ls.

[Illustration: FIGS. 58, 59.--MINIATURE COPPER AND SILVER KETTLES.

FIG. 60.--MINIATURE IVORY COFFEE BOILER.]

[Illustration: FIG. 61.--TWO OLD-GILT JEWELLED ORNAMENTS.]

There are carved tusks from Africa and India, and quaint native curios
made of ivory cunningly wrought. It is from the East that we receive so
many beautiful curios, and especially so from India, China, and Japan.
The three remarkably handsome ivories illustrated in Fig. 62 will serve
to illustrate the beautiful and oftentimes costly curios found in so
many homes.

Miniature Antiques.

Some of the most pleasing little antiques are silver models of
children's toys. The original models made contemporary with the
furniture or household gods they purport to represent were frequently
the gifts of godparents, and many are most elaborate in their designs,
every detail found in the larger originals being faithfully reproduced.
Some of these little silver toys, with which probably children were
seldom allowed to play, represented common objects outside the home,
such as the dovecote in the garden, the travelling coach with its
prancing steeds, the pack-horse ascending the slope towards a bridge
over a stream, in some instances objects of husbandry and agriculture,
being given to children familiar with the country.

Another favourite type of model curio is found in the remarkably tiny
objects workmen sometimes prided themselves upon making--such curios,
for instance, as the silver and copper kettles and coffee pot shown in
Figs. 58, 59, and 60. The larger specimen (drawn larger than the
original) was made from a copper farthing, the smaller kettles being
hammered out of threepenny-pieces; the coffee pot is of ivory--a
charming model.

There are a few sundries which should not be overlooked when collecting
curious things reminiscent of home-life as it once was. Among these are
the glass pictures once so much prized by well-to-do folk, now valued
only by the collector of such things. These were really "prints from
prints." The method of their preparation was most inartistic, although
it was effectual. A piece of glass was coated with varnish, the print
was then placed upon the varnish, and when dry and quite hard the paper
was washed off, leaving a "print" upon the prepared surface, which was
then painted over at the back, the picture thus being made complete.

Much store was formerly set by the little plaques and medallions which,
with silhouett