How some Oriental Curios are Derived.
It is useful at times to consider how the curios we collect have gradually accumulated, and thus to ascertain how they have been secured in the past; and from that we are enabled to form some estimate of further supplies, for the law of supply and demand regulates to some extent the market value of curios; it has something to do with the direction taken by curio-hunters.
Many curios have come into this country as the result of war and loot. Wars in the Far East have served the collector, and many choice bits of metal-work have changed hands at nominal sums after the return of troops employed in minor wars and punitive expeditions. Our vast Indian Empire, however, supplies many beautiful objects in metal, both ancient and of comparatively recent days, but even those are so quaint and so unlike the common objects of British make with which we are familiar that they are welcomed and find a fitting place among antique copper and brass.
To understand the curios which may be bought in Eastern bazaars, and more conveniently in the numerous stores and shops where Indian curios are sold, it is well to become acquainted with a really good representative collection, such as that which may be examined in the Indian Museum at South Kensington. In several galleries, arranged in cases according to the districts from which the specimens have been gathered, are to be found metal-work ranging from the sixteenth century to the present day. Although some of these are exceptional pieces, by far the larger number are helpful to the collector of even modest means in that they represent Indian curios which may be collected at trifling cost. Such objects, however, are unfortunately too often intermixed with modern castings and copies offered unblushingly by the dealer to the unwary. Among such curios from Indian bazaars, purchased by travellers to the less frequented districts, are very many cooking utensils. Some of these, although not very old, are quaint and unlike modern European vessels, for the native cooks have been slow to accept any change in their methods of cooking and do not take kindly to the use of Western types of culinary appliances. The Indian cook clings tenaciously to copper vessels, and notwithstanding attempts to introduce vessels of tin, aluminium, and enamelled ware, the old "chattie" is again and again brought out in preference. Most of the vessels are of primitive types, but they serve the purpose and the material is good and lasting. The native workers understand the requirements of Indian men and women, and can shape and hammer together just what they have for generations regarded as "the best." Clever indeed have been the native braziers in the past—and they still are—for they possess in addition to knowledge of coppersmithing an excellent knowledge of the composition and working qualities of the materials they employ. They understand something of the chemistry of metals, and are careful when melting copper in the furnace or over the fire not to overheat it, or to allow the metal to perish in processes of manufacture.