84 BULLETIN 141, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



12.5 cm).) The Chinese fire bowl figured was used by candidates 

 secluded for the official examinations held at Peking. It is of 

 massive brass with relief panels and elephant-head handles. An 

 iron tripod rests in the ashes for supporting the teapot, and a pair 

 of tongs, like larger chopsticks, are shown. (PI. T2&, fig. 1 ; Cat. 

 No. 128533, Mrs. W. P. Mangum; 11 inches (28 cm.) diameter, 10.2 

 inches (26 cm.) high.) Over the fire is set an iron tripod consisting 

 of a bearing ring with three legs with incurving feet. Two iron 

 rods, hibashi, accompanying the liibachi, and other implements as 

 a blowing tube, ashes leveler shaped like a spatula, etc. We have, 

 here in a nutshell the early fire and its belongings. 



Andirons have been traced from stones or clay cones put in the fire 

 as rests for fuel and later as pot supports. They remained primitive 

 till the iron age, which provided the means at least by which this 

 piece of fire furniture could develop. For a long time the andirons 

 used in the great common house fireplace remained simple rests much 

 as the pair worked from bar iron used by Lewis Wetsel in colonial 

 western Virgina (PI. 73, fig. 1), property of the writer. Transferred 

 from the great fireplace to fireplaces in rooms in which increasing 

 pride in the furnishings was taken, the andiron demanded ornamen- 

 tation. A fore piece was added to tlie humble three-legged iron. On 

 this fore piece w^as lavished the metal worker's art in the various 

 characteristic periods to the present. Brass was usually the metal 

 selected for the fore piece, but appears to have been preceded by 

 cast iron, of which pleasing and artistic examples exist (pi. 73, fig. 

 2). In Europe, notably France, where the great fireplace was artis- 

 tically treated and preserved through conservatism, the andiron 

 took on its highest development. The fore piece became an elabor- 

 ately worked wrought-iron branched structure from which hung 

 baskets of charcoal for special cooking, and spoons, forks, and other 

 articles of the chef's hatterie de cuisine. At present in this age of 

 development the andirons serve usually as ornaments frequently to a 

 false fireplace, or, one upon which the luxury of a wood fire may 

 be laid. 



SIMPLE STOVES 



Simple stoves of the type of the brazier are found in different parts 

 of the world. The line of development of the stove may be begun 

 with them, considering the primitive rests or andirons of three stones 

 or bosses of baked clay as an intermediate step between the brazier- 

 like vessels and the camp fire. A suggestion of this is shown in the 

 cooking vessel set on three supporting overturned pots, from the 

 Haussa of the Niger River, Africa. (PI. 74a, fig. 4; Cat. No. 249776, 

 Leipzig Museum of Ethnology. (Model.).) From the Philippines 



