{"title":"Americana","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"hand-finished-english-oak-armchair-c-1910-with-custom-leather-seat-and-silver-tack-trim","title":"Hand-Finished English Oak Armchair, c.1910, with Custom Leather Seat and Silver Tack Trim","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early twentieth century carved English oak armchair, revived through restoration and completed in the Viridian workshop with a bespoke leather seat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back carries an intricately shaped and pierced central splat with a turned medallion motif, flanked by curved stiles. The arched crest rail is worked with radiating sunburst carvings, an idiom that sits between Arts and Crafts geometry and folk carving. Curved side arms sweep simply into the frame, and turned legs are joined by box stretchers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe frame has been hand sanded, oiled and stained to a warm saddle brown that deepens the grain while keeping its antique glow. The circular seat, originally caned or woven, has been reupholstered in full grain embossed leather in slate blue gray with floral tooling, pinned with polished nickel tacks set through the original cane holes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe chair was made in England circa 1900 to 1920, with the listing dating it to about 1910. It reflects the English domestic design ethos of the period, practical, well proportioned and hand carved from native hardwood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was built for a woven or pressed cane seat and would have served in an informal dining room or parlor rather than a formal one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo maker's mark is recorded, so the attribution rests on idiom and construction: the solid English oak, the traditional joinery with pinned stretchers, and the carved vocabulary of the crest rail and splat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe restoration was carried out in a California workshop in 2025. The original finish was removed and reworked by hand, the seat weaving was taken out and replaced with a custom leather cushion assembly built with new fill and a natural leather top layer, the cushion was edged with decorative tacks driven through the existing cane holes, and the wood was treated with layered stain and wax. The tackwork and tooled floral leather bring a Western vernacular to an Edwardian frame, and each alteration was made to the original frame rather than in place of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1900 to 1920, restored 2025\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEngland, restored in a California workshop\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCarved oak armchair with pierced central splat and turned medallion, arched crest rail with sunburst carving, curved arms, turned legs and box stretchers\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterials\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSolid English oak, full grain embossed leather in slate blue gray with floral tooling, polished nickel tacks applied by hand\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand sanded, oiled, stained to a warm saddle brown and waxed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStyle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEdwardian and Arts and Crafts, with Western Americana detailing\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUnmarked. Attribution rests on idiom and construction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eExcellent restored condition. Oak frame refinished and structurally sound, joints tight, no visible repairs or losses, even color with a soft hand rubbed patina. Leather seat newly upholstered and hand pinned. Ready for use or for display\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTo be confirmed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe chair is an object rooted in English tradition and reworked through American craft. The carved oak reads as noble and restrained, while the tooled leather seat adds contrast and depth, so the two halves of its history stay legible at the same time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts weight and patina anchor a room, and the hand finished surface invites touch. It suits a living room, an office or a hallway, and it works beside a desk, a hearth, or in a curated corner where a single piece has to carry the corner on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a dealer or designer it answers a familiar problem: a period chair with genuine carving that is not precious about being sat in, and that brings texture and narrative to a scheme mixing refinement with rusticity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42748725854313,"sku":"VE-0225","price":605.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/hand-finished_english_oak_armchair_c.1910_with_custom_leather_seat_and_silver_tack_trim766059642890534450652594281.jpg?v=1774418373"},{"product_id":"1973-harrah-s-automobile-collection-booklet-vintage-automotive-photography-reno-nevada","title":"1973 Harrah’s Automobile Collection Booklet | Vintage Automotive Photography | Reno, Nevada","description":"\u003ch3 data-start=\"2168\" data-end=\"2183\"\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2184\" data-end=\"2311\"\u003e1973 automotive collection booklet.\u003cbr data-start=\"2219\" data-end=\"2222\"\u003eColor photographic publication.\u003cbr data-start=\"2253\" data-end=\"2256\"\u003eIssued by Harrah’s Automobile Collection, Reno, Nevada.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-start=\"2313\" data-end=\"2338\"\u003ePrimary Description\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2339\" data-end=\"2620\"\u003eAn official illustrated booklet documenting selections from Harrah’s Automobile Collection, featuring full-color photography and technical descriptions of historically significant automobiles. The publication reflects the scope and ambition of the collection during its peak years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2622\" data-end=\"2801\"\u003eProduced with embossed and foil-stamped elements, the booklet exemplifies the design language and production quality associated with institutional publications of the early 1970s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-start=\"2803\" data-end=\"2827\"\u003eHistorical Context\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2828\" data-end=\"3252\"\u003eHarrah’s Automobile Collection was, at the time of publication, the largest privately owned automobile collection in the world. Assembled by William F. Harrah, the collection played a critical role in the preservation and public appreciation of early automotive history. Publications such as this served as both documentation and record of vehicles that would later be dispersed to museums and private collections worldwide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-start=\"3254\" data-end=\"3275\"\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"3276\" data-end=\"3470\"\u003e→ Publisher: Harrah’s Automobile Collection\u003cbr data-start=\"3319\" data-end=\"3322\"\u003e→ Date: 1973\u003cbr data-start=\"3334\" data-end=\"3337\"\u003e→ Location: Reno, Nevada\u003cbr data-start=\"3361\" data-end=\"3364\"\u003e→ Format: Illustrated booklet\u003cbr data-start=\"3393\" data-end=\"3396\"\u003e→ Contents: Color photography, vehicle descriptions, collection overview\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-start=\"3472\" data-end=\"3487\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"3488\" data-end=\"3584\"\u003eGeneral wear consistent with age. Covers intact. Interior pages clean. No major losses observed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-start=\"3586\" data-end=\"3625\"\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Collection\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"3626\" data-end=\"3834\"\u003eThis booklet serves as a visual and historical record of one of the most important automotive collections ever assembled in the United States, capturing vehicles and context that no longer exist in one place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-start=\"3836\" data-end=\"3865\"\u003eFrom Viridian Eclection\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"3866\" data-end=\"3954\"\u003eSelected for its institutional provenance, documentary value, and cultural significance, as well as Viridian Eclection being founded and operated in Reno Nevada itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr data-start=\"3956\" data-end=\"3959\"\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42881217036393,"sku":"VE-0495","price":81.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/CECC6F99-EC20-4594-AB8C-5329527FE7BA_1_201_a.jpg?v=1770111337"},{"product_id":"silver-backed-childs-hairbrush-with-embossed-rabbit-medallion-c-1925-1950","title":"Silver-Backed Child's Hairbrush with Embossed Rabbit Medallion, c. 1925–1950","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA small hairbrush made for a child, with an oval back in bright silver-coloured metal and a slim tapering handle that rises from it in one clean line. The handle is plain, faintly ridged along its length, and swells slightly before it flattens at the tip, where a small hanging hole is pierced.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet into the centre of the back is the reason to own it: an oval medallion, struck in low relief, showing a rabbit standing upright in a jacket, arms lifted. It is drawn with real charm and the detail is still crisp — ears, coat, the turn of the head — surrounded by a fine double-ruled border. Everything else on the back is left plain, so the rabbit sits alone in a field of polished metal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe brush itself is set into a cream base plate, the tufts arranged in concentric oval rows and flaring outward at the perimeter. The bristles are pale, long, and soft.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe child's dressing set is a vanished category of object. Through the first half of the twentieth century a brush, comb, and sometimes a mirror in silver or silver plate were standard gifts at a christening or a first birthday — given to be used daily and then kept, which is why so many survive with worn bristles and unworn backs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rabbit is the giveaway. Animal medallions were the standard decorative vocabulary for nursery silver: rabbits, ducks, chicks, and bears appear again and again on brushes, cups, spoons, and porringers, always in a small struck oval. A rabbit in a jacket, standing on its hind legs, belongs to the storybook tradition that ran through children's design from the Edwardian period onward.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe handle profile — plain, tapered, lightly ridged, with a small beaded junction where it meets the brush — is restrained rather than ornate, which places it in the second quarter of the twentieth century rather than the fussier decades before.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNo maker's mark, quality stamp, or hallmark is visible on the back, the handle, or the collar. We have not found a STERLING mark, and we are not going to describe this as solid silver on the strength of its colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eChild's hairbrush\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eUnattributed. No maker's mark, hallmark, or quality stamp is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOval brush head with domed metal back and slim tapering handle pierced for hanging; bristles set in concentric oval rows in a cream base plate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSilver-coloured metal back and handle over a cream composition base plate with pale bristles. Not tested; no silver quality mark observed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eStruck oval medallion to the back depicting a standing rabbit in a jacket; no maker's mark or hallmark\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1925–1950\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood. The brush is sound and complete with the back firmly seated and the handle straight and secure. The rabbit medallion is crisp and fully legible. The metal carries dark tarnish across the back with light surface scratching consistent with age and use. The bristles are complete with no bald patches but show yellowing at the base and dust caught between the tufts, and the cream base plate shows staining around the tuft holes. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a gift object, and it has been one twice — once when it was given to a child ninety-odd years ago, and again now. It suits a new baby, a christening, a nursery shelf, or a grandmother who will recognise it immediately. Nobody manufactures anything like it any more, and a small silver-backed brush with a rabbit on it says something a gift card cannot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt also stands on its own as an object. Laid on a dresser beside a jewellery dish, propped in a shadow box, or set on a stack of books, the oval back and long handle make a shape that reads as considered. The tarnish is worth keeping — it sits in the low relief of the medallion and makes the rabbit legible in a way a bright polish would flatten.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA note on care: if you do polish it, use a soft silver cloth and work only the flat areas, leaving the darkened recesses of the medallion alone. Never use a dip or a liquid tarnish remover, which will strip the relief and can seep into the join between the metal and the base plate. Do not wet the bristles or the base; brush the tufts out with a clean dry toothbrush instead. If you intend to use it on a child's hair, wipe the bristles with a barely damp cloth and let it dry fully, bristles down, before it goes near anyone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48028476702825,"sku":"VE-1423","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3676_5bb336b1-2358-4627-9604-0b85984f3229.jpg?v=1788997917"},{"product_id":"bill-mauldins-up-front-charter-books-paperback-with-a-david-halberstam-introduction-c-1975-1982","title":"Bill Mauldin's Up Front, Charter Books Paperback with a David Halberstam Introduction, c. 1975–1982","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA paperback copy of \u003cem\u003eUp Front\u003c\/em\u003e, and the cover is doing exactly what a 1970s paperback cover was built to do. Red ground, the title reversed out of a blue band, two rows of white stars running above and below it, and the author's name across the top. It is patriotic bunting used as graphic design, and it works from across a room.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet into the middle is one of Mauldin's own drawings, reproduced in black and white: three helmeted soldiers crowded into a foxhole with a machine gun set on the parapet above them, cigarette packs scattered in the dirt, everything drawn in the heavy scratchy line he used for mud and stubble.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe back is the same red, carrying a block of praise for the book and a passage from the novelist James Jones on what the war actually did to men — not the danger so much as the grinding, dirty monotony of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside, the paper has toned to a warm cream. The title page reads BILL MAULDIN'S UP FRONT in the same starred banner, over the Charter colophon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book is a landmark and the man behind it was twenty-three years old.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBill Mauldin was a sergeant in the 45th Infantry Division who drew cartoons for \u003cem\u003eStars and Stripes\u003c\/em\u003e through the Italian campaign and into France. His subjects were Willie and Joe: two unshaven, filthy, permanently exhausted infantrymen who were funny in the specific way that only people having a terrible time are funny. Soldiers recognised themselves in them immediately. Not every officer was delighted — General Patton objected that the cartoons undermined discipline and appearance, and Eisenhower declined to suppress them. Mauldin won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1945, and won a second one fourteen years later.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eUp Front\u003c\/em\u003e gathers the drawings alongside Mauldin's own prose, written while the war was still on, and it became one of the defining American books of the conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow the dating, which this copy makes unusually easy. The copyright page carries three layers: drawings copyright 1944 by United Feature Syndicate, text copyright 1945 by Henry Holt and Company, and copyright 1968 by W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company for the reissue this paperback follows. The imprint is Charter Books, a division of Charter Communications Inc., described on the page as a Grosset \u0026amp; Dunlap company, at 360 Park Avenue South. The cover carries a $1.95 price and a new introduction by David Halberstam.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo facts bracket it. The back cover quotes James Jones from \u003cem\u003eWWII\u003c\/em\u003e, which Grosset \u0026amp; Dunlap published in 1975 — so this printing cannot predate that. And Grosset \u0026amp; Dunlap was sold on to G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982, after which the imprint line printed here no longer described the company — so it is unlikely to postdate that. The result is a window of roughly 1975 to 1982, established from the book's own pages rather than from guesswork.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne thing we will state plainly: this is a mass-market paperback printing, not a first edition. The first edition is the 1945 Henry Holt hardcover. What you are buying here is the text, the drawings, and a very good period cover — not scarcity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePaperback book\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eUp Front\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAuthor\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eBill Mauldin, with a new introduction by David Halberstam\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCharter Books, a division of Charter Communications Inc., a Grosset \u0026amp; Dunlap company, New York; distributed by Ace Books\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMass-market paperback with illustrated wrappers; text illustrated throughout with Mauldin's drawings\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCopyright page reads “Copyright © 1968 by W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company,” “Drawings copyright 1944 by United Feature Syndicate,” and “Copyright, 1945 by Henry Holt and Company”; cover priced $1.95\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1975–1982\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood, as a read copy. The binding is sound with no loose or missing pages and the text and drawings are clean and fully legible throughout. The cover shows genuine shelf wear: creasing across the head of the front and back panels, rubbing and whitening along the spine and at all four corners, and light scuffing to the red ground. The text block has toned to cream, as paper of this period does. No inscriptions, no tears, no odour. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the rare gift that costs almost nothing and lands properly. For anyone who served, or whose father or grandfather did, Willie and Joe are instantly recognisable, and the book says something a card cannot: that somebody understood the war as it was actually lived rather than as it is usually retold. It suits a veteran, a military historian, a cartoonist, or anybody who reads about the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt also earns a spot on display. Red, white and blue with a heavy starred banner is strong graphic design, and a paperback this size stands easily on a shelf edge, leans against a lamp, or sits face-out in a bookcase where the cover does the work. Vintage paperback covers are among the cheapest ways to put real colour and period typography into a room.