ourse, in common use before the days
of safes and other methods of preserving parchments and property deeds.
One in the Victoria and Albert Museum is stamped on the exterior with
the description of the deed it originally contained, the inscription
commencing thus: "THE GRAUNT OF HEN: THE 5 TO THE ABBOT OF RADING."

Chests and Coffers.

Before modern travelling requisites were known and in the days when
journeys were few, the leather-covered coffer contained the whole
travelling outfit of perhaps some noble lord and his household. There
were also large coffers covered with leather used as permanent
receptacles of clothing, covered with ornamental embossed leather work,
some very decorative. There were smaller coffers, too; possibly they
were jewel caskets in their day. There are others which may have been
presentation cases, for their decoration is especially elaborate. In
making these continental craftsmen seem to have excelled. In the
Victoria and Albert Museum there is a curious German casket of wood
covered with leather, strongly bound with iron, having three immense
hasps from which locks once hung, altogether too massive for the little
casket. One would think such precautions were of not much avail against
theft, for the box itself could be removed readily! There is another
charming little casket, with a circular or dome-shaped top, decorated
and banded, a veritable prototype of the tin trunks generally in use a
quarter of a century ago. There is also a remarkable piece, a wood box
covered over with leather embossed by the _cuir boulli_ process. The
chief design takes the form of two armed horsemen, surrounded by
grotesque ornament on the top, on the sides being hunting scenes,
episodes of the chase. This curious example of the work of
seventeenth-century artists in leather measures 16 1/2 in. in length by
12 1/2 in. in width. Another typical piece, of a highly decorative
allegorical character, is a rectangular coffret with arched lid, the
ornament being in colours and gilt. On the front is a knight and a lady,
on the lid two paladins mounted on griffins, two savages with clubs and
shields, and two images of the sun, these typifying the story of the
delivery of a captured lady by a knight.

Leather Bottles and Drinking Vessels.

Several interesting specialistic collections of leather bottles and
drinking vessels have been got together, showing the varied forms of the
almost imperishable vessels, so suitable