Chats on Household Curios Part 2

The evolution of the fender forms a pleasing story in connection with the ingle side. Perhaps the earlier form likely to interest collectors of household curios is that made of perforated bra.s.s, often some 8 in.

or 10 in. in depth. These fenders standing on claw feet were afterwards fitted with bottom plates of iron, on which was a ridge or rest against which the fire bra.s.ses were prevented from slipping. Then came iron or steel scroll-shaped fenders, tapering down from a few inches in height at the ends to centres almost level with the ground. To obviate the inconvenience of there being no resting-place for the fireirons loose supports were fitted into sockets at the ends, and these afterwards were cast as part of the scroll. Then came the stiff and formal early Victorian metal work--iron fenders with steel tops relieved occasionally by ormolu ornament. These in their turn gave way to fender kerbs of metal, stone, marble, or tiles, and loose ornamented fire-dogs which have in more recent times served as rests for the fire bra.s.ses.

Trivets and Stools.

Combination appliances were early adopted, although we are apt at times to a.s.sociate combined utensils with modern innovations. The old English trivet of wrought iron made in the eighteenth century was frequently "improved" by the addition of a toasting fork, which could be adjusted and set at certain angles so that the toast could be left in front of the fire for a few moments until it was quite ready to be taken off and put on a plate standing conveniently on the trivet until the dish or rack of toast was complete. (Some scarce trivets are ill.u.s.trated in "Chats on Old Copper and Bra.s.s.")

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13.--FINE CARVED WALNUT WOOD BELLOWS.

(_In the Victoria and Albert Museum._)]

Bellows.

The Germans were noted for the manufacture of decorative bellows cut and carved in quaint designs, some of the finest examples being made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Others were made in Holland, some of the Dutch bellows being inlaid with mother-o'-pearl. There are also examples of old English carving, the style of the ornament taking the form of the designs on contemporary oak furniture. Some of the largest and handsomest bellows of English make are of late seventeenth-century workmanship. The example ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 13 is a magnificent specimen, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington.

III

THE LIGHTS OF FORMER DAYS

CHAPTER III

THE LIGHTS OF FORMER DAYS

Rushlights and holders--Candles, moulds, and boxes--Snuffers, trays, and extinguishers--Oil lamps--Lanterns.

Household lighting has been one continuous effort to render the hours of darkness bright, and to provide by artificial means a luminosity which would, if not actually rivalling the sun, enable men to carry on their usual avocations with the same ease, convenience, and comfort after daylight had disappeared as during the earlier portion of the day. Every stage which has been advanced in artificial lighting has been welcomed in the home just as much as in the factory and in the workshop, for there are many daily duties as well as pleasures and amus.e.m.e.nts which are carried out much more satisfactorily when a good light is available than when there are shadows and dark corners only dimly lighted.

To realize what artificial lighting was in the days now happily long past, it would be necessary to visit some old-world village, if one could be found, where there had been no attempt at street lighting, and in which not even oil had penetrated. The candles of very early times did not give more than a dim glimmer, and the darkness of mediaeval England can be imagined from the primitive lighting appliances which are preserved. Fortunately the entire story of lighting as science came to the aid of trader and householder is revealed in the lights of former days, which as time went on became more varied and numerous, found in collections of well-authenticated specimens. The suggested caution implied is not unnecessary, for the periods overlap, and there is but little to show when such things as lamps and lanterns were actually made.

Rushlights and Holders.

In tracing the development of lighting from quite homely beginnings, rushlights, prepared by the cottager and the farm hand for the winter supply, seem to come first on the list. Rushlights, however, were used in this country by many until comparatively recent times side by side with lights much more advanced. But centuries earlier than we have any record of artificial lighting in this country, and equally as long before any of the earliest British curios of lighting were used, lighting engineers, if we may so call them, in Greece, Rome, Egypt, and still earlier in other Eastern countries, were far advanced. None of the lighting schemes of the Ancients, however, produced much more than the dim light of the swinging lamp in which oil was consumed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14.--THREE RUSHLIGHT HOLDERS.

(_In the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15.--THREE VARIETIES OF OLD OIL LAMPS.]

To range side by side a number of rushlight holders taken from districts widely apart, it becomes evident that there was a striking similarity between the earlier types. The smiths everywhere seem to have fashioned a simple contrivance by which the rushlight or early candle could be held upright, and then, to give the "stick" solidity, the iron shaft was fastened securely into a wooden block, which was very often quite out of proportion to the size and weight of the stand, and apparently unnecessarily large and heavy. In the larger examples the holder is often made to slide upon an upright rod so as to be useful at different heights. The sliding rod was needed, for the light so dim could only be of real service when quite close to the person using it, or to the work it was intended to illumine (see Figs. 4 and 5).

