The Portland daily press., 1883-01-01
Curios.
The Rage for Buying Them, and HOW Tney
Are Made to Supply the Demand.
london Globe

IL
doubtedly should be something which is
strange, something which causes wonder or
interest-in short, curiosity; but its origi-
nal significance has been, to great extent,
lost, and anything coming beyond the seas IS
nowadays called a curio. Thus, 1t may be
imagined, genuine curio is rarity; what
was considered a curio twenty years ago Is.
in these days of globe trotting and easy loco
motion, scarcely looked at, and realizes
smaller price among us than it originally cost
in the land of its production. Still, euro
hunters abound, and the man who makes
foreign tour and returns without the ortho-
dox curios is regarded as having undergone
his labor for no purpose. Consequently, the
natural supply of curios not being equal to
the demand, the wholesale manufacture OF
them has sprung up as distinct and recog-
mixed branch of trade, and the innocent tour
list. gleefully bringing home his treas ures,
is far more often than not in possession OF
worthless limitations, of which the value, or
the want of value, is easily detected by an
expert Thus, the traveller in Spain feels
bound to possess himself of a real Toledo
blade, and he pays an exOrbitant price for
an article which bears every resemblance OF
being genuine Martina Alvarez, but which,
in reality, was shipped with many thousands
of others a few weeks previously from Shelf
field So it is with the medals of ~.autiias
and the statuettes of Mercury which crowd
the curio shops of Rome; SO with the papyri
and funeral statuettes Of Egypt, the famous
fegg-shell porcelain Nagasaki, the old bronzes
of Kiyoto, the Indian gold plate and ancient
| 6ligree work, the Maori and South Sea war
clubs, the meccasins and wampum bells of
| North America-all produced wholesale,
| brought out reverently, and priced accord
| ingly The number of travellers is legion,
and, as every individual traveller is not an
| intelligent observer or painstak1ng note
maker, the bringing home of curios is con-
| sdered sufficient atonement Although the
| man NAV be as ignorant of the manners and
| customs OF the land in which, perhaps, he
| has passed many years, as If he had never
| left home at the last moment he goes the
| round of the curic shops, selects the ortho-
| dox collection, and is stamped as an intelli-
| gent traveller. AS he, of course, fatters
| himself that his purchases are unique, the
enterprise of the manufacturer makes things
| pleasant for everybody. And thus it is that
| the modern curio is too often misnomer.
Another strange fact is that the real curl
| os of a country are but rarely brought away.
| Articles of daily use, wearing apparel, COM
| mon objects of everyday life, are in reality
| far more curious than the orthodox fancy
| articles which come under the category of
| curios. We are far more interested in see
| ing for ourselves how strange people eat
| their food or dress themselves, than by gaz-
| ing a. useless articles, which may be seen q
| dozen times during a perambulation OF Re-
| gent street. We presume that the owner of
| every semi-deiached villa in the suburbs of
| London can show Japanese cabinet or
| piece of ''old'' bronze, or Chinese ivory
| puzzles, or a Roman reliquarv, or Toledo
bade or statuette of Osiris; yet to how
| many of them are pair of Chinawomen's
shoes, or a Japanese charcoal brasier. or
| muleteers sombrero, or a Turkish chibouk
| familiar? Now we take it that there never
was such genuine curio-hunter as Horace
| Walpole, whom Macauly describes as devot-
| ing his whole mind to the collecting of such
| objects as "Queen Mary's comb, Wolsey's
red hat, the pipe which Van Tromp smoked
| during his last sea-fght; and the spur which
King William struck into the flank of Sor-
| REL" Objects such as these are surely great
er curios than the gimcracks foisted upon
the public nowadays under the name, and
1
stole the Grinling Gibbons cock from its
pedestal in front of the famous Fleet street
tavern, some time ago, and who probably
has his eye upon the Half Moon in Holy
well street and Messrs. Hoare's banking
signs London curios are getting fewer
every day. A genuine snuff-shop Highland
er, such as used to be a common object in
the streets of London, is scarcely to be had
for love or money, or barber's pole, or a
| mid &c thaf which ngQd f0
grace Captain Cuttle's lodging. The old
| link-extinguishers are perceptibly diminish
| ing in number, as are curious old door
| knockers, and the twisted iron work of oil
| lamp supporters. No doubt curi0 hunters
| can account for them. as for carved Queen
| Anne doorways, which are no longer caried
away upon the demolition of house, but
bought up at fabulous prices.
| The newest people in the world are,
strange to say, the keenest hunters after
| London relics and curios. Mr.. Barnum is
said to have in his possession the original
| Traitors Gate from the Tower of London,
| and the English visitor to New York or
| Boston private houses is astonished to see
so much of old England and old London
| religiously treasured up. And yet, not
| withstanding that the present universally
| of curio-hunting would, one might reasoDa-
| bly, imagine. have opened peoples eyes to
the stricks of trade,' it is amazing that SO
much blindness should characterize the
riding of the hobby. Tourists still buy
| pitfalls containing the blood OF st. Januarius,
relics of Waterloo, relics of the Royal
| George, chips from Shakspeare's mulberry
tree. fragments of the coffin in which Nelson
| was carried home from Trafalgar, utterly
| oblivious of the facts that generations and
| generations of travellers have been buying
| the same articles; and this is the more sur
| prising, inasmuch as these travellers are
not, as rule, religious zealots or Ignorant
wanderers, but people whom one may expect
to know better, and who, after n.oments
| reflection, would surely be convinced that as
| much wood had been obtained from the So
called Royal George as would build an entire
| feet Considering the number of Shaks-
| peare chairs and Brooches Bibles and Queen
| Anne farthings and collars worn by Charles
| l. upon the scaffold in existence, it is no
wonder that curators of museums and col
| ectors shake their heads when ole or 9th err
| Of these articles is offered for sale. So it
may be imagined, one of the most disagreea-
bic tasks guest has to perform is to review
his hosts collection of curios." To ex-
| pose them is ungracious, and may create an
enemy for life; to wonder and to go into
raptures over them is hypocritical. Still,
| exposure and experience to the contrary, it
Is proabble that SO long as the world exists
there will be curio hunters in long exhaust
| ed fields, and that manufacturers will ac-
| commodate them.