THE FITZROY VASES

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2504, 28 July 1888, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE FITZROY VASES

What I am about to relate is absolute ly j true. It has never appeared iu typo before, I shall merely make a necessary change in names and locale, leaving the facts exactly as they were detailed to me by one personally interested in the story. In a rumbling old rectory in the Midlands there had stood for more than forty years two china vases—not especially admired or valued by the owner —dusted by the sacrilegious hands of every chance housemaid, yet, curiously enough, unbroken during that long period of time. There were quantities of china lying about, and ranged along the walls apparently of equal or greater value. The place was a vast china warren—why, no one seemed to know. At the end of the forty years the Sector who had a more dignified ecclesiastical title as well, died. Like Mr Bardell, he " glided almost imperceptibly from the world," and left his china behind him. llinc illce lacrimm ! The Rector left two sons, Robert and James Fitroy. The property was divided pretty equally between the two, except to Robert, the elder, went the furniture, pictures, plate and china. Before the final settlement, however, James Fitroy said to Robert, " I have a fancy for those two vases out of the hall—more for auld langsyne than anything else." To which Robert replied, with generosity more conspicuous than discrimination, "All right; I don't care about them. You may have them with pleasure." The incident, which seemed to both trivial enough, did not dwell in the minds of either of the brothers. James, who was a barrister by profession and a farmer by preference, took his spoil away. The vases were placed in the drawingroom of his country house, where his wife, partly because her husband from old associations attached value to them, dusted them herself. One day a lady of their acquaintance called at The Briars. After the usunl platitudes about tho weather and the dullness of the season, the visitor glanced round the room in search of a new subject. The ineptitude of one's friends sometimes gets worn and threadbare under discussion in the country, and violent efforts after novelty have to be resorted to. The errant gaze lighted on the strange vases, and the quest was over. "0, what lovely vuses ! Where did you get them, Mrs Fitzroy ?" "They came from my husband's father's." Were they not in the room when you called last, Mm Hemming ?" " No, that I" am sure they wero not. 1 do admire them tremendously; don't you?" Here tho visitor erossos the room to inspect the delicate ware more closely. Tho pantomime of devotion which follows c:m be more easily imagined than described. "Hike them very well," replies the hostess unsympathetically ; "but I have seen a great many vases I like better." The visitor returns to her seat, hut cannot keep her eyes and thoughts from the object of her admiration. A week afterwards Mrs Hemming calls again. This time she is accompanied by Liuly Sarah Mordaunt, who is unknown personally to Mrs Fitzroy, but who is an ardent chinamauiac. Mrs Hemming introduces her friend. Together they strike, becoming, appreciative, and, to the unsympathetic, somewhat ludicrous attitudes before their idol. Mrs Fitzroy plays second fiddle to her own china. Lady Sarah Mordannt is even louder in her praises than Mrs Hemming. Together they insist, unmoved by the passive resistance of their hostess, on removing the contents of a glass case hitherto filled with bric-a-brac, and installing iu its place the two vases. Departing with a solemnity becoming to the occasion, they thus exhort Mrs Fitzroy: "If you and your liu.ibund do not really value this china, why not send it to Messrs Christie and Manson, and let them sell it to some one who will V

Lady Sarah Mordaunt, with indeed, an enthusiasm worthy of tho cause, was quite, mile about it. The world outsido china mania in, to tho true believer, very much what Macedonia was to Athens in tho day of Pericles—a barbuiism only to bo touched with tho tongs. These exhortations sank det-p into the receptive soul of Mrs Filzroy, and eventually permeated even tho mo.-t pachydermatous entity which composed her husband. Tho barrister communicated with tho famous firm of auctioneers. They asked for n description of the china, which was given. Ultimately, by their advice, the vases were sent up to King-street, St. James's square, to be inspected, aud sold for what they would fetch. ' Let us have a little jaunt up the town, my dear," remarks Mr James Fitzroy to his wife ; "if the china is all they say, the vases ought to fetcli a £10 note each, and that will pay our expenses. Wo have not had a holiday for a long time." Like John tJilpin when proposing a similar excursion, Mr Fitzroy was unaware that the future was big with fate. There the simile breaks down. Accordingly to town they went, putting up at the Bedford Hotel, in Convent Garden. After a few days spent in the extremely iunooeut enjoyment in which married men indulge in London when they have their wives with them, Mr Fitzroy received a notice from Christie and Manson that bis vases would be sold on a certain day the following week, at the end of the sale of Count Mirabeau's china. Count Mirabeau was a name dear to connoisseurs, and even celebrated outside the charmed circle. He was, in fact, a hoirophant of the china fetich. " I should like to see this collection of Count Mirabeau's they talk so much iibout in !ho papers," suid Mr James Fitzroy. "I think we will go to the sale." With this view, when the day arrived, they wont, prepared to swallow quietly their own (and their vases) comparative insignificance. On their arrival iu Kingstreet they found tho rooms, of courso, crowded with gentlemen and dealers. Tho time fixed for tho sale had not yet come. Making their way with difficulty through the room, Mr and Mrs Fitzroy met an acquaintance from the-Midland shiro in which they lived. " Hallo, Fitzroy ! what are you doing here ? I never know you were a maniac. What brings you to Christie's on a china day?" " I don't go in for this sort, of a thing as a rule, but I thought I should like to see Count Mirabeau's collection. They talk KO ranch about it. B'.'sMcs, I have a little thing in thosalo myself." The friend did not heed the last part of the remark, but answered the first. "0, Count Mirabeau! Ye 3, that is fine enough, I confess ; but it is nothing compared to some china at the further end of the room. You come this way and I will show you." The trio threaded their way to a remote corner of tt.e sale-room, passing as rapidly as might he a great quantity of handsome china, which was arranged and ticketed ready for the sale. At tho end, remote from the door and near the rostrum, under two glass moulds, on a table stood their own two glasses.

