The Prized Treasures

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  “Will the prized treasures of today always be the cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd? Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house? . . . .   The “sampler” that the eldest daughter did at school will be spoken of as “tapestry of the Victorian era,” and be almost priceless. The blue-and-white mugs of the present-day roadside inn will be hunted up, all cracked and chipped, and sold for their weight in gold, and rich people will use them for claret cups; and travellers from Japan will buy up all the “Presents from Ramsgate,” and “Souvenirs of Margate,” that may have escaped destruction, and take them back to Jedo as ancient English curios.” Jerome K. Jerome, “T...

Ancient-cart Problems

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Long before Insta-cart and associated problems, there were Ancient-cart problems. Around 55 BC, Cicero sent a friend to buy statues one might see at a gymnasium (athletes) and some paintings. Cicero gets a bill indicating that his friend overspent the budget. On what? Further investigation reveals, well. . . Here are excerpts from a letter: 


“But, my dear Gallus, everything would have been easy, if you had bought the things I wanted, and only up to the price that I wished. . . I fully understand that you have displayed zeal and affection in purchasing (because you thought them worthy of me) things which pleased yourself. . . for there is absolutely none of those purchases that I care to have. But you, being unacquainted with my habits, have bought four or five of your selection at a price at which I do not value any statues in the world. . . . To begin with, I should never have considered the Muses worth all that money . . . But Bacchæ! What place is there in my house for them? But you will say, they are pretty. I know them very well and have often seen them. I would have commissioned you definitely in the case of statues known to me, if I had decided on them. . . . What, again, have I, the promoter of peace, to do with a statue of Mars? I am glad there was not a statue of Saturn also: for I should have thought these two statues had brought me debt! I should have preferred some representation of Mercury: I might then, I suppose, have made a more favourable bargain with Arrianus. You say you meant the table—stand for yourself; well, if you like it, keep it.” 


The paintings could not be found. Solomon was right: there is nothing new under the sun.

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