March 2, 1776
These verses, printed in the Pennsylvania Ledger’s “POET’s CORNER,” described a museum in London which most people in Philadelphia would never have had the opportunity to see. “Mr. Cox’s MUSEUM” was the work of James Cox, a jeweler and inventor who put his creations on display. The poem, written to “a Lady,” talks about the wondrous things she may have read about “In French Fairy Tales and th’ Arabian Nights.” Even by comparison to the “splendid Pavilions of Gold” and “rose diamond fountains” of literature, Cox’s museum was “superb and surprizing.”
Cox’s museum had opened officially in 1772, though he had informally displayed his work before that time. Among the highlights of the museum were two automatons, a gilded peacock clock which is on display at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and a silver swan now at the Bowes Museum, which picks up fish from the glistening water.
The Pennsylvania Ledger: Or the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey Weekly Advertiser
Printed by James Humphreys, Jr.
POET’s CORNER.
VERSES written to a Lady, enclosing two Tickets for Mr. Cox’s MUSEUM.
YOU have read, my dear Madam, of wonderful Sights
In French Fairy Tales and th’ Arabian Nights;
Where of Palaces splendid Pavilions of Gold,
And Vases of Agate and Amber we’re told;
Of fine glittering Chariots, drawn by gilt Dragons,
And Elephants drawing as fine broad Wheel’d Waggons;
Of blue Birds that flutter—and warble in cages,
By magical art kept alive for whole ages;
Of pearl dropping linnets, and gem breeding caskets;
Of rose diamond foundations, and brilliants in baskets;
Of emeralds, rubies and saphires so bright,
That they rival’d the stars with their lustre and light:
So greatly romantic, indeed whats related,
We think the fine things all by fancy created:
But of King-street’s magnificent sight take a view,
And you’ll own the strange stories are probably true,
For they’re realiz’d all, as you’ll say when you see ‘em,
In Cox’s superb and surprizing Museum.
Inclos’d are the passports, take bell in your hand,
And feast on the wonders of this Fairy Land.