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd unlike most decorative books, this one is genuinely worth reading. Mauldin wrote it in his early twenties, in the middle of it, and the prose is as unsparing as the drawings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA note on care: this is mid-century mass-market paper, which is acidic and will keep browning. Keep it out of direct sunlight, which will fade the red cover fast and yellow the edges faster. Shelve it upright rather than under a stack, since pressure sets new creases in a soft cover. Do not attempt to clean the cover with any liquid; the printing is on coated stock and will lift. If you want to slow the toning, an archival polypropylene sleeve costs very little.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48028757426281,"sku":"VE-1430","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_37192.jpg?v=1788997712"},{"product_id":"folk-art-birdhouse-in-weathered-barn-wood-with-hand-painted-bluebonnet-roof-and-brick-chimney-c-1985-2005","title":"Folk Art Birdhouse in Weathered Barn Wood with Hand-Painted Bluebonnet Roof and Brick Chimney, c. 1930–1975","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small house built out of genuinely old wood. The walls are reclaimed barn boards, silvered to that particular soft grey that only comes from years of weather, with the grain standing proud where the soft summer wood has eroded away and the hard grain has not. There are old nail holes in it that have nothing to do with this birdhouse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe roof is a single sheet of galvanized steel bent over the ridge, its lower corners rounded off, and it is where all the colour lives. Painted across it is a bouquet of bluebonnets — five spikes rendered in blue and white with fine green stems, gathered and tied with a pale blue ribbon worked into a full bow with the tails curling out to either side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA square strip of wood runs up the left side painted brick red with white mortar lines, standing in for a chimney. Below the entry hole a natural twig has been fitted as a perch, and a thick weathered block projects from the base as a porch. A wire hanger is threaded through a drilled hole near the top of the roof, and small staples pin the sheet to the walls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe paint on the roof has flaked back hard across the field, leaving the bare galvanized surface showing through in a mottled pattern behind the flowers, which have survived nearly intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subject fixes the region. Bluebonnets are Texas, formally: the Twenty-seventh Legislature adopted the bluebonnet as the state flower on 7 March 1901, naming \u003cem\u003eLupinus subcarnosus\u003c\/em\u003e, and on 8 March 1971 the designation was broadened to take in \u003cem\u003eL. texensis\u003c\/em\u003e and every other bluebonnet variety. A hand-painted bouquet of them tied with a ribbon is a Texas decorative motif the way a lobster is a Maine one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe painting is taught work rather than naive — brushwork built from loaded strokes, each petal laid in one move, the white highlight dragged over the blue while it was still wet. What it does not do is date the piece, and it is worth saying why. American decorative painting of this kind was already an organised revival in the 1940s: Esther Stevens Brazer was the recognised authority on early American decoration before her death in 1945, and her students founded the Historical Society of Early American Decoration in 1946 in her name. A second and much broader hobby wave followed from 1972 with the Society of Decorative Painters. The technique runs through both and gives no useful floor at either end.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe flaking on the roof is not neglect. Galvanized steel is notoriously difficult to paint: the zinc coating resists adhesion, and without an etching primer paint releases from it in exactly this mottled, patchy way. What you are looking at is a maker who used the sheet metal they had.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe metal underneath says more than the paint does. Fresh galvanizing carries a bright crystalline spangle; there is none left on this roof, weathered flat to an even dull grey, and the blue has failed across essentially the entire field rather than in isolated patches. Both are the product of long exposure. Taken with the wasp nest below — which required at least one full season outdoors and unattended, and almost certainly many — this is an object that has spent decades in weather, not a shelf ornament with a distressed finish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo things stated plainly. There is \u003cstrong\u003eno signature and no maker's mark\u003c\/strong\u003e anywhere on the piece, so we are not attributing it. And \u003cstrong\u003ethe barn wood is older than the birdhouse.\u003c\/strong\u003e Reclaimed lumber dates the material, not the object — those boards may have spent decades on a building before anyone cut them into this. The range below is for when the house was made, which is a different question from how old the wood is — and it rests on the weathering of the metal and the paint rather than on a mark, because there is no mark. We have widened it rather than pretend to a precision the object does not carry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne more thing, and it is the best evidence the object has. \u003cstrong\u003eA small paper wasp nest was found inside and has been removed.\u003c\/strong\u003e That settles a question nothing else about the piece could answer: this was not a shelf ornament. It hung outdoors, in weather, long enough for a queen to find it and move in — and the tenants it finally got were not birds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nest is inert and there is nothing living in it. Social wasp colonies run a single season: the founding queen, every worker and every male die with the first hard freeze, and only newly mated queens survive, overwintering in leaf litter, bark or soil rather than in the nest. Old nests are never reused. What came out was chewed wood pulp and saliva — paper, made by insects that were gone several winters ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecorative birdhouse\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eUnattributed American folk art. No signature or maker's mark is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePeaked house in reclaimed barn board with bent galvanized sheet-metal roof, applied brick-painted chimney strip, twig perch, projecting porch block and a wire hanger through the roof\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eWeathered reclaimed barn wood and galvanized steel, hand-painted\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1930–1975\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood, and the wear is the character of the piece. It is structurally sound and stands square, with the roof firmly attached, the chimney strip tight, the twig perch secure, and the hanging wire intact. The painted bluebonnets and ribbon are bright and largely complete. The blue ground on the roof has flaked back substantially to bare galvanized metal, which is original to how the piece has aged. The barn wood carries deep silvering, raised grain, surface checking and old nail holes from its earlier life. There is no rot, no soft wood, and no loose joints. The interior has been cleared of an old paper wasp nest and is clean; nothing is living in it. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the kind of object that makes a room feel like somebody lives there. Silvered barn board and a flaked-blue metal roof carry more visual texture than almost anything you can buy new, and the bluebonnets sit on top of it as a single deliberate spot of colour. Hang it on a porch wall, a covered patio, a mudroom, a kitchen beam, or set it on a shelf and let it lean.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also specifically a Texas object, which makes it a precise gift rather than a vague one — for anyone from there, anyone who left, or anyone who spent one April on a roadside taking photographs of a field.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd the making is honest. Somebody found old boards, bent a piece of roofing steel over them, painted the state flower on it, wired a twig under the door and called it finished. Nothing about it was designed by committee.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on use and care. \u003cstrong\u003eWe would keep this indoors or under cover, and if you do hang it outside for birds, take the perch off.\u003c\/strong\u003e Modern nest-box practice omits perches deliberately: a perch gives predators and aggressive competing species something to hold onto at the entrance, and cavity-nesting birds do not need one to get in. The entry hole is also the only way in, which makes the seasonal cleanout a working box needs awkward rather than impossible — as the wasp nest that came out of it demonstrates — and there is no visible drainage or ventilation either. As a decorative object none of that matters. Keep it out of standing water and direct weather, do not attempt to wash it, and do not try to consolidate the flaking roof paint — anything you brush over it will change the surface that makes it worth owning.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48029685907561,"sku":"VE-1441","price":132.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3766copy.jpg?v=1789003202"},{"product_id":"general-electric-model-f47-spray-steam-dry-travel-iron-in-chrome-and-cast-aluminium-complete-with-original-box-and-hang-tag-c-1960-1970","title":"General Electric Model F47 Spray, Steam \u0026 Dry Travel Iron in Chrome and Cast Aluminium, Complete with Original Box and Hang Tag, c. 1960–1970","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA travel iron from the years when travelling meant packing an iron. The shell is chrome-plated and still bright, the soleplate is cast aluminium, and the handle folds down flat against the body so the whole thing drops into a case. A moulded rubber saddleplate sits under the heel, a rubber bushing takes the strain where the cord enters the body, and a clear three-ounce water bulb feeds the steam and spray.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe cord is the original: black and white cloth braid, eight feet of it, ending in a flat two-prong plug with no ground. The soleplate is stamped \u003cstrong\u003eGENERAL ELECTRIC CO. \/ CAT. NO. HF47 \/ MADE IN USA \/ 117 BRIDGEPORT CONN. \/ 650 WATTS 120 VOLTS AC ONLY \/ UL\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat makes this one worth writing up is what came with it. The \u003cstrong\u003eoriginal box is present\u003c\/strong\u003e — kraft board printed in orange and black, \u003cem\u003eUse it at Home or Away\u003c\/em\u003e across the top, the GE monogram, CAT. NO. F47. And the \u003cstrong\u003eoriginal hang tag is still attached by its string\u003c\/strong\u003e, uncut, with the price line still blank: \u003cem\u003eSPRAY, STEAM \u0026amp; DRY TRAVEL IRON, Model F-47\u003c\/em\u003e, the full specification on the reverse, PUB. NO. 81-6048, PRINTED IN U.S.A.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe tag is the rare part, and it is worth being explicit about why. Boxes get kept because they stack. Hang tags got cut off at the register or thrown away with the wrapping on Christmas morning, which is why a sixty-year-old small appliance still wearing its own tag turns up so much less often than one merely still in its box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eGeneral Electric bought the Bridgeport works in 1920 and built fans, irons and toasters there until the plant closed in 2008. So the address stamped into the soleplate confirms where this was made and tells you almost nothing about when — a point worth making, because it is routinely offered as though it dated a piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe dating here rests on the hardware instead. A cloth-braided cord, an ungrounded two-prong plug, an AC-only rating, and a chrome shell over a cast aluminium soleplate together put this in the 1960s, give or take — and that is consistent with how the model is catalogued in the trade generally, where the F47 family is placed in the 1950s and 60s. We are giving it as \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1960–1970\u003c\/strong\u003e and not narrower, because nothing on the iron, the box or the tag carries a date and we are not going to invent one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe feature set is itself period evidence. The steam iron was introduced in 1926 and did not become a normal household object until the 1940s; spray was a later refinement layered on top, and an iron advertising all three functions — spray, steam \u003cem\u003eand\u003c\/em\u003e dry — in one collapsible travel body belongs to the era when those had become table stakes rather than selling points. \u003cem\u003eUse it at Home or Away\u003c\/em\u003e is a manufacturer telling you the travel iron had to justify itself as a second iron.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOne inconsistency to explain before a buyer finds it and wonders. The hang tag says \u003cstrong\u003eModel F-47\u003c\/strong\u003e, the box says \u003cstrong\u003eCAT. NO. F47\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the soleplate says \u003cstrong\u003eCAT. NO. HF47\u003c\/strong\u003e. This is normal for the model and the variant prefix appears across the family in the trade record; box, tag and iron belong together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNow the part that matters more than any of the above, and we would rather lead with it than bury it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis iron has been used.\u003c\/strong\u003e It has been used lightly and it has been kept extraordinarily well, but the soleplate carries fine scratching across the face and scattered white deposits — mineral scale from the water bulb, or starch picked up off a shirt — and that is the signature of an iron that did some ironing. The box is scuffed along the edges and has a torn patch on the top where a price sticker was removed. We are not offering this as new old stock, because it is not, and because that is a claim any buyer can disprove in ten seconds by turning it over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe travel bag is not included.\u003c\/strong\u003e The hang tag advertises “Comes With Handy Travel Bag.” The bag is absent. Everything else the tag describes is present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eElectrical safety, stated plainly: this is sold as a display and collector's piece and it should not be plugged in.\u003c\/strong\u003e It has not been tested and we do not recommend testing it. The cord is roughly sixty years old; the rubber insulation underneath a cloth braid hardens, shrinks and cracks with age, and it does so on the inside where the braid hides it, so a cord that looks perfect can be bare copper under the covering. The plug is two-prong and ungrounded, on a metal-bodied appliance. If you want it working, have it inspected and rewired by someone qualified first — and understand that rewiring it will cost more than the iron and will replace the original cord that is part of what you are buying.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTravel iron with original box and hang tag\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGeneral Electric Co., Bridgeport, Connecticut\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eModel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCat. No. F47 (soleplate stamped HF47); hang tag Pub. No. 81-6048\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eChrome-plated shell over cast aluminium soleplate, collapsing handle, rubber saddleplate and cord bushing, clear three-ounce water bulb, eight-foot attached cloth-braided cordset with two-prong ungrounded plug\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eRating\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e650 watts at 120 volts, 50–60 cycles, AC only. UL Listed. 1¾ lbs as stated on the maker's tag\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSoleplate: GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. \/ CAT. NO. HF47 \/ MADE IN USA \/ 117 BRIDGEPORT CONN. \/ 650 WATTS 120 VOLTS AC ONLY \/ UL\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAccompanied by\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOriginal printed kraft carton and original hang tag, still attached by its string with the price line unfilled. \u003cstrong\u003eThe travel bag named on the tag is not present.\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1960–1970\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and exceptionally well kept, but \u003cstrong\u003eused, not new old stock\u003c\/strong\u003e. The chrome is bright with no pitting or flaking, the handle folds and locks correctly, the water bulb is clear and intact, the rubber saddleplate and cord bushing are supple rather than perished, and the cloth cord braid is clean and unfrayed along its length. The soleplate shows fine scratching across the face and scattered white mineral or starch deposits from use. The carton is complete and structurally sound with edge soiling, general scuffing, and a torn patch on the top where a price sticker was removed. The hang tag is present and legible with a horizontal crease. \u003cstrong\u003eUntested and sold as a display and collector's piece. Do not connect to power without inspection and rewiring by a qualified person\u003c\/strong\u003e — see the full note above. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eChrome, orange kraft board and a hand-lettered tag are a colour story before they are an appliance. Set the iron on a shelf with the box behind it and the tag hanging, and you have a complete object with its own packaging and its own paperwork — which is a rarer and much better-looking thing than the iron alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is the right piece for a laundry room that wants to be a room rather than a utility closet, for a sewing or mending corner, for a vintage kitchen shelf, or for a shop counter where something small needs to hold a customer's eye for four seconds. It also photographs unusually well, which matters if you are a dealer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFor collectors of small appliances, completeness is the entire game. Irons survive; boxes survive occasionally; tags almost never. This is the configuration that is actually hard to find, and it is why we would rather sell it honestly as a used iron with all of its paper than dishonestly as an unused one without.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not plug it in\u003c\/strong\u003e — the reasoning is above and it is not a formality. Keep the box out of direct sun; the orange ink on kraft board fades faster than almost anything else in a room, and a faded box is worth a fraction of a bright one. Store the box flat rather than on its end so the panels do not bow. \u003cstrong\u003eLeave the hang tag attached.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is tied on with its original string and it is a large share of what this piece is worth; once it is off, it is a loose piece of card that gets lost. Dust the chrome with a dry soft cloth and nothing else — no metal polish, no abrasive, no cream cleaner, all of which will cut through plating this thin. If the soleplate deposits bother you, leave them; they are part of the object's history and removing them means abrading cast aluminium. Coil the cord loosely rather than tightly around the body, because tight coiling is what cracks aged rubber insulation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48030012637289,"sku":"VE-0664","price":119.