Chats on Household Curios

by Fred. W. Burgess

The need of some convenient tray or receptacle for the snuffers, not always over-clean when they had been used a few times, was met at first by what are known as snuffer stands made of wrought metal, and often very ornamental. Then came the oblong tray of convenient shape, following in its decoration and ornament prevailing styles in other domestic tin or metal work. In this connection it should be pointed out that there are many varieties of taper holders and stands used for the small wax tapers, then common on the writing table.

Oil Lamps.

Although oil had long been a recognized illuminant from which a good artificial light could be obtained, it was not until the eighteenth century that any marked attempt was made to substitute oil for candles in this country. For really beautiful lamps we have to go back to the bronze lamps of ancient Greece and Rome, and the terra-cotta lamps of the early Christians, many of which were exceedingly interesting. Householders in England, and in America, too, preferred the beautiful silver candlesticks and those charming and artistic scrolls which once decorated the walls of the houses of the well-to-do. There came a time, however, when oil lamps were reinstated, and although candles still held sway and were difficult to displace, inventors and makers of oil lamps began to compete for the lighting industry. The three old lamps now in the Cardiff Museum, shown in Fig. [15], must be classed among the commoner types of early lamps, once plentiful in farmhouses and cottages.

The lamp used on the table in Victorian days was the moderator lamp, the principle of which was a spring forcing the oil up through the burner—but such lamps have no claim upon the curio hunter either for beauty of form or rarity of material. These lamps, which burned colza or seed oil, were superseded in time by paraffin and petroleum lamps. Now and then some wonderful invention flashed across the scene, but although various modern improved burners have come and gone, the lamp, excepting for purposes of ornament and decorative effect, has given way to coal gas and, in more modern times, to electric lighting. There are few household curios of any value associated with oil lighting, and as yet gas is too new!

FIG. 17.—FINE PAIR OF ANCIENT SNUFFERS.

Lanterns.

The portable lantern made of iron and tin and glazed with horn was long an indispensable feature in every household. Horn lanterns were carried about everywhere in the days before street lighting was general, and to some extent they are needed in country districts to-day. There is a remarkable similarity between the modern glass lanterns of circular type and the old watchman's lanterns of a couple of centuries ago. The same design seems to have served the purpose through many generations, and to have been duplicated again and again. Among the ancient lanterns are some in which candles have been burned, and others where the candle socket has been utilized for the insertion of a socket oil lamp. In more modern times the horn has given place to glass. The carriage lamps of former days served their purposes well, and although some are certainly antique, they are by no means desirable curios. The light they gave when driving through a country lane was indeed a dim flicker compared with the powerful arcs of the modern motor-car.

The beacon fire is no longer seen on housetops, neither is the lantern in the yard and the vestibule furnished with a candle; but curiously enough, even in the most modern appointed houses, so great is the love for the antique in the furnishings of to-day, that beautifully modelled little replicas of the old horn lanterns are hung in entrance halls and passages—but instead of the candle there is the electric bulb!