Stolen Tapestry Sold

1916

New York, Sept. 18 — A Beauvais tapestry presented by King Louis XV. of France to Emperor Kien-Lung of China in 1766 and looted from the palace in Pekin at the time of the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty, has been sold by a New York dealer to a collector in Cleveland for $200,000. The name of the buyer was not revealed.

This tapestry is said to be one of a set of six designed by the French painter Boucher for the emperor of China at the king's behest. The subject is "the Chinese fair." The other five works still form part of the treasures of the Pekin Museum. The work sent to Cleveland is ten feet, seven inches high and ten feet, three inches wide.

Gems of 1900 B.C. Exhibited in U.S.

1919

ARE BRIGHT AS NEW, THO 3800 YEARS OF AGE.

Were Worn by Egyptian Princess and Found in 1914 by English Scientist.

NEW YORK, N. Y. — Jewelry worn by an Egyptian princess of the twelfth dynasty, nineteen hundred years before the Christian era, was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is declared to be the finest collection of personal adornment ever brought out of Egypt.

When marauders entered the tomb of Princess Sathathoriunut at some odd moment in the last 3,800 years they took away her mummy and even the elaborate funeral trappings, but overlooked a niche containing the wonderfully wrought ornaments she wore when attending the ancient equivalent for a first night at the opera.

Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, head of an English archaeological society, dug the collection out in 1914, and today it looks as bright as if it had just come from the makers.

It consists of a gold necklace inlaid with carnelian lapis lazuli and green feldspar and another pectoral similarly made of King Senusert II., father of the princess.

There is also a gold collar of double lion heads, a girdle of gold with rhombic jeweled heads, a necklace of amethyst with gold lion claw pendants, armlets and bracelets with gold bars and beads of gold, carnelian and turquoise; and parts of the princess' jewel box, made of ebony with gold and carved ivory panels.

The jewels are identified as belonging to the princess by her name and the name of her father in cartouches on the larger pieces. According to custom, the Cairo museum retained the choice of the collection, a diadem.

Since its purchase by the museum the collection has been in a vault in London, stipulation having been made that it should remain there until six months after hostilities closed.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 12.

A Nervy Museum Manager

1901

Sarah Bernhardt said that one night during a visit to America when she was playing "Jeanne d'Arc," she hurt her knee with a rusty nail. "The wound gave me considerable pain and trouble," she said, "and it was thought that a slight operation might possibly be required. This fact appeared in the daily papers, and a day or two afterward I received a telegram from the manager of a museum in Chicago saying that if it was necessary to amputate my leg might he please have it. He added he would drape it if desired."

Puzzle Jugs

1896

Water or puzzle jugs were made in England as early as the seventeenth century, and at the beginning of the present century were still being produced. They are now seen only in museums or private collections.

These tantalizing vessels, though not always equally complex, have generally some features in common. In spite of their many spouts, a perforated neck usually prevented the abstraction of their contents in the ordinary way. But a secret passage for the liquor up the hollow handle and through one spout or nozzle afforded the means of sucking the contents. Of course all other spouts and a small concealed hole under the top of the handle had to be closed by the fingers judiciously employed during the imbibing process.

The inscriptions found on some of these puzzle jugs usually relate to the difficulty of getting at their contents; the following is an example, written in "scratch blue," on a salt-glazed jug: "From Mother Earth I claim my birth, I'm made a joke for man; But now I'm here, filled with good cheer, Come, taste me if you can."


Snow Experiment

Some experiments at Leavenworth, Kan., show that packed snow offers an excellent resistance to bullets.

The Cameo

1907

Gets Its Name From the Cutting, Not From the Stone

The true nature of a cameo is very much misunderstood by the public generally. Most people think it is the stone itself, when in reality the method of cutting is what produces the cameo. The real meaning of the word is unknown, Its derivation having never been discovered; but, correctly speaking, cameos are small sculptures executed in low relief on some substance precious either for its beauty, rarity or hardness.

