CHAPTER IX 



CASTING AND MODELLING FROM NATURAL FOLIAGE, FLOWERS, 

 FRUITS, ALG^, FUNGI, ETC., AND THEIR REPRODUCTION 

 IN PRACTICALLY INDESTRUCTIBLE MATERIALS. 



When first the art of modelling in wax was evolved, it no 

 doubt occurred to the earliest exponent that nothing was so suit- 

 able for reproduction in that medium as flowers and fruit, and 

 there are few old people now living who do not recollect how 

 fashionable an amusement it was, in years gone by, for ladies ; 

 and few there are who cannot remember the graceful alabaster 

 vases, copied from the antique, filled with drooping sprays of 

 laburnum, passion flowers, fuchsias, and roses, which usually 

 made up the sum of their contents, all duly enshrined beneath 

 a glass shade. Although, in some cases, the flowers were 

 exquisitely modelled and coloured, yet the foliage was invari- 

 ably ill done and stiff, and both possessed the great disadvantage 

 of being composed entirely of wax, so that in course of time 

 — usually a very short time — the wax hardened, became 

 brittle, and the least shake or sudden jar caused the petals to 

 break or drop off in a most unnatural fashion ; or the sun 

 gained access in some unlucky moment, and then the petals 

 drooped, more naturally, but with equally disastrous results. 

 Then came the last scene of all : the colours were not " fast," 

 and a few years at most sealed the fate of the once elegant 



