Weekly Chillicothe crisis., 1885-07-30
Old Style Bric-a-brac.

"The business is about as dead as
am, said Il white haired dealer in old
style bric.a.brac. The place was
second floor front, ON tl:- SOwery,
used as both store and living room.
Fifty years ago there was lots of
money in it, but there's none now.
We can't compete with machinery and
nCw-fanglcd notions, Here 5 n samp-
lar, appropriately framed. The field is
white silk, and on it is worked in black
silk floss tomb, II willow, and a be-
rcaycd husband You see the insCrp-
ton is worked with u coarscr aud
loOscr stitch than all the rest. That
enables the owner TO pick it out and
have some other name inserted. II
used to take three weeks hard work
by a tirst-ralc sewing woman to make
one, and il would fetch from SO to
$50, according to the iincuess. Some
times husband would have an 'cle-
giant mOrtuary, as we call this sort of
thing, made from his deceased wife's
hair. On cardboard it didn't cost
much, but ON silk 1t was expensive.
How did we mako the hairs lie llatP
We soaked them in hot water, and
ironcd the whole thing with Il very
hot, heavy IlatirOn. The samplar |
showed you sold in 1912 for $50. |
bought it back at an auction last week
for half.dollar, and WAS the only
bidder.
South sea and West India SHELLS
aud corals used to sell well. They
were for the mantlcplecc and for what
nots. Whalnots are gone out OF fash
ion now, along with what they had to
have on them. Handsome shells
would bring in the old days from 20
cents to 81 apiece, To-day YOU can
have that case there, containing $50
good ones, for $50 case and all, and
the case cost Sl2.
"Corals were all the go in the old
times. The high-toncd folks wanted
skeleton coral, because they thought
it grew that way. But it didn't. We'd
ke Il branch of cheap coral and put
1t in Il pan or trough and cover it with
water IN which we'd put a little mu-
riatic acid. At the end of week all
the lime would be dissolved out and
only the skeleton was left 1t looked
just like big cobweb. We'd leave 1t
white or stain it red with cochlneal,
dry it, and mount it in glass case.
The wives of old sea captains and
shipping merchants were our best Gus
TONER'S Another popular class of or
namCnts were carved ivory and ebony
articles from China and Japan. These
cost then, as now, good deal in the
east, and were very expensive. Once
| had q carved ebony box, which con-
tanned another, and so on to twenty
boxes. The last one had inside four or
five little men and women not much
bigger than beans, but beautifully
carved. The late Sam Bradford Fales
had number of them in his collec-
ton in Philadelphia, and | believe
there are samples in the Barlow, Gar
rett, Packer, and Green collections.
But | never see them nowadays,
"Then there were the relics: Pie ces
of wood from the favOrte war ships of
America and England, and bullets,
bayonets, and pieces of shot and shell
from famous battleiields. These paid
well, because we could always make
'em when we didn't have them on
hand. Tho demand for them is not
quite dead yet. Then, in the old days,
people liked horrors to ornament their
parlors with the ropes with which
criminals were hung, the knives and
pistols with which murders were COM
mitted, and the jimmies and picklocks
of celebrated thieves. Women were
just as crazy for such things as men.
and paid very high prices, for those
times, for some particularly bad
weapon. But there's no use of COM
planning. Chromos, modern bric-a-
brac, and domestic art have killed my
business forever, and there's an end
to it. "-NeU York SHa.