21 
December, 19 2 0 
silverware—in fact, we know she had. That 
all her gifts were not religiously inspired is 
proved by an ebony and tortoiseshell cabinet 
in the possession of the Wren family, her 
queenly gift to Sir Christopher. The frame¬ 
work is ebony and the tortoiseshell is laid over 
bright red paste. The inside is inlaid with 
ivory and contains four mirrors divided by 
black pillars with gold capitals. 
Several times,perhaps, has a hardwood work- 
box which Grace Vallois shows in her book, 
Antiques and Curios in Our Homes, figured 
as a gift. A royal romance shadowed its first 
fair possessor; that Mrs. Fitzherbert, the wife 
of George Fourth whose faithful love was so 
illy repaid by the profligate king. The box is 
greenish in "color and around the edges are 
bands of satinwood. It has a heavily weighted 
bottom. The drawer is supposed to defy in¬ 
spection and there is built in it a conti ivance 
for holding embroidery that allows 
the work to be wound up as it pro¬ 
gresses. The heaviness of the box 
holds it steady during the worker’s 
exertions. The present owner received 
it as a gift from Miss Prujean, the 
niece of Mrs. Fitzherbert’s cousin. 
A Present from Captain Kidd 
A gift of later date with more than 
ordinary romantic flavor about it 
stands at present in the Metropolitan 
Museum, loaned by the owner. It is 
an old brown stoneware jug of 
English Fulham. Encircling it is a 
band of cut silver bearing the legend 
of its history, of course added in re¬ 
cent times. The redoubtable Captain 
Kidd was the donor and Lady Lyon 
Gardiner, of Gardiner’s Island, the 
recipient. It was a gift of apprecia¬ 
tion of hospitalities received at the 
Manor House. On Gardiner’s Island, 
it will be remembered, much of the 
booty of the pirate was unearthed. 
Few gifts of early American days 
possess more romantic charm 
than those brought by ship from 
the Orient to the old seaports of 
our Atlantic Coast. In those days 
the China trade yielded far more 
than spices and teas and pieces of 
rare old silk 
A long, tunnel-like carriage, elegantly ap¬ 
pointed and with curtained windows in its 
sides, was a commendable gift in England 
of the 14 th and 1 Sth Centuries. Of later 
date is a brown stoneware jug of English 
Fulham, given to Lady Lyon Gardiner by 
the redoubtable Captain Kidd to show his 
appreciation of the hospitality extended to 
him at the Manor House 
Many infamous gifts have become famous 
through the glamour of romance and the 
charms of age, and Fragonard panels, painted 
for what shameless favorite of France’s most 
outrageous king, are none the less Fragonard 
panels, handled in his truly tender and dainty 
manner, and as such, delight us always. We 
know of gilt clocks from the cleverest makers 
in the world that once graced those gay bou¬ 
doirs, one among them the gift of Louis XV 
to La Pompadour. 
In the Morgan Collection in the Metropoli¬ 
tan Museum there are painted and jeweled 
patch hoxes, scent bottles and dance programs 
known as Carnet de Bal during the reign of 
Louis XVI, that have all doubtless been the 
graceful gift of some lordling to some fair 
lady. There are snuff boxes also that suggest 
a certain extravagance on the part of the fair 
dames. In jewel cabinets of marqueterie they 
kept these costly trinkets, and in elaborate 
bureaus and coffers of ebony, lacquer and gilt 
bronze they stored their artful frippery. The 
“Coffre de Mariage de la Dauphine Marie- 
Antoinette,” illustrated, was made in the last 
years of the reign of Louis XV, and it was 
purchased by Le Brun on behalf of Marie- 
Antoinette at the sale of the Due d’Aumont s 
collection in 1782. The jewel cabinet belongs 
to the period of Louis XVI. 
The music stand or reading table in mar¬ 
queterie, made by Martin Carlin, 
with rising top inlaid with a Sevres 
plaque bearing the date letter for 
1778, its tripod stand ornamented 
with mountings of chased ormolu, 
was the regal gift presented by the 
same ill-fated Queen to Mrs. Eden, 
who afterwards became Lady Auk 
land. 
Gifts of the Bonapartes 
Here in America are several pieces 
of furniture, gifts of the Bonapartes. 
A secretary given to Stephen Girard 
by Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s 
brother, is now in Girard College. 
It is of satinwood ornamented with 
ormolu. The columns are of marble 
with brass capitals. In the center 
of the arch, a clock is placed, and 
the secretary is equipped with a fine 
musical box. 
A gift of Caroline Bonaparte to 
Tudge Joseph Hopkinson, the confi- 
(Continued on page 80) 
Many an old home of seafaring 
ancestors still treasures its 
lacquered workbox, its wonderfid 
vases, greenish yellow and gold, 
set on teakwood stands, its rare 
porcelains. Even, perhaps, it has 
a white jade Buddha, like Ah 
Foo’s strange gift 
