THE SPOON: WITH UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS, PRIMITIVE, EGYPTIAN, ROMAN, MEDIÆVAL, AND MODERN.

BY HABBAKUK O. WESTMAN,

OF THE GLOBE TAVERN; FORMERLY TEACHER OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL.

BEING A PART OF

THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CHIFFONIERS,

ILLUSTRATING THE PRIMITIVE ARTS IN DOMESTIC LIFE.

LONDON:

WILEY & PUTNAM, 6, WATERLOO PLACE.

ADVERTISEMENT.

‘THE SPOON’ is the first of a series of papers designed to elucidate the origin, history, and value of several primitive devices, which, from their apparent insignificance, have been overlooked by writers on the useful arts; but which have not been without their influence on the progress of civilization. As it was out of the question to treat every subject with the gravity due to historical research—to do so a writer must be the personification of melancholy herself—the idea was adopted of embracing them under the ‘Transactions’ of a Society, whose name should indicate their miscellaneous character, and relative value among literary merchandize. Small as this value may be, there are persons simple enough to suppose the annals of the shuttle and needle, of bellows and boilers, &c. possess higher claims on the attention of the moralist, philosopher, and historian, than many dignified tomes of acknowledged history; for what are these, when divested of extraneous matters, but records of the club, sword and bayonet, the musket, cannon, and scaffold?

THE PUBLISHERS.