Whatever the depression in trade, there is always some- thing
useless which the rich will buy at fancy prices. A few years ago it was odd china, Lord Dudley, for example, giving thousands of pounds for a china ship, which a housemaid might break ; recently it was French furni- ture which had, been used by some person of eminence ; and to-day it seems to be rock-crystal and other inferior precious stones. A vase of that substance, which is not specially beautiful, with enamelled-gold mounting, was sold on Wednesday at the Spitzer sale in Paris for £2,940; and a jasper cup, with similar mounting, for 21,892. A " smoky " rock-crystal ewer went for 2630, and a rock-crystal goblet for 2227. Things in rock-crystal have the merit of durability ; but the material limits rather than develops the artist's skill. The constant deposit of millionaires in society tends, of course, to increase the demand for all things which cannot be reproduced ; but one wonders how great the reduc- tion in price would be if any general misfortune fell on Europe, —a great war, for instance, or a great upheaval from below. We claimed durability, by-the-way, for the translucent stones ; but it was a hasty claim. Nine-tenths of the work in them, which must have accumulated in the old civilisations, has irretrievably perished ; and, indeed, the learned have never ascertained the fate of the Roman emeralds and rubies.
Previous page
