The Portland daily press., 1893-08-15
CHINESE cURIos.
An Interesting Report by Mr.. Bedloe, Con
sui at Annoy.

An Ipteresting Report Dy Mr.. BedlOe, Con
sui at Annoy.
| Mr.. Edward Bedloe, United States con-
sul aft Annoy, has made report to the
State Department in regard to Chinese
curios. He says a practically untouched
field is the importation into the United
States of the curios, works of art, house.
hold ornaments and decorations for
which the people in this part Of China
are lannon's. Those worthy of comment
are mentioned.
Nothing Goes to Waste.
Nothing. not even the shells of the
sea. goes to waste in the extreme Orient
Life is too fierce. Everything, no matter
how humble, is utilized in some way.
| Thus. for example, nearly every form of
shellfsh is used for food. After the
extraction of the living organism the
shells are not thrown away, as in the
Western world. Some are reserved for
the button maker; others for the glue
boiler. At least dozen industries are
supported by what we would call the
| refuse of shells When these industries
| have exhausted the raw material, what
remains is sold to the lime kiln and the
kitchen gardener There are few, if any,
| shell mounds in the fowery empire.
| One family Of univalves (the strenuous
| is used for making fish horns, toy
trumpets, war horns and the like. The
animal is extracted and sold in the mar
ket. The she'll is boiled, scraped and
dried. and the minor apex or spindle cut
off at ain obtuse angle with the axis of
the warped surface. The resultant shape
| is a, success SO far as the production of
| noise is concerned. AS a musical in
strument it is dire failure. The toy
| trumpets emit squeaks which may please
| the juvenile, but not any other
The Fish Horn.
! The fish horn is on par with the tin
monstrosities with which Christmas is
celebrated. The war horns, heavy and
| awkward, give hollow roar, more like
the below of a straycalf than a call to
| glory. All of these implements of dis
sonance are durable and cheap. You
| will see fish horns which have been used
by father, son and grandson, until the
Trough exterior has been polished by
| years of handling into pearly enamel.
/ In the country districts the farmers
| wife uses it to call her husband home,
| and the herdsmen to attract a lingering
| or straying charge. In ancient Tunes
| the shell war horns were in common use.
! Military progress has replaced them
with brass especially, on the coast IN
| the far interior shell horns are still en-
4 irn of
| Shells is as buttons, sleeve links and hair
| pin heads. For this purpose small
| shell is employed. ranging from one
fourth of an inch to IA inch in diameter,
| 1t is cleaned and polished and half
| filled with, molten solder. Before the
metal cools wire loop or halrpln Is
| inserted in the middle of the molten
mass. The loop becomes the shank OF
the button, which is strong, neat and
| very attractive. The shells employed
| are all mem bers of the Cypraea family,
| the most common being the cowrie, or
| Cypraea moneta The cost of the but
| tons ranges from 20 to so cents per dozen.
| Sometimes the wire loops are of silver,
and then the prices are, of course, con-
siderably higher
Things Made From Shells.
More ingenious are the shell cups,
saucers and spoons made from the larger
types of tropical univalve shells. The
finest specimens came from the sout-
bern PHILIPPINES, and the next from
Borneo, but good ones are found in the
Pescadores and Formosa. 1t would seem
as if the original idea was Malayan, and
| that the other races of the Orient were
merely imitators. In making cups and
| saucers the conchs are sawed through
1 !. II ,nr.o
are when intended for dippers. They
are cleaned and polished, and the convex
! surface ground slightly so as to rest on
| a table without splitting or fitting.
| The spoons are made by saving the round
superior surface of the conch at such an
angle as to partially intersect the spindle
| or major axis. This becomes the handle
| Of the completed spoon. According to
the size of the shell the result is dessert
spoon, tablespoon or a ladle containing
| a quart. The interior is of a rich sui
phur, salmon, orange color or a pearly
| lustre. 1t has no angles where dirt can
| accumulate, and is about the handsomest
natural spoon [ have ever seen. They
| stand heat and cold well, but are at
| tackled by vinegar, lemon juice and other
/ acid substances The best market in
| which to obtain them today is Cebu, in
/ the PHILIPPINE Islands.
The Largest Industry.
The largest industry is the cutting Of
| beads, buttons, studs and other small
| articles from shells of high lustre.
There are some fifty species which are
utilized in this manner, of which the
Chinese mussel and oyster are the most
prominent. One variety gives black,
blue and white button similar to the
cats ewes of Ceylon, and named after
these Annoy OF Canton cats eyes. A
second variety is of a pale fawn ranging
| TO translucency, called white cats eyes.
| A third is half an inch in diameter and
resembles light brown onyx The black
| and white cats eyes are used for brace
| let's. necklaces, ladies' dress buttons and
| also as dress ornaments similar to pearls.
The balls are strung and used as neck
| Iaces, bracelets, earrings and rosaries.
Though apparently fragile, they are
really tough and very durable. Their
price depends upon some inscrutable
Chinese rule and varies from half a cent
to five cents apiece Even at the higher
| figure they are s.about the cheapest ar
| tistic decoration we have in the east.
When mounted as buttons the black
600, QUO ., ,,ofa hIq Ornannant