expensive and a real
luxury, were quite small.

There are many curiosities, too--such, for instance, as the Chinese
teapots of the Ming period, when the potters seem to have vied with one
another in producing grotesque forms, and from china clay fashioned
objects which typified their mythological beliefs. Some of these teapots
took the form of curious sea-horses represented as swimming in waves of
green and amidst seaweed. Some of these fabulous beasts are spotted over
with splashes of colour, and others have curious twig-like formations
upon their sides, said to denote pieces of coral and water plants from
the ocean. The teapot was at one time most frequently filled from the
pretty little oval copper or brass kettle on the hob, or from a swing
kettle on a stand on the table. The table kettle was generally heated by
a spirit lamp which kept the water boiling ready for use. Of later years
silver table appointments of early eighteenth-century make have become
very scarce, and the curio value of the larger pieces has steadily
risen. It would seem as if the maximum figure had been reached for
silver of that period, for at the sale of the Fitzhenry collection a
plain kettle and stand, an example of Ambrose Stevenson's work in 1717,
realized L697.

Cream Jugs.

The cream jug included in the tea and coffee sets of silver or metal,
and in the tea china of which so many beautiful sets are still extant,
has almost an independent position in connection with table
appointments, for ever since tea drinking became general it was regarded
as a necessity, and was made in accord with the then prevailing styles.
It is almost the commonest collectable antique in this particular group.
In silver it was always hall-marked, and its date can, therefore, be
fixed. Briefly outlining the development of its form, it may be
mentioned that it was quite plain in the reign of Queen Anne, when tea
drinking came into fashion. When George I came to the throne it was
widened somewhat and made a little shorter. At that time the silver
cream jugs were hammered into shape out of a flat sheet, there being no
seam; after the body was formed a rim was added and a lip put on. There
was a deeper rim in the reign of George II, and then feet took the place
of rims.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--EARLY ENGLISH BRONZE EWER.

(_In the British Museum._)]

Gradually Chippendale carving and the shaped legs of the furniture then
being used were reflected even in the