62 
1 to 212. A series of keys, ranging from the thirteenth century 
down to a recent period. 
50, 51, 54, 75, 77 have good ornamented bowls. 
95 is an early form of latch key. 
Other curious latch keys are in Mr. E. T. Stevens’s collection, 
attention is directed to them, as well as to Nos. 153 and 155. 
88 is an early form found at Old Sarum in 1853. 
Nos. 70 and 71 presented by Mrs . Fowler; they were found in 
uncovering the foundation of the Cathedral, at Old Sarum, the 
large key near the site of the west door, the smaller key near 
site of the high altar. No. 62 presented by Mrs . E. Wickins ; 
the No. 133 presented by Mr. Chubb. 
Pottery and Porcelain. 
As the Museum at the present time contains a tolerably extensive 
series of examples of widely different periods, it has been thought 
desirable to append a short sketch of the Ceramic art generally. 
Amongst the numberless departments of human industry, from 
the most rude to the most civilised state of society, none presents 
to us productions more varied in their simplicity, as well as in 
their elaborate.character; none, notwithstanding their fragility, are 
more durable, or bear more indelibly the impress of the period or 
country to which they belong; none evince more distinctly the 
condition of social refinement or artistic taste which had influenced 
their fabrication. 
It is impossible to determine when the manufacture was invented. 
Clay is a material so generally diffused, and its nature so easily 
discovered, that the art of working it does not exceed the intelli¬ 
gence of the rudest savage. 
In few countries is the condition of the atmosphere such that 
objects of sun-dried clay can survive a single winter. Egypt, 
Assyria, and Babylonia, the triple cradle of the human race, have 
alone transmitted to posterity the sun-dried products which 
represents the first efforts of the art. The baking of pottery, so as to 
give it an indestructible tenacity, must have been a great stride in 
the art. We, however, find that among all the great nations 
baked earthenware is of the highest antiquity. 
The potter’s art, though in modern times restricted to domestic 
use, was employed by the ancients for higher and nobler purposes. 
From the pottery of the tombs we learn the domestic manners of 
nations such as the Etruscans, long since passed away. The 
extent of ancient Greece, of its colonies, and its conquests, is 
clearly to be traced through each division of the Old World by the 
Grecian funereal pottery. The frontier line of the Roman 
