Such work has at all times been beloved of sailors, but gypsies are occasionally found who make this class of “ornament.”
Two examples I have seen remind me of another instance of gypsy shrewdness. A gypsy boy, aged about thirteen, called at my house one morning with some bottles of water which also contained specimens of woodwork for sale; these were a sort of emblematical Calvary, each bottle containing one tall and two shorter crosses, two spears at back, a hammer and three nails in front, all of which were cut from wood and were inserted in a cruciform foot also composed of deal, the three crosses being decorated by the favourite angle-notching that is reminiscent of a boy’s first pocket-knife.
The sum of sixpence was asked for each bottle with its contents.
I purchased one of them and thought I had seen the last of the lad, but in the afternoon he appeared with another bottle exactly like those he had previously brought, excepting that between the two spears a ladder had been fitted. It was described as a much better one than those he had brought in the morning, and he added that as I had already bought one he would let me have it for ninepence. Although I failed to appreciate the implied favour, I made a second purchase.
It will be noticed that the boy did not bring the better article first, or he would certainly have sold but one at ninepence instead of disposing of two for fifteen pence, also that he did not offer terms for exchanging the inferior for the better article, but sold a second.
The manufacture of just this class of article is not one of the common occupations of gypsies, and it is possible, as this family came from the neighbourhood of Cardiff, that the locality, together with occasional contact with sailors, may have suggested it to them as a help in their struggle to live.
Another way of turning an “honest” penny, practised occasionally by both gypsy and tramp, is the making of artificial flowers from turnips. Turnips may be usually acquired pretty easily, and the competent artist, by deftly using a pocket knife, converts them into most attractive and really deceptive imitations of flowers.
I am not sure if the imitation of any particular species is aimed at, but the kind usually produced may be described as midway between a white water lily and a rose; these flowers are generally left “plain turnip,” but I have seen them splashed with crimson, or occasionally dyed entirely with cochineal or aniline solution.
A flower is usually offered arranged as a button-hole or bouquet, a twig being inserted as a stem and a few leaves added; those of laurel and thuja lobbi are favourites as they are always to be “pinched” en route; moreover, the odour of the thuja neutralizes any vegetable-like smell of the flower.
A large proportion of the articles hawked around by gypsy vans at the present time are not of gypsy manufacture, as machine-made tinware and other goods yield a greater profit; individual tent-dwelling hawkers, however, still carry a fair variety of home-made stuff, such as clothes-pegs, toys, grass mats and baskets, meat skewers, wire flower-baskets, etc.