cabinet-maker followed stereotyped lines, and there were but few who
moved out of the regular ruts and made distinctive designs in home
ornaments and sundry furnishings. It is noteworthy, however, that
however much alike in furniture no two houses were alike in their
ornamental surroundings. The pictures and portraits on the walls have
peculiarities recognized and understood by those who have dwelt for many
years among them. Familiar table appointments, however humble, have a
homelike look, and there are odd bits of old china in the cabinet and
silver or pewter on the sideboard which distinguish one house from
another; and it has ever been so. Chimney ornaments, which may be quite
commonplace, have well-known characteristics which cannot be duplicated.
It is undoubtedly among the home ornaments that the tenderest thoughts
linger, and it is the trinkets of comparatively little value to an
outsider that members of the family store when the old home is broken
up. There are such ornaments in every household; and whenever there is a
sale there are those who gladly buy them because of their associations
with those by whom they were owned and valued. The collector rarely
gathers them on sentimental grounds, securing them as curious specimens
or characteristic styles wanting in his collection. Some specialize on
old china cups and saucers; others on rare porcelain figures; some on
the beautiful gilt and ormolu knick-knacks which looked so well on the
early Victorian drawing-room table, and others prefer odds and ends,
some of which are mentioned in the following paragraphs. It is, perhaps,
from the old ornaments of the home that we learn most about the true
home-life lived in former years. Wood carvers, silversmiths, leather
workers, glass blowers and potters fashioned their ornamental things
after the living models they saw about them, in the days in which they
worked. Thus in the groups of Staffordshire figures, now much sought
after, we learn something of the story of life in the Potteries in the
closing years of the nineteenth century. The story is recorded in the
earthenware "landlord and landlady," "lovers arm in arm," and rustic
cottages with which collectors are familiar.

[Illustration: FIG. 54.--BRASS CHIMNEY ORNAMENT (ONE OF A PAIR).]

Mantelpiece Ornaments.

There are many quaint brass chimney ornaments which were popular in many
parts of England fifty to sixty years ago much sought after nowadays.
They were of