The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-28
COSTLY CHRISTMAS GIFTS
TRIES That Only the Rich Can Afford
to Buy.
From the Ne,o York StGr.


to Buy.
From the Nelo York Stcr.
Those who busy themselves inventing
pretty things for the rich people of New
York to spend money upon, have done
wonders this season, and millionaire now
can get the FINEST Christmas present for
the highest possible price. The great
| jewelers. have duplicated the things that
| pleased all the world in the American
| department Of the Paris exposition, and
there are thousands Of beautiful articles In
ivory and silver and glass and precious
| stones.
There was a time when the cost Of such
/ things lay chiefly in the material Now it
lies most Of all in the labor put upon the
/ artistic product. a repousse silver coffee
pot ten inches high cost soc, not because
| the value Of the silver bullion approaches
/ that sum. but because some artistic de-
| signer decided just how the metal should
| blossom into chrysanthemums and lilies of
| the valley under the hammer of skilled
| artisan, who gave 10 the work his labor
and thought every day for perhaps four or
| five months.
1t is the same with that little breakfast
Get Of three pieces in chased and enameled
silver. Not one of the pieces is above four
! inches high, Yet the price is $500-a trifle
| that some man of millions will present to
wife OF daughter at Christmas. 1t is so
small and light that one may carry it in
travelling, and how much better a break
| fast served in ones room with this dainty
triumph of art on their table than with the
cheap, plated finery of a great hotel.
| There is smaller set at $3.50, and there
are others at various prices between.
| But the ivory; what can be prettier or
costlier than thatl Here it is, wrought
into hand mirrors, hairbrushes, paper
knives and dozen other articles for toilet
| OF library. Ivory IS costly enough of itself,
but this is cleverly stained and chased in
the richest and most delicate designs. A
hand mirror with its back wrought in de-
sign of cacti and palms is 800 and you may
have a richly carved paperknife for $50.
The tiniest articles are So, 81, and s.. and
to make up full toilet or library set you
mus, pay the years income OF weu-to-do
| family. These things would scarcely fetch
so much in any but the most deliberately
| ornamented silver.
Funny, isn't it, that fans sell best in
| December? But they do They are not
used to cool the cheeks of beauty, but sim
ply as part of costly costumes. A five
hundred dollar fan, aglow with painting
done by some man famous in this sort Of
| decoration, goes we'll with gown from
| Worth's and delicate ieweled necklace
such as fashion nov approves. Another sum-
| mer luxury that will perhaps figure in the
! Christmas box of some millionaire's darl-
ing this year is a gold and jeweled parasol
| handle, six or seven inches long, and valued
at $6J0-about 500 per inch, you'll OBJ
serve.
Clever limitations of the prettiest orchids
are the newest things in jewels. Not only
| the form and color, but also the texture of
| the flowers is initiated. They are not for
poor folks, not only because single jeweled
blossom costs hundreds of dollars, but be-
| cause such an object would look absurd on
a costume not of corresponding cost. Lying
in their frog ska cases they look as II none
but the most audacious woman would dare
clasp them on her gown, but single bios
som at the corsage instead of natural
flowers makes brave show and does not
seem out of place if the bosom be white
and the gown rich.
There are presents for men, too though
hardly so pretty as those for the ladies.
Nearly all the costly gifts for the sterner
sex have to do with cold cash or the small
vices Here are silver coupon cutters at
| 800 each. They are ornamented with
designs representing American sports-a
hare and hounds chase, a procession of the
coaching Climb, game of polo. Cigarette
case of silver are etched with characteristic
| American scenes, including many pictures
of Western life-cowboys at the chase,
Indians in a war dance, and the like. One
shows a group of elves at tennis. The net
is a SPIDERS web. and Bre'r Rabbit looks on.
Various designs of the same general char
acter are repeated on the silver mounting
of cut glass whisky TASKS. One of the
| handsomest things OF this KIND Is claret
Jug of cut glass mounted with chased and
| enameled siver Its price is only $3.50. An
inkstand of the same kind is s25 cheaper.
| The ordinary cut glass in diamond figures
being too commonplace for objects of this
sort, a glass cut SO as to have the appear
auce of being inlaced in small cords is sub
s5ituted, but, unhappily to the uninstructed
eye, the material suggests pressed
glass.
Nothing is prettier than the liqueur de-
canters with tiny glasses set in filagree of
silver They cost from $50 to $50. Then
there are paperweights and silver-mounred
blotting pads, the latter running as high as
$40. Tiny gold and silver match safes
with designs in light relief are from S2O to
$50. After these things come the common
place extravagances of gold and silver
mounted walking sticks, riding whips,
pocketbooks and what not; sticks with
watches inset, paperweights that carry
watches, siiver-mounted razor stropS, and
every conceivable article OF masculine use
enriched with precious metal and artistic
workmanship Everything Is done with
an eye TO attrctlng those Wnom Iull purses
have made critical.
The demand is that the merest trlfie shall
be costly, bue adroit artists have turned
| this new instinct of wealth to advantage
by making all things artistic. Thus mere
ostentation Of wealth is subordinated to
art, aud scores of men and women who
have wealth without taste are uncon-
sciously made to foster things whose ex-
cellence they do not understand.
At John Bright's Grave.
| E7ron, fbe Pail Mall Gazette