There are emerald cameos, turquoise cameos, shell cameos, coral cameos. Indeed, any substance that lends itself to carving in such minute detail can be used for cameo cutting, and nearly all precious stones, except diamonds, have been so used for intaglios, but never for cameos. Emerald is the most common precious stone from which cameos have been made, and there are some very fine emerald portrait cameos in existence, notably those of Queen Elizabeth in the British museum. Shell cameos were first made in the fifteenth century.

Banded onyx is generally used for cameo work because of its hardness and coloring, and it is this fact that has caused the misapprehension, the stone being used so much in making cameos that it has now become better known as "cameo" than by its right name. — St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Now a Museum, Where Keats and Shelley Lived in Rome

1909

Opened As Museum

House Where Keats and Shelley Lived in Rome

Flowers and Vines Make Enchanting Bower of Little Gallery Where One Can Fancy Two Famous Poets Chatted Together

Rome. — Early in April, in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel III, of Italy, the Keats-Shelley memorial house in Rome was opened and consecrated as a museum in memory of the two English poets who were friends. Henceforth this house, situated on the right hand side of the old Spanish stairs, in the Piazza di Spagna, will be a new resort for English-speaking tourists and lovers of these poets when in the Eternal city. The house has been bought by English and American lovers of poesy. It cost $60,000. It is a modest house, which in Keats' and Shelley's day was a pension, or boarding house.

There is a quiet seriousness about the premises, as if the shadow still lingered where young Keats breathed his last sigh. In the little entrance hang some old engravings, which give one an idea of the Piazza di Spagna before the Spanish stairs were built and after their construction. The house has been renovated. The central room has been transformed into a reading room. Around the walls run the book shelves made of dark walnut, the floor is covered by thick Turkish rugs. Sir Moses Ezekiel's bust of Shelley holds a prominent place in this room, as well as that made of Shelley by Severn. It is rather hard to put oneself in touch with the two poetic spirits who lived in this house, amid the babble of the tourists, and the questions with which they ply the civil Italian gentleman who acts as curator. I am quite sure he must be almost distracted after his morning's work, for the house is only open every day to the public from ten o'clock until one p. m. One of the little rooms leads out on the dearest little terrazionoo, which in these lovely spring days is a display of beautiful flowers and creeping vines. Here one can easily fancy Keats and Shelley resting and chatting together. In another room the book shelves hold 200 editions of Keats' and Shelley's works. Most of these being recent editions, they have little value except as evidence of the continuing fame of the poets — but is not that worth while to show In this way?

By far the most interesting room is the little bedchamber in which Keats died, with its two windows, one of which looks out over the Piazza di Spagna and the other on the picturesque stairs leading up to the Church delta Trinita de Monte. From that window one can gaze down on the loveliest flower market to the world all the year round, and watch the ever passing throng going up and down the Spanish steps. Many of the artists' models group themselves about, or drop off for their open air siestas in the most natural of poses.

In this small bedroom Keats died in the arms of his faithful friend, Severn The ceiling and the little fireplace have been left just as when Keats lived in the room. In this little sanctuary is the death mask of Keats, and a small lock of his chestnut brown hair. In a sealed vase is a little bone which Trelawney kept from the heart — "cer cordium" — when the flames reduced all that was once Percy Bysshe Shelley's frame to a handful of clean ashes.

This little house where the two poets stayed in Rome puts us in touch with them on different lines from their graves, in the beautiful little English cemetery, under the shadow of the pyramid of Calus Cestius, and the walls of old Rome. There are several autograph letters of Keats and Shelley carefully treasured in the little museum, as well as their songs set to music. It is pleasant to feel that these poetic friends — such lovers of Italy — lived and enjoyed all Italy had to offer them in the fullness of her wondrous beauty, art and history, and when life's fitful fever ended for them, they rest in her loving bosom.