for the future of those born on certain

days and under so-called lucky or unlucky stars. One of the most popular

calendars of olden time was "The Ladies' Diary or the Woman's Almanac,"

containing many delightful and entertaining particulars for the fair

sex. Let us take, for example, a copy of that popular almanac for the

year of grace 1749. On the cover there is a picture of the Queen.

Alluding to the peace then prevailing are the lines:--

"Perch'd o'er this Realm, the ancient seat of Kings,

Now dove-like peace the sprig of laurel brings;

And British fair ones happy days shall see,

While George shall reign, and Britons still are free."

Another George is on the throne, and his consort Queen Mary is an ideal

woman, and what to many is of the highest importance, Peace reigns in

this country and Britons are still free!

Among the contents of that curious almanac are Latin and French enigmas,

mathematical questions and paradoxes. The concluding paragraph for the

dedication of that day is entitled "Truth's Moral Euclid"; the

proposition given being:--

"Virtue promotes happiness, private and public.

Vice is destructive of happiness, private and public.

Honour is the reward of virtue."

One of the finest collections of old almanacs is in the Bodleian Library

at Oxford--chiefly seventeenth-century productions. A still older

almanac was the "Poor Robin" of 1664; another seventeenth-century

almanac being the "Vox Stellarum" of Francis Moore, a quack doctor. In

1733 Benjamin Franklin published in Philadelphia his "Poor Richard's

Almanac," noted for its verses, jests, and sayings. The monopoly once

possessed by the Stationers' Company has long been broken down, and of

later almanacs and calendars there is no end. Among the miniature books,

the collection of which is much favoured now, are some very tiny

almanacs, like the beautiful specimens of such a calendar given in Fig.

80, produced actual size, shown open and closed. This miniature almanac

is printed on satin and is full of pleasing little pictures. It is the

work of a French artist early in the nineteenth century, the pictures

and their descriptions and the monthly calendars occupying alternate

pages. The binding is of mother-o'-pearl, bound in ormolu and richly

gilt and engraved. Some similar calendars in tiny leather bindings,

beautifully tooled and ornamented in gold, are also collectable.

The Writing Table.

The writing table usually occupies an honoured place in the library. It

may be a massive table of oak or a simple writing desk venerated on

account of the great literary works which have been written upon it. It

is no uncommon thing to read of large sums paid for a writing desk on

which the manuscript of a famous book has been penned, and some of the

writing tables upon which deeds of historical fame have been signed have

gained a reputation and a money value out of all proportion to their

curio or antiquarian merits. Not long ago the late King Edward presented

to the Commonwealth of Australia the table on which the great Charter

was signed, together with the inkstand and pen used on that occasion.

Those will be relics for future generations to value.

The table appointments are among the collectable curios of the library,

and prominent among these is the inkstand. Inkstands find their

prototypes in the inkhorns of the scribe; and throughout the generations

which have provided curios for twentieth-century collectors there have

been fresh supplies in silver, pewter, Sheffield plate, copper, bronze,

iron, wood, china, and brass. Very beautiful indeed are some of the old

inkstands in their separate vase-like attachments. The ink-well was

formerly accompanied by a sand box or a pounce caster, in modern days

superseded by a second ink-well. The sand casters for sprinkling pounce

or sand upon newly written pages were a necessity before the days of

blotting paper. Perhaps some day blotters, blotting pads, and the like,

may become collectable curios!

Collectors of old china are familiar with the rare boxes, egg-cup-like

in form, made by Richard Chaffers, of Liverpool, the blue and white

decoration, the name of the potter in the narrowed portion of the box

being characteristic of what was for a long time known as "Dick's

Pepperbox." It was, however, intended for a pounce box, the pounce or

pumice being a fine powder of the cuttle-fish bone, afterwards giving

the name to the pounce paper or transparent tracing material. Of the

inkstands to be seen in our museums there are many dating from almost

prehistoric times; their variety may be instanced by mention of one in

the Berlin Museum, an Egyptian curio said to be 3,400 years old, below

the ink compartments being a case for holding reed pens.

In early days before even well-to-do people could read and write the

scribe found a ready occupation. The materials he used were carried

about in a writing case of metal, and among such curios are writing

cases which were used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They

were often the work of the craftsmen of Mesopotamia, who were clever

artists in metal, and the work they performed came to Europe through

Syria. The example shown in Fig. 81 is the work of Mahmud, the son of

Sonkor, of Baghdad, and is dated 1281. This beautiful specimen may be

seen in the British Museum.

