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because it is simply laid out without a colour scheme. A cup and saucer look very much better when shown on a stand, so that the saucer can be seen and every detail of the cup examined, the richness of the colouring inside or out, as the case may be, being thrown up by the ebonized stand on which it is placed. Carved ivories should certainly be shown with a dark setting. In a similar way Oriental plaques and even smaller plates with light backgrounds are set off to the best advantage when shown in dark ebony frames. The Orientals know the value of framework perhaps more than any other people, and among the curios they have sent over to this country are appropriately carved frames and stands. The almost priceless ginger jars when placed upon carved-wood stands, for which the Chinese are so famous, are beautiful indeed, the contrast of the black and blue against the black base being very striking. Indeed, much of the carved furniture of the Orientals has been specially designed as a framework for mother-o'-pearl and gem ornaments. The rare jade carvings in black ebony screens, and the marvellous carving of the larger screens are but appropriate settings to the painted and needlework pictures so rich in colours and gold. In Fig. 57 we illustrate a very remarkable piece in which the artist has expended his wonderful skill in providing a suitable stand or frame for a very beautiful early porcelain plate. Every detail of the carving is worthy of close inspection. This beautiful piece was included in a collection of jade, cloisonne enamels, and carved furniture gathered together in Java some years ago by a well-known collector of Chinese and Oriental curios. Now and then such pieces are to be seen in the shops of West End dealers. But it would be difficult indeed to find one so characteristic of the Chinese carver's art as the one shown. Obsolete Household Names. 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are the outcome of modern invention, having no similarity in form to the simpler primitive contrivances which they have superseded.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 assoc
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