Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-04-04
Household Bric-a-Brac,

The demand for bric-a-brac and novelties
in household decoration apparently does
not abate, and there is such pressure for
novelties that designers in all parts Of the
world, from Boston to Yokohama, are kept
busy pushing their inventiveness to the
last degree to turn out new combinations.
Every manufacturers who caters to this
taste in any way keeps a designer, whose
ears arc burGened with the demand for
something new. An old shoe Or an old hat
gives an idea for 3 bon-bon case. Every
animal in the menagerie is employed by
various artisans. Botany, as well as zoology,
is ransacked for designs, and al the com
binations apparently possible are made.
Nevertheless, there seems to be no limit to
the fertility of the designers In referring
10 this subject, bric-a-brac dealer, with
an idle quarter Of an hour on his hands,
conducted reporter through his collec-
ton, and as he went along his counters he
said: "There is lamp that has
the form of white owl from
whose head rises the stem OF an I'M
mense rose, with closely folded
leaves, which entirely conceal the globe.
There is stork in flight, with It's wings
spread ont and IFS legs extended. 1t Is
ornamented, and it is to be suspended
from the chandelier by invisible threads
There is a Candlestick, with gold grape
leaf for It's base and with light receiver
of crystal painted in gold There is a
worE-basket in the form of a skitl, and
another with a moss-coyered top full of
artificial plants is in the shape of flower
pot. There is big elephant Of porcelain,
with a opening in its back FOR begonias
and there is Il porcelain vase representing
tree trunk overgrown with climbing
plants There Is a mirror to be bortlered
with cut flowers, and to represent minia-
ture lake in the center of q dinner table
That crystal ball, mounted upon s spiral
pedestal, Is for center-table ornament to
catch and reflect the light That glass
screen has, you observe. pond lilies painted
upon it, - that they seem to be floating
IN the water. The curiouSly twisted horns
in that smoi,ing-set come from Eagle Pass,
Texas, and are lambs horns. The other
horns are from the heads Of buffalo.
They are mounted in Paris and sent hazel,
here. That dagger IS paper-cutter,
and its sheath forms thermometer
That cat is an ilkstand The head in
tlaring bonnet IS the same; lift the face
and there is the ink-well That gold
numbered ship with silver sails and
cargo incascd in Austrian glass IS 4 liquor
set. Here is a baby carriage that repre-
sents a slipper lined with plush, and here
Is another shaped like = canoe. That tree
Of gold with nest for eggs IS for next
Faster. This paper weight contains a
Geneva timepiece, and this one has i clocl,
on one side, barometer Oh the other, a
thermometer between, and = geographical
globe above. That stork, raising itself
within lotus thickct to seize frog, sup
ports IL thermometer; and that setter dog,
with a bird in his mouth, holds up a
barometer This gilded key, with 4 pair
of brazen dragons in the ring, * a COM
mon and popular fancy for q thermometer
now. Those three Turkish pipes form
newspaper rack. Here are designs for
open tireplaces; for, after all, there IS no
bric-a-brac to compare to bright open
FIRE. And 50 the variety increases. There
Is no end to the designs, The designers
are chiefly Europeans, who are worked at
high pressure all the time - Iiorologi-
cal Review.