House & Garden 
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Silver 
Mark. H-G-M-7-20 
Sizes 5 to 20 inches 
in height 
Vases Designed— 
any degree of importan 
i Sketches Submitted 
y. Vyaiameii & 
Jewelers Stationers’ 
Philadelphia 
The Collector Seeks Keys 
(Continued from page 56) 
times did not consider it beneath their 
dignity to design the keys that were to 
make secure the doors of the edifices 
they had constructed. Throughout the 
whole mediaeval period keys were im¬ 
portant symbols in decoration. We find 
them pictured in illuminations, shown 
in tapestries, carved in heraldic orna¬ 
ment and chiseled in stone. As early 
as the reign of Charles IX, key-makers 
were recognized as forming a distinct 
trade, and by the time we reach the 
16th Century we find that France had 
become the world’s greatest market for 
the art of the locksmith and key-maker, 
a century in which culminated beauty 
of design, evolving, from Gothic keys 
of the 15th Century, keys of great beau¬ 
ty, having their ornamental tracery 
soldered on. Sometimes the handles of 
these old Gothic keys were like minia¬ 
ture reproductions of the frames of 
cathedral rose windows. 
Renaissance Craftsmanship 
We can well understand how the im¬ 
petus given to the arts in the Renais¬ 
sance which followed the Gothic period 
affected key design. The Renaissance 
craftsman considered nothing too trivial 
to adorn. Keys were needed more than 
ever, for chest furniture and cabinet 
furniture increased enormously in pro¬ 
duction and locksmith and key-maker 
were kept busy with their orders. The 
Renaissance craftsmen throughout Eur¬ 
ope called for keys of the most beautiful 
type obtainable and even Benvenuto 
Cellini designed a key for the Strozzi, 
a key which Baron Adolphe de Roths¬ 
child acquired some years ago for 35,000 
francs. On the sides of the bow of this 
Cellini key figures of two goddesses 
bend outward. Above is a cupid with 
uplifted wings. A conventional Corin¬ 
thian column forms the stem, while the 
wards resemble teeth of a fine comb. 
The wings of the cupid show feathers 
in sharp relief. 
The decline of classical taste natur¬ 
ally affected the art of key design, and 
there was a period in the 17th Century 
when keys suffered in consequence. The 
English key-makers of Charles II’s reign 
turned out examples quite equal to the 
best continental work. Later the pat¬ 
terns in key designs became less grace¬ 
ful and far more geometrical, although 
into the 18th century Chamberlains’ 
keys were extravagantly ornamented, 
chased and gilt. The net-like bow pierc¬ 
ings were superseded in time by com¬ 
mon rings, following somewhat the 
transition of the spoon-handle, which, 
from 1500 to 1620, were finely con¬ 
ceived. They degenerated after that 
date. 
Modern Locks and Keys 
Fortunately modem lock-makers have 
raised the key to something of its 
earlier beauty in many instances, and 
there is every indication that the trend 
is to be followed. No longer, of course, 
is it practicable for one to carry around 
keys that, for all the world, look like 
sections of the Shrine of St. Sebald, or 
like miniatures of the Fountain of Nep¬ 
tune by Gian di Bologna, or to stuff 
out our pockets with unwieldy objects 
however artistic they may be. But in 
the matter of keys intended for furn¬ 
iture, such as cabinet keys, chest keys, 
bureau keys and the like, we may wel¬ 
come such design as will make them 
harmonious accessories to the pieces 
they accompany, and like the old keys 
that have become a collector’s hobby, 
the joys forever that things of beauty 
always are. 
GARDEN VASES 
MRS. GEORGE CRAN, F. R. H. S. 
V ASES in a garden, like vases in a 
house, are meant to hold flowers. 
A good housewife will place the 
bowls of bloom about her room with 
the utmost care to display them well, 
and harmonize their color with the 
background; in the same way a true 
garden-lover will never be content to 
use his vases and jars as empty ele¬ 
ments of ornament or design, but will 
insure that they serve the purpose for 
which they were created (so solving for 
them the problem which still distracts 
the less fortunate human race!). 
To sit in a garden of empty vases is 
like reviewing the library of a man 
who cannot read, or living with an un¬ 
loving wife—the beautiful body is there, 
but the soul is unpossessed. 
Once let a gardener get the right idea, 
and he will learn that not only must 
his vases be placed with judgment and 
taste—in the right place both for artis¬ 
tic effect and for cultural amenities— 
but that the planting of them to secure 
successional color is another call on 
careful thought. Let us take the illus¬ 
trations here reproduced as an example 
of what I mean. 
This simple terra-cotta Ali Baba jar 
stands at the entrance to a Surrey gar¬ 
den, and was chosen carefully to har¬ 
monize with the homely cottage door 
and the fat roundness of the old brass 
knocker; anything of carved stone, any¬ 
thing ornate or pretentious would have 
been in bad taste in those surroundings 
of limpid simplicity. It stands against 
a background of evergreen jessamine 
creeper, well sheltered from the prevail¬ 
ing winds, facing full sun; and was 
chosen with that generous bellying 
curve in order to secure a plentiful sup- 
(Continued on page 60) 