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3802.jpg?v=1789011180"},{"product_id":"georgian-revival-wall-mirror-in-mahogany-with-pierced-chinese-chippendale-fret-crest-and-reeded-frame-carrying-its-original-san-francisco-storage-tag-c-1915-1943","title":"Georgian Revival Wall Mirror in Mahogany with Pierced Chinese Chippendale Fret Crest and Reeded Frame, Carrying Its Original San Francisco Storage Tag, c. 1915–1943","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA tall rectangular wall mirror in mahogany, and the crest is where the money went. A stepped and moulded cornice caps the top. Beneath it sits an arched raised panel at the centre, flanked left and right by panels of diagonal lattice fret — and that fret is cut clean through the wood rather than glued onto a solid ground. Held to the light you can see the wall behind it through the lattice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe frame around the glass is reeded, a run of fine parallel grooves following the rectangle on all four sides and returning at the corners. It is a quiet moulding that does a lot of work: it catches light along its length and keeps a large plain rectangle from reading as a slab.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe mirror plate is bright and clean with a good, undistorted reflection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe back is a single warm-toned plywood panel, bradded around the perimeter, carrying a stencilled factory stock number: \u003cstrong\u003eNO. 6085. MAH\u003c\/strong\u003e. Two brass strap hangers are screwed into the frame and carry a braided steel wire across the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd knotted onto that wire, still where it was tied, is a printed paper shipping tag.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe design is Georgian revival, and the crest specifically is Chinese Chippendale — the diagonal lattice fret that Thomas Chippendale popularised in the \u003cem\u003eDirector\u003c\/em\u003e of 1754 out of an English enthusiasm for Chinese railing and garden pattern. American furniture makers revived the whole Georgian vocabulary hard through the first four decades of the twentieth century, and mahogany fretwork mirrors of this exact character are the product of that wave.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe stencil on the back, \u003cstrong\u003eNO. 6085. MAH\u003c\/strong\u003e, is a factory pattern number with a wood designation: mahogany. It places this in a manufacturer's catalogue line rather than a one-off workshop. No maker's name, paper label, or label remnant survives on the frame, the back, or behind the hangers, so the piece is not attributed here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe tag is the document, and it is worth reading closely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is a printed lot tag from \u003cstrong\u003eCITY TRANSFER \u0026amp; STORAGE CO., 430 Main St., San Francisco, Calif.\u003c\/strong\u003e, filled in by hand: \u003cstrong\u003eLot No. 3345, Pc. No. 9\u003c\/strong\u003e — the ninth piece of the three thousand three hundred and forty-fifth household consignment that firm took into its warehouse. It is still knotted to the mirror's own hanging wire, on aged, brittle, torn stock with a reinforcing washer at the string hole and a job printer's credit down the edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat makes it more than an ornament is the address. The printed line reads simply \u003cstrong\u003eSAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.\u003c\/strong\u003e — with \u003cstrong\u003eno postal zone number\u003c\/strong\u003e. The Post Office Department introduced zone numbers in \u003cstrong\u003eMay 1943\u003c\/strong\u003e, across 124 large cities, San Francisco among them, and from that point commercially printed business matter in those cities carried the zone as a matter of course: \u003cem\u003eSan Francisco 5, Calif.\u003c\/em\u003e, and so on. A typeset business tag from a San Francisco firm with no zone in its address block is the printing of a company that did not yet have one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBecause that tag is tied to this mirror's own wire, it does not merely decorate the piece — it sets a ceiling on its age. The mirror was in a San Francisco storage warehouse before the spring of 1943. It may well be older than the tag; it cannot be younger. That is why the range given below closes at 1943 rather than running on into the mid-century, and it rests on a dated object fixed to the piece rather than on style.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe opening end of the range is the softer one, and comes from the mirror itself: the Georgian revival idiom, the machine-cut fret, and a thin plywood back of a type standard in American case goods from the 1910s and 20s onward. The centre of gravity is the 1920s and 30s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eWall mirror\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican, factory-made. Unattributed — no maker's name or label is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eStyle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGeorgian revival with a Chinese Chippendale fret crest\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eRectangular plate in a reeded frame, surmounted by a crest of an arched raised centre panel between two panels of pierced diagonal lattice fret, under a stepped moulded cornice\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMahogany, as designated by the factory stencil; plywood back panel; brass hanging hardware\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFretwork\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCut through the solid, not applied blind fret over a ground\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eStencilled to the back panel: NO. 6085. MAH\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAccompanied by\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eIts original City Transfer \u0026amp; Storage Co. shipping tag (430 Main St., San Francisco), Lot No. 3345, Pc. No. 9, still knotted to the hanging wire\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1915–1943. The closing date is set by the storage tag, whose printed address carries no postal zone number and therefore predates the May 1943 introduction of the zone system.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood. The frame is sound and square with tight joints, the crest is firmly attached, and every element of the pierced fret is intact with no broken or missing bars. The finish is warm and even with light handling wear and minor surface marks consistent with age. The mirror plate is bright and clean with a good reflection. The plywood back is original and unbroken, with the factory stencil legible. Both brass hangers and the braided wire are present and sound, and the storage tag is intact and readable though aged, brittle and torn at the edges. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA mirror does two jobs at once, which is why it earns wall space that a picture has to argue for. It throws light back into a room that does not have enough of it, and it makes a small wall read deeper than it is. This one adds a third: the fret crest gives it a silhouette. Against a flat wall the cut-through lattice reads as architecture rather than as a frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is the right piece over a console in an entry, above a mantel, over a sideboard in a dining room, above a dresser, or on the long blank wall of a hallway where nothing else quite works. The reeded frame and warm mahogany sit easily with brass, gilt, oil paintings, painted panelling and every other wood tone, and the Georgian vocabulary is one of the few that reads correctly in a traditional room and a modern one both.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFor a shop or a design client it is a rare thing: a wall piece with real documentation attached. Most mirrors of this age arrive anonymous. This one comes with a named San Francisco warehouse, a lot number, and a piece number, tied on with its own wire — which means it can be sold with a story that is written down rather than guessed at.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eNever spray glass cleaner directly onto the mirror.\u003c\/strong\u003e Liquid wicks under the frame lip along the edges of the plate and attacks the silvering from behind, and that damage is permanent and cannot be reversed. Spray a soft cloth instead, wipe the glass with it, and keep the cloth away from the frame corners. Dust the fretwork with a soft brush rather than a cloth, which snags and pulls on cut-through lattice. Keep the frame out of direct sun, which fades mahogany unevenly and will lighten the exposed faces of the fret first. Hang it from the wire across two hooks set into studs or proper anchors rather than one central hook, which spreads the load and keeps it level. \u003cstrong\u003eLeave the storage tag tied on.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is the piece's paperwork and it is fragile; untied it becomes a scrap of card that gets lost.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48030652760169,"sku":"VE-0665","price":148.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3819.jpg?v=1789014859"},{"product_id":"bread-slicing-box-in-quartersawn-oak-twin-kerfed-guide-walls-over-a-crumb-tray-base-american-c-1930-1955","title":"Bread Slicing Box in Quartersawn Oak, Twin Kerfed Guide Walls over a Crumb Tray Base, American, c. 1930–1955","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA bread slicing box: a shallow oak tray with a raised lip, and standing in it two tall boards whose top edges are cut down in a run of more than twenty evenly spaced saw kerfs apiece. A loaf goes in the cradle between them. The knife drops into a kerf on the near wall and its opposite number on the far wall, and the two together hold the blade square through the whole stroke. Every slice comes off the same thickness, which is the entire point and is much harder to do freehand than anyone expects.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe oak is quartersawn, and it shows — the medullary ray fleck lies across the base board in short dark dashes, the figure that only appears when a log is cut on the radius. The tray beneath the cradle is the crumb catcher, and its raised front rail keeps the loaf from sliding forward under the knife.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe two guide walls have a shaped top profile that dips at the centre and rises at the ends, and they sit down into slots cut in the base so the whole thing comes apart flat for cleaning and storage. A third board closes the back of the cradle. Two dark plugs sit in the front rail where the base is pinned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe finish is warm and gently amber, and the kerfs themselves have gone dark brown along their length. That colour is not stain. It is where a blade has run, thousands of times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA bread slicing box is an object built for a very specific window in American kitchen history: the years when a household ate bread it had baked, in a whole loaf, and wanted it cut like a bakery's.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eEven slices only became an expectation because of a machine. Around 1928 a Missouri jeweller named \u003cstrong\u003eOtto Rohwedder\u003c\/strong\u003e got an automatic bread slicer working, and the bakeries that adopted it advertised the result as the greatest forward step the baking industry had taken since bread was wrapped — which is where the phrase everybody still uses comes from. Within a few years commercial loaves arrived sliced as a matter of course, and the uneven hand-cut slice began to look like a failure rather than a fact of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA device like this is how a home baker met that standard without a machine. It was also, very often, a shop-class or home-workshop project: the design is simple, it demands accurate repetitive layout, and it turns out a useful object at the end, which is exactly what a manual training assignment or a woodworking-magazine plan was built to do. Quartersawn oak is a considered choice of stock for one — harder, more stable across the grain, and better looking than it needed to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThere is one wartime footnote that belongs to this object more than to almost anything else in a kitchen. On \u003cstrong\u003e18 January 1943\u003c\/strong\u003e, Food Administrator \u003cstrong\u003eClaude R. Wickard\u003c\/strong\u003e banned the sale of sliced bread in the United States — partly to hold down flour prices, partly because a sliced loaf needed roughly twice the waxed paper of a whole one and paraffin was a war material. It was deeply unpopular, sales fell, the paper savings never materialised, and the order was rescinded on \u003cstrong\u003e8 March 1943\u003c\/strong\u003e. For those seven weeks, every American who wanted an even slice was back to cutting it themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis example carries \u003cstrong\u003eno maker's mark, stamp, brand, or label\u003c\/strong\u003e anywhere on the base, the walls, or the underside, and it is not attributed here. The range given below rests on the form, the stock and the wear rather than on documentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eBread slicing box, also called a bread slicing guide or slicing cradle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican. Unattributed — no maker's mark, stamp or label is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eShallow tray base with a raised front rail, carrying two upright guide walls cut with more than twenty evenly spaced knife kerfs each and a closing board at the back; the uprights seat in slots and lift out\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eQuartersawn oak, the medullary ray fleck showing plainly across the base board; the back board is a lighter, straighter-grained stock\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1930–1955\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good. Structurally sound and square, with both guide walls seating correctly in their slots and the assembly standing firm. Every kerf is intact and open, with none broken through or closed up. The oak is clean and warm with an even surface and no splits, no active checking, and no loose or missing parts. The kerfs have darkened along their length from long contact with a knife blade, which is original use wear and is the character of the piece. Light handling marks to the base and rail. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnybody who bakes at home has met the problem this solves. A warm loaf compresses under the knife, the blade wanders, and the far end of the loaf ends up a wedge. A cradle with matched kerfs on both walls fixes the blade in one plane and takes the skill out of it. It works on sourdough, sandwich loaves, banana bread, and anything else that needs cutting square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn a counter it earns its place when it is not working, which is more than most kitchen tools manage. Standing empty it reads as sculpture — two fans of parallel lines above a plain oak tray — and the quartersawn figure gives it a surface worth looking at. It also holds things: napkins and cutlery on a table, mail and keys on an entry counter, tea towels, seed packets, a row of recipe cards standing upright in the kerfs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFor a shop, it is the kind of object that stops a customer walking past. It is unmistakably a tool, its purpose is legible in three seconds without a card explaining it, and it is small enough to sit on a counter next to the register. It also comes apart flat, which makes it unusually easy to pack and ship for something this size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eTreat it as a wooden board, not as dishware.\u003c\/strong\u003e Never put it in a dishwasher and never let it soak — oak swells, the slotted joints loosen, and the thin webs of wood between the kerfs are the first thing to split. Take the walls out of the base, brush the crumbs from the kerfs with a dry pastry brush or a stiff dry bristle brush, and wipe the surfaces with a barely damp cloth, drying immediately. If it needs more than that, use a very little mild soap on a damp cloth and dry it at once. Two or three times a year, wipe it with food-safe mineral oil or a beeswax and mineral-oil board conditioner, let it soak in, and buff off what remains; that is what keeps oak from drying out and checking. Keep it away from a radiator, a heat vent and direct sun. Store it dry and, if you have the space, with the walls lifted out so air moves through the joints. Do not oil it with a cooking oil — olive, vegetable and nut oils go rancid in the wood and the smell does not come out.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48030709842025,"sku":"VE-0666","price":109.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/D735BFF5-17BC-4530-AFD8-169D31C9DF7E.jpg?v=1789015821"},{"product_id":"swingline-heavy-duty-desk-stapler-in-grey-enamel-with-chrome-domed-plunger-long-island-city-new-york-c-1956-1970","title":"Swingline Heavy-Duty Desk Stapler in Grey Enamel with Chrome Domed Plunger, Long Island City, New York, c. 1956–1970","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA heavy-duty desk stapler built the way office equipment was built when it was expected to outlast the person using it. The body is pressed and cast steel finished in a soft grey-sage enamel, long and low, with the base flaring out at the front into a wedge. The whole thing has weight in the hand that no modern stapler has.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe plunger is capped with a wide chrome dome, mirror-bright, engraved across the face in the Swingline script. It is the detail that makes the object — a spun metal disc where a plastic button would go now, and the one part designed to be looked at rather than used.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe magazine housing is cast with its own instructions in raised letters: \u003cstrong\u003eUSE ONLY GENUINE Swingline NO. 13 HIGH CARBON STAPLES, 13-1\/4″, 13-3\/8″, 13-1\/2″\u003c\/strong\u003e. Three staple lengths, which is what makes this a heavy-duty machine rather than a desk toy — the half-inch leg will go through a substantial stack.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe underside is cast \u003cstrong\u003eSwingline Inc. \/ LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. \/ PAT. NO. 2,150,974 \/ MADE IN U.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e, and carries two large crosshatched non-slip pads. A small paper label remains on the front face of the base.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSwingline is a New York story. The company was founded by Jack Linsky, a Russian immigrant who had worked as a stapler salesman and concluded he could build a better one, and it manufactured in Long Island City for most of the twentieth century in a plant that became a neighbourhood landmark.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe base casting dates the machine, and cleanly. It reads \u003cstrong\u003eSwingline Inc.\u003c\/strong\u003e — but the company did not carry that name for most of its history. It traded as the Speed Products Company, and only took the Swingline name, after its best-selling product line, in \u003cstrong\u003e1956\u003c\/strong\u003e. A base cast “Swingline Inc.” therefore cannot predate that change. Combined with the grey enamel, the chrome dome and the American manufacture, the range below is \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1956–1970\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe patent number is a separate thing and worth not misreading. \u003cstrong\u003ePat. No. 2,150,974\u003c\/strong\u003e is a design patent from the late 1930s, and manufacturers went on casting an active patent number into a product for as long as the patent stood. It dates the mechanism's invention, not this example's manufacture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe name on the magazine is also a staple designation, not a model name: a Swingline No. 13 is a heavy-duty staple, and a machine calling for one is built for the work. That is the difference between this and the small chrome-topped desk staplers of the same era that everybody recognises.