COTTAGE ORNAMENTS 



131 



and the whole thing very gay and bright ; fresh and clean- 

 looking from the shiny calendered surface. 



The cross-stitch kettle-holder, of much more recent date, 

 with a picture of a kettle on the fire, is not a bad repre- 

 sentation of a homely scene, treated in a direct and honest 

 manner. The fender is green, and the red of the fire glows 

 brightly between the bars of the grate. 



Much older than this, possibly dating from the end of 



Kettle-Holder 



the eighteenth century, is the flower-picture, worked in an 

 application of pieces of cloth on a ground of dull white 

 flannel. The auricula is strikingly lifelike, in two shades 

 of brown and ' murrey ' cloth over white ; the anthers, in 

 their natural straw-colour, being knots of silk. The straw- 

 berries are also very near nature ; they are not merely cut 

 out, but the edo - es are turned back, oivmo- each fruit a 

 distinct projection. The basket is of buff cloth; the pattern 

 perforated. The spray of pansy to the left is of white and 