" Thero, look at that," remarks the friend complacently, with the gentle patronage of superior knowledge. "Thatfs China if you like—worth any other 10 pieces in the room. Quite unique !" " Hang it !" said Mr Fitzroy. I need uot have come all this way to see those vases. Why, they are mine 1" "Yours, Fitroy I I like that! You have turned humourist in your old age. Don't you wish they were, by Jove ! You must take care of your husband, Mrs Fitroy. He works too hard." "Thank you for the insinuation, Somerset. I am sane enough to know my own property when I see it. I tell you that those vases that you think such a lot of are mine. I sent them to Christie." The tone and the words were too earnest to be mistaken. By this time the bystanders had heard the colloquy, and had gathered the import of what was passing. The dealers swannod round Mr Fitzroy like vultures upon carrion. They took the facts and the " greenness" in at a glance. '' I vill give you vive 'undred pound for those vases." " I vill give you zix 'undred pound for those vases." "I vill give you eight 'undred pound for those vases." "I will give you more than any man in England for the vases on the table, sir." Such were the cries which resounded on all hands. Jew and Gentile for onco had found a subject ou which they could agree. Mr Fitzroy was perfectly bewildered, and ran considerable risk of being reduced to the condition Somerset had suggested previously. The latter, who was an old hand, came to his rescue. " Don't be a fool, Fitzroy. If they are yours, keep a cool head on your shoulders. Tiiey tell me telegrams have been on the go all over Europe about those vases today. They are worth a mint of money. Don't part to any of these sharks." On the steps of tho hall the barrister would have taken £20 for his chances from that day's sale with cheerful alacrity. Mrs Fitzroy was looking very white. The sudden turn of affairs had taken was almost too much for her. " Don't faint, my dear," remarked her husband. The advice was needed. She felt very like it. But woman's buttress, curiosity to see the end, sustained her. If a woman were not curious, she would die more often than she does. The sale began. Count Mirabeau's collection was sold first. The juuior partner was the auctioneer. The Count's china was indeed, magnificent, and duly appreciated. The bidding was active, and the prices adequate. Nevertheless, throughout there was a restless feeling of impatience. More was coining. The bonne bnuehc was kept to the last. There was a pause. Then, amidst loud applause and great excitement, to whiuh it may be imagined the Fitzroys wore not wholly insensible, the two vases wen placed before Mr Woods, the auctioneer, in full view of the audience. When silence supervened, Mr Woods said — "Gentlemen, we know next to uothin, about this china which stands before you, and of whiuh you have just testified youi approval. We cinnot give you it* detailed history. All we know is th .t these vases have been hidden away iu country rectory iu the Midlauds l'o: forty years and more. Anything further back seems to he absolutely uncertain. One thing , ,' however, we do know absolutely ; the tinting is the real Rose du Barri. We thought there were only five vases in Europe, the finest existing samples of this beautiful ware. We now know there are seven. The sixth and seventh stands before you gentlemen." Another round of applause greeted the conclusion of this short speech. The bidding began. Mr and Mrs James Fitzroy stood in the corner unnoticed, breathless with suppressed excitement. Wo one headed them. They again played second fiddle to their own property. Fivo hundred pounds was the first bid for the pair. A cheer emphasized the spirited start. A cool thousand was, however, soon reached. Then there was a pause, amid silence which could be felt aud almost heard, Only three bidders

were left in. Everyone understood that they were gathering up their forces for the final conflict. '' It is against you, my lord, the auctioneer remarked quietly. The hint was taken, and the bidding began again. "Fifteen hundred guineas.' An unanswerable argument. The hammer f.ills. The crowd cheers. The wealthiest nobleman in England is the purchaser. Mr .lames Fitzroy is the wealthier by £1,500. Mrs Fitzroy marks her appreciation of the gravity of the situation and her own good luck in true feminine fashion by promptly fainting. It reads like a romance, yet happens to be perfectly true. A puff of smoke rises up into the nir and curves in graceful spiral curves to the ceiling, where it hovers until its identity is lost, owing to the fact of its being joined by other unsubstantial emanations from the same source. "But you are Robert Fitzroy?" queries the listener, who lias beeu silent for five minutes after the narrator of the story had finished, " Yes," with another and more vigorous puff of smoke, which may or may not have been expressive of internal emotion, "I gave those vases to my brother."— The World.