--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: A silver hairbrush, old and surely…" description: "\"“A silver hairbrush, old and surely precious, with a little leopard's head for London stamped near the bristles. A white dress, small and pretty, the s..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e95/kate-morton-805_authoress_a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precio_722906.jpg" --- # A silver hairbrush, old and surely precious, with a little… ![“A silver hairbrush, old and surely precious, with a little leopard's head for London stamped near the bristles. A white dress, small and pretty, the sort of old-fashioned dress Cassandra had never seen, let alone owned- the girls at school would laugh if she wore such a thing. A bundle of papers…” quote by Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e95/kate-morton-805_authoress_a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precio_722906.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e95/kate-morton-805_authoress_a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precio_722906.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e95/kate-morton-805_authoress_a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precio_722906.jpg) > ““A silver hairbrush, old and surely precious, with a little leopard's head for London stamped near the bristles. A white dress, small and pretty, the sort of old-fashioned dress Cassandra had never seen, let alone owned- the girls at school would laugh if she wore such a thing. A bundle of papers tied together with a pale blue ribbon. Cassandra let the bow slip loose between her fingertips and brushed the ends aside to see what lay beneath. A picture, a black-and-white sketch. The most beautiful woman Cassandra had ever seen, standing beneath a garden arch. No, not an arch, a leafy doorway, the entrance to a tunnel of trees. A maze, she thought suddenly. The strange word came into her mind fully formed. Scores of little black lines combined like magic to form the picture, and Cassandra wondered what it would feel like to create such a thing. The image was oddly familiar and at first she couldn't think how that could be. Then she realized- the woman looked like someone from a children's book. Like an illustration from an olden-days fairy tale, the maiden who turns into a princess when the handsome prince sees beyond her ratty clothing.”” [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Cassandra discovers a nostalgic illustration that sparks curiosity about creation and hidden beauty, linking past stories to present imagination. **In simple terms:** She finds an old sketch that feels familiar and wonders about making art. Key Takeaway Explore how past images inspire new creations. Themes nostalgia creativity discovery Mood reflective curious Type literary inspirational When to use this quote - reading a novel - examining family heirlooms - sketching ideas - visiting museums Key Concepts memory artistic inspiration fairy‑tale motifs Questions to Reflect On - What hidden stories do everyday objects hold? - How can you turn nostalgia into personal expression? A Different Perspective The narrative may romanticize memory, overlooking practical challenges of artistic skill. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Authoress](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/authoress-12821/) [Beautiful woman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beautiful-woman/) [Cassandra Wondered](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cassandra-wondered-2518600/) [Cassandra-ryan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cassandra-ryan-28333/) [Children'S Book](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children-s-book/) [Eliza-makepeace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eliza-makepeace/) [Fairy tale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fairy-tale/) [Maze](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/maze/) [Mementos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mementos/) [Pathway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pathway/) [Photo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/photo/) [Picture Cassandra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/picture-cassandra-5678392/) [Woman Cassandra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/woman-cassandra-5678391/) [Woman Looked](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/woman-looked-430174/) ## Related quotes > [“Beneath the notebook she found the book of fairy tales. The cover was green cardboard, the writing gold: 'Magical Tales for Girls and Boys',…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/beneath-the-notebook-she-found-the-book-of-fairy-tales-the-cover-was/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [Cassandra wondered at the mind's cruel ability to toss up flecks of the past. Why, as she neared her life's end, her grandmother's head…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/cassandra-wondered-at-the-mind-s-cruel-ability-to-toss-up-flecks-of/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“It was a garden, a walled garden. Overgrown but with beautiful bones visible still. Someone had cared for this garden once. The remains of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/it-was-a-garden-a-walled-garden-overgrown-but-with-beautiful-bones/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“The garden is incredible. It's really overgrown, but underneath the brambles all kinds of plants have survived. There are paths, garden seats, bird feeders."