THE BROKEN GOBLET

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3554, 6 December 1934, Page 7

THE BROKEN GOBLET

A CHANCE IN A MILLION HAPPENS. It always seems something of a Vmiracle that the hundreds of fragile glass‘vessels in our museums never seem to come to any harm. They never seem to be even chipped, though frequently handled by the ,jv curators, and their assistants, who must have- acquired that magic touch we so often pray for among our domestic helps. Most of these treasures have passed through the hands of auctioneers, and it is their boast that it is a million. to one chance that a breakage occurs. Such an accident has occurred this , year in England to a treasure of Queen Anne’s ‘days, which has been . dropped and broken in a famous auction room. It was a little goblet engraved with the Stuart Arms, and -dated from the early years of the ' 18th century. Art collectors could • say- that it was engTaved before the % year 1707 because a change was Jinade j n the Royal Arms when the llct of Union took effect in that year, and the old arms had been engraved '■ on this treasure. One other thing gave added value to this goblet. The engraving had been done by a steel ' cutting wheel and was the first : • example of its use.