ventive faculty
of the art-workman for articles of all kinds in the olden times; nothing
was thought unworthy his attention. We give a selection of articles of
ordinary use which have received a considerable amount of decorative
enrichment. The spur-rowels (Figs. 32 and 33), from the collection of M.
Sauvageot, of Paris, are remarkable proofs of the faculty of invention
possessed by the ancient armourers. So simple a thing as a spur-rowel,
in our days of utilitarianism, would seem to be incapable of variety,
or at least unworthy to receive much attention. It was not so in past
times, when workmen even delighted to adorn their own tools. We engrave
an armourer's hammer (Figs. 34 and 35), from the collection of Lord
Londesborough, which has received an amount of enrichment of a very
varied character. The animals on one side, and in foliated scrolls,
connect the design across the summit of the implement with a totally new
composition on the opposite side. We would not insist on any part of the
design as remarkable for high character; it is simply given as an
instance of the love of decoration so prevalent in the sixteenth
century.

[Illustration: Figs. 34 and 35.]

The highly-enriched knocker and door-handle (Fig. 36) were sketched from
the original, on one of the ancient houses of the quaint city of
Nuremberg. The bell-pull beside it (Fig. 37) is also from the same
locality. There is probably no town in Germany where more artistic old
iron-work is to be seen than in this place,--once the richest of trading
communities, when Albert Durer flourished within its walls, and the
Emperor Maximilian held royal state in its old castle. To all who would
realise the chivalric days of the old German Empire, we would say, "Go
to Nuremberg."

[Illustration: Figs. 36 and 37.]

The bellows of carved chestnut-wood (Fig. 39) is in the possession of
the Count de Courval. It is of simpler and "severer" design than
common, inasmuch as it was usual to enrich these useful domestic
implements with an abundance of elaborate designs, and fill their
centres with scenes from sacred and profane history.

[Illustration: Fig. 38.]

When ladies delighted in lace-working, and in starching and preparing
their produce most carefully, they showed their good housewifery in
washing and ironing it with their own hands. It was gallantry on the
part of their spouses to make befitting presents of all things requisite
for their labours, and worthy their us