Among the collectable curios of old households are many antiquities from foreign lands. Perhaps the most interesting, in that they afford us examples of the prototypes of household antiques as they were known to a nation possessing an early civilization, polish, and refinement, are those which have been discovered recently in Egyptian tombs. Some representative examples may be seen in the British Museum. There are toilet requisites including mirrors, combs, and even wigs and wig boxes, as well as a glass tube for stibium or eye paint. There are ivory pillows or head rests, models of the ghostly boats of the underworld, and a vast variety of children's toys, including wooden dolls with strings of mud beads to represent hair, porcelain elephants, and wooden cats; and there are children's balls made of blue glazed porcelain, and of leather stuffed with chopped straw. There are many games and amusements, such as stone draught boards, and draughtsmen in porcelain and wood. There are bells of bronze and some remarkable musical instruments like a harp, the body of which is in the form of a woman; and there are reed flutes and whistles and cymbals such as were carried by priestesses. There are curious ivory amulets, quaintly carved spoons, ivory boxes, and even theatre tickets. Necklaces and pendants and other articles of adornment are plentiful, for the Egyptian maidens possessed much jewellery—bracelets, rings, and necklaces. One very exceptionally fine relic of this far-off age is a toilet box complete with vases of unguents, eye paint, comb, and bronze shell on which to mix unguents, and other trinkets. Many such antiquities find their way into museums and private collections of household curios, and are useful and interesting for purposes of comparison, telling of customs which change not, and of the many connecting links which exist between the past and the present.
Ancient Spectacles.
It is truly astonishing how many ancient spectacles, which to collectors of such things would be veritable treasures, lie neglected and allowed to "knock about" until broken or otherwise damaged. Those mostly discovered are the heavy brass and silver-rimmed spectacles of about one hundred years ago, some very interesting specimens of which are to be seen in several of the larger local museums.
Spectacles are of very respectable age, although they cannot be traced back to the ancient peoples, for the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, notwithstanding that they polished glass and rock crystal and possessed much scientific lore, were ignorant of their use as aids to sight.
It is said that the credit of the discovery of how to make use of artificial aids to defective sight must be accorded to Roger Bacon, who in his book Opus Majus, published in the thirteenth century, mentioned magnifying glasses as being useful to old people to make them see better. True spectacles are said to have been fashioned in 1317 by Salvino degli Armati, a Florentine nobleman. At first they were convex; indeed, no mention of concave glasses for shortsighted persons was made until towards the middle of the sixteenth century. From that time onward there were developments, and among the household curios are to be found silver, brass, and tortoiseshell rims, and glasses of more or less utility.
Curious China Ware.
Old china and pottery have been fully dealt with by many specialist writers, but there are some household curios made of porcelain, china, and earthenware which cannot be omitted from this survey of household curios. Foremost among these are the now scarce Toby jugs, made at so many of the famous potteries. In a large collection the variations are at once recognized; yet the same idea seems to have run through the minds of the artists in fashioning these jugs, so essentially typical of the age in which they were made and used. Among the Sunderland jugs are many variations both in size and colouring; they were rich in colours, too, and look exceedingly well on an old cabinet.
The posset cups of silver were supplemented by tygs and posset cups and many-handled drinking cups of early Staffordshire make. The brown and yellow slip decoration of this ware is a striking characteristic. All the early seventeenth-century ale drinking cups like the tygs had handles, and in those days of conviviality the double or multiplied handle served a useful purpose, for the vessels were in use when it was the custom of the ale-house for several friends to drink out of one vessel, just as in more polite society and on public occasions the loving cup was passed round.
Some of the so-called portrait busts and statuettes of the eighteenth century are especially interesting to collectors. There are figures to suit all; musicians may delight in that of Handel; others in the busts of Wesley and Whitfield; explorers in the statue of Benjamin Franklin made about 1770, and some in that of John Wilks seated near an old column of a still earlier date. There is also a cleverly modelled figure of Geoffrey Chaucer. One of the best known groups is that of the "Vicar and Moses," made by Wood, of Burslem.