k by Sir John Gardner
Wilkinson on the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians.[49-*]
They were formed to contain cosmetics of divers kinds, and served to
deck the dressing-table, or a lady's boudoir. They are carved in various
ways, and loaded with ornamental devices in relief, sometimes
representing the favourite lotus-flower, with its buds and stalks, or a
goose, gazelle, fox, or other animal. Fig. 55 is a small box, made in
the form of a goose; and Fig. 56, also in the shape of the same bird,
dressed for the cook. The spoon which succeeds this, Fig. 57, takes the
form of the cartouche, or oval, in which royal names were inscribed, and
is held forth by a female figure of graceful proportions. Fig. 58 is a
still more grotesque combination; a hand holds forth a shell, the arm
being elongated and attenuated according to the exigencies of the
design, and terminating in the head of a goose. The abundance of quaint
fancy that may be lavished on so simple a thing as a spoon cannot be
better illustrated than it has been by an American author, who
published, in New York, in 1845, an illustrated octavo volume on the
history of "The Spoon: Primitive, Egyptian, Roman, Mediaeval, and
Modern." Speaking of these antique Egyptian specimens, he says,--"In
these forms we have the turns of thought of old artists; nay, casts of
the very thoughts themselves. We fancy we can almost see a Theban
spoonmaker's face brighten up as the image of a new pattern crossed his
mind; behold him sketch it on papyrus, and watch every movement of his
chisel or graver as he gradually embodied the thought, and published it
in one of the forms portrayed on these pages--securing an accession of
customers and a corresponding reward in an increase of profit. We take
it for granted that piratical artisans were not permitted to pounce on
every popular invention which the wit of another brought forth. Had
there been no checks to unprincipled usurpers of other men's
productions, the energies of inventors would have been paralysed, and
the arts could hardly have attained the perfection they did among some
of that famous people of old."

[Illustration: Figs. 59-61.]

The graceful head and neck of the swan formed for many centuries the
favourite termination for the handles of _simpula_, or ladles. The
Greeks and Romans adopted it, as they freely did grotesque art in
general; and the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibit it in
untrammelled style; while many