FIG. 34. ROMAN SILVER SPOONS
Another piece of table-ware which should be mentioned is a special plate for fish, made in Italy, which had a depression in the center for holding the sauce. These plates are decorated with interesting and surprisingly accurate drawings of fish (Case Q in the Sixth Room, tail-piece, p. 31).
In Case E in the Third Room is a bronze table service of Greek work from an Etruscan tomb, and in Case O in the same room are bronze jars and jugs of various fine shapes ([figs. 27-30]), and ladles for dipping wine ([fig. 31]). In Case A in the Fourth Room is a wine-strainer ([fig. 32]). The remarkably beautiful handles from vessels in these cases are a further proof of the taste and care expended upon household utensils. Silver table services were not common among the Greeks, but silver and even gold dishes were used by wealthy Romans. In Case C in the Eighth Room are four cups of Roman date ([fig. 33]) with a ladle and a little jug or cup with a spout.
Food was usually cut into convenient pieces in the kitchen and eaten with the fingers, but spoons were used to a considerable extent by the Romans. Several bronze spoons are exhibited in Case 5, and there are some silver spoons of various shapes in the case with the silver cups in the Eighth Room ([fig. 34]).
The habit of rising and going to bed early which prevailed in Greece and Italy is easily understood when we see the meagre arrangements for lighting which they possessed. In the street torches were carried, and they were also used in the house in early times. A bronze torch-holder of the late sixth century from Cyprus in the corridor and a terracotta example in Case 2 appear to have been made so that they could be set on a table. The Romans and Etruscans made candles of pitch and also wax ones very similar to our own, but the Greeks were not acquainted with them until they were introduced by the Romans. The iron candelabrum in Case S in the Third Room was designed to hold candles on the prickets around the top. Lamps were commonly of terracotta or bronze. Olive oil was burnt in them with a wick of flax, but at best the light must have been poor and flickering. Candelabra were commonly made of wood, but handsomer ones were of bronze. A fine Etruscan candelabrum stands in the Fifth Room. It was probably furnished with hooks or other attachments for hanging lamps, or with prickets for candles ([fig. 35]). A group of lamps of various shapes is shown in Case 2 ([fig. 36]).
FIG. 35. BRONZE CANDELABRUM
FIG. 36. BRONZE LAMP ON A STAND