Gifts for Germanic Museum.

In addition to Emperor William's gift of reproductions of German sculpture to the Germanic Museum, several prominent citizens of Berlin have, contributed valuable works and are showing great interest in the new museum. These gifts, together with those from Emperor William, are expected to arrive here in February and will be immediately set up in the Museum building, the expenses being defrayed from funds contributed by the Germanic Museum Association.

The gifts include a notable collection of reproductions of the work of German gold and silver-smiths. Its value is estimated at about 50,000 marks. The nucleus of this collection is the gold and silver table service of the city of Lueneburg which was used on state occasions at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. It consists of about thirty-five pieces.

Professor Kuno Francke, who has recently returned from Germany after an absence of about a year, has purchased for the Germanic Museum many interesting objects which are now arriving in Cambridge. They consist principally of casts of monumental pieces of sculpture, which directly supplement the collection presented by Emperor William. Besides these casts Professor Francke has secured some large photographs both of the interior and the exterior of the cathedrals of Hildesheim and St. Michael which show the relation of each of the casts in the collection to the whole building. The idea of using photographs as supplements to the casts themselves was suggested to Professor Francke at the great industrial exposition recently held at Dusseldorf, and is to be carried out at the Germanic Museum in the case of all objects taken from architectural surroundings.

Professor Francke has also purchased various reproductions of famous German statues, and, as representative of North German art, fac-similes of three of the reliefs from the great altar of the Schleswig Cathedral, by Brueggemann-the "Ecce Homo," the "Establishment of the Passover," and the "Meeting of Abraham and Melchisedec."

Among the objects of archaeological interest, Professor Francke has obtained a model of the famous Viking boat at Kiel, which, in spite of its name, probably dates from the fourth of fifth century, and is thus some centuries earlier than the real Viking era. This boat was found in a remarkably good state of preservation in a bog near the present Danish boundary, together with the arms and armor of the warriors who used it, and the thirty oars which were used to propel it.