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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.