Most household goods and both useful and ornamental home appointments used at the present time are the outcome of progress and development, and their names have changed but little. The change has been in style, material, and manufacture rather than in newness of purpose. It is true that in modern household economy some of the present-day household utensils are the outcome of modern invention, having no similarity in form to the simpler primitive contrivances which they have superseded. Thus, for instance, the vacuum cleaner has little in its appearance to associate it with the old-fashioned carpet brush, neither has the modern knife cleaner much in common with the old knife board. There are some articles, however, which have become quite obsolete, and their names are fast disappearing from inventories of household goods, and, like the older antiquarian relics, are likely soon to be forgotten. In the foregoing chapters mention has been made of the collectable objects of household use, dating from the period of bronze to modern times, and no doubt there are many other articles which have entirely disappeared on account of their perishable nature, or from their very character, there being nothing to suggest their retention. It may be useful for purposes of reference to note the following articles of furniture, kitchen utensils, and mechanical contrivances, which were mentioned in a book published about one hundred years ago—house furnishings, about the ancient uses of which we hear nothing at the present time.
Ample—An ointment box, formerly carried by a medical man.
Apple-grate—A sixteenth-century cradle of iron in which to roast apples.
Bombard—A large leathern bottle for carrying beer; a term also applied to ancient ale-barrels.
Canister—The ancient canister was a pannier or basket, the name being appropriated to its modern use when tea came into the market.
Chafing-dish—The name appropriated to modern cooking vessels was originally applied to a dish upon which perfumes were burnt, and in Roman times was an ensign of honour.
Comfit boxes—Boxes divided into compartments in which were rare spices, handed round with dessert.
Finger-guard—Horn finger-guards were formerly used by writing masters to protect their nails when nibbing pens.
Fire-screen—Fire-screens are noted as early as the fourteenth century, long before they were filled with needlework; they were made of wicker, described by a sixteenth-century writer as "a little wicker skrene sett in a frame of walnut tree."
Scrip—Scrips were hung from girdles, and differed, among the chief varieties being the shepherd's scrip, the pilgrim's scrip, and the traveller's scrip, a kind of purse or wallet.