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RANDOM READINGS.

CONCERNING WATCHES. As early as Shakespeare's day, saya Maelver ' Pereival in the "Country 'Home, 5 ' watches were well known, and Queen Elizabeth possessed many of them. Indeed, if one-quarter of those that are said- to have belonged to her were really hers, she) must have had enough to stock a fair-sized watchmaker's shop. Sixteenth-century watches are often very complicated in their mechanism, and some curious specimens are found with their works entirely of iron. The cases were often 'mad© of the most singular sliapesj such as skulls, vases, crucifixes, balls, animals,, and so on. Instead of glass to protect tha dial they had perforated covers through; which the figures could be seen. Glasses, however, were introduced early in. the-Seventeenth century, at first merely pieces of thick flat sheet; then they went to the textreme, and ard often extremely, rounded, like half a glass ball. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries French watches were most exquisitely and delicately painted with enamel pictures, an art akin to china painting, as the gold was first t discovered with opaque enamel, and the scenes or figures were painted in fusible colors, which were often fired at a high temperature in mufile furnaces. In the eighteenth century chiselled gold cases chased with scenes and groups of flowers were fashionable, the gold ' being often of differently-tinted alloys, which caused the work to be described as a quatre couleurs. diamonds often surrounded the faces, and were set in the delicately pierced and worked fingers. In simpler forms the metal was repousse (that is, beaten up out of sheet metal), and sometimes cut steel was substituted for the diamonds, but this is more towards the end of the century, when money was, perhapa, getting scarcer. The minute-wheel and hands are said to have been invented by a London watchmaker named Quare, the inventor of repeating watches, which had an ingenious device for making the hour strike when required, so that the timei could be ascertained at night or without removing the watch from;the pocket. The way of wearing watches had differed according to the fashions of the period. Queen Eliztbeth received frpm the Earl of Leichester a present of a watch set in a bracelet, but the more general plan was to wear them on a chain or ribbon roimd the neck as medals or pendants were worn. However,' they* were ver.y generally carried in the pocket, a practice which seems to have become the most usual about 1630. ■ - One of the earliest fob chains known is now in the British Museum; it is attached to tlve watch said to have been belonged to Oliver Cromwell, who runs Queen Elizabeth hard in the number of watches reputed to lia,ve belonged to him. In the eighteenth century a very favorable _ way of carrying the watch was at the side on a chatelaine, where it shared the honors with' other usefjful and ornamental trifles. Later on in the century it became the fashion to wear several watches set in pins, rings., and buttons. Sometimes one was woi'n at each side, or a real watch on one hip was balanced by an imitation one on tha other, whioh, though the back 'was similar to the watch, was in reality a compass, pincushion, or other, device..

£IO,OOO FOR A BOOK. The late Mr.. Pierponfc Morgan has left among his vast collection K>fJ unique articles the only perfect copy in existence . of Caxton's " Morte d'Arthur." It is one of the rarest books in the world, and fell, to the late millionaire at the Hoe sale for the tremendous' price of £8,560. That is to say, each page is worth about £-50. Some years ago, when the Antwerp Collection was sold at Sotheby's, a great American collector coveted the First Folio Shakespeare which was included in the sale. His agent travelled 6,000 miles'to secure the treasure, and returned to the States with the great book. But lie had left behind lvim the record price, £3.600. In 1812 this book fe belied £l2l 16s.

There is a story of the unearthing of a Caxt-on at Thorneck Hall, Lincolnshire. The butler was entrusted with the work of weeding- out superfluous books. A perfect copy of Dame Juliana Berner's "Boke of St. Albans" was thrown aside and sold to a pedlar for ninepence. The latter thought he was lucky when lie sold it to ai Gainsborough chemist for three shillings. It was soon sold to a bookseller for £2, and he sold it to another bookseller for £7. It was subsequently sold to Sii* Thomas Grenville for £BO. At the time of this transaction Dibdin valued this book at £420, and in 1882 a perfect copy changed hands for £630. The most valuable printed book la tbe( world is the first ever issued from!' the press—a Gutenberg Bible. But even in those early days there were "editions de luxe." An ordinary paper 1 copy, with three leaves "restored,'* fetched £2,960 the last time it appeared on the market, but at the Hoe sale a tremendous sensation was caused byl the inclusion of a fine copy on vellurfly printed by the very first printer. Dealers hurried like homing- pigeons from all quarters of the globe to view this treasure and also to bid for it. It. was finally secured by. Henry E. Hunt-; .inKdomyvrth^

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/KCC19150116.2.44

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 737, 16 January 1915, Page 7

Word count
Tapeke kupu
889

RANDOM READINGS. King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 737, 16 January 1915, Page 7

RANDOM READINGS. King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 737, 16 January 1915, Page 7

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