The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-06


is either of French make or concocted out
of other pieces of furniture The bona
fide Spanish Bargeno cabinet is of carved
oak, or of colored woods with ivory in
crustations. 1t has less gliding and fewer
secret drawers or recesses than that now
currently sold to foreigners. Very high
prices are paid for these restored Bargenos
and some dealers are known to have sent
as many as thirty or forty at a time to
New York. When cabinet is in so bad
a condition as to preclude all attempt at
restoration, it is carefully pulled to pieces.
its sides and doors are then turned into
tables and other so-called pieces of ancient
furniture. Granada and Madrid are the
most famous centers where these spurious
cabinets are manufactured to catch the
unwary.
A brdsero is accounted an element of COM
fort in Spain; but most foreigners do not
appreciate its value, even when they get to
understand that it occupies the same rela-
tive position in that chimneyless country
that stoves and fireplaces do in an English
household. 1t is only of late years that
architects have introduced fireplaces In
the bedroom and sitting-room. Apart
ments were formerly warmed with the
brasero, and it is sometimes a handsome
utensil. 1t usually consists in thick
circular box of carved wood, in which fine
old nails are fixed. In the center is me-
tallic bowl for the hot braise or residue OF
charred charcoal. The bowl is provided
with handles, curiously wrought Some
braseros, however, are nearly fiat and level
with the ground.
The preparation of this old-fashioned
stove, whatever it's shape, is somewhat
elaborate, as it must be lighted hours be-
fore it is used, to let the fumes of the coal
escape into the open air. 1t is then
brought into room and affords its CRATE
full heat for twanty-four hours, if now and
then stirred in correct fashion with the
longs to the brdscro. During the long
evenings in winter it is placed upon a
table, round which the ladies sit and
work, while the uglier sex play cards or
fiirt, their feet resting upon the edge OF
this peculiar foot-warmer. When winter s
reign is over the empty brascro can be
turned into the loveliest of fower-stands.
Nothing can well exceed the cleverness
of a Spanish vender of curios in trying to
palm offmodern for old articles, especially
as regards crockery. Few porcelain plates
are to be found nowadays. For instance,
the real white retro ware is almost thing
of the past 1t is met with but in few pri-
vate houses. where it is priced as treasure.
This special kind of ware was at one time
made at factory in corner of the city
which is now covered by the Retro park,
~
English troops under Wellington burned
this factory eighty years ago; the skilled
workmen were consequently scattered and
the secret of an admirable industry
lost. All recent attempts to reproduce the
lovely ivory tints which give their value
TO the crockery in question have failed.
The finest collection of Retro is to be seen
in the small palace of the Escorial, and a
few beautiful samples are preserved at the
house of the dowager duchess of Bailen, at
Madrid. The Retro workmen excelled in
porcelain figures of animal life, especially
bulls, boars and dogs, and sometimes in
human figure, too.
Moorish plates are much sought after,
and were still plentiful about thirty years
ago. They now fetch big prices, especially
those of the "decadence period" Coun-
tions of Spanish porcelain; they are ably
fabricated at the Moncloa works, Madrid,
and even connoisseurs are often taken in
by them, so well reproduced are the tints
and their metallic reflects and luster.
Plates are also made at Valencia, the neo-
Moorish samples of which are nearly all
taken up by Germany.
Talavera ware, old and new, is quaint
and valuable, possibly for no other reason
than that which may be alleged of pug
dog, to-wit: its ugliness. The plates and
jars are of coarse pattern, with singular
designs of animals, plants and trees; they
are, however, highly appreciated by anna
teurs, especially those samples of Tala-
vera work made by the Italian artists who
came over from Naples with the Bourbons.
There is one kind OF Spanish platter in
Talavera pottery which is pro-
vided with four recesses for choco-
late cups, and a space in the center to
hold the national sponge cake. These
platters are adorned with painted figures
representing NEUROLOGICAL subjects, or
they have armorial bearings on medal
lion in the center. The friars, who even
on fast days, took good care of their health
were won't in days of old to have three,
eggs for their cotdcion-their only meal
and the eggs would be brought to the rev
erend fathers in the triangular shaped
huevera or egg-stand of green and blue
Talavera porcelain, or in lovely white AL
cora ware.
The asulejos porcelain slabs of all sizes
and designs that used to cover the walls
tian dwellings in Southern Spain enjoy a
worldwide reputation. They have been
initiated in many countries, but, up to the
present day, some of the best are still made
at the Madrid Monoloa, or at the Seville and
Malaga factories. The modern azuleio can
not, however, vie with the ancient either in
beauty of tint or in lasting qualities. I'm
uedIu-Ol prices are sometimes paid Tor SAM
pies of the lovely for de asuIejo,. which
are extracted from the walls of ancient
houses and palaces in out-of-the-way
places; nor is this to be wondered at. The
idea of amateurs in quest of the beautiful
is to get enough of these slabs to line a
room half way up the walls from the floor
and to aborn the upper portion with Moor
ish or Talavera plates, set off by few
''cornucopias. A "cornucopia" is the old
fashioned Spanish mirror, which was hung
as well in chuch sacristies as in the bou-
doir of the nsdja's belle. They effect every
conceivable shape and size, the smaller
ones being often the most valuable: and
the gilded frames in carved wood are even
more priced than the mirror itself. Some
are flanked with brackets for wax tapers:
others are embossed with coats of armor'
or cupids or birds. OF cornucopias. how.
ever, as of all other Spanish ANTIQUARIAN
objects, the foreigner had better beware
and take heed that the voice of the yender.
''charm he ever so wisely" never attalns
to such dulcet strains as when he seeks to
palm off some dazzling modern counter
felt for the genuine article.