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eLong Island City turns up twice over in objects of this period, which is worth noting: it was a dense manufacturing district shipping to the whole country, and a great deal of what sat on American desks and shelves in the mid-century was made within a few blocks of here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHeavy-duty desk stapler\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSwingline Inc., Long Island City, New York\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eLong steel body in grey-sage enamel with wedge base, chrome domed plunger cap engraved Swingline, crosshatched non-slip pads to the underside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTakes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSwingline No. 13 high-carbon staples in 1\/4″, 3\/8″ and 1\/2″ leg lengths\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCast to the underside: Swingline Inc. \/ Long Island City, N.Y. \/ Pat. No. 2,150,974 \/ Made in U.S.A. Cast to the magazine housing: Use Only Genuine Swingline No. 13 High Carbon Staples\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1956–1970, fixed at the early end by the company's 1956 adoption of the Swingline name cast into the base\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good. Structurally sound and heavy, with the enamel largely intact and even. The chrome dome is bright with light surface scratching and no pitting or flaking. The plunger travels and returns correctly, the magazine opens and closes on its catch, and the anvil rotates between its settings. There is honest desk wear — scattered enamel chips at the edges and high points, light scuffing to the base, and a small remnant paper label to the front. Both non-slip pads are present. \u003cstrong\u003eSold as a decorative and desk object; not tested with staples and not warranted as a working machine.\u003c\/strong\u003e Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDesks have become soft — plastic, light, disposable. One heavy grey steel object with a mirrored chrome cap fixes that in a single move. It anchors a desktop the way a good paperweight does, and it does it while remaining a tool rather than an ornament.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe colour is unusually easy to place. Grey-sage enamel and chrome sit with walnut, oak, leather, black steel and painted metal equally well, and the palette reads as period without reading as costume. On a bookshelf, a studio bench, a shop counter or a home office it is a small piece of industrial design that most people will pick up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFor a shop it prices as an impulse object with a recognisable name on it, and the Swingline script on that chrome dome does most of the selling before anyone reads a card.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. Keep it dry — the body is enamelled steel and the exposed chips will rust if it sits somewhere damp. Dust it with a dry cloth. On the chrome dome use nothing abrasive: no metal polish, no cream cleaner, no scouring pad, all of which will cut the plating and leave it permanently dulled; a dry microfibre cloth is enough, and a breath of moisture and a buff will handle a fingerprint. Do not repaint or strip the enamel — the chips are the object's history and a resprayed body is worth a fraction of an original one. If you do intend to use it, have the mechanism looked at first and feed it only the correct No. 13 staples; the wrong staple is what jams and bends these.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48030732386409,"sku":"VE-0670","price":119.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/46C5E503-6B7D-4907-AB87-3EACBFCDF696.jpg?v=1789016794"},{"product_id":"cast-iron-three-hook-rack-with-hand-painted-setter-and-potted-tulip-c-1990-2020","title":"Cast Iron Three-Hook Rack with Hand-Painted English Setter and Potted Tulip, Brazed Hand-Forged Hooks, American, c. 1925–1955","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA small wall rack cast in iron and hand-painted, and the design is a little scene rather than a plaque. A long-coated setter walks the top of a rail fence, nose up and tail out straight behind it, and at the far end of the rail sits a terracotta pot with a single red tulip standing in green leaves. The dog is caught mid-stride with one forefoot lifted, which is what gives the whole thing its motion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe painting is done by hand over the raw casting. The dog is white with black ticking sponged across the flanks, a black muzzle and ear, a black eye and a red mouth line. The tulip is scarlet over a yellow-ochre pot, the leaves a flat spring green, and the rail is left dark. The white has been laid on generously enough that it has run over the outline and shows around the edges on the reverse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBelow the rail hang three hooks, and they are forge work rather than cut stock. Each one tapers along its length, swells again where the tip turns up, and finishes in a rounded return that has been upset — thickened under the hammer — rather than simply bent. The screw hole through each shank is punched rather than drilled: slightly out of round, with a raised lip on the exit side where the hot metal was pushed through. Two further holes pass through the backplate itself, so the rack fixes to the wall at five points.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe reverse is raw dark iron with the sand-cast texture left as it came out of the mould, and the openwork of the fence rails and the dog's legs is cut clean through, so the wall shows between them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe image is a durable one in decorative ironwork. Sporting dogs — setters, pointers, spaniels — have been cast into doorstops, bootscrapers, hooks and door knockers since the nineteenth century, and a white setter with black ticking is one of the most reproduced subjects in the whole tradition. The potted tulip on a rail belongs to a different lineage, the painted cottage idiom, and the two together are a decorative combination rather than a documentary one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe making is what dates it, and it is all hand work. The backplate is sand cast, and the reverse still carries the coarse, pitted, irregular texture of the mould with no cleaning up — a face nobody was meant to see, left as it came out. The openwork between the fence rails and beneath the dog's legs is cut clean through, which on a casting means a cored mould: extra pattern work, extra cost, and the first thing dropped when a design is made for volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe hooks are hand-forged and \u003cstrong\u003ebrazed\u003c\/strong\u003e to the plate at the head of each shank. The joint is the tell: the filler has \u003cem\u003eflowed\u003c\/em\u003e into the junction and pulled itself into a smooth concave fillet that wraps the shank and wets out onto the casting, and it carries the warm golden cast of a brass or bronze rod. An electric weld does none of that — it sits proud of the surface as a raised bead of the same grey metal it joined, and it does not flow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBrazing is also the \u003cem\u003ecorrect\u003c\/em\u003e way to do this, which is the point. Cast iron is genuinely difficult to weld: the carbon content is high, the heat-affected zone cools hard and brittle, and the casting cracks. Brazing works below the melting point of the iron, so the base metal is never melted and never stressed — which is why joining steel to cast iron with a brass rod and a torch was standard shop practice for the better part of a century. Somebody who knew what they were doing made this. Taken with the tapered, upset hooks and the punched holes, it is all the work of a torch and an anvil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAll of which places it in the great American run of painted cast iron — the tradition that produced figural doorstops, bootscrapers, door knockers and hook racks in volume from the 1920s through the 1950s, cast in the foundry and then hand-painted in the paint shop from a master sample. That is exactly what this is: a production object, but a production object made entirely by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe dog is worth naming properly. It is an \u003cstrong\u003eEnglish Setter\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the black flecking across the white coat is not decoration or distressing — it is the breed's actual marking, called belton, which a painter was reproducing faithfully. The long feathered tail, the low ears and the high head carried at the point all confirm it. Sporting dogs were the most popular subject in decorative American ironwork, and the setter was the most popular of the sporting dogs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eStated plainly: there is \u003cstrong\u003eno foundry mark, pattern number, or maker's stamp\u003c\/strong\u003e anywhere on the front, the reverse, or the hooks, so the piece is not attributed. Painted cast iron of this period was frequently unmarked, and the range below rests on the casting, the forge work and the paint rather than on documentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eWall-mounted three-hook coat and key rack\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSubject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEnglish Setter in belton marking walking a rail fence beside a potted tulip\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSand-cast iron backplate, hand-painted; hand-forged hooks brazed on\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eThree hand-forged hooks, tapered and upset at the tip, \u003cstrong\u003ebrazed\u003c\/strong\u003e to the reverse of the cast plate with flowed brass fillets at each shank head; openwork cut clean through at the fence rails and the dog's legs from a cored mould; five fixing holes, punched rather than drilled — two through the plate, one through each hook shank\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone. No foundry mark, pattern number, or maker's stamp is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1925–1955. American painted cast iron; unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and solid. The casting is sound with no cracks or losses, all three hooks are firmly attached and true, and every screw hole is clear. The hand-painted decoration is bright and complete, with the dog, tulip and pot all fully painted. There is honest paint wear with scattered losses down to bare metal at the high points and edges, exactly where hands, coats and years have rubbed, and white overspill shows around the outline on the reverse from the piece having been painted face up. \u003cstrong\u003eThe paint is original and has not been touched up or restored.\u003c\/strong\u003e No structural rust, no repairs, nothing loose. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eHooks are the one piece of hardware in a house that has to work every single day, and most of what is sold is a strip of brushed metal that nobody looks at twice. This one does the job and gives you something to look at while it does it — three sturdy iron hooks that will take a heavy winter coat, a dog lead, a bag, a hat, or a set of keys, under a small painted scene that reads from across a room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt goes where the hooks are needed rather than where art goes: inside a back door, in a mudroom or entry, in a bathroom for towels, beside a kitchen door for aprons and tea towels, in a child's room, or in the corner of a hallway that has always needed something.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is also an unusually specific gift. Anybody who has an English Setter, or any belton-marked dog, will recognise theirs in it — the painter got the markings right — and a small useful object aimed exactly at somebody is worth more than a large vague one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd for a collector, the thing that matters here is that the paint is original. Painted cast iron of this period is very commonly found stripped, repainted, or freshly “restored,” and every one of those is worth a fraction of an untouched example. This one has its own paint, worn where it should be worn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on installation and care. \u003cstrong\u003eFix it properly.\u003c\/strong\u003e Cast iron is heavy before you hang anything on it, and a loaded coat hook pulls down and out on the fixings — use all five screw holes, into studs or into proper wall anchors rated for the load, not into bare plasterboard. Keep it dry: this is iron with a painted surface, and any chip that reaches bare metal will rust if it sits in a damp bathroom or an unheated porch. Dust it with a dry cloth or a soft brush, working into the openwork where dust collects. Do not wash it, do not use any abrasive or metal polish, and do not touch up the paint — hand-painted cast iron is worth more with honest wear than with a fresh coat over it, and matching that white is harder than it looks. If a chip does go bare in a damp room, a spot of clear wax over the exposed metal will stop it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48030734614633,"sku":"VE-0662","price":192.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/1C83E677-2DFC-415F-AF5A-D28528514B9B.jpg?v=1789016904"},{"product_id":"serpentine-golden-oak-mirror-with-hand-bevelled-shaped-plate-and-carved-acanthus-crest-quartersawn-tiger-oak-american-c-1895-1910","title":"Serpentine Golden Oak Mirror with Hand-Bevelled Shaped Plate and Carved Acanthus Crest, Quartersawn Tiger Oak, American, c. 1895–1910","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA large mirror whose outline never once runs straight. The frame sweeps out at the shoulders, draws in at the waist, and rounds off along the bottom in a long serpentine curve, so the whole silhouette reads closer to a shield than a rectangle. Above it sits a separate carved crest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe glass is bevelled, and the bevel follows the curve.\u003c\/strong\u003e A wide facet runs the entire shaped perimeter, catching light along its length and throwing a faint prism at the edge of the reflection. On a rectangle a bevel is straightforward. On an outline that changes direction continuously, every inch of it had to be ground and polished against the wheel by hand, by someone turning the plate as they went.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe wood is quartersawn oak with the figure fully open — broad medullary ray fleck lying across the frame in bright ribbons and flakes, the pattern the trade calls tiger oak. It only appears when the log is cut on the radius, which yields far less board per tree, and it is the reason this timber was worth the extra cut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe crest is carved through, not pressed. A central foliate cartouche opens into acanthus scrolls that roll over at each end into carved bosses, and the voids between the leaves are cut clean through so daylight passes behind them. Tool facets are visible across the ground, and the left and right sides do not mirror each other exactly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe back is boarded and fitted with a small plate and hanging wire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThree separate pieces of evidence put this in the American golden oak period, and they agree with each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe bevel is the first and the strongest.\u003c\/strong\u003e Bevelling plate glass along a continuously curving edge is hand work: the plate is held against a rotating stone, then smoothed, then polished, with the operator steering the curve by feel. It was expensive then and it is expensive now — a shaped bevel of this size costs more to reproduce today than most mirrors of this age sell for. Nobody puts that operation into an object that is meant to be cheap, and nobody was putting it into decorative mirrors after the early twentieth century, when flat-edged plate took over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe quartersawn oak is the second.\u003c\/strong\u003e Radial cutting to raise ray fleck was the defining material of American case furniture from roughly 1890 to 1915, and it fell away afterwards as mahogany and walnut veneers took the market. Solid quartersawn stock, shaped on the curve as it is here, is that era's signature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe carving is the third.\u003c\/strong\u003e This crest was cut with gouges. The undercut voids, the visible tool facets across the background, and the small asymmetries between the two halves are all things a machine does not produce. Pressed and embossed “carving” — steamed and stamped into the surface under a die — arrived as the cheaper substitute and is flat, shallow, and perfectly symmetrical. This is not that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTaken together: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1895–1910\u003c\/strong\u003e. The range rests on how the object was made rather than on what it resembles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe form is almost certainly architectural to a larger piece. Serpentine bevelled mirrors of this scale and shape were built into the backs of golden oak sideboards and dressers, or hung as over-mantels, and this one has been separated from whatever it was born on. That is the ordinary fate of these — the case wears out or gets broken up and the mirror, which is the expensive part, survives on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTwo things stated plainly. There is \u003cstrong\u003eno maker's mark, stencil, or label\u003c\/strong\u003e anywhere on the frame or the back, so it is not attributed. And \u003cstrong\u003ethe backing board and hanging wire are later replacements\u003c\/strong\u003e, fitted at some point to make it hang as a wall mirror; the original backing would have been thin boards or a dust cover. That is a sensible repair rather than a fault, and it does not touch the frame, the carving, or the glass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eWall mirror, originally architectural to a sideboard, dresser, or over-mantel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican golden oak period. Unattributed — no maker's mark, stencil, or label is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSerpentine shaped frame in solid quartersawn oak, moulded on the face, surmounted by a separate pierced and carved foliate crest with rolled scroll terminals\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGlass\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHand-bevelled plate, the bevel following the shaped outline the whole way round\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSolid quartersawn oak with heavy medullary ray fleck (tiger oak), original finish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCarving\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHand cut with gouges — undercut voids, visible tool facets, and asymmetry between the two halves. Not pressed or embossed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1895–1910\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood. The frame is sound and holds its shape, with the carved crest firmly attached and every element of the carving present — no broken scrolls, no losses to the acanthus, no repairs. The bevelled plate is intact with no cracks or chips and reflects cleanly. The oak retains its original finish with honest wear: rubbing and lightening along the high points of the moulding, minor surface marks, and darkening in the recesses. \u003cstrong\u003eThe backing board and hanging plate are later replacements\u003c\/strong\u003e, with some staining to the board along the upper edge. There is light age speckling to the silvering, visible mainly at the edges under the frame lip. