No. 2 said:
“I thank you for the photograph of the interesting Vase or Bottle, for those are the only possible names one can give to the piece.”
No. 3. wrote:
“I have seen two or three of the pieces your photograph shows but have never found out their purpose. I have heard them described as 1. Lavers for the water in Baptism. 2. Water Bottle used in Tavern parlours, and I think the latter is more probable.”
So you see I had then six names for it, and lately when my Irish friend was here I asked him his opinion and he said, “It reminds me of ‘Rebecca at the Well.’” This set me longing to see what it looked like when Rebecca used it, so I got a painter to remove the corrosion with caustic and lime, as I had no bath mixture on tap, then I took it to my tinsmith and spent some time quaking—you understand me—for fear he should hole it or do something awful, but he straightened it, tapped out the dinges, and soon got it into its original shape. Strange to say it is the only piece of pewter in my collection which I prefer to see looking dull, the reason why is another mystery, but I have stopped having it polished up brightly like the rest. I really believe it is the oldest specimen in my collection, certainly it is the most antique in shape. It is nine inches high and its weight (2½ lbs.) denotes it was made when thick metal was worked with, and that is a sure sign of old times. It will not go with any pewter I possess, it makes it all appear comparatively modern, and so we have to allot it a position by itself on an old oak chest, and here I will leave “The Mystery Piece,” with this poser—is it early Georgian or ogygian?
THIRD COURSE
Old Brass and Copper
Modern Antique—The Turling Pin—The Duck Carver—Scotch Measures—When Matches were Scarce—Wexford in Wales—Snuff-boxes and Other Things.
I have only small collections of brass and copper to exhibit, and my reasons for buying these you see were mainly that often I had been poking about for pewter, and finding none, rather than waste the shopkeeper’s time for nothing I would purchase a bit of old brass or copper, if I happened to notice any piece I judged worth having. It is often difficult to identify old brass, and the quantity of “antique” that was manufactured in Birmingham alone, some years before the war, must have been very extensive. I found it nearly everywhere I went, and still see much of it about.