WOOD-CARVING. 157 



muskets. The various wind-instruments, clarionet, flute, fife,&c., 

 are made from boxwood, and wood of ebony, birch, service-tree, 

 maple, and grenadil ; wooden j)ipes from bruyere (Erica arhoren, 

 L.), alder, maple, birch and sycamore. All the wood used must 

 be first dried, and again from time to time laid aside to dry 

 during the making of the instruments, or it would soon warp, 

 Klingenthal and Markneukirchen in the Erz mountains are the 

 chief places for the manufacture of flutes, &c. [Briar pipes 

 from the S. of France. — Tr.] 



3. ChUdvoi's Toijs. 



Enormous numbers of these pretty articles are made by 

 dovetailing little cut pieces of wood, also by the turning- lathe 

 and by carving. Sprucewood is chiefly used, between (30 to 70 

 per cent, of the whole, also wood of lime, oak, aspen, birch and 

 alder. Regarding the importance of this trade, it is noted that 

 at Olbernhau in the Erz mountains 1,000 to 1,500 tons, worth 

 £35,000, are made yearly. The work is done by manual labour 

 and by machinery ; and there are factories where only one 

 special toy is made (for instance, toy-guns). 



Little animals which are afterwards painted to imitate nature 

 are, in the Erz mountains, split-out from rings of sprucewood, 

 which have been turned on a lathe, so that the animals are 

 roughly formed along their radii. 



This vast industry, of which Germany had for many years a 

 monopoly for the whole world, has now taken root in other 

 countries, under protective duties, and toys are now exported 

 largely from America. 



4. Artistic Wood-carving. 



The art of wood-carving attained its highest perfection in the 

 14th and 15th centuries a.d., but after a long slumber has 

 recently somewhat revived. Moderately hard, fine and homo- 

 geneous woods are most suitable for this purpose, in which 

 neither the annual rings nor the medullary rays are too 

 prominent. 



Limewood is best, and then comes the wood of sycamore, 

 horse-chestnut, walnut and fruit-trees. Oakwood is much used 



