Norwich bulletin., 1917-10-20

complex life Of the later perior de- manded.
 Judging by the examples that have survived, silver utensils of the seven teenth century were limited to spoons, the caudle-cup, the beaker, the chal- hagon, and what are called today wine-tasters. The augmentation on the eaFiist of these pieces suggests the conventional flower designs found The old inventories and wills. how ever, give us 8 list of articles once in common use which are doubtless no longer in existence.
 pr. osrsi.em euIksiey died in 171a in Glastonbury. He was a man of considerable distinction and wealth. By the. terms of his will he bequeathed to q son, a silver retort, and to a daughter. q silver cucurbit, a species of retort shaped Hike a gourd, used, perhaps to distil perfumes and es- sences. once the duty of an accom- plished housewife.
 In. various inventories frequent mention is made of silver dram cups, always lower ir value than spoons. eat-shaped handle on each side. and called dram cups, because they com fortably held a drain. or spoonful, and were used for drinking medicine.
 
 ern collectors have called them wine tasters, which is clearly a Ynisnomer. One ancestors. MT. Curtis observes, were not wine-tasters; they drank from beakers, caudle-cups and tank ards.
 Other articles mentioned are silver piatters and punch bowls, whistles, clasps with glass cspters, chains or chatela1nes with scissors and other ar ticles attached, shoe and knee buckles, and last but not least, silver hat bands, worn only by those who affect ed the highest type of Fashionable a.- tire. Captain Giles Ham1in of Middle town. who died in 1889. aged 67, was the Colony. He was the owner of a silver hat-band which he bequeathed to his daughter.
 The portrait of Pocahontas. dated mannish headgear, encircled by a golden hat-band.
 Articles of gold were toothpieks, euff links, stay pins, rings, brooches, buttons and beads ad libitum. Doubt less a search through other inventor ies woud reveal many other articles of silver and gold.
 Tn the eighteenth century, the coll onists had greater wealth, life had be- come more formal and luxury more common. As result the silversmith ufactures and used more elaborate designs. although he still chung to the simplicity of line and form that was characteristic of all early industrial art in America.
 Although the earliest known silver smiths in New England had either learned their craft in England or been men. there was no attempt to adopt later the elaborate baroniaI designs of the mother country.
 Simpler forms were more in keeping with the simple life of this country. Illustrating seventeenth century plate, MT. Curtis. depicts a caudle-cup. 2 haEon, a. chalice of the earliest sign. an early type of beaker. and an early tankard with flat lid. On all of these examples when there is orn- anentation, 1t is of the simplest, most conventional kind. perhaps little scroll work or chasing in some simple pattern; the fact of utility is para nouns. suggesting the distum of Emerson, Nobody cares for ornament, everybody wants integrity" The typss of siIver articles and utensils were strictly in accord with the plain workaday, rugged, life of the period: and the fact that design CTS and makers are revsrting to sim liar types in present. day silversmith- ing seems a proof that these earlier craftsmen had struck the true type of artistry in the almost unadorned shapes with which they met the de- mand of their time.
 THE DTCTAGRAPH.