the Peter Hewitt Museum, New York, you may see an antique Italian
china cabinet, made of gilded carved wood, which shows on its
undulating front, row after row of small niches, lined with red
velvet. When each deep niche held its porcelain _chef d'oeuvre_, the
effect must have been that of a gold screen set with gems!

Speaking of red velvet backgrounds, in the same museum, standing near
the Italian cabinet, is an ancient Spanish one; its elaborate steel
hinges, locks and ornaments have each a bit of red velvet between
them and the oak of the cabinet. One sees this on Gothic chests in
England and occasionally on the antique furniture of other countries.
The red material stretched back of the metal fret-work, is said to be
a souvenir of the gruesome custom prevailing in ancient times, of
warning off invaders by posting on the doors of public buildings, the
skin of prisoners of war, and holding it in place with open-work
metal, through which the red skin was plainly seen!

At Cornwall Lodge, in Regents Park, London, the town house of Lady de
Bathe (Lily Langtry) the dining-room ceiling is a deep sky-blue, while
the sidewalls of black, serve as a background for her valuable
collection of old, coloured glass, for the most part English. The
collection is the result of the owner's eternal vigilance, when
travelling or at home.

A well-known Paris collector, now dead, found in Spain a bust which
had been painted black. Its good lines led him to buy it, and, when
cleaned, it proved to be a genuine Canova, and was sold by this
dealer, a reliable expert, to an American for five thousand dollars!
It had been painted during a Revolution, to save it from destruction.

The same dealer on another occasion, when in Spain, found an old silk
gown of lovely flowered brocade, but with one breadth missing. Several
years later, in an antique shop in Italy, he found that missing gore
and had it put back in the gown, thus completing the treasure which
some ruthless hand had destroyed.

CHAPTER XXXIX

WEDGWOOD POTTERY, OLD AND MODERN

Many of our museums have interesting collections of old Wedgwood.
Altogether the most complete collection we have ever seen is in the
museum adjoining the Wedgwood factories in Staffordshire, England. The
curator there, an old man of about seventy, loves to tell the story of
its founding and growth. He began as a labourer in the potteries and
has worked his way up to be guardian of the veterans in