…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/the-garden-is-incredible-it-s-really-overgrown-but-underneath-the/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“She sat on the little iron garden seat in the clearing at the top and looked down at the strange garden of her mysterious…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/she-sat-on-the-little-iron-garden-seat-in-the-clearing-at-the-top-and/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Cassandra lifted the apple to her lips. The sunny scent was strong as she bit into it. An apple, from a tree in her…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/cassandra-lifted-the-apple-to-her-lips-the-sunny-scent-was-strong-as/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Cassandra continued her obstacle course along the wall, hoping to find a gate or a door, anything permitting entry. The sun was rising in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/cassandra-continued-her-obstacle-course-along-the-wall-hoping-to-find/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“What she really felt like doing was reading. Escaping into the Enchanted Wood, up the Faraway Tree, or with the Famous Five into Smuggler's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/what-she-really-felt-like-doing-was-reading-escaping-into-the/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“There was something about the garden that reminded her of Nell's backyard in Brisbane. Not the plants so much as the mood. As long…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/there-was-something-about-the-garden-that-reminded-her-of-nell-s/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Eliza had split each day between her two favorite places on the estate: the black rock down in the cove, on top of which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/eliza-had-split-each-day-between-her-two-favorite-places-on-the/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Eliza had a skill for rat catching, though she didn't like to do it. The rats were just trying to stay alive after all,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/eliza-had-a-skill-for-rat-catching-though-she-didn-t-like-to-do-it/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“By the time she entered the hidden garden, early light was sifting through the autumn-sparse canopy. Eliza took a deep breath. She'd come to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/by-the-time-she-entered-the-hidden-garden-early-light-was-sifting/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Even when they were very small Eliza had known that Sammy needed her more than she needed him, even before he caught the fever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/even-when-they-were-very-small-eliza-had-known-that-sammy-needed-her/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“She forced herself to stroll casually and appraise her plants. The wisteria was shedding its final leaves, the jasmine had long lost its flowers,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/she-forced-herself-to-stroll-casually-and-appraise-her-plants-the/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Apart from such visits, for the first time in her life Eliza was truly alone. In the beginning, unfamiliar sounds, nocturnal sounds, disturbed her,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/apart-from-such-visits-for-the-first-time-in-her-life-eliza-was-truly/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) ## More by Kate Morton > [“Laurel wondered whether perhaps a person reached an age when so much was kept from them, so many details of life discussed and decided…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/laurel-wondered-whether-perhaps-a-person-reached-an-age-when-so-much/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“It hardly needs to be said: sooner or later secrets have a way of making themselves known.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/it-hardly-needs-to-be-said-sooner-or-later-secrets-have-a-way-of/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Give someone more time and they'll appear to have done more with it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/give-someone-more-time-and-they-ll-appear-to-have-done-more-with-it/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“It suddenly seemed to Laurel that all the absences in her own life, every loss and sadness, every nightmare in the dark, every unexplained…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/it-suddenly-seemed-to-laurel-that-all-the-absences-in-her-own-life/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [Rejection is a cancer, Edie. It eats away at a person.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/rejection-is-a-cancer-edie-it-eats-away-at-a-person/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“home is a magnet that lures back even its most abstracted children.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/home-is-a-magnet-that-lures-back-even-its-most-abstracted-children/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“tiempo tiene su peculiar manera de moldear a la gente de forma que ellos mismos ya no se reconocen,”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/tiempo-tiene-su-peculiar-manera-de-moldear-a-la-gente-de-forma-que/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“I want to know how it feels to be altered by life”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/i-want-to-know-how-it-feels-to-be-altered-by-life/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“She'd opened the front cover and fallen inside the wonderful, frightening, magical illustrations. She'd wondered what it must feel like to escape the rigid…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/she-d-opened-the-front-cover-and-fallen-inside-the-wonderful/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [It's special, grandparents and grandchldren. So much simpler. Is it always so, I wonder? I think perhaps it is. While one's child takes a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/it-s-special-grandparents-and-grandchldren-so-much-simpler-is-it/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“... and I thought -not for the first time- what a true and simple pleasure it was, to be inside and sated when the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/and-i-thought-not-for-the-first-time-what-a-true-and-simple-pleasure/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“Nell was like a witch. Her long silvery hair rolled into a bun on the back of her head, the narrow wooden house on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/nell-was-like-a-witch-her-long-silvery-hair-rolled-into-a-bun-on-the/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [Thinking of nothing. Trying to think of nothing. Thinking of everything.