Although some of the more elaborate and advanced holders were of copper or bra.s.s, most of them were of iron, the work of local smiths, few of whom made any attempt to decorate what they evidently regarded as strictly utilitarian articles (see Fig. 14). Although rushlights antedated candles, some of the holders were made to answer a dual purpose, and on the same stem or slide as the rushlight holder there was a candle socket, an important feature fully exemplified in Figs. 4 and 5.

Candles, Moulds, and Boxes.

The collector of household curios does not trouble about the candles; his object is to secure a few candle moulds, candle boxes, and, of course, candlesticks. It may, however, be convenient here to refer to the moulding of candles which was at one time a domestic duty just as it had been to collect rushes and after they were dried dip them in fat, and to make lights which would burn with more or less steadiness.

The candles were made from various fats, much of which was acc.u.mulated in the kitchen during the processes of cooking, supplemented by other ingredients deemed best for the purpose. The candle moulds or tubes in which wicks were inserted were of varying capacities and ranged from two to a dozen or more. The moulds were dipped in troughs of fat, having been heated sufficiently to melt the fat. The process was by no means new, in that it was used in this country by the Saxons; and at a still earlier period candles were made by the Romans, for among the sundry objects picked up among the uncovered ruins of Herculaneum have been small pieces of candle ends.

There was but little advance in the art of candle-making, for the candle, briefly described as a rod of solidified tallow or wax surrounding a wick, remained almost unimproved until the eighteenth century, when spermaceti was introduced, and in more recent years paraffin has been subst.i.tuted.

Candles were hung up by their wicks in bunches until required for use, but those needed for immediate supply were always kept in candle boxes.

It is these boxes of copper, bra.s.s, and tin which are sought after. The decorated j.a.panned tin boxes are very pleasing, and some of the best, ornamented after the "Chinese style" or painted with little scenes, and rich in gold ornament, especially those made with other j.a.panned wares at Pontypool in South Wales, are desirable acquisitions.

Of the varieties of candlesticks there is no end. The two great divisions are the pillar or table candlesticks, and the chamber candlesticks. The first named are chiefly seen with a small socket and f.l.a.n.g.e to catch the running tallow, the last mentioned have larger dishes which catch the drips from candles which are being carried about.

Among the varieties are the earliest form of p.r.i.c.ket candlestick on which the candle was "stuck," the bell candlesticks, and the candlesticks which were fixed on brackets against the wall. As time went on varied materials were introduced, and ornament was chiefly in accord with prevailing styles, which influenced the maker of candlesticks as all other metal work. Iron, copper, bra.s.s, pewter, silver, and Britannia metal and wood have been used, and many of the handsomest chandeliers and brackets are those made of l.u.s.tres and cut gla.s.s. The large chandeliers hung a century or two ago at great expense in the centre of large rooms have frequently been retained, and gas and electric light have been introduced instead of candles. In Fig. 16 we ill.u.s.trate two exceedingly well-preserved old walnut floor-candlesticks, with bra.s.s sconces. They come from the Sister Isle, where there are still curios to be met with.

Snuffers, Trays, and Extinguishers.

There were difficulties to contend with in the use of candles, chiefly on account of the irregular burning of candles when exposed to the slightest draught, and to the imperfect combustion, which left a charred piece of wick which it was necessary to remove to make the candle burn once more. Then, again, the extinction of a burning candle involved some skill, and instruments were devised to effect this without causing unpleasant odours or smoke to arise. Previous to the use of lanterns out of doors, and oftentimes when halls and corridors were imperfectly lighted, torches thrust into the open fire and thus lighted were used.

Extinguishers of iron were frequently erected near an outside door, or added to the iron railings outside the house. These were for the purpose of extinguishing links--many such are to be seen still outside old London houses. They were the prototypes from which originated the ordinary form of chamber candle extinguisher, frequently fastened to the "stick" by a chain.

The extinguishers used in the early days of candles are known now as snuffer-extinguishers, to distinguish them from snuffers (the old name was _doubters_). In form they were not unlike scissors; the two circular metal plates of which they were formed closed in and compressed the wick, thereby extinguishing the light. The earlier snuffers had very large boxes, and some were remarkably handsome, an exceptionally fine example being shown in Fig. 17. They were discovered in an old house at Corton, in Dorset, in 1768, and were described by a writer towards the close of the eighteenth century thus: "They are of bra.s.s and weigh about 6 ounces. Their construction consists of two equilateral cavities, by the edges of which the snuff is cut off and received into the cavity from which it is not got out without much trouble." Snuffers of iron, and later of steel, are the commoner forms, but they are frequently of bra.s.s and of silver and Sheffield plate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16.--TWO WALNUT WOOD FLOOR-CANDLESTICKS.

(_In the collection of W. Egan & Sons, Ltd., of Cork._)]

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 subst.i.tute 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 cla.s.sed 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 a.s.sociated with oil lighting, and as yet gas is too new!

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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s. 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17.--FINE PAIR OF ANCIENT SNUFFERS.]

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 pa.s.sages--but instead of the candle there is the electric bulb!