December, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



XI 



about $10, "Girl and Boy'' about $15 a 

 pair, and "Babes in the Woods," a sub- 

 ject much used, $8 to $10. These are 

 very approximate values, as the articles 

 would have to be seen to be valued cor- 

 rectly. If they are modern Staffordshire 

 their value would be much less. 



J. D. C. : In regard to your Stuart pic- 

 ture we would say that is was, no doubt 

 made in England in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, and if in good condition would 

 bring from $60 to $65. The characters 

 are those of royalty — Charles I and his 

 queen, Henrietta Maria, and the detail 

 of the picture shows the castle, English 

 lion, flowers, trees and animals peculiar 

 to England. From the size of the em- 

 broidery should say it was used as a 

 covering for a box. The silver penny or 

 half-penny you speak of would be worth 

 only about $30, as the London mint is 

 the commonest mintage and silver pennies 

 of the Edward I and II periods have no 

 great value. 



K. B. M. : The sugar tongs, about which 

 you inquire, were probably made about 

 1790, the maker's initials were T. N. They 

 might bring about $10, but this could not be 

 determined without seeing the tongs. The 

 five Italian spoons have very little value. 

 These would also have to be seen to deter- 

 mine value. The colored print, ''Portrait 

 of Mrs. Fitzherbert," if original and in per- 

 fect condition would be worth from $15 to 

 $20. As you say it is in very bad condition, 

 it could only be used for reference and 

 would be worth little more than $2. The 

 engraving of the Declaration of Indepen- 

 dence after Trumbell by Prud'homme is 

 only worth about 50 cents. Those engrav- 

 ings of the Declaration by Durand are the 

 most valuable. 



W. A. P. : Regarding your table and two 

 chairs, we would say they are strongly 

 Swiss in character, or possibly Italian, but it 

 would be impossible to determine from the 

 photograph. Generally speaking, furniture 

 of that type has very little demand here, 

 which in turn affects its value. It would 

 be necessary to see it for an exact valuation. 



J. E. L. : It is possible to obtain a genuine 

 specimen of an engraved hematite seal of 

 the Babylonian period for twelve or fifteen 

 dollars, but such objects are becoming more 

 difficult to obtain every year. They should 

 be purchased only from reliable dealers. 



C. B. : A fine specimen of John Howard 

 Payne's autograph Can autograph letter 

 signed) is worth from ten to twenty dol- 

 lars. The Emmett collection in the New 

 York Public Library contains an autograph 

 letter of John Quincy Adams to Payne, 

 franked by Adams, and also a letter by 

 Payne to Bushrod Washington, George 

 Washington's nephew. 



B. C. X. : It is not surprising that you are 

 mystified as to the use of the long-handled 

 "claw" object of which you send a sketch. 

 This identifies it as the somewhat unelegant 

 instrument of comfort supposedly familiar 

 to previous generations under the uneu- 

 phonious name of "back-scratcher." Back- 

 scratchers have an ancient ancestry if not 

 a nol>le one, although old-time writers men- 

 tion them as having been in use without 

 apology from the reign of Queen Elizabeth 

 to perilously near our own day. 



E. L. M.: In reply to your inquiry, regard- 

 ing the plate with marks such as you in- 



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