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Antique dealers call them by the workaday name of “smalls”. You see flea market (sorry antiquate fair) stalls with glass-topped cases full of them, their custodians desperately hoping that the quirkiness of the objects will persuade a lot of hapless aggregator to part with a couple of hundred quid for what is fundamentally useless. Auctioneers call the same things objet de vertu and their catalogues are full of colour pages littered with the things, their hapless owners all desperate that somebody like them will find it hard to protest a gold pill box so little there’s hardly room for half a dozen aspirin. Or a case for matches, smelling salts, thimbles, or needles. They’re neither use nor ornament. No, rephrase that. They’re in a positive manner pointless, but they make charming ornamentations and arousing and attention holding speech pieces. Call them what you like, but the huge assortment of small, highly-wrought items often times things of personal use, and in general with a good deal of precious semi-precious element or exotic material such as enamel integrated are also intriguing. It is a field which offers endless social historical as well as aesthetic delight and has the attraction of being more or less undervalued: most prices are in a range from £50 or less to the upper hundreds. Vinaigrettes, for example, were the personal air-fresheners people of quality carried in the 18th and 19th centuries to ward off the foul smells that would be encountered in the cities. These tiny containers held a sponge soaked in spice vinegar with a pierced grille to grant the reviving aroma to circulate. At original a small, starkly rectangular box relieved only by bright-cut scrollwork engraving, vinaigrette evolved into novelty miniature birds, snails, little fish and tiny books in the 1790s. Card cases run a parallel with vinaigrettes, both in their design, and their eventual demise. Just as there was a time when no man or woman with regards to town would crusade out of doors without his or her shelter versus the whiff of the open drains, also no one went anyplace without a ready supply of calling cards. Etiquette amongst polite society demanded that leaving cards had to follow rigorous rules relating to their size, the number to be left on visiting an individual at home and a conservatively thought out code of messages that could be conveyed by folding the corners of the card in pre-arranged ways. Similarly, the cases in which they were carried had to conform to the rules of the game – notably their size, which was three inches by four inches by half an inch deep, exactly. Silver was the preferent medium for most early calling card cases and earliest examples are constantly plain and workmanlike in their design. The nearer they got towards the middle of the 19th century, the more decorative, and at times flippant, the cases became. Examples with topographical views such as Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace – so-called “castle-tops” are exceptionally general but may be pricey at £600-800 for the best. Around the same time, no lady’s wardrobe was finish without a patch box. It kept little black patches to cover facial smallpox scars, and thence “beauty spots” became a fashion. Shaped like diamonds, crescent moons, stars or ships, today the patch boxes of our ancestors see service as pill boxes. Nutmeg, in the first place imported from India as a fancied shelter versus the plague, later had a more effective role as an integral ingredient of punch and toddy recipes. Nutmeg graters appeared in suitable shapes such as eggs, hearts, barrels, boots, and vases. Sometimes they would conceal a corkscrew as well. The exercise of inhaling powdered tobacco as snuff became mutual in Europe in the 17th century and was enjoyed by both men and women allround the 18th. The habit continued in the 19th century and there are, no doubt, still numerous adherents. The result is a plethora of snuff boxes to suit pockets of all depths available for accumulators to search out and hoard. At original rather simple hinged boxes, they later became much grander, being made as a form conspicuous display. Later a rasp was incorporated, and over time they evolved into Vesta cases. These date from post-1833, marking the invention of the short sulphur-tippedVesta match. Early Vesta matches were unpredictable, and being highly flammable, likely to burst in to flames at the slightest encouragement. As a result, they had to be held in little metal boxes for safety. These little boxes were formulated in a heap of dissimilar materials, silver, brass, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, and, eventually, bakelite. All are gathered today. Wine labels were introduced around 1660 to discern decanters and unmarked bottles. Usually two little eyelets or rings hold the silver label on a chain, which is prettified with the name of the wine in question and hung around the bottle’s neck. Collectors seek out the unusual, such as shrub, Bronte or Marsala and Vidonia Because huge seashells were slipped into tea chests at export to be applied for scooping out the tea leaves, caddy spoons were in the first place shell-shaped. As the habit of adding sugar to tea took hold, sugar tongs followed in the shape of fire irons These, too, became more exuberant and rococo; in the 19th century wishbone and figured harlequin designs became popular. Knife rests were ofttimes formed into the shapes of the quarry of the hunt: fox, hare, pheasant, or duck. The dinner table would also be graced with silver napkin rings. These are, of course, still utile today, in a prolific assortment of pretty, chased designs and fantastic forms. Menu card holders later adapted to hold place cards for guests, were traditionally adorned with the family crest. Horseshoe shapes were popular, as were others, such as Punch and Judy figures. Chatelaines are brooches or clips which attached to the girdle or the clothing, and from which necessary household instruments were suspended such as penknives, pill boxes or tiny notebooks. Among the finest objects of vertu is the 18th century etui (pronounced aytwee) or necessaire. These are little cases, often in gold or silver, intended to carry personal requisites such as spectacles, pencil, tweezers, penknife and so on. Baby pacifiers – rattles, teething sticks and dummies – were made in the form of children or bunny rabbits in combinings of silver with coral or mother-of-pearl and are often highly decorated. Sovereign holders alas are somewhat too little to hold a pound coin but are collected all the same. From the 1850s onwards, the “ever-pointed pencil” or the propelling pencil as we know it became popular. Two men are credited with the invention of this clever little device: silversmith Sampson Mordan and his partner, businessman Gabriel Riddle. Whichever it was, the former patented a design in 1822. A hundred years later, S. Mordan and Co., were selling smart and highly collectable examples ranging from the silver Centennial at 12 shillings and sixpence to the de luxe version in 15 carat gold that retailed at 130/-. Propelling pencils followed the fashion for figurative curiosities and were shaped like frogs, pigs, owls, pistols, golf clubs and even ones with bridge markers for devotees of the card game. Sometimes the pencils likewise included miniature penknives and corkscrews. They were made in their tens of thousands, in silver and silver plate, and may still be received for as little as £30. There is a vigorous market too for smoking-related items of the late Victorian and Edwardian era: cigar cutters in silver or gold, cigarette cases and boxes, and ashtrays. Silver table lighters started out to appear in the last quarter of the 19th century and quickly assumed symbolic forms such as flintlock pistols, Aladdin lamps, even grenades. Traditionalists will also find silver-backed brushes and mirrors for the dressing table, and inkstands and writing instrumentation for the well-appointed secretaire. Other breeds of collectors concentrate on commemorative objects, and here the scope is genuinely vast. Silver teaspoons are exceptionally popular, often enamelled with motifs of sports or keepsakes of tourist visits to historic locations. All you need is money! |
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