Resumo de Book Of Facts - Reader's Digest

COLLECTORS? ITEMS I

A POTTED PORTRAIT
The common Toby jug is thought to immortalize a Yorkshire drinker. Harry Elwes, who was said to have downloaded 9000 litres (16000 pints) of beer without eating in between. An unlikely tale, perhaps, but when Elwes died in 1761, Staffordshire potter Ralph Wood began making portrait jugs. He named the jugs Toby Fillpot, said to have been Elwes?s nickname. The true Toby jug was a fat old man seated on a chair with a pint pot in his hand. Now there are hundreds of varieties with differing portraits of famous people, such as Admiral Nelson, Winston Churchill and Benjamin Franklin.

CRYSTAL-CLEAR SECRET
The secret of clear crystal glass was locked up for most of the 16th century on the island of Murano in Venice. But money talks, and by the early 17th century renegade Venetians had sold the secret- the use of manganese and skilled blowing to produce colourless glass- abroad. Other countries, especially Bohemia, started setting up rival glass making industries, and soon they were outstripping the Venetians with better techniques. By the 18th century the Venetian industry had fallen so far behind that in 1730 a Venetian named Briati disguised himself and worked for three years in a Bohemian glassworks to learn again the secrets his city had lost. Today a Venetian glass goblet of the 17th century in good condition might fetch between 800 to 1200 pounds.

ONE FOR THE POT
Tea was so expensive when it was first brought to Europe in the early 17th century that it was kept in locked wooden boxes. These were called caddies from the Asian word catty ? a unit of weight, usually about 600g. Veneered wood, silver and even papier-mache were used to make caddies, which today sometimes fetch more than 100 pounds at auction.

A BAG OF GOLD
Two disappointed sailors in the English port of Plymouth walked one day in 1863 into a small stamp shop owned by Stanley Gibbons (1840-1913), founder of the world-famous stamp dealers, and dumped on the counter a bag containing thousands of triangular stamps issued in the Cape of Good Hope between 1853 and 1863.
They explained disgustedly that they had won the stamps in a raffle in a South African pub and just wanted to get rid of them. They were delighted when Gibbons gave them 5 pounds for the bag. Gibbons went on to sell the stamps at between 8d and 10d a dozen, making a profit of 500 pounds. Today the stamps are valued at from 40 pounds to 13,000 pounds each.

WALL FURNITURE
The beautiful, simple furniture made by the Shaker religious sect in New England was designed so that it could be hung on pegs around the walls. Every evening the Shakers tidied it up in this way in case the night should be disturbed suddenly by the Second Coming of the Lord. Only the larger pieces of furniture such as chests and tables were left on the floor.

ANONYMOUS FAME
The world?s first stick-on, prepaid stamps were introduced in Britain on May 6, 1840. Only two denominations were issued; the penny black and the two penny blue. Since they were not intended for overseas use, neither stamp carried the name of the country on them and the tradition remains to this day

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