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe bevel is what you are buying and it is what a photograph cannot carry. A wide hand-ground facet running a curved edge does something flat glass simply does not: it picks up every light source in the room and lays a thin band of brightness around the whole reflection, and because the edge is curved that band moves as you move. It is the difference between a mirror and a piece of glass on a wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe shape does the rest. A serpentine outline reads as furniture rather than as a fixture, and it breaks up a flat wall in a way no rectangle can. Over a console in an entry, above a mantel, over a sideboard or a dresser, or on the blank wall at the end of a hall, it does the whole job on its own with nothing hung beside it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eQuartersawn oak is also having its moment again, and for good reason: the ray fleck gives a warm, active surface that sits with brass, black metal, leather, cream plaster, rattan and every other wood tone. It reads as traditional in a traditional room and as texture in a modern one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eNever spray any cleaner directly onto the glass.\u003c\/strong\u003e Liquid runs under the frame lip and attacks the silvering from behind, and on an antique plate that damage is permanent and irreversible — it is what destroys most mirrors of this age. Spray a soft cloth instead, wipe the face, and keep the cloth off the edges. Feed the oak once or twice a year with a clear paste wax worked in and buffed off, and nothing else — the original finish is a large part of the value and stripping or refinishing it will cost you more than it gains. Keep silicone sprays off it entirely; they build a haze that has to be stripped before any wax will take again. Keep it out of direct sun, which will lighten the oak unevenly and open the frame joints. \u003cstrong\u003eHang it from two points into studs or proper anchors.\u003c\/strong\u003e Solid oak and thick bevelled plate together are heavy, the fixings on the back are later rather than original, and this is not a piece you want to test.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48030774067305,"sku":"VE-0667","price":654.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_38302.jpg?v=1789020593"},{"product_id":"framed-1914-one-cent-thomas-jefferson-postal-card-scott-ux27-green-on-buff-unused","title":"Framed 1914 One-Cent Thomas Jefferson Postal Card, Scott UX27, Green on Buff, Unused","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA single piece of United States postal stationery, framed behind glass with a wide mat. The card is buff, and printed at the upper right is the indicium — the imprinted stamp — a green oval bearing the profile bust of Thomas Jefferson, the denomination \u003cem\u003eOne Cent\u003c\/em\u003e, and the words UNITED STATES POSTAL CARD.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAcross the middle, in small capitals: \u003cstrong\u003eTHIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS.\u003c\/strong\u003e Beneath it, nothing at all — no address, no stamp cancellation, no postmark, no pencil, no ink.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe card has never been used. It was bought at a post office window, carried home, put somewhere, and forgotten, and a hundred and eleven years later it is still waiting for somebody to write on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is presented in a slim dark moulding with a gilt inner lip and a generous mat, which is what turns a small piece of paper into something that reads on a wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is \u003cstrong\u003eScott UX27\u003c\/strong\u003e, the one-cent Thomas Jefferson postal card in green on buff, Die I, \u003cstrong\u003eissued in 1914\u003c\/strong\u003e. The catalogue number and the year are both firm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe postal card was a genuine piece of communications infrastructure rather than a novelty. The United States Post Office Department issued its first in 1873, and the appeal was economy: the card carried its postage printed directly onto it, and it travelled for half what a sealed letter cost. For decades it was how Americans confirmed an order, acknowledged a delivery, announced an arrival, or sent three lines that did not warrant an envelope. More than three hundred and seventy different US postal cards have been issued since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNow the part we would rather you had before you buy than after. \u003cstrong\u003eThis is a common card and it is not offered as a rarity.\u003c\/strong\u003e UX27 was printed in enormous quantity for ordinary daily use, unused examples survive in great numbers, and the major stamp dealers price a mint one at around a dollar. Anyone can check that in a minute, and we would rather say it first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat is actually being sold here is the object as framed: a genuine, untouched artefact of 1914 American daily life, presented so that it can hang on a wall. The age is real. The scarcity is not, and we are not going to imply otherwise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFramed postal card\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCatalogue\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eScott UX27\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eIssue\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e1914, one cent, Thomas Jefferson, green on buff, Die I\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eIssuer\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eUnited States Post Office Department\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eStatus\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eUnused — no address, message, postmark, or cancellation\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePresentation\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMatted and framed behind glass in a slim dark moulding with a gilt inner lip\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eScarcity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA common issue.\u003c\/strong\u003e Not offered as a philatelic rarity; sold as a framed decorative artefact.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e1914 (the card). The frame is later.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good for its age. The card is complete with clean square corners, no tears, no creases through the design, and no foxing or staining across the face. The green indicium is bright and fully struck. The buff stock has toned gently and evenly, which is normal and expected in paper of this age. The frame is sound with light handling wear, and the glass is clean and uncracked. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSmall framed ephemera does something large art cannot: it rewards standing close. This is a piece of paper that a clerk sold across a counter in 1914, in the year the Panama Canal opened and the First World War began, and it has come the whole way here without anyone writing a word on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eJefferson in green on buff is a genuinely good little piece of design — restrained, well-proportioned, and warm rather than cold. It hangs well in a gallery wall of small frames, in an office or study, in a hallway, or in a group with other paper: maps, letters, botanical plates, deeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is also a precise and affordable gift — for a collector, a letter writer, a postal worker, a history teacher, or anyone born in or married in 1914's orbit who would like a small piece of the actual year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and paper is less forgiving than most things in a house. \u003cstrong\u003eKeep it out of direct sunlight and off any wall that gets strong daylight.\u003c\/strong\u003e Light is what fades printing ink and darkens paper, the damage accumulates invisibly, and it cannot be reversed. Avoid bathrooms, kitchens and exterior walls, where humidity swings will cause the card to cockle inside the frame. Do not open the frame to handle the card unnecessarily, and if you do, hold it by the edges — skin oils stain paper permanently and the mark takes years to appear. Clean the glass by spraying a cloth rather than the frame, so nothing runs down behind the glazing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48030890197097,"sku":"VE-0674","price":49.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/E4489C5B-3974-4EDC-97F4-5E10111B6E49.jpg?v=1789021141"},{"product_id":"serpentine-front-four-drawer-chest-in-figured-curly-maple-bowed-top-over-cabriole-legs-with-carved-paw-feet-american-c-1890-1915","title":"Serpentine-Front Four-Drawer Chest in Figured Curly Maple, Bowed Top over Cabriole Legs with Carved Paw Feet, American, c. 1890–1915","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA four-drawer chest that refuses to sit still. The whole front is \u003cstrong\u003eserpentine\u003c\/strong\u003e — every drawer swells forward at the centre and draws back at the ends in one continuous S-curve, and the top follows it, bowing out over the case with a moulded and shaped edge that repeats the same line. Nothing about the silhouette is straight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTwo short drawers over two long ones, each front carrying a fine cock-beaded lip. Below the bottom drawer a shaped apron sweeps down and out into \u003cstrong\u003ecabriole legs\u003c\/strong\u003e that curve at the knee, taper, and finish in carved paw feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe timber is the reason to stop. It is maple with the figure fully open — a rippling, tiger-striped curl running horizontally across every drawer front and washing over the top in broad flame-like bands, catching light and shifting as you move past it. The colour is a warm honey-gold that seems lit from inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe hardware is cast brass in the batwing pattern: a shaped pierced backplate with foliate wings and a swing bail, four to the long drawers and one to each short. Both long drawers carry brass-lined keyholes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003ePull a drawer and the case shows its manners. Solid wood throughout, a mortised half-moon lock plate let into the top edge of the drawer front, and brass strike plates cut cleanly into the carcase. A circular maker's brand is impressed into the timber inside the case.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe construction dates it, and it is all of a piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe serpentine front is cut from the solid, not bent.\u003c\/strong\u003e Each drawer front was sawn and shaped from thick stock so the curve runs through the whole thickness of the board — you can see it in the depth of the drawer front at the ends of an open drawer. That is expensive work: it wastes a great deal of timber, and it wastes \u003cem\u003efigured\u003c\/em\u003e timber, which is worse. It also means the curl had to be matched across four separate drawer fronts so the figure reads as one continuous surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe locks are mortised, not surface-screwed.\u003c\/strong\u003e Each long drawer has a half-moon brass lock plate let flush into the top edge of the front, with its strike plate cut into the carcase to match. Cutting a mortise for a lock and its keeper is cabinet work; screwing a lock to the back of a drawer front is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnd there is a maker's brand.\u003c\/strong\u003e A circular mark is impressed into the timber inside the case — a factory brand rather than a paper label, which is why it has survived. It is not legible enough here to attribute a name, and \u003cstrong\u003ewe are not going to guess at one\u003c\/strong\u003e, but it establishes that this came out of a real furniture works with a mark it was willing to put on the wood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe vocabulary is American Colonial Revival at its confident end: serpentine case, bowed top, cabriole leg, carved paw foot, batwing brass. Those elements were being built together in quantity by the better American factories from about 1890 into the First World War, and the use of solid figured maple rather than oak or a mahogany veneer places this at the upper end of that production. The range given is \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1890–1915\u003c\/strong\u003e, and it rests on the shaping, the locks and the brand rather than on the style alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOne note on the timber, because the trade uses the words loosely. The rippling horizontal stripe here is \u003cem\u003ecurly\u003c\/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003etiger\u003c\/em\u003e maple — a wave in the grain that runs across the board and throws light back at different angles along its length. It is a natural anomaly, it cannot be produced on purpose, and a tree that has it is worth several times one that does not. That is why it was reserved for show surfaces.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFour-drawer chest of drawers\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican, factory-made. An impressed circular maker's brand is present inside the case but is not legible enough to attribute; the chest is offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSerpentine case with a bowed and moulded shaped top over two short drawers and two long drawers, each cock-beaded; shaped apron on cabriole legs with carved paw feet\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSolid figured curly (tiger) maple with strongly rippled horizontal curl to the top and all four drawer fronts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDrawer fronts sawn and shaped from solid stock rather than bent; half-moon brass locks mortised flush into the top edge of both long drawers with matching brass strike plates let into the carcase; solid wood drawer bottoms\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHardware\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCast brass batwing bail pulls on pierced foliate backplates; brass-lined keyholes to both long drawers\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAn impressed circular maker's brand inside the case\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1890–1915\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and structurally sound. The case stands square and firm, all four drawers run and close correctly on their runners, and every pull, backplate and escutcheon is present. The cabriole legs and carved paw feet are solid with no breaks, splits, or repairs at the knee or ankle — the first place a chest of this form fails. The figured surfaces are bright and the finish is warm and even. Expect honest handling wear: light surface marks and scattered small nicks to the top and case edges, a small chip to the moulding at one side, minor scuffing to the feet, and normal interior staining and marking to the drawer bottoms. Keys are not present. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFigured maple is the argument, and it is not a subtle one. Most antique case furniture is brown. This is honey-gold with a rippling stripe that moves as you cross the room, and it will be the brightest wooden object in almost any space you put it. Against white or plaster walls it glows; against dark paint it does something better still.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe serpentine front is the second argument, and it is what separates this from the flat-fronted chests that fill every mall booth in the country. A curved case throws a soft shadow line under every drawer and catches light along each swell, so the piece reads as sculptural rather than as a box with handles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is a genuinely useful size. It works as a bedroom chest, as an entry piece with lamps and a bowl on top, under a mirror in a hall, as a dining-room server for linens and flatware, or in a living room as a media console with real storage behind it. Four deep drawers and a top that will take weight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFor a designer or a dealer it is the thing that is hard to source: a genuine period case piece with strong figure, intact original hardware and unbroken cabriole legs, at a price that does not require a client conversation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eKeep it out of direct sunlight\u003c\/strong\u003e — this is the one that matters here. Maple lightens and yellows unevenly under UV, and figured maple shows the damage badly because the curl fades at a different rate than the ground, which flattens the very thing you bought it for. Keep it off an exterior wall that runs cold and away from a heating vent or radiator, since solid wood this wide moves with humidity and that is what opens joints and lifts a finish. Dust it dry, wipe spills immediately, and feed it once or twice a year with a clear paste wax worked in thinly and buffed off — nothing else. Avoid silicone-based sprays entirely; they build a haze that must be stripped before any wax will take again. Do not line the drawers with adhesive paper, which will pull the surface when it comes off. If a drawer sticks in humid weather, rub a candle stub or a little paraffin along the runners rather than forcing it. Lift from the case rather than the top when moving it, and never drag it — cabriole legs take load straight down and break sideways.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48031296028777,"sku":"VE-0679","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/EC979954-FF11-4CCD-BAC6-75D4C74FE2D4.jpg?v=1789027454"},{"product_id":"cast-aluminum-pointer-on-point-sporting-dog-fence-and-gate-topper-on-a-grassy-groundline-with-steel-clamp-bar-american-c-1950-1980","title":"Cast Aluminum Pointer on Point, Sporting Dog Fence and Gate Topper on a Grassy Groundline with Steel Clamp Bar, American, c. 1950–1980","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA bird dog frozen mid-stride, cast in relief and cut out against the air.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe pose is the whole subject. The dog is \u003cstrong\u003eon point\u003c\/strong\u003e — near foreleg lifted and folded under, hind legs braced, back level, tail carried straight out behind, head up and thrust forward with the muzzle lifted into the wind. Anyone who has walked a field behind a pointer recognises it instantly, and anyone who has not still reads it as an animal that has just found something.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe modelling holds up close. There is a buckled collar around the throat, the ear is worked in fine combed feathering, the eye is modelled under a defined brow, the ribs and the tuck of the flank are drawn in, and the pads and toes are separated on all four feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eHe stands on a long groundline base worked as broken earth, with three tufts of marsh grass rising in relief along it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe surface is a soft pale grey-white with the wash worn thin at the high points — the skull, the shoulder, the hips — where the bare metal shows through warmer underneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe reverse is flat and left as cast. Bolted across the back of the base, standing off it, is a \u003cstrong\u003esteel clamp bar\u003c\/strong\u003e, with its bolt heads showing on the face of the groundline at both ends and at the centre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThat clamp bar is the part that explains the object, and it is worth understanding before anything else.