384 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



It is difficult to induce the firms mentioned to execute small orders 

 for Europe. 1 have so far onlj^ succeeded in obtaining for the Dresden 

 Museum from Snead & Co. a free standing iron book stack, and from 

 the Art Metal Company an iron card (catalogue case with twelve 

 drawers. 



C4LAS.S CASES. 



At the establishment of F. Pollard (3;V3T Bethune street. New York 

 City; also Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania) 1 saw glass 

 cases and glass desks without framework except on the back, and of 

 excellent workmanship. My attention was tirst atti'acted to very large 

 show windows of this kind whose plate glass panes were not fastened 

 in iron or wooden frames, but were held by metal screws which 

 pressed the edges of the glass together, with only a thin layer of cloth 



Fig. 26. — Lunir, low ciise, or desk top, with marble base. Opening behind. 



between to make them tit tightly. These cases are, so far as I am 

 aware, as yet nowhere used in museums. They now serve only for 

 show cases in business houses, but are excellenth' adapted for public 

 collections on account of their elegance and absence of framework on 

 the show sides. Cases completely proof against dust, which have not 

 as yet been manufactured, could easily be attained. They are opened 

 and closed at the back b}' means of glass doors in wooden or white 

 metal frames; socle or base of marble or of any other material. 1 

 give a figure of a case of the kind which, with lower socle, could be 

 used as a desk top, and which may be had up to five meters in length. 

 I ol)tained a sample of such a case of smaller size for the Dresden 

 Museum. At the Industrial Exposition in Philadelphia I saw similar 

 very elegant glass cases manufactured by the firm of F. X. Ganter, 

 Leadenhall and Stockliolm streets, Baltimore, with l)ranch houses in 

 Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. These cases were 

 made tight by means of silk bands. The business is now turned into 

 a joint stock company, the Crystal Show Case and Mirror Compan}^, 

 which is to go over "the whole earth."- 



