HINTS FOR A BAZAAR.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 36, 6 September 1890, Page 14

HINTS FOR A BAZAAR.

It is always difficult to find anything new- for a bazaar, but I hope these hints will be useful. Cocoa-nuts, if cut in half, would make very pretty fernholders. You might suspend them by orange coloured worsted braid, sewn together, in such a way that it forms a sort of cage for the nut to rest in ; the braid itself should be decorated with the showylooking beads formerly- used for the African slave trade, and now sold at most toy shops for the amusement of children ; and I should finish the braid off by long bead tassels. Another way of utilising the cocoanuts would be to line them neatly with paper and place inside a bag full of goodies. Then tie up each nut in one of the art silk squaies, fastening the knot with gold twist. These bon-bon holders hung about the back or from the roof of your stall would look very effective. In America, tying up boxes of sweets in this way is very fashionable, small silk handkerchiefs printed with the stars and stripes being especial favourites for this purpose. Your third question as to something which may be carried on in another room is open to several suggestions. Why not have a genuine and a sham art exhibition ? Make them rival competitors to each other, with elaborately devised descriptive placards at the respective entrances, and get some gentleman or lively boy to dress up in character, ami sell the tickets of admission. For the genuine exhibition borrow- from your friends, curios, painting, needleworks, etc. ; arrange them all very carefully in the small room, taking care to have a glass cover for small articles. These may be contrived out of packing cases, covered with black or red linen, with sheets of glass, which can be borrowed for the occasion, laid over the top. Have a very responsible person always in charge of your valuables —someone who will not be too much diverted by small talk. Light lingered folk find their way to these sort of affairs, and one can never guard too carefully articles valued by others ami entrusted to one's cure. The sham art exhibition, which causes great fun, is very easy to arrange : the proceeds from one held in Ealing some time ago formed quite an important item in the taking for the charity which was to be benefited by the general undertaking. A very neatly printed list of the exhibits was handed to each visitor on payment of the threepence or fourpence — I forget which exactly — charged for admission, the numbers upon which corresponded with those placed upon the objects on view. These were so ludicrous and so well devised, that I think I cannot do better than copy the catalogue for your benefit, ami that possibly of othei readeis who may have a bazaar in view. ‘Catalogue of a special collection of line arts. Visitors are particularly requested not to move or deface the works with sticks or umbrellas. N.B.—Many of the works have been brought from a great distance, ami are now

beiu" exhibited for the first time-:—1, Horse Fair; 2, The Shoeblack ; 3, The Belle of the Period ; 4, Dressed for Dinner; 5, Departed Spirits; 6, Sweet Memories of Childhood : 7, Woodcut (by a self-taught artist); 8, The Flower of the Family ; 9, Things to Adore ; 10, A Stirring Subject ; 11, A Match for Anybody ; 12, Ruins in China ; 13, The Lynx at Rest ; 14, The Traveller's Guide ; 15, Swedes in Native Costumes; 16,. Pillars of Greece ; 17, Family Jars ; 18, Meet of H.M. Staghounds ; 19, Self-examination; 20, Dead Beat ; 21, H.M. the Queen (bronze medallion) ; 22, The Last Rose of Summer ; 23, the Waits ; 24, The Ohl Dripping Well : 25, Caught in a Squall off' Yarmouth ; 26, Hence those Tears ; 27, High Tide and Low Tide ; 28. Study of a Fish in Oils ; 29, An Interior in China ; 30, The Meeting of the Bishops ; 31, Returning from the Oaks.’ These are thirty-one out of the sixty-five capital subjects which were selected for exhibition and described in the catalogue. In reality they were represented by the following articles, correspondingly numbered, neatly spread out on tables in a room set apart for the purposes of the sham art exhibition : —l, A Bag of Oats ;2, Box of Blacking ;3, A Small Handbell ; 4, A Boiled Potato ; 5, Two Empty Spirit Bottles ; 6, Old Toys, and Bottles of Rhubarb and Sen na; 7, A Bundle of Sticks ; 8, A Sack of Flour; 9, A Door-handle and Latch; 10, A Spoon; 11, A Lucifer Match; 12, A Broken Cup ; 13, Links of a Chain ; 14, Bradshaw ; 15, Swede Turnips ; 16, Two or Three Candles ; 17, Jam Pots; 18, Spratt’s Dog Biscuits ; 19, A Looking Glass ; 20, A Stick of Beetroot; 21, A Penny; 22, The Rose of an old Watering Pot ; 23, Weights of a Pair of Scales; 24, The Well of a Meat Hastener; 25, A Bloater; 26, An Onion ; 27, A Piece of Rope tied in tw o knots ; 28, A Sardine ; 29, A Tea Cup ; 30, Two Bishops from a set of chessmen ; 31, A Piece of Paper, on which is written ‘Sold.’ I have no doubt with this as a '-uide you will be able to make up a few more exhibits to fill up your catalogue. Have the latter neatly printed on tinted paper. You will find a number of people eager-and curious to view the rare objects on view, but before admitting them you must impose on each visitor a vow of silence as to the contents of the mysterious chamber. For the fun of the thing, they will be sure to keep it faithfully ; and thus to each fresh victim the charm of novelty will at any rate be secured, and in all probability many a hearty laugh will resound from within the mystic walls. — Lady's Pictorial.