From this manuscript catalogue[193] to give long extracts were useless; it has afforded, however, some remarkable observations. Every article was appraised, nothing was sold under the affixed price, but a slight competition sometimes seems to have raised the sum; and when the Council of State could not get the sum appraised, the gold and silver were sent to the Mint; and assuredly many fine works of art were valued by the ounce. The names of the purchasers appear; they are usually English, but probably many were the agents for foreign courts. The coins or medals were thrown promiscuously into drawers; one drawer having twenty-four medals, was valued at £2 10_s_.; another of twenty, at £1; another of twenty-four, at £1; and one drawer, containing forty-six silver coins with the box, was sold for £5. On the whole the medals seem not to have been valued at much more than a shilling a-piece. The appraiser was certainly no antiquary. The king's curiosities in the Tower Jewel-house generally fetched above the price fixed; the toys of art could please the unlettered minds that had no conception of its works. The Temple of Jerusalem, made of ebony and amber, fetched £25. A fountain of silver, for perfumed waters, artificially made to play of itself, sold for £30. A chess-board, said to be Queen Elizabeth's, inlaid with gold, silver, and pearls, £23. A conjuring drum from Lapland, with an almanac cut on a piece of wood. Several sections in silver of a Turkish galley, a Venetian gondola, an Indian canoe, and a first-rate man-of-war. A Saxon king's mace used in war, with a ball full of spikes, and the handle covered with gold plates, and enamelled, sold for £37 8_s_. A gorget of massy gold, chased with the manner of a battle, weighing thirty-one ounces, at £3 10_s_. per ounce, was sent to the Mint. A Roman shield of buff leather, covered with a plate of gold, finely chased with a Gorgon's head, set round the rim with rubies, emeralds, turquoise stones, in number 137, £132 12_s_.