Our Standards.

FIG. 58.—A PINT MEASURE OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.
FIG. 59.—A WINCHESTER PINT OF THE DAYS OF QUEEN ANNE.

FIG 60.—OLD FRENCH WEIGHTS.
(In the British Museum.)

In this connection it may be pointed out that a very pleasing collection can inexpensively be made out of old money changers' weights, both English and foreign. They were chiefly used with the pocket scales at one time carried about by traders as a precaution against the numerous clipped and light-weight coins in circulation. Among these little weights are those which were used for testing what are now obsolete gold coins, such as angel, guinea, half-guinea, and seven-shilling piece.

Some of the old Roman bell weights are interesting; they took their shape from more ancient weights in the form of a pagan deity, probably Mercury, who was looked upon as a god of scales and weights. In some collections larger Continental weights are met with; those illustrated in Fig. 60 representing three French weights preserved in the British Museum.

When examining old weights and measures we often wonder at the origin of such curious tables of weight formulated on somewhat perplexing standards, ridiculed as long obsolete by supporters of the metric systems. They would sweep them away; but to do so would snap one more link with the historic past, and perhaps cause us to forget the very simple origin of so many of our so-called complicated systems, the outcome of a slowly developing commerce—very different now to the days when our standards were formulated. The baseline of our weights and measures is to be found in a single grain of corn, such as would seem to be Nature's gift—the staff of life! It was a natural standard for agriculturists, who would be the first to use it, to adopt. Not only was the grain of corn the standard of measurement and weight, but a given number gave the weight value to the penny sterling. The grain retained its prominent position in our calculations long after standards had been fixed, for in the reign of Henry VII it was enacted that the bushel measure should contain eight gallons of wheat, and that the gallon should weigh eight pounds, the pound to be of twelve ounces Troy, each ounce equal to twenty silver pennies, every one of which should be of weight equivalent to thirty-two grains of dry wheat.

It will be remembered that a still earlier standard—that of the Roman Empire—was based on barleycorns, of which there were twenty-four to the ounce, a measurement adopted at Troyes, in France, having been brought from Cairo during the Crusades. Thus in this simple story we see the origin of Troy weight which in after years was used concurrently with the later avoirdupois (goods by weight), the standard adopted for heavy wares.

XII
BRONZES
AND
THEIR
REPLICAS

CHAPTER XII
BRONZES AND THEIR REPLICAS

Early figure modelling—Statues in public places—Replicas in miniature.

The art of sculpture was practised by the ancients, and long before the beautiful bronzes for which the artists of Greece and Rome were famous carvers of wood, and sculptors of stone and marble, had cut inscribed, and fashioned human figures, animals, and fabulous creatures according to their whims and fancies. In moulds cut in stone the early casters in metal produced the objects which we roughly class as bronze, and they are preserved to-day as reminders of those who lived before history was written. When the early Bronze Age had passed away and the use of iron was understood, the art of sculpture in stone was practised by the Egyptians and by other Eastern nations. Then came the beautiful metal-work of Ancient Greece; the statues, trophies, and groups, produced in those days when Greece excelled in the fine arts, have acquired a fame which has never been exceeded by sculptors or workers in metals in modern days. The Italians of a later period showed their religious emotions in the metallic works of art they produced in early mediæval days; and still later French modellers have excelled in human expression.

Many of the great works of the old masters in bronze are unique, and they are retained as great treasures in the national museums where they have found lasting homes. For the benefit of connoisseurs of art many of the great works have been copied, and in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington and in other places there are replicas in metal and in other materials, faithful copies of the original bronzes which are so rare. The educational value of a gallery of ancient art, whether expressed in marble, bronze, stone, or other materials, is considerable; it not only tends to the appreciation of modern art as represented by the statues and monuments in our parks and gardens, and in those smaller works which adorn public buildings and private mansions, but it leads to the appreciation of the lesser replicas of great works, such as artistic groups, figures, and bronzes which have been copied in miniature. Many of the most important works of the modeller and caster of bronze groups and figures are familiar to students of art and collectors of curios, in that so many of these important studies have been reproduced or copied; sometimes the copies are equally as beautiful as the original, although on a smaller scale, and many of them have quite an antique appearance, for they are by no means modern, such works of art having been reproduced very many years ago.

FIG. 61.—BRONZE TIGER, BY ANTOINE LOUIS BARYE.