Chats on Household CuriosBurgess, Fred. W. (Frederick William)
History
Chats on Household Curios
Burgess, Fred. W. (Frederick William)
Antiques; Collectors and collecting; Interior decoration
The bone skates were fastened on to the feet much the same as metal
skates, but they had no cutting edges, and consequently the skater
carried a stick shod with an iron point, and by its aid propelled
himself forward. Fitzstephen, writing in the time of Edward II,
describes the ponds at Moorfields where the citizens of London skated.
The ponds have long been dried up and built over; it is there, however,
where, during excavations, some very fine examples of the old bone
skates have been found.
Relics of Old Sport.
Among the relics of old sport met with are the curious and often
beautifully embroidered hoods of white leather used in the days of
hawking. These pretty little hoods, which were placed over the head of
the hawk when carried on the wrist to the hunting field, were often
embroidered in panels and furnished with braces for tying round the
hawk's head. In the British Museum there is a curious silver lock-ring
for a hawk engraved with arms and owner's name, apparently of
seventeenth-century workmanship. No doubt the real purport of such
curios is often overlooked, for not infrequently hawks' hoods have been
found amongst old dolls' clothing, having been given to children in
later years as playthings.
Guns, Pistols, and Flasks.
Eastern weapons have been brought over to this country in large numbers,
some of them very ancient. It is said that among some of the Arab tribes
it is no uncommon thing to meet with swords and daggers of antique form,
richly damascened, and sometimes with jewelled hilts, made a thousand
years or more ago, and a few years ago Crusaders' relics could be met
with in the East. Many of these knives have silica blades, some of the
handles being of jade. Those of grey jade are often pique with gold,
others, of ivory, being inlaid with jewels.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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