400 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1913 



French painted enamel watch, 1 8th 

 century 



from the latter part of the eighteenth century and are ex- 

 cellent examples of most finished and artistic enamel paint- 

 ing. Perhaps not very serviceable from an horological 

 point of view, but most interesting otherwise, is the little 

 French watch dating from 1640, enclosed in a rock crystal 

 octagon case illustrated on page 396. The face of burnished 

 gold is adorned with enamel. Unless actually viewed at 

 close range, it is hard to realize the fascinating softness 

 of the enamel colors and the glow of the gold seen through 

 the crystal. 



Yet another watch showing a device of Diana and Cupid 

 in the centre of its face has a particularly clever arrange- 



An exceedingly interesting French watch with a "liberty 

 cap" case 



French 



painted enamel 

 century 



watch, 1 8th 



ment of three revolving dials, and the time is indicated by 

 fixed pointers instead of hands. 



Other watches in the collection, as well as exemplifying 

 all the stages of mechanical progress and development, ex- 

 hibit many of the vagaries of watchmakers in producing 

 timepieces of extraordinary shape. One elaborate bit of 

 pierced metal work is in the form of a jeweled cross, an- 

 other watch is shaped like a lute, still another, when closed, 

 has the outline of a liberty cap. When opened, however, 

 the likeness disappears and it looks like a ham cut in two. 

 Some of these trinkets were snuff boxes and watches com- 

 bined, and others that show the inventiveness of old times. 



Old Printed Chintzes 



By Lawrence Townsend 

 Photographs by T. C. Turner 



HE perennial enthusiasm of the true collec- 

 tor in the pursuit of his hobby is a thing which 

 his friends, who have no such tastes, misun- 

 derstand or stubbornly refuse to take the 

 trouble to understand. When a person with 

 the collector's instinct is placed upon the de- 

 fensive, and asked to tell his reason for filling his house 

 with what the unsympathetic usually define as "old rubbish," 

 he meets his golden opportunity of explaining the interest 

 everyone should have in the relationship of antiques and 

 curios to history as documents in the progress of civilization 

 through the various ages. A bit of glass may appear only 

 a bit of glass to the merely casual observer, but when he 

 comes to learn what the collector can tell him, namely, that 

 it is a specimen, say, of the first glass manufactured in 

 Colonial times in America, it then immediately assumes a 

 real importance. This is true of every subject dear to the 

 collector's heart, and not the least so with textiles of every 

 age and period. Even those who are most reluctant to be 

 convinced as to the interest embodied in a collection of fab- 

 rics of various kinds will readily agree that the making of 

 textiles is intimately connected with human life and with the 

 liberal arts at every period of history. When the pioneers 

 of the race had made some rude provision for shelter and 

 bodily sustenance, the question of clothing came up for 

 solution. As the procuring of food was considered the 

 work of men, the providing of wearing apparel, being a 

 domestic occupation, fell naturally to the part of the women. 



The distaff, symbol of the weaving of all manner of textiles 

 is likewise the symbol of feminine industry; even in heraldic 

 terms the word "distaff" applies to descent upon the female 

 side. Therefore, any phase of the subject of historic 

 textiles becomes as interesting in its ancestry as in its evo- 

 lution. 



The use of cotton seems to have originated in central 

 Asia, which is said to have been the cradle of the human 

 race. Its use seems to have flourished in India at a very 

 early day, for Herodotus, who may be regarded as the 

 father of secular history, wrote "The Indian trees 

 bear fleeces as their fruit, and the fleeces excel those of 

 lambs in excellence and beauty," and in India, the 

 art of printing cotton fabrics attained a high degree of ex- 

 cellence which is acknowledged even to-day in all sections 

 of the world where India prints are known. 



The vogue in England of printed cottons from India 

 was so great in the seventeenth century that the makers of 

 similar fabrics in England supposed that the competition 

 was sending them far upon the road to ruin. English com- 

 merce, however, survived the strain and in latter days so 

 successfully carried the war into the enemy's camp that to- 

 day the products of the Manchester cotton mills sell in 

 India at prices much lower than those of India prints. 



In Queen Anne's time these gaily printed cottons — 

 chintzes they came to be called, a word derived from the 

 Sanskrit "chinta," meaning spotted or variegated, or from 

 the Hindu word "cint" — were in great demand. In that 



