The Characteristics of the Metals.
Some collectors very wisely follow up their researches after new treasures by investigating the methods of their production, and they even visit modern works where similar methods, although more advanced, are going on. Very interesting indeed is it to watch the molten metal as it is mixed and poured into moulds and made into pigs. To see the great rolling mills through which the bars are passed, and to watch the hammering and drawing by the steam-hammer and powerful machinery, is an education which enhances the interest there is in the possession of finished goods—old and new.
It is said the brassfounder's requirements to-day are much the same as they have always been, although perhaps there are more iron moulds used and greater care is taken in their preparation. The mould must have a good surface and be composed of the right kind of iron. The best metal for the purpose appears to be one high in silica and low in combined carbon, thus securing a soft iron which will not crack when the molten metal strikes it. The science of metals is constantly being added to, and the research of chemists of recent years has done much towards improving the skill of present-day artists, most of whom, however, readily give praise to the almost intuitive skill of the artists of olden time.
The fashioning of copper and brass follows the preparation of the metal; there are many reasons why copper and its compounds and alloys have been so generally employed, one of the principal being that the ductility of copper has made it welcome wherever the hammer has been brought into play. The possibility of hammering out brass and copper, and especially the latter, is seen in the extreme fineness to which copper wire can be drawn. Hood uses the similitude when speaking of how travel improves the mind, and tells of the gradual narrowing of copper and brass as they become finer and finer, likening those who have not travelled to the narrowed metal. Collectors of curios show characteristic traits, twofold in application. There are some who get more broad-minded the farther they travel, the more museums they inspect, and the wider their knowledge of the antiquities they admire. Others, specialists for the most part, get into very narrow grooves, confining their hobbies to some one class of goods, not always the most interesting in public estimation; then they wonder how it is that their hobbies are not appreciated by their friends! Surely the greatest delight is in a representative collection, such as the hobby under review, which shows all the possibilities of copper and brass in their varied treatment. In the examples which have come down to us from the Ancients, in those schemes of decoration which mark clearly the work of the artists of some one country or period, and in those general collectable objects which have been brought together from everywhere, there is a liberal education:
"Some minds improve by travel; others, rather,
Resemble copper wire, or brass,
Which gets the narrower by going farther."
II
THE
HUNTING
GROUND
CHAPTER II
THE HUNTING GROUND
In buried cities—Turned up by the plough—Among Saxon and Norman remains—In hidden chambers—In local museums—Dealers' shops—The engraver's art.
The multiplicity of collectable objects needed to supply collectors makes the uninitiated wonder where all these antiques come from. Countless numbers of beautiful objects have found their way into the melting-pot in the past, and what once was old has in some new form become once more a useful article, in its turn to be discarded and perhaps melted up and recast.