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/thinking-of-nothing-trying-to-think-of-nothing-thinking-of-everything/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [There's a market for mysteries for adults. That feeling of opening a book and delving inside and not coming out until you've closed the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/there-s-a-market-for-mysteries-for-adults-that-feeling-of-opening-a/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) > [“I don’t have many friends, not the living, breathing sort at any rate. And I don’t mean that in a sad and lonely way;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/i-don-t-have-many-friends-not-the-living-breathing-sort-at-any-rate/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) [Explore all 334 Kate Morton quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) ## More Authoress quotes > [“Some of his authors were so mulishly stubborn about altering their own work, one would think he had suggested changing text in the Bible.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lisa-kleypas/some-of-his-authors-were-so-mulishly-stubborn-about-altering-their/) [Lisa Kleypas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lisa-kleypas/) > [“It might not be so unpleasant, you know, to do me one or two favours in exchange for becoming a famous authoress.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-westhaven/it-might-not-be-so-unpleasant-you-know-to-do-me-one-or-two-favours-in/) [Margaret Westhaven](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-westhaven/) > [“Stop calling yourself an authoress. You sound like an idiotess.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oliver-markus-malloy/stop-calling-yourself-an-authoress-you-sound-like-an-idiotess/) [Oliver Markus Malloy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oliver-markus-malloy/) > [“Alma wrote in depth about laurel, mimosa, and verbena. She wrote about grapes and camellias, about the myrtle orange, about the cosseting of figs,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-gilbert/alma-wrote-in-depth-about-laurel-mimosa-and-verbena-she-wrote-about/) [Elizabeth Gilbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-gilbert/) > [“If you call yourself an "authoress" on your Facebook profile, you suck at life. You are stupid and your children are ugly. It doesn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oliver-markus/if-you-call-yourself-an-authoress-on-your-facebook-profile-you-suck/) [Oliver Markus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oliver-markus/) > [“Betsy liked to read her stories aloud and she read them like an actress. She made her voice low and thrillingly deep. She made…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maud-hart-lovelace/betsy-liked-to-read-her-stories-aloud-and-she-read-them-like-an/) [Maud Hart Lovelace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maud-hart-lovelace/) > [“Beneath the notebook she found the book of fairy tales. The cover was green cardboard, the writing gold: 'Magical Tales for Girls and Boys',…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/beneath-the-notebook-she-found-the-book-of-fairy-tales-the-cover-was/) [Kate Morton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/) [Browse all 8 Authoress quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/authoress-12821/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“A silver hairbrush, old and surely precious, with a little leopard's head for London stamped near the bristles. A white dress, small and pretty, the sort of old-fashioned dress Cassandra had never seen, let alone owned- the girls at school would laugh if she wore such a thing. A bundle of papers tied together with a pale blue ribbon. Cassandra let the bow slip loose between her fingertips and brushed the ends aside to see what lay beneath. A picture, a black-and-white sketch. The most beautiful woman Cassandra had ever seen, standing beneath a garden arch. No, not an arch, a leafy doorway, the entrance to a tunnel of trees. A maze, she thought suddenly. The strange word came into her mind fully formed. Scores of little black lines combined like magic to form the picture, and Cassandra wondered what it would feel like to create such a thing. The image was oddly familiar and at first she couldn't think how that could be. Then she realized- the woman looked like someone from a children's book. Like an illustration from an olden-days fairy tale, the maiden who turns into a princess when the handsome prince sees beyond her ratty clothing.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kate Morton" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precious-with-a-little-leopard-s/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Authoress" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precious-with-a-little-leopard-s/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e95/kate-morton-805_authoress_a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precio_722906.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e95/kate-morton-805_authoress_a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precio_722906.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e95/kate-morton-805_authoress_a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precio_722906.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A silver hairbrush, old and surely precious, with a little leopard's head for London stamped near the…” — Kate Morton", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Kate Morton", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-morton/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“A silver hairbrush, old and surely...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precious-with-a-little-leopard-s/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-morton/a-silver-hairbrush-old-and-surely-precious-with-a-little-leopard-s/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```