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is a \u003cstrong\u003efence and gate topper\u003c\/strong\u003e. The bar is a clamp: it bolts through the base and stands off it, and the gap between the bar and the plate closes down onto the top rail of a chain-link fence or the frame of a gate. Tighten the bolts and the dog stands on the rail, in profile, facing whoever is coming up the path.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThey were an American suburban habit, and the reason they existed is a good one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eChain-link fencing had been around a long while — mass production began in Victorian Norwich off Charles Barnard's 1844 wire-weaving machine, and the first American patent went to the Anchor Post Fence Company of New Jersey in 1898. What changed after the Second World War was scale. Chain link became the default fence of the new subdivisions because it was cheap, quick and effectively permanent, and today it still accounts for around half of all fence sold in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhich left a great many households looking at a boundary identical to the one on either side of them. A cast topper was the cheap fix: a few dollars, two bolts, and the fence was yours. Sporting dogs, spaniels, greyhounds, roosters, eagles and horses were all made, and the hunting breeds sold best because the men buying them hunted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAluminium is why it has survived.\u003c\/strong\u003e The material choice was not decorative — it was structural. A cast-iron ornament bolted to an outdoor rail rusts through at the fixing in a few seasons. Aluminium does not rust, and after the war it was abundant and cheap, because the enormous smelting capacity built to make aircraft had to sell to somebody once the aircraft orders stopped. Postwar America put that aluminium into garden furniture, cookware, screen doors, house numbers, and small castings exactly like this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eYou can see the two metals behaving differently on this piece. \u003cstrong\u003eThe steel clamp bar has rusted and bled a warm orange stain onto the base. The aluminium casting beside it has not rusted at all\u003c\/strong\u003e, and carries only the soft white bloom that aluminium gives. That is dissimilar metals bolted together and left outdoors, and it is the clearest evidence on the object that it did the job it was made for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe casting itself is sand cast: a granular as-cast surface, a flat unworked reverse, and crisp mould detail through the thin sections — the lifted foreleg, the tail and the grass blades — which aluminium will hold and heavier metals will not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThere is \u003cstrong\u003eno maker's mark, foundry stamp or pattern number\u003c\/strong\u003e anywhere on the casting or the bar, and the topper is offered unattributed. Toppers of this kind were made by a number of small foundries and sold through hardware stores and mail order without names on them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDated on the material, the clamp construction and the steel-on-aluminium corrosion rather than on the subject, the range given is \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1950–1980\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFigural fence and gate topper\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSubject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePointer or setter on point, collared, on a grassy groundline\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican. Unattributed — no maker's mark, foundry stamp or pattern number is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCut-out relief casting on a long groundline base modelled with broken earth and three tufts of marsh grass; flat as-cast reverse\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSand-cast aluminium with a pale grey-white painted wash; steel clamp bar and through-bolts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMounting\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eA steel bar bolted across the reverse of the base and standing off it, clamping down onto a chain-link top rail or a gate frame. Bolt heads are visible on the face of the groundline at both ends and at the centre.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1950–1980. Dated on the cast aluminium, the clamp construction and the steel-on-aluminium corrosion rather than on the subject.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood, with honest outdoor wear. \u003cstrong\u003eThe casting is complete and unbroken\u003c\/strong\u003e — head, collar, all four legs, the lifted foreleg, the full tail and all three grass tufts are present, and the thin sections that fail first on a piece like this are sound. Nothing is bent, cracked or repaired. The clamp bar and all bolts are present and the clamp still tightens. Expect the wear that outdoor life gives: the pale wash is worn thin at the skull, shoulder and hips with the bare metal showing through, there is white oxide bloom across the casting, and dark patches and marking to the flat reverse. \u003cstrong\u003eThe steel clamp bar is rusted and has bled an orange stain onto the base\u003c\/strong\u003e, which is disclosed as present rather than cleaned off. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA dog on point is one of the few poses in sporting art that carries tension. The animal is holding still against every instinct it has, and a silhouette of it reads that way from across a room — which is why this works as an object and not merely as a dog ornament.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIndoors it wants a small stand or a plate easel, or four minutes with a screwdriver: unbolt the clamp bar and the casting screws flat to a board, a barn-wood plank, a bookshelf edge or a wall, and becomes a plaque. Over a doorway, along the top of a bookcase, in a mudroom, above a gun cabinet, in a study, or leaned on a mantel with the grass base doing the work of a frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOutdoors it can still do exactly what it was cast to do. It clamps to a gate frame, a fence top rail, a deck rail, a garden arch or a post — and because it is aluminium rather than iron, it can go back outside permanently without rusting away at the fixing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFor a shop it is easy stock: sporting and lodge decor is a category that sells to people who are not otherwise buying antiques, and a bird dog is one of the few subjects with a genuinely reliable audience. As a gift it is specific rather than vague — a bird hunter, a field-trial family, a pointer or setter owner, or anyone with a cabin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and it is short because aluminium is forgiving. \u003cstrong\u003eLeave the surface alone.\u003c\/strong\u003e The worn pale wash and the soft white bloom are what make the casting read as old; strip them with a wire wheel or a chemical cleaner and you are left with a bright modern-looking metal cut-out. Dust it dry, or wipe it with a barely damp cloth. Use no abrasive pad, no polish and no rust remover on the casting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003esteel clamp bar is the one part that will keep corroding\u003c\/strong\u003e, and it is also the only part that stains. If it is going back outdoors, take the bar off, wire-brush it, prime and paint it, and put a washer of nylon or paint between the steel and the aluminium — steel and aluminium in contact with moisture between them corrode each other, which is exactly what produced the orange staining already on the base. If it is staying indoors, either leave the bar as it is or remove it entirely and mount the casting flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhen you fix it outside, tighten the bolts firmly but do not force them. Aluminium is softer than steel and the threads in a casting this thin will strip before the bolt does.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48035509829737,"sku":"VE-0685","price":70.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3933.jpg?v=1789077371"},{"product_id":"handmade-zip-pouch-in-southwest-banded-blanket-wool-with-black-leather-and-a-silver-tone-concho-c-1990-2020","title":"Handmade Zip Pouch in Southwest Banded Blanket Wool with Black Leather and a Silver-Tone Concho, c. 1990–2020","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA flat zip pouch that fits in a back pocket, built from two very different materials and better for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe face is a panel of \u003cstrong\u003eheavy napped blanket wool\u003c\/strong\u003e in a banded Southwest pattern. It runs camel through cream, gold, tangerine and a deep scarlet, then back out through cream and orange, with olive arrowheads stepping across the wide bands at one end. The wool is thick and plush with a full raised nap, the kind of weight that comes off a blanket rather than off a shirt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAcross the zip edge runs a band of \u003cstrong\u003eblack leather\u003c\/strong\u003e, topstitched down and carrying the zipper, and the back of the pouch is a single unbroken panel of the same leather — smooth, matte, and quiet against all that colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSet into the middle of the leather band is a small \u003cstrong\u003econcho\u003c\/strong\u003e: a domed silver-tone disc with a scalloped edge and a stamped sunburst radiating from the centre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe pouch is machine sewn throughout and the edges are left raw and cut rather than bound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe concho is the piece of this with the deepest history, and the route it travelled is longer than most people assume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe word comes from the Spanish \u003cem\u003econcha\u003c\/em\u003e — seashell — and the form of the ornament derives at least in part from \u003cstrong\u003eSpanish horse-bridle decoration\u003c\/strong\u003e. Metalworking of this kind was first taken up by eastern nations, the Delaware and the Shawnee, who learned it from European artisans. After the removals of the 1830s carried them to Oklahoma, the craft passed to Plains peoples — the Comanche, the Kiowa and the Ute — and it was they who carried it south and west. \u003cstrong\u003eNavajo silversmiths began making conchos in the 1870s and 1880s\u003c\/strong\u003e, having learned silverworking from Rio Grande Mexican smiths, and it is Navajo work that made the concho belt the object it is today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSo a stamped silver disc on a belt or a bag is four cultures deep before it is anything else: Spanish tack, eastern metalwork, a forced migration, and then eighty years of Southwestern silversmithing that turned a borrowed form into something entirely its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe banded stripe on the wool belongs to the same broad visual language — the wide-band, high-contrast blanket design that has been woven, traded and worn across the Southwest and the Plains for well over a century, and which has never gone out of production because it has never gone out of favour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNow, plainly, what this particular object is and is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is \u003cstrong\u003ehandmade rather than factory made\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the construction says so. The edges are raw cut with loose threads standing at both ends of the zipper, and there is no bound, folded or tucked terminal anywhere on it. Production goods finish their ends, because an unfinished end is a warranty claim. Somebody cut this from blanket cloth, faced it with leather, set a zipper and a concho into it, and sold it as it came off the machine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt carries \u003cstrong\u003eno label, no maker's mark, and no stamp on the concho\u003c\/strong\u003e. The pouch is offered unattributed, the concho is described as silver-tone rather than silver because nothing on it says otherwise, and \u003cstrong\u003eit is not offered or represented as Native American made\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn the date: the materials are all current-production. A nylon coil zipper, supple chrome-tanned garment leather, and a blanket cloth whose nap is still full and unmatted with no fading through the reds. Nothing here is old, and the same pouch has been made from the same materials across a long span, so the range is given wide and honest at \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1990–2020\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFlat zip pouch — coin purse, card wallet or bag organiser\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHandmade, maker unknown. Unlabelled and unattributed. \u003cstrong\u003eNot offered or represented as Native American made.\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFlat rectangular pouch with a leather-faced zip edge and a single-panel leather back; edges left raw cut rather than bound\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHeavy napped blanket-weight wool front with black leather band and back; nylon coil zipper\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePattern\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSouthwest banded stripe — camel, cream, gold, tangerine and scarlet with olive arrowhead motifs\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHardware\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne domed silver-tone concho with a scalloped edge and stamped sunburst, set into the leather band. Unmarked; described as silver-tone, not silver.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone. No label, maker's mark, or metal stamp.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1990–2020. Dated on the materials, which are all current production. Not an antique.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and barely used if at all. The zipper runs freely end to end, the concho is bright and firmly set, and every seam is intact with no separation. The wool nap is full and unmatted and the colours are strong and unfaded, with no moth damage, no holes and no thin patches. The leather is supple with no cracking, splitting or loss, showing only light surface marking. \u003cstrong\u003eLoose threads stand at both ends of the zipper where the edges are cut raw\u003c\/strong\u003e, which is how the pouch was made rather than damage, and they can be trimmed close. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSmall zip pouches are the least glamorous and most used thing anybody owns. This one takes cards and folded cash, coins, a key and a lip balm, earbuds and a charging cord, hair pins, a travel set of pills, or the loose small things that otherwise live at the bottom of a bag and are never findable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat makes it worth carrying rather than merely useful is the wool. Blanket cloth in this weight has a depth of colour and a physical warmth that printed cotton cannot touch, and the banded stripe reads from across a table. It is the difference between reaching for something and being pleased to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt works inside a larger bag as an organiser, in a coat pocket on its own, or on a dresser as the place car keys and loose change land at the end of the day. Flat enough for a back pocket, stiff enough to find by feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe palette also happens to be easy: camel, rust and scarlet against black leather sits with denim, waxed canvas, brown boots, turquoise and brass, and it looks correct in autumn without looking seasonal the rest of the year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAs a gift it is a good small one — a stocking filler, a groomsman's gift, a travel present — and it comes with a real story about where the ornament on the front came from.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and wool is the part that needs it. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not machine wash this and do not put it in a dryer.\u003c\/strong\u003e Wool felts and shrinks irreversibly in hot water and agitation, and the leather will stiffen, darken and crack if it is soaked. Spot clean the wool with a barely damp cloth and a little wool-safe soap, blot rather than rub, and let it air dry away from heat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMoths are the real threat.\u003c\/strong\u003e This is untreated natural wool, and it is exactly what a clothes moth larva eats. If the pouch is going into a drawer for a season, put it somewhere sealed with cedar or lavender, and give it an airing and a shake every so often — moths lay in dark, still places that never get disturbed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFor the leather, a very light wipe with a soft cloth is usually enough; if it dries out, use a small amount of a neutral leather conditioner on the leather only, keeping it off the wool, where it will leave a permanent dark stain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTrim the loose threads at the zipper ends flush with small scissors rather than pulling them, since pulling a raw edge unravels it. And do not overstuff it — the raw-cut edges are the weakest part of the construction, and strain is what opens them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48035621994601,"sku":"VE-0688","price":46.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3946.jpg?v=1789077634"},{"product_id":"basketweave-tooled-leather-double-magazine-pouch-divided-interior-with-three-position-snap-belt-loop-american-duty-leather-c-1950-1990","title":"Basketweave-Tooled Leather Double Magazine Pouch, Divided Interior with Three-Position Snap Belt Loop, American Duty Leather, c. 1950–1990","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA formed leather belt pouch, thick, dark and built to be worn hard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe body is a proper box — moulded to shape rather than folded flat — with a domed front and rounded corners, sitting on a flat stitched back panel that extends past it on every side. The stitching is close, even and run right around the perimeter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe front and sides are covered edge to edge in \u003cstrong\u003ebasketweave stamping\u003c\/strong\u003e: the interlocking woven grid struck into damp leather one impression at a time with a hand stamp and a mallet, each cell overlapping its neighbour. A scalloped border stamp closes off the panel along both long edges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe mouth opens at the top, and inside the pouch is \u003cstrong\u003edivided down the middle\u003c\/strong\u003e by a leather partition into two side-by-side compartments — which is what tells you what it was built to carry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn the back, a wide leather belt strap runs vertically, fastened by \u003cstrong\u003ethree snap studs set in a row\u003c\/strong\u003e. Unsnap it and the pouch comes off a belt without unthreading anything; the three positions let it close over different belt widths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe leather has gone a deep oxblood-brown with a hard polish on the high points, and there is a faint impressed script mark on the back panel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe divided interior is the identification.\u003c\/strong\u003e Two narrow compartments side by side, in a box pouch of exactly this depth, is a \u003cstrong\u003edouble magazine pouch\u003c\/strong\u003e — built to carry two spare pistol magazines upright on a duty belt, one to each side of the partition, where they can be found by feel without looking down. Nothing else is shaped quite like it: a cartridge pouch is open and undivided, a speedloader case has round cups, a handcuff case is deeper and wider.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBasketweave is the signature of American duty leather.