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70 
House & Garden 
This exquisite Console Table, decorated in oils and with 
a top of black marble veined in white, is $160.00. 
HE singularly wide range of 
Hathaway reproductions is well 
portrayed by the two pieces 
illustrated. They are pieces 
fundamentally different in conception 
and execution, dating from two distinct 
periods; and yet both might find their way 
into the same charming home. 
Both are productions indebted for their design 
to the work of world-famous cabinet makers—the 
sort of furniture to which we of the twentieth 
century are turning more and more. 
They are the sort of furniture for which people 
of discernment are turning to Hathaway’s—knowing 
that they may find, in great profusion, reproduc¬ 
tions of faithful accuracy and of real intrinsic value, 
fairly priced. 
This Governor Winthrop Desk of authen¬ 
tic Colonial design in solid mahogany, 36 
inches long, is $69.50. 
W.A. H aibawau Compavv . 
62 Idlest 45? Street, NeitrTork 
.. - 
Treasure Chests of Far Cathay 
(Continued from page 46) 
distinct in race from the Chinese, yet seat of government and the home of 
they are a part of the great Mongolian many of the official families, the Chinese 
family. Their religion is Confucian- aristocrats, the people of Songdo con- 
ism; their culture, however much that sidered themselves superior to all others, 
may imply, has been imposed upon them It is not unlikely that this sense of 
by their northern neighbors, and for superiority led the craftsmen in that city 
many years Korea was ruled by Chinese to endow their chests and other house- 
kings who instilled in the subject people hold necessities with a character and 
their own traditions and beliefs. An- quality which distinguished them from 
cestor worship is practiced here as it is the commoner order. The wood in these 
in China; and the more ignorant folk chests comes from the Kui Muk tree (a 
live in constant terror of demons whom name for which we have no English 
they are forever seeking to propitiate by translation), which takes on a marvelous 
sacrifices and offerings. The temper of color and sheen with age. One of the 
their minds, expressing itself in their illustrations shows a cash box, such as 
arts, is one with that of the most mys- was used by the wealthy families of 
terious people in the world. 
You may have seen some time a 
Chinese face that is unforgettable, a 
ancient Songdo, resplendent in brass 
and furnished with a fascinating number 
of locks. The brass on such chests is 
face traced with fine little lines that occasionally plain, but more frequently 
might have come from smiling or from it is engraved with the characters sym- 
some emotion more sinister, utterly bolic of Long Life, Prosperity, Good 
bland, arresting and forever inscrutable. Health or Good Luck. The miniature 
Something of the same quality has en¬ 
tered into these wonderfully made chests. 
chests which stand on top of the cash 
box are of red lacquer, brass bound, and 
The mellow color and polish of the old are fitted with diminutive drawers and 
wood and the elaborate brass delight tire cupboards inside. 
eye; but the appeal to the imagination 
is stronger. Whatever are the treasures 
or the black secrets that lie hidden be- 
Wedding Boxes and Others 
The method of producing the fine red 
hind those cunningly fashioned locks lacquer, of which some of the choicest 
and bolts, they must be very strange of the smaller boxes were made, has be- 
and very wonderful to deserve protection come almost a lost art now; and year 
such as this. Perhaps the finer ones by year, as the researches of the con- 
stood in the incense laden interior of noisseur and the collector grow more 
some dim temple consecrated to strange thorough, the beautiful little boxes be- 
gods and stranger rites. Perhaps they come harder to find. Originally such 
graced the chamber of some Chinese lady boxes were used by the court women as 
of high degree. 
The cleverness with which these East- 
jewel or toilet cases, and in the old days 
it was no uncommon sight to see the 
ern people worked was testified to even slave women carrying these boxes on 
in the Middle Ages, when China, and their heads from the homes of their mis- 
presumably the surrounding country tresses to the palace where the ladies 
which would include Korea, was known were to be received in audience, 
as Cathay. In the 13th Century John de The less complex cabinets, made with 
Plano Carpini, a friar of the mendicant two big doors, are of a type peculiar to 
Franciscan order, in his character of the city of Songdo, where they took the 
missionary made a pilgrimage to these place of the wedding boxes used in other 
faraway shores, and to other parts of cities. It is known that such cabinets 
medieval Asia. In his report of what were often used by the man of the house 
he found in the “Empire of Cathay,” as a safe place to keep valuable papers, 
the friar says: “Their betters as crafts- land deeds and family records. Whether 
men in every art practiced by man are he appropriated his bride’s dower chest 
not to be found in the whole world,” after the ceremony, or whether he had 
Such unqualified praise may seem silper- a special cabinet made for the purpose, 
lative, but the perfection of detail with it is unsafe for the Occidental mind, in 
which every part of these chests is exe- which masculine authority is not always 
cuted and their ingeniously expressive an undisputed right, to conjecture. Suf- 
character merit admiration. fice it to say, that the wedding cabinets 
Of particular interest, in connection had within a most‘convenient arrange- 
with these chests, is the fact that, not ment of drawers, and that either the 
only in China but in this country, re- ancient chests or the fine modern repro¬ 
productions are being made today, which ductions are fitted to play an admirably 
in a wonderful way preserve the char- practical part in the scheme of things. 
acter of the ancient Korean chests and 
embody to the full 
their high decorative 
value. We have to 
accept as a matter 
of course splendid 
reproductions of Old 
English and Italian 
furniture, but re¬ 
markable indeed 
seem these treasure 
boxes, so faithfully 
reproduced that only 
one well versed in 
the lore of the East 
can distinguish be¬ 
tween them and na¬ 
tive-made furniture. 
The Finest Old 
Cabinets 
Some of the finest 
of the ancient cabi¬ 
nets were made in 
the city of Songdo, 
which for 479 years, 
and until 530 years 
ago when Seoul was 
made capital, was 
the chief city of the 
kingdom. Because 
their city was the 
A three-decker origin¬ 
ally made for a royal 
bedroom wardrobe 
While preserving intact the exterior 
appearance of the 
original chests, some 
of those which are 
made today are clev¬ 
erly adapted to mod¬ 
ern household re¬ 
quirements. With 
the proper interior 
equipment, what 
would seem on first 
glance to be a cash 
box or a dower chest 
from ancient Song¬ 
do assumes the char¬ 
acter of a silver 
cabinet, a music 
cabinet, a phono¬ 
graph record case, a 
writing desk, or, 
when the cabinet is 
unusually tall, a bed¬ 
room wardrobe. 
Those fitted with 
numerous small 
drawers and cup¬ 
boards after the true 
Oriental fashion, 
each one provided 
with its individual 
(Continued on page 
72) 
