Snowballs in May

While some days it has felt like we could still be making snowballs, these snowballs are quilted. This is one of the quilts we are featuring in this year's exhibit, celebrating Canada's 150th with the newly restored and returned Confederation Quilt. One online source stated the snowball pattern is an Amish quilt block pattern. For sure it is a pattern that fools the eye by creating an optical illusion. From a distance, a snowball block looks like a round circle, but it is actually an octagon, an eight-sided figure.Our snowball quilt is made up of 11,396 pieces, all hand-stitched into a full sized quilt by Minnie Main (Frost) Northrup, and was completed by the time she was 11 years old. Yes, eleven. She had started it as a doll bed quilt, but was encouraged to finish it as a full sized quilt. The final photo shows my hand to give a sense of the scale of the pieces used to create the blocks.

Nothing Like a Pair of Home Made Socks . . . or is there

This cool contraption caught my eye this week. The Auto Knitter Hosiery Co. Ltd. was located at 1870 Davenport Road, Toronto, Ontario. During the early 1900’s it shipped knitting machines throughout Canada. It was a way for people to discretely earn a wage cheque by producing socks and other knitted goods at home and sending them to Toronto. Prior to WW1 socks were normally handknit by family members, but the need for multiple changes of socks for the soldiers in the trenches to prevent ‘trench foot’ led to mechanization of this skill. A good hand knitter could complete a pair of socks in a week, but an experienced operator of a circular sock knitting machine could see a pair completed in less than an hour! It is complete including the shipping case, and was shipped to Mrs A Ralph Spragg of Saint John and donated to the museum by her daughter E M Dearman. 

What is That?!

Wandering through the museum collection often has me exclaiming "What IS that?" Today's post is one of those items. When I first saw it I saw what is shown in the first photo. The second photo including the mallet started to answer the identity question, and a search in our database contributed a little more information. This is actually a church bell, mounted to a wooden base and rung with a wooden mallet. It came to us in 2004 from Gagetown, but unfortunately that is all the information recorded. Funny how the inclusion of one simple additional piece of information can make sense of a mystery.

Don't Gong Me Late for Dinner

Ahhh the dinner gong.  Used to notify the ladies and gentlemen of the house that dinner is ready.  The one in our collection is about 9" high, hung with two small chains on an oak stand.

The gong itself is metal with an Eastern Sunburst design covering the front.  There is a brass shield on the base, however, there is no inscription on it.

This one came from the home of William H. Venning Esq., the first Inspector of Fisheries for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  He was appointed around the time of Confederation and wrote his first report in 1868, so this dinner gong likely dates from the mid to late 19th century.  The mallet handle is also made of matching oak and the top is soft.  When you hit the gong, it makes a sound louder than you might expect from something this small.  The sound is different depending on where you hit the gong.



I wonder if they had different tones for different types of food?  Hmmmm....I know you wouldn't have to hit the gong twice to call me for dinner!

  

Found My Marbles

You know the old expression "lost my marbles"?  Well, I've often wondered what my marbles would look like if I ever did find them and I think that became a reality today!  There are about 104 marbles in this jar. They are all different colours, many of them multi-coloured and spotted.  They are made of a mixture of ceramic and clay, quite hard, and almost cold to touch.  

Most of them aren't quite round and have a few flaws, just as I thought my marbles would.  They range in size from about 1/2" to 1" across.  Marbles are mentioned as far back as Roman times, but these ones likely date from the late 19th century.  Clay marbles were made in Germany and the U.S. There have been some reports that clay marbles were used as ballast in ships sailing from Germany to America, then were sold.

Maybe that's why it's taken so long to find my marbles - they came from Europe!

Source:  http://www.marblecollecting.com/marble-reference/online-marble-id-guide/earthenware/

Ironing Sad or Sad Iron?

I'm always sad (or mad might be more accurate) when I iron which is why I avoid it as much as possible!  Ironing has always been a chore and historically, it fell to the women in the family.  It was a hot, difficult task as stoves in the home had to be going continuously, even in summer.  These irons had to be heated over a fire or stove but cooled very quickly when used, which meant ironing took even more time as the woman would have to wait until the iron reheated.

The iron in this picture if made of wood and metal and weighs about 5lbs.  Now it makes more sense to me why it is called a sad iron since "sad" is an old English word for "solid".

 "Taylor Forbes" is stamped into the top of the metal iron on one side and "Guelph Canada" is stamped on the other.  There is also a "C" stamped on a raised block close to the end of the handle.  The bottom of the iron is very smooth.


This design with two pointed ends was patented in 1870 by Mary Florence Potts from Iowa.  The design was a bit of a breakthrough in ironing technology because it allowed the ironer to iron both ways;  anything to make this chore easier was welcome!  In 1871 she introduced yet another evolution in irons:  ones with detachable handles which meant one iron could be on the stove heating up while the other was being used.  It may seem basic to us, but having a woman own the patent during this time period was huge.  Because it was so popular with housewives, it was widely marketed in magazines and local stores.

John and Adam Taylor and George Forbes created the Taylor Forbes company in Guelph, Ontario, in 1902.  They became one of Canada's biggest manufacturers of home hardware.  They sold the company in 1950 and within a few years it went bankrupt.

Ironing was such an important part of life that in the 19th century, They started disappearing in the 1920s as people began installing electricity in their homes, however, since many rural areas did not receive electricity until into the 1950s, many of these little sad irons were still widely in use.  Hmmmm...maybe I need to be more grateful for the easy electric iron I have to use from time to time.



Source:  museum information on the artifact and http://www.collectorsweekly.com/tools-and-hardware/sad-and-flat-irons.  

A Sword-ed Life

These pictures are of a Russian Hussar Cavalry Officer's sword from the Seven Years War era (1756-1763). The sword is about 85.5cm long (about 33.5”) and both it and the scabbard are remarkably light.  The curved edge made it easier to fight the foe from horseback.  Light or not, it could still do some serious damage!

On the dull edge of the ricasso (the ricasso is the unsharpened length of blade just above the guard handle) there is an inscription left by the maker which roughly reads:  COANHRE which is Russian for Solingen.  Solingen is a city in Prussia where many such blades were crafted. 

The hilt of the sword bears a plain back-strap that leads to a lion shaped pommel.  

The hilt of the sword is made of wood and has been wrapped in copper wire, which is loose around it.  The blade is blued up to the last engraving and the scabbard is made of brass.  These types of swords were specially crafted for each officer.  

On the blade there are two mounted Hussars on either side with “Vivat Hussar” (Vivat is Latin for ‘Long Live’) above them.  These types of engravings are typical on Russian Hussar blades.

On the right side of the blade there is an engraved rose and laurel.  On the left side there is a sack of assorted arms and a water lily.  

Most likely, a British soldier took this from a dead Hussar officer.   The skill involved in making these engravings on the metal is incredible. 

For more information on the Seven Years War and its lasting effects on Canada, check out this link:  http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/seven-years-war/.