The part of the
box-wood used chiefly is an intermediate part between the root and the
stem called _la loupe_, or _racine de bruyere_; whilst the red wood used
for pipes is the root of a heath common in the Pyrenees, which has the
peculiar quality of resisting heat, and is free from odour or taste. So
great is the division of labour in the manufacture of the St. Claude
wares that it is said there are three thousand different processes in
turnery alone! A child's top, even though of the simplest, goes through
a great number of stages before being finished for the markets. Chaplets
are also manufactured largely, and is the earliest branch of industry,
dating from the Middle Ages. Snuff-boxes in inlaid wood, ivory, and bone
are made in great quantities, also rules and measures, spectacle cases,
napkin rings, salad spoons and forks, and other articles of the kind.
Four-fifths of the St. Claude wares are exported; an especial kind of
pipes being made expressly for the English market. It is stated that,
during the general Exhibition at Hyde Park in 1862, many Frenchmen
brought home, as English curiosities, the elegantly carved pipes of St.
Claude! The United States of America also import great quantities of
these pipes.
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