are especially taught to avoid.

[Illustration: Fig. 69.]

These great treasure-chests were important pieces of furniture in
ancient houses, and were generally placed at the foot of the master's
bed for the greater safety; in them were packed the chief valuables he
possessed, particularly the household plate. At a time when banking was
unknown, property was converted into plate, as a most convenient mode of
retaining it. Decorative plate increased the public state of its owner,
was a portable thing, and could be easily hidden in time of danger, or
pledged in time of want. Hence the nobility and gentry of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries gave abundant employment to the goldsmith.
Cellini, in his Memoirs, has noted many fine pieces of ornamental plate
he was called upon to design and execute; and one of the finest still
exists in the _Kunst-Kammer_, at Vienna--the golden salt-cellar he made
for Francis I., of France. The "salt" was an important piece of plate
on all tables at this period, and to be placed above or below it,
indicated the rank, or honour, done to any seated at the banquet. The
large engraving (Fig. 70) delineates a very remarkable salt-cellar,
being part of the collection of antique plate formed by the late Lord
Londesborough. This curious example of the quaint designs of the old
metal-workers, is considered to have been the work of one of the famous
Augsburg goldsmiths at the latter part of the sixteenth century. It is a
combination of metals, jewels, and rare shells in a singularly grotesque
general design. The salt was placed in the large shell of the then rare
_pecten_ of the South Seas, which is edged with a silver-gilt rim chased
in floriated ornament, and further enriched by garnets; to it is affixed
the half-length figure of a lady, whose bosom is formed of the larger
_orange-coloured pecten_, upon which a garnet is affixed to represent a
brooch; a crystal forms the caul of the head-dress, another is placed
below the waist. The large shell is supported by the tail of the whale
on one side, and on the other by the serpent which twists around it; in
this reptile's head a turquoise is set, the eyes are formed of garnet,
and the tongue of red onyx. The whole is of silver-gilt, and within the
mouth is a small figure of Jonah, whose adventure is thus strangely
mixed with the general design. The sea is quaintly indicated by the
circular base, chased with figures of sea-monsters disporting in the
w