The implements the scribe used changed as time went on, for parchment

was used quite early in the East. Writing was introduced into Spain by

the Moors in the tenth century, although writing paper was not made in

England until the fifteenth century.

[Illustration: FIG. 79.--OLD COIN TESTER.]

[Illustration: FIG. 80.--MINIATURE SOUVENIR ALMANAC.]

[Illustration: FIG. 81.--ANCIENT WRITING SET.]

The evolution of the pen has been slow, for the use of quills continues

still in some Government offices, and quills are still supplied to

readers in the British Museum Reading Room. The old-fashioned quill pens

were in days gone by shaped with a small knife made specially for that

purpose. Indeed, it is to the quill pen that we are indebted for our

"pen" knives, which have long been put to other uses. It was not

every one who was expert in cutting a pen neatly and making it write

well. Consequently an instrument was made for that purpose, known as the

quill-pen cutter. These cutters are now and then met with in old desks,

where they have lain unused for many years.

Quill-pen making was an important industry until the invention of the

steel pen, and the quality of the quill was a matter of importance to

the scribe. In a trader's circular dated 1820 there is notice of the

Royal Appointment of a Liverpool maker, who was authorized to exercise

and enjoy all the rights, profits, privileges, and advantages of his

appointment of Pen Cutter and Quill Dresser to His Majesty King George

IV. In the same circular it is stated that the quill pens supplied were

of varying qualities, secured from the swan, raven, goose, turkey, crow,

and duck.

Sealing correspondence was a necessity before gummed envelopes were

invented. Then sealing-wax was in daily use on the writing table, and

the signet ring or seal was requisitioned. The outfit of a library table

would scarcely be complete without wax, wafer irons, and seals. One of

the curios found now and then in old desks is a little cutting

instrument useful in removing seals or opening letters which had been

sealed. In the days before penny postage letters were sent carriage

forward, and the postage which had to be paid on the receipt of letters

from a distance was a heavy tax on those who had many friends and much

correspondence.

The penalty of being the recipient of much correspondence may, perhaps,

have been lightened by the wording of the seal; for many old letter

seals conveyed sentimental messages which to the receiver from that

particular sender might have meant much. The following is a selection of

the characteristic sentiments of the day: "Break the seal, read the

letter, and keep the secret"; "You have a loyal friend"; and "Life is

naught without a friend." We cannot tell what was the result of sending

a letter bearing such a seal legend as:--

"Mine is a heart that loveth thee;

So, ladylove, do thou love me."

Collectors' hobbies now and then are increased by the introduction of

something entirely new, something never known before, and the world

rejoices over a genuine novelty. The cynic declares that there is

nothing new under the sun, but the introduction of the penny postage in

1840, at the instigation of Rowland Hill, laid the foundation to stamp

collecting, which has become the most popular of all collectors'

hobbies. The philatelist is found in every civilized country, and the

collection of postage stamps, used and unused, grows apace. A bundle of

old letters in entire envelopes, posted forty or fifty years ago from

one of the British Colonies, discovered when ransacking an old library,

will probably prove the most valuable relic of the past found in it.

XII

THE SMOKER'S CABINET

CHAPTER XII

THE SMOKER'S CABINET

Old pipes--Pipe racks--Tobacco boxes--Smokers' tongs and

stoppers--Snuff boxes and rasps.

The slave of the pipe and the moderate smoker of years gone by have left

behind them relics in nearly every home. Such curios are found when

pulling down old houses, and clearing out rubbish heaps; and even when

making excavations in the vicinity of once occupied ground remains left

behind by smokers of olden times are discovered.

Many are marked as curios on account of their curious forms; others have

been regarded as such because their uses have become obsolete, and some

because of their great beauty and the costliness of the materials of

which they are made.

The collectable curios of the smoker's cabinet consist of clay pipes,

varying from the earliest form known to the later types not far removed

from the modern clays still smoked by workmen; of pipes of curious forms

and quaintly carved bowls; and the Eastern pipes, which look more like

show pieces in their size and forms than any pipe made for actual use.

The curios include tobacco jars, spill cups, and ash trays; and there

are also brass and copper spittoons and pipe racks. An old smoker's desk

often contains odd curios, such as the one-time common pipe-stoppers, so

many of which were made by Birmingham "toy-makers" in the eighteenth

century.

Old Pipes.

When tobacco was first introduced into this country, and smoking was

taught to those whose descendants in countless numbers were destined to

worship at the shrine of my Lady Nicotine on British soil, the pipe was

brought over too; for tobacco and the tobacco pipe are inseparable,

although the pipe shares its popularity with cigars and cigarettes.