Inscriptions were common, such, for instance, as those which breathed the sentiment on a boxwood comb in the British Museum, which is inscribed in French: "Accept with goodwill this little gift"; it is a pretty piece of early work, dating probably from the middle of the sixteenth century. [Illustration: FIG. 65.--THREE OLD SCRATCHBACKS.] [Illustration: FIG. 66.--SILVER CHATELAINE TOILET INSTRUMENTS.] [Illustration: FIG. 67.--ANOTHER CHATELAINE SET.] Patch Boxes. The accessories of the toilet table--useful and ornamental--are many. It has ever been so, and in the change going on many odds and ends are left behind and become relics of former practices. Perhaps among the most interesting of these curios are the little boxes of porcelain, enamelled wares, and wood, which were once used as "patch" boxes, and as receptacles for the pigments employed when gumming patches upon the cheeks and forehead was the height of fashion, and when painting the face was the rule rather than the exception. It may be contended by some that these mysteries of the toilet are not unknown in the present day, but as yet the modern accessories of the toilet table do not come within the ken of the curio hunter. It was at the Court of Louis XV of France that the practice of gumming small pieces of black taffeta on the cheeks originated, the patches soon afterwards becoming common in this country. From simple circular discs were evolved stars, crescents, and other curious forms; then, as in so many other instances, extremes of fashion brought the practice into disrepute, for so extravagant became the style that the "coach and horses" patch and others as absurd came into favour. The famous Sam Pepys recorded in his Diary the first time he saw his wife wearing a black patch; apparently it caught his fancy, for he wrote: "My wife seemed very pretty to-day, it being the first time I had given her lief to wear a black patch." Incidentally it may be noted that the famous Pepys controlled even his wife's toilet, and that she was obedient to him even in the mysteries of the dressing table! Enamelled Objects. The receptacles for all these compounds varied; some were of wood, beautifully carved, often embellished with brass mountings, the insides being lined with silk, and small mirrors were inserted in the lids. The pretty trinket trays, curiously coloured and decorated, boxes, and little candlesticks for "my lady's table," made of Battersea and other enamels, were much in favour a century or more ago. Some remarkably charming boxes are met with stamped with the name of Lille, in France, where many such objects were made--the English enamels of that period are rarely if ever marked.