Dead Man's Penny

It’s called the Dead Man’s Penny.  It’s a small bronze plaque that was personalized with the name of any fallen soldier in the service of the British Empire during World War 1.  The pennies are made of bronze and measure about 12cm in diameter – you can see how large it is in the palm of my hand.  It’s quite heavy, probably weighing about 1lb. 

 

 

The penny was sent to their next-of-kin in a package that included a cardboard envelope with a parchment scroll and letter from King George V. 

We have two in our museum, given in recognition of service by Lionel Wellington Nutter and Percy Leonard Robertson, both local Kings Co. men who died in World War 1.  The inscribed lettering is raised and the names are in a rectangular box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“He died for freedom and honour” is inscribed in raised lettering as well. The front of the penny also features a raised image of Britannia, a lion, and 2 dolphins. Britannia is holding a laurel wreath and a trident.  The dolphins symbolized Britain’s sea power.  The back is blank; no images or inscriptions.

If you look closely at the bottom, you can see a smaller lion underneath the bigger one and it’s attacking the German eagle.  

 

We have some information on Lionel, but not as much on Percy.  Lionel Wellington Nutter of Kars was born on April 30th, 1895. In March of 1915 Lionel enlisted and served with the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles. The 5th Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles was formed in 1915 in Quebec. Later in 1915 the Battalion went overseas where they became a part of the 3rd Canadian Division, 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade. Between 1916 and 1918 the Battalion fought in France and Flanders. On March 25th, 1916, after just one year of being part of the Mounted Rifles, Lionel Nutter was killed. 

No rank was included in the penny’s inscription because, regardless of rank, the sacrifice was the same.  Over 1.3 million of them were sent out.

For more information, check out this link:  http://www.greatwar.co.uk/memorials/memorial-plaque.htm

 

 

No Bells in My Belfry

The biggest thing I remember about starting university was that there was no bell! In modern schools today there are automatically timed, sophisticated bell systems. However, in bygone days some schools had a belfry where the teacher could ring a bell to signal the start of school.  Many of the old one room school houses - small buildings with no belfry - had a handheld bell that the teacher rang to let their students know it was time to come in for the start of lessons, or come back in after lunch.

This particular bell is made of polished brass with a wooden handle.  It stands about 12" high and is quite heavy.  

It is also very loud!  You can see the clanger in this bell is a good size and is made from the same polished brass as the bell.

This bell is not only functional but is also very beautiful.  You can see from the top that it has a polished brass top above the wooden handle.  

My mother started her teaching career in one room school houses and I remember her talking about using these bells.  Maybe they could be used in classrooms today to get the attention of talkative students!

There's No Technology Like Old Technology

Ahhhhh, books.  I love books.  I know new e-readers are all the rage, they take up less room and you can easily travel with a ton of books loaded into your new tech and it doesn't take up much space.  But...there is nothing like the feel of a book.  The thrill of being the first to open a brand new book, the smell, the feel of the pages.  And of course there's the thrill of reading an old book and wondering how many other people have turned its pages.  It gives you a kind of connection to people you don't even know because of the shared experience of handling those pages, reading those words, and sharing that story.

So, I can't begin to tell you how exciting it was to have a book donated to our collection that was printed around 1729!

The name of the book is Human Nature In Its Fourfold State written by Thomas Boston, a Scottish church leader who lived from 1676 - 1732.  The book is a religious classic from Scotland and is still available in print today - just google it.

This particular book was well used by the looks of its condition.  You can see from the picture that at some point it was covered with a lighter coloured, heavy paper.






In this picture you can see how someone tried to stitch the spine back together with string.    

Here you can see on the bottom left-hand page that the preface was written by Robert Wightman, March 18, 1729.  Since Thomas Boston died in 1732, this is likely a first edition of the book.

We also see a signature:  Andrew Glagon____ owns this book, 1769.  If anyone reading this can make out the full last name, please leave a comment in the comments box below.

Here we can see the signature of another owner of the book.  It's signed Thomas Purvess, May 1, 1826.

In a world we people change their technology every few years or even months, it's amazing to think that this old printing technology has enabled this book to last almost 300 years.  I'd like to see the giant tech companies beat that! Sometimes there really is no technology like old technology.

Little Toy - Work of Art

Every parent knows how hard it can be to get their kids out of bed.  Mozart’s father Leopold came up with an ingenius idea.  When the young Mozart refused to get out of bed, Leopold would go to the keyboard, start playing a scale, then never play the last note.  

Hum the scale to yourself – do re mi fa so la ti …….Do it a few times.  It will drive you crazy!  Imagine what it did to a musical genius like Mozart.  He got out of bed, came to the keyboard, and just banged on that last note!

Our little toy piano is only 5.5” tall, 7.5” long, and is made of wood and covered with stain.  It only has 6 keys:  C D E F G A.  No B or second C to make a full octave. I wonder what Mozart would have thought of that!  When the keys are depressed, a flat metal piece is moved to make the sound.  The pieces of this little piano are put together with tiny nails and glue.  The sound is surprisingly good; not tinny sounding at all.

In this picture below, you can see Symphony Tuned International Pitch C D E F G A painted in gilt on the piano.  Some of these little pianos were elaborately decorated and made interesting conversation pieces in homes. 

Toy pianos first made their appearance in Germany in the mid 19^th century.  One that has endured until this day is the Schoenhut Piano Company founded by Albert Schoenhut from Germany.  He was the first to make these little pianos with individual keys connected to hammers that struck a glass sounding bar.  He eventually made the sounding bars out of metal, which is what the sounding bar in this little piano is made from.  In fact, the Schoenhut Piano Company which Albert founded, continues to make toy pianos to this day.  They still offer models based on designs from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries as well as offering new models.  Did you ever have a musical instrument as a toy?