\u003c\/strong\u003e From the middle of the twentieth century it was one of the two standard finishes on police and sheriff's belt gear — the other being plain black — and it spread from there into ranch, hunting and Western goods. The reason is practical rather than decorative: a stamped surface hides scuffs, holds a finish, and gives grip in the hand where a smooth panel does not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe stamping is real hand work. Each cell is one strike into cased leather, aligned by eye off the cell before it, and on a panel this size that is several hundred strikes. Sight along the rows and they drift very slightly. That drift is the proof it was struck rather than pressed out in a single hit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe three-snap strap is the detail worth knowing. Duty belts are loaded, stripped and rearranged constantly, and a sewn-shut loop means taking every other item off the belt to move one. A snap loop comes off where it sits, and three studs rather than one give it a range of belt widths and a spare if a snap wears out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNow the mark, stated precisely. \u003cstrong\u003eThere is a faint impressed script mark on the upper back panel\u003c\/strong\u003e — a curved, handwritten-looking stamp struck into the leather. It has been worn and burnished down by years against a belt and \u003cstrong\u003eit is not legible enough to read a name from\u003c\/strong\u003e. No model number, size marking or other stamp appears anywhere on the face, the sides, the strap or inside. The pouch is offered \u003cstrong\u003eunattributed\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDuty leather of this kind was made by a number of American firms, most of whom marked their work on the back exactly where this mark sits. Dated on the tooling, the moulded construction, the snap hardware and the wear: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1950–1990\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDouble magazine pouch — a belt-mounted duty-leather case with a divided interior for two spare pistol magazines\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican duty-leather tradition. Unattributed — an impressed script mark is present on the back panel but is worn beyond legibility.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHand-struck basketweave stamping to the front and sides within a scalloped border stamp\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMoulded box body stitched to a flat back panel, with a full-length leather partition dividing the interior into two compartments; wide belt strap to the reverse secured by three snap studs in a row, allowing removal from a belt without unthreading and adjustment for belt width\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHeavy vegetable-tanned leather with steel snap hardware\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eA faint impressed script mark to the upper back panel, worn and not legible. No other marking.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1950–1990. Dated on the tooling, the moulded construction and the hardware.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and fully serviceable, with honest carry wear. The leather is supple with no cracking, splitting, dryness or delamination, the moulded body holds its shape, and the interior partition is sound. All stitching is intact with no loose or broken thread apart from a few short stray ends at the mouth. Every snap is present and snaps home firmly. The basketweave is crisp and complete across the whole face with no rubbed-flat areas. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect the darkening and hard polish that comes from years of being worn\u003c\/strong\u003e — deepest at the high points of the tooling and along the strap — plus light scuffing to the back panel and minor edge wear. No repairs and no added holes. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is working leather, and working leather earns its keep by still working. On a belt the two compartments take whatever pairs up — spare magazines, a folding knife and a multitool, a phone and a battery, two flashlights, a tape and a marker — and the snap strap means it goes on and comes off in about two seconds without disturbing anything else on the belt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOff the belt it is a good desk or dresser object. The moulded box shape stands up on its own, the divider keeps two things apart, and it will hold pens and scissors, watches and change, keys and a pocketknife, or cards and cash.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe basketweave is the reason to take this one over a plain pouch. Several hundred hand strikes went into that face, the rows drift the way only hand work drifts, and the colour is something no new piece of leather has — a deep oxblood with a polish that only comes from being carried for years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not soak it and do not put it near heat.\u003c\/strong\u003e Wet leather that dries fast goes hard and cracks, and a radiator, a heat vent or a car dashboard will do it in a season. If it gets wet, blot it and let it dry slowly at room temperature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eClean it with a barely damp cloth and, if it needs more, a dedicated saddle soap worked in lightly and wiped off. Feed it once or twice a year with a neutral leather conditioner or a light oil, applied thinly — heavy oiling darkens leather permanently and softens it past the point where it holds a moulded shape, which on a formed pouch is the whole structure. \u003cstrong\u003eKeep conditioner off the snap hardware\u003c\/strong\u003e, and use no silicone spray or shoe polish, which build a film on tooled leather and fill in the stamping.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eStore it out of direct sun, which fades and dries leather faster than anything else, and stuff it lightly with paper for long storage so the box keeps its shape.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48037536006249,"sku":"VE-0690","price":52.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/3AB049AF-3480-47BD-9159-35152545B693.jpg?v=1789100114"},{"product_id":"hand-painted-souvenir-plate-pikes-peak-from-ute-pass-blue-lustre-ground-with-gilt-swags-signed-and-dated-a-blickenstaff-1920","title":"Hand-Painted Souvenir Plate, Pike's Peak from Ute Pass, Blue Lustre Ground with Gilt Swags, Signed and Dated A. Blickenstaff 1920","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA cabinet plate on a moulded blank, and the painting in the well is the reason for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe scene is titled in the artist's own script along the bottom edge: \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePike's Peak from Ute Pass\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e. A single railroad track sweeps in from the foreground and curves away to the right through the pass, the ties drawn one by one and the rails catching light. A telegraph pole stands beside the line with its crossarm and insulators picked out. Dark firs crowd both sides of the cut, a stand of aspen and pine falls away into the middle distance, and beyond it all the range rises in cool blue-grey, the summit ridge lit orange by a sun that has not yet cleared it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is painted in soft washes with fine drawn detail over the top — a watercolourist's method, executed in ceramic colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe blank it sits on is a good one. The rim is moulded with radiating flutes and shell fans and cut into a scalloped edge, and it carries a \u003cstrong\u003egraduated blue lustre wash\u003c\/strong\u003e that deepens from near-white at the well to soft sky blue at the scallops, with a pearl sheen that shifts as the plate turns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOver that run two \u003cstrong\u003egilt borders\u003c\/strong\u003e: a chain of linked quatrefoils in a zigzag, and inside it a garland of eight-pointed stars strung on a fine line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe reverse is plain glazed white and carries, in confident black brush script, \u003cstrong\u003eA. Blickenstaff\u003c\/strong\u003e and the date \u003cstrong\u003e1920\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTwo things are worth knowing here, and the first is the place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePike's Peak\u003c\/strong\u003e is the great landmark of the Colorado Front Range, and \u003cstrong\u003eUte Pass\u003c\/strong\u003e is the historic corridor that climbs west out of the plains beside it — a route used long before the railroads, then graded for wagons, then followed by track. What the painter chose to show is not the mountain alone but the mountain \u003cem\u003efrom\u003c\/em\u003e the pass, with the rails in the foreground: the view a traveller actually had, from a train window, arriving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe peak also has a particular hold on the American imagination for a specific reason. It was from its summit in 1893 that \u003cstrong\u003eKatharine Lee Bates\u003c\/strong\u003e looked out and began the poem that became \u003cem\u003eAmerica the Beautiful\u003c\/em\u003e — the purple mountain majesties are these.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe second thing is how the plate was made, and it is not what most people assume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is \u003cstrong\u003echina painting\u003c\/strong\u003e: hand decoration in overglaze colour on a commercially manufactured blank, fired again at low temperature to fuse the paint into the glaze. The blank — the moulded rim, the lustre wash, the gilt transfers — came from a factory. \u003cstrong\u003eThe picture did not.\u003c\/strong\u003e Somebody bought that plate white-centred and painted a Colorado scene into the well by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThat was one of the largest craft movements America has had, with its own suppliers, kilns, teachers and exhibiting societies, and it produced work from the frankly amateur to the seriously good. This is at the good end. The aerial perspective is handled properly — the range recedes in cool greys while the foreground firs stay warm and dark — the track is drawn in correct perspective through a curve, which is genuinely difficult, and the sunrise on the summit ridge is laid in as a wash rather than outlined.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd it is \u003cstrong\u003esigned and dated on the back in the painter's own hand: A. Blickenstaff, 1920\u003c\/strong\u003e. That is not an estimate, a style range or a factory date code. It is one person, one plate, one year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNo biography attaches to the name, which is ordinary for china painters however capable they were; almost none of them were listed artists. What the signature delivers is the thing a factory plate can never have — a known hand and an exact year, \u003cstrong\u003enow more than a century old\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHand-painted cabinet or souvenir plate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSubject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\n\u003cem\u003ePike's Peak from Ute Pass\u003c\/em\u003e, Colorado — titled in the painting in the artist's script\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eArtist\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eA. Blickenstaff, signed and dated to the reverse\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e1920\u003c\/strong\u003e — from the artist's own dated signature, not an estimate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTechnique\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHand-painted overglaze china painting on a commercial blank, fired to fuse\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eBlank\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMoulded rim with radiating flutes and shell fans on a scalloped edge, under a graduated pearl-blue lustre wash, with factory gilt borders — a linked quatrefoil chain and a star garland\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGlazed ceramic with lustre, gilding and overglaze enamel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSigned \u003cem\u003eA. Blickenstaff\u003c\/em\u003e and dated \u003cem\u003e1920\u003c\/em\u003e in black to the reverse. No factory backstamp.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e1920 — over one hundred years old\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood for its age, with the wear a century gives. The plate is sound and sits flat, with no cracks and no repairs. \u003cstrong\u003eThe painting is complete and unfaded\u003c\/strong\u003e — the full scene, the script title and the signature are all intact and strong, with no rubbing through the image. \u003cstrong\u003eThere is heavy allover crazing\u003c\/strong\u003e to the glaze, front and back, toned to a fine tan network; it is original to the glaze and the age rather than damage, and it is clearly visible. The blue lustre is bright and even. Expect \u003cstrong\u003elight wear and small losses to the gilt borders\u003c\/strong\u003e at the rim, a few small flakes and nicks to the scalloped edge, and scattered dark specks in the glaze. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is a small painting that happens to be on a plate, and it should be hung or stood like one. On a plate rail, a picture ledge, a bookshelf or a wall group it reads as landscape art — and the pearl-blue lustre rim does something no frame can, catching light and shifting colour as you move past it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe subject sells itself to a specific person. Anyone from Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs or the Front Range; anyone who has driven Ute Pass or climbed the peak; a railroad collector, for the track and the telegraph line drawn with real attention; or anyone who knows where \u003cem\u003eAmerica the Beautiful\u003c\/em\u003e was written.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd it carries a date most decorative objects cannot. A signed, dated, hand-painted object from 1920 is a century-old piece of one person's afternoon, and it survived. Objects like this are what separate a curated shelf from a bought one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and the crazing sets the rules. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not use this plate for food, and never wash it in a dishwasher or soak it.\u003c\/strong\u003e The glaze is crazed through, which means it is an open network into the body; water carries stains straight in, darkens the craze permanently, and no washing brings it back. The decoration is also overglaze, so detergent and dishwasher heat would dull and lift the painting itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDust it dry with a soft cloth or brush. If it needs more, use a barely damp cloth and dry it at once, and use no abrasive pad, cream cleaner or bleach — bleach is sometimes recommended for crazing and it will destroy overglaze paint and gilding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eKeep it out of direct sunlight, which fades overglaze colour, and off a damp wall or a bathroom, where crazing wicks moisture. If you hang it, use a spring-wire plate hanger with padded arms seated on sound rim, or better, a plate stand so nothing bears on the edge — the scalloped rim already has small losses and tension is what turns a nick into a crack.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48039648657513,"sku":"VE-0697","price":168.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/90C940A5-4F8B-4647-8854-120A25FC96DC.jpg?v=1789113079"},{"product_id":"teal-pressed-glass-souvenir-tankard-gilt-cathedral-rock-cartouche-sedona-arizona-made-in-u-s-a-c-1960-1990","title":"Teal Pressed Glass Souvenir Tankard, Gilt Cathedral Rock Cartouche, Sedona, Arizona, Made in U.S.A., c. 1960–1990","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA small tankard in deep teal-blue pressed glass, heavy for its size and built like a miniature beer mug.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe body is \u003cstrong\u003epanelled\u003c\/strong\u003e — broad flat facets running up the sides, each finishing in a rounded arch below a flared, slightly waved rim. Below, the glass steps out onto a wide skirted foot ringed with a fine band of beading. The handle is a thick squared loop with a generous finger opening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn the front, a \u003cstrong\u003egilt cartouche\u003c\/strong\u003e: a shaped shield outlined in gold, enclosing a landscape of red-rock buttes above a creek with trees and brush along the bank, all drawn in gold line. Beneath it, in gold capitals, \u003cstrong\u003eSEDONA, ARIZONA\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe rim carries a dark metallic band, toned almost to black.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTurn it over and the underside of the foot is embossed in raised letters around the ring: \u003cstrong\u003eMADE IN U.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe scene in the gold is the reason this was bought in the first place. Sedona sits in the red-rock country of the Verde Valley in central Arizona, where Oak Creek has cut down through layered sandstone to leave the formations that made the place famous — the buttes and spires in the cartouche, drawn from the classic view.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe object belongs to a genuinely American tradition: the \u003cstrong\u003esouvenir tankard\u003c\/strong\u003e, sold at roadside trading posts, lodge gift shops and highway curio stores through the middle of the twentieth century, when the family car and the two-week vacation turned the Southwest into a destination. You drove, you stopped, you brought back a mug. Thousands of towns had one; the gold was applied over the fired glass by decorating shops that could change the scene and the place name from job to job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA few things are worth stating precisely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is American-made and says so\u003c\/strong\u003e, embossed into the foot — not a printed sticker or a paper label but raised letters formed in the mould itself, which is the one mark on the piece that cannot have been added later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThere is no maker's name.\u003c\/strong\u003e Several large American glasshouses pressed tankards in this pattern for the souvenir trade, and this one carries no company mark, so it is offered \u003cstrong\u003eunattributed\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnd the gold is worn.\u003c\/strong\u003e The cartouche and the lettering are unfired or lightly fired surface gilding, which is how souvenir decoration was done, and it rubs. On this mug the outline and the place name survive clearly but a good deal of the interior detail has gone; the rim band has darkened and worn to a grey-black. Both are stated plainly below rather than photographed around.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDated on the pressed form, the applied decoration and the embossed country marking: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1960–1990\u003c\/strong\u003e. Offered as a vintage souvenir piece rather than as an antique.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n    \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n    \u003ctbody\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSmall souvenir tankard or mug\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican. \u003cstrong\u003eMADE IN U.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e embossed into the underside of the foot. Unattributed — no maker's name is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePanelled body with arched panel tops and a flared waved rim, on a wide skirted foot with a beaded ring; heavy squared loop handle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTeal-blue pressed glass with applied gilt decoration and a metallic rim band\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGilt shield cartouche enclosing a red-rock landscape with creek and trees, lettered SEDONA, ARIZONA beneath\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMADE IN U.S.A. embossed to the foot. No maker's mark.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1960–1990. A vintage souvenir piece, not an antique.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood, with honest wear to the decoration. \u003cstrong\u003eThe glass itself is excellent\u003c\/strong\u003e — no chips, cracks, flea bites or nicks anywhere on the rim, foot, panels or handle, the colour is deep and even with no cloudiness, and the mug stands flat and true. \u003cstrong\u003eThe gilding is worn.\u003c\/strong\u003e The cartouche outline and the SEDONA, ARIZONA lettering read clearly, but much of the gold detail inside the scene has rubbed away and the image is fragmentary. \u003cstrong\u003eThe metallic rim band has darkened and worn\u003c\/strong\u003e to a grey-black and is uneven around the circumference. Light interior film. No repairs. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n  \u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBuy this one for the glass. That teal is a genuinely good colour — deep, saturated, and unlike anything currently in production — and the panelled body throws it into bands of light and shadow that shift as the mug turns. On a windowsill with sun behind it, it reads like a piece of coloured light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe size makes it useful. It takes espresso or a short coffee, a small pour of whiskey or amaro, a votive candle, toothpicks or matches on a bar, brushes on a desk, or a few short-stemmed flowers on a sill.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt also carries a place, which most decorative glass does not. For anyone who grew up on Southwest road trips, honeymooned in Sedona, or collects Route 66 and roadside Americana, a mug with the red rocks on it is a specific memory rather than a generic object.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and the decoration is the fragile part. \u003cstrong\u003eNever put this in a dishwasher.\u003c\/strong\u003e The gold and the rim band sit on the surface of the glass rather than being fired deep into it, and dishwasher heat and detergent will take off what is left of them in a cycle or two. The glass would survive; the Sedona would not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eHand wash in warm water with a mild soap, using a soft cloth and keeping it off the gilded areas as much as you can, then dry immediately. \u003cstrong\u003eUse no abrasive pad, scouring cream or metal polish\u003c\/strong\u003e — polish will strip the darkened rim band rather than brighten it, and the toning is age rather than dirt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAvoid sudden temperature changes: do not pour boiling liquid into it cold, and do not take it from hot to cold water. Pressed glass fails at thermal shock. It is not microwave or oven ware. Keep it out of prolonged direct sun, which will continue to fade the gold, and store it standing rather than stacked inside another vessel, where the rim takes the pressure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48039648723049,"sku":"VE-0696","price":63.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/0ED7CBC0-BFD7-4BD7-B3AB-3E77F324F552.jpg?v=1789113136"},{"product_id":"shox-stok-model-z-electric-fence-controller-shox-stok-inc-wellington-ohio-ul-listed-owner-marked-c-1948-1958","title":"Shox-Stok Model-Z Electric Fence Controller, Shox-Stok Inc., Wellington, Ohio, UL Listed, Owner-Marked, c. 1948–1958","description":"  \u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA domed steel box in farm-implement orange, about the size of a bread tin, with a riveted aluminium nameplate on the front and an amber jewel lens set into it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plate reads, in full: \u003cstrong\u003eFOR INDOOR INSTALLATION — USE 1 AMPERE FUSES ONLY\u003c\/strong\u003e, then \u003cstrong\u003eMODEL-Z, 110 VOLTS, 60 CYCLES A.C.\u003c\/strong\u003e, then the maker's name across a yellow lightning bolt — \u003cstrong\u003eSHOX-STOK, ELECTRIC FENCE CONTROLLER, SHOX-STOK INC., WELLINGTON, OHIO, MADE IN U.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e A \u003cstrong\u003eUL\u003c\/strong\u003e roundel sits at the right, listed under Underwriters' Laboratories' re-examination service.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurn it over and the base is painted a bright signal red. Laid out on it are \u003cstrong\u003etwo screw-cap panel fuseholders\u003c\/strong\u003e marked FUSE with a turning arrow, a knurled ground terminal, a second terminal for the fence line, a small steel transformer can, and a toggle switch ringed \u003cstrong\u003ePRESS TO TEST FENCE\u003c\/strong\u003e. A heavy rubber-jacketed cord enters through a moulded strain-relief bushing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten across the red base in black marker, in a former owner's hand, is \u003cstrong\u003ea name\u003c\/strong\u003e — the surname reads clearly enough, the given name less so.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“For indoor installation” on a fence controller sounds like a contradiction. It is the opposite.\u003c\/strong\u003e The controller is the brain, not the fence. It lives in the barn or the pump house, plugged into a wall outlet, and sends its charge out along a single wire to the paddock. Only the wire goes outside. Put the box itself in the weather and you have a mains-powered appliance filling with water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe whole category exists because of a government programme.\u003c\/strong\u003e When Roosevelt created the \u003cstrong\u003eRural Electrification Administration in 1935\u003c\/strong\u003e, only \u003cstrong\u003e10.9 percent of American farms\u003c\/strong\u003e — 744,000 of them — had central-station power. By 1940 it was 25 percent. By 1950 it was \u003cstrong\u003e90 percent\u003c\/strong\u003e. A controller like this one is unthinkable before that: it needs a wall outlet in a farm building, and until the REA got there, almost no farm had one. This object is a direct artefact of American farms getting wired.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe two fuses and the test switch are about not killing anything.\u003c\/strong\u003e The principle of a safe electric fence is the pulse: the charge goes out for a fraction of a second, then stops, so that an animal or a person touching the wire is pushed back rather than held on it. Modern controllers pulse for roughly \u003cem\u003ethree ten-thousandths of a second\u003c\/em\u003e, about once per second. Early mains fences that ran continuous current through a mechanical switch did not give anything the chance to let go, and they killed. The fusing, the UL listing and the press-to-test switch on this box are all that argument in hardware — the fuses to open the circuit on a fault, the switch to check the line without walking the fence and grabbing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe idea itself is older than the technology. \u003cstrong\u003eDavid H. Wilson\u003c\/strong\u003e took out \u003cstrong\u003eU.S. Patent 343,939 in 1886\u003c\/strong\u003e and strung thirty miles of electrified fence in Texas in 1888; it did not work. The version that did came from \u003cstrong\u003eBill Gallagher in New Zealand in 1936\u003c\/strong\u003e, who built an energiser out of a car's ignition coil and in doing so invented the modern pulsed fence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDating it, the nameplate does most of the work.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003e110 volts\u003c\/em\u003e is an early utilisation rating — American equipment moved through 112, 115 and 117 volts across the middle of the century before settling at 120 — and \u003cem\u003e60 cycles\u003c\/em\u003e predates the general American adoption of \u003cem\u003ehertz\u003c\/em\u003e. Screw-cap fuseholders rather than a reset breaker, a rubber-jacketed cord, slot-head screws and a riveted plate all belong to the same window, and the whole thing sits squarely in the years when REA power was reaching the last farms. Dated on the nameplate rating, the fusing and the hardware: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1948–1958\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShox-Stok Inc. of Wellington, Ohio, is named on the plate. Beyond that the firm is not documented here, and no attempt is made to say more about it than the object does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMains-powered electric fence controller — barn-mounted, wired to an outdoor fence line\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eShox-Stok Inc., Wellington, Ohio. Marked \u003cem\u003eMADE IN U.S.A.\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eModel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eModel-Z, 110 volts, 60 cycles A.C. Listed under the re-examination service of Underwriters' Laboratories.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDomed stamped-steel cover in orange over a red-painted base, with a riveted aluminium nameplate and an amber jewel indicator lens\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFittings\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTwo screw-cap panel fuseholders, ground and fence terminals, internal transformer, a \u003cem\u003ePRESS TO TEST FENCE\u003c\/em\u003e toggle, and a rubber-jacketed cord through a moulded strain relief\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFull maker's nameplate to the front; a former owner's name written in black marker across the red base, the surname legible and the given name only partly so\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1948–1958. Dated on the 110-volt \/ 60-cycle nameplate rating, the screw-cap fusing, the rubber cord and the riveted plate.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSold as a decorative and collectible object only. It has not been tested, it is not represented as working, and it must not be plugged in or wired to anything.\u003c\/strong\u003e Structurally it is very good and complete: the cover is sound with no dents or splits, the nameplate is fully legible with the UL roundel intact, the amber lens is present, both fuseholders and both terminals are in place, the toggle switch moves, and the cord is attached at the strain relief. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect honest farm wear\u003c\/strong\u003e — paint loss and scuffing to the high points of the dome, scattered surface rust at the seams and screws, chalking to the orange, and light soiling inside. The owner's marker inscription is part of the piece and has been left alone. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome industrial objects are collected for their shape. This one is worth having for what it says on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nameplate is a complete document: a maker, an Ohio town, a model, a voltage, a safety listing, and an instruction that only makes sense once you understand the thing. It reads well from three feet away and rewards being picked up, and the amber lens and the yellow lightning bolt do the rest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrange-painted steel is easy to place. It sits on a bookshelf, a workbench, a bar, a studio shelf or a mantel and holds its own against wood, leather, black metal and brick without needing anything around it. In a room of quiet colours it is the one warm object.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt also carries a real piece of American history — the decade when the farms finally got power — and the name in marker on the base means somebody owned it, cared which one was theirs, and wrote on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on safety, and it is the important one. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not plug this in, do not wire it to a fence, and do not have it rewired to use.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is roughly seventy years old, its internal wiring and rubber cord have not been tested and cannot be trusted, and what it was built to do was put mains-derived current onto a wire. It is a shelf object now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not strip or repaint it.\u003c\/strong\u003e The paint loss and the surface rust are the whole character, and a rattle-can restoration turns a documented farm tool into a painted box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDust it dry with a soft brush. If it needs more, wipe it with a barely damp cloth and dry it at once, keeping water away from the nameplate, the lens and the terminals. Use no solvent, no rust remover and no metal polish, all of which will lift the lettering off an aluminium plate. Keep it indoors and dry, and lift it by the body rather than the cord.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48040938799209,"sku":"VE-0702","price":102.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_2037_7026bf97-0eb4-4628-a8a6-847a69c57c68.jpg?v=1789130816"},{"product_id":"androck-hand-i-sift-one-hand-flour-sifter-tulip-and-scroll-decal-with-painted-wood-handle-the-washburn-company-rockford-illinois-c-1945-1955","title":"Androck Hand-i-Sift One-Hand Flour Sifter, Tulip and Scroll Decal with Painted Wood Handle, The Washburn Company, Rockford, Illinois, c. 1945–1955","description":"  \u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA one-hand flour sifter in cream-painted tin, with a squeeze lever and a red wooden grip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front carries a \u003cstrong\u003eprinted decal\u003c\/strong\u003e: three red tulips rising from dark green leaves inside a scrolled yellow cartouche, with pink flourishes trailing from the base. It is the Pennsylvania-Dutch idiom that ran through American kitchens in the middle of the century — tulips, scrolls, and not much else.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back of the body is \u003cstrong\u003eembossed straight into the metal\u003c\/strong\u003e, not printed: an oval reading \u003cstrong\u003eANDROCK\u003c\/strong\u003e, then \u003cstrong\u003eHand-i-Sift\u003c\/strong\u003e in script, and beneath it \u003cstrong\u003eMADE IN U.S. OF A.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook inside and the mechanism is all there: a \u003cstrong\u003esingle fine mesh screen\u003c\/strong\u003e with a \u003cstrong\u003esix-arm wire agitator\u003c\/strong\u003e turning on a central hub. Squeeze the lever and the arms sweep the flour through.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe handle is \u003cstrong\u003eshaped wood painted red\u003c\/strong\u003e, held in a riveted nickel-toned bracket, worn through to bare wood along the gripping edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe name is a merger written down.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eAndrock\u003c\/em\u003e comes from a 1917 combination of a Chicago wire goods division with the \u003cstrong\u003eAndrews Wire and Iron Works of Rockford, Illinois\u003c\/strong\u003e — \u003cem\u003eAnd\u003c\/em\u003e plus \u003cem\u003erock\u003c\/em\u003e. The parent firm traces to 1880, when Charles Washburn started the business incorporated two years later as the Wire Goods Company; after further mergers it became \u003cstrong\u003eThe Washburn Company\u003c\/strong\u003e in 1922, working out of \u003cstrong\u003eRockford, Illinois and Worcester, Massachusetts\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAndrock made the whole drawer: nut choppers, onion choppers, pastry blenders, graters, ladles, egg beaters. But the sifters are what it is remembered for, and the \u003cstrong\u003eone-hand action\u003c\/strong\u003e is why — the cook keeps a hand free for the bowl. Production ran until \u003cstrong\u003e1975\u003c\/strong\u003e, when the Worcester plant closed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe wooden handle is the dating evidence, and it is specific.\u003c\/strong\u003e Androck's pre-war kitchenware is known for bright \u003cstrong\u003eCatalin plastic handles\u003c\/strong\u003e in red, yellow and green. This sifter has no plastic anywhere — it has \u003cstrong\u003eshaped wood, painted red\u003c\/strong\u003e. Plastics went to the war effort, and wood came back into American kitchenware as the substitute; it stayed in use through the years immediately after.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe decal points the same way.\u003c\/strong\u003e Androck's 1950s work is remembered for atomic-era graphics — starbursts, boomerangs, hard geometry. This is none of that. A scrolled cartouche with tulips is the older, softer kitchen idiom that preceded it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWood rather than Catalin, and tulips rather than atoms, put it in a narrow window between the two: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1945–1955\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne detail is the previous owner's, not the factory's: a \u003cstrong\u003esmall mark in ink on the lower front\u003c\/strong\u003e and a \u003cstrong\u003esmall punched hole\u003c\/strong\u003e beside it. The mark is not a maker's stamp and it is not legible as anything; the hole was made by hand, most likely to hang the sifter on a nail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne-hand mechanical flour sifter, squeeze-lever action\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAndrock, The Washburn Company, Rockford, Illinois. Embossed \u003cem\u003eANDROCK · Hand-i-Sift · MADE IN U.S. OF A.\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCream-painted tin body with a rolled rim, single fine mesh screen and six-arm wire agitator on a central hub, side-mounted squeeze lever, shaped red-painted wooden grip in a riveted bracket\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePrinted decal — three red tulips and green foliage within a scrolled yellow cartouche with pink flourishes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaker's name embossed into the metal at the back. Also a small illegible ink mark and a hand-punched hanging hole to the lower front, both added by a previous owner.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1945–1955. Dated on the painted wooden handle in place of Androck's pre-war Catalin plastic, and on the tulip-and-scroll decal rather than the atomic graphics that followed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and fully working. The body is sound and holds its shape, the rim is true, the screen is clean and completely intact with no tears, holes or distortion, the agitator turns freely, and the squeeze lever and its spring return work properly. The decal is bright and complete with no flaking. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect honest kitchen wear\u003c\/strong\u003e — paint loss to the wooden grip worn through to bare wood along the gripping edge, light scratching and small paint chips to the body, faint denting, and the owner's ink mark and punched hole to the lower front. No rust through, no missing parts, no repairs. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA sifter is one of the few old kitchen tools that has not been improved on, and this one still works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe one-hand action is the whole point. Hold the bowl in one hand, squeeze with the other, and the flour goes where you are looking — which is why these outsold every crank-handle sifter on the market. Cake flour, powdered sugar over a finished tart, cocoa, matcha, a dusting over a work surface before you roll: it does all of it, and it does it better than shaking a sieve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also a good-looking object doing nothing. Cream, red, yellow and green is a full kitchen palette in one small tin, and the tulips read from across a room. On an open shelf, a windowsill, a hutch or the back of a counter it earns its space; it also makes a very good small vessel for wooden spoons, dried flowers or a bunch of herbs hung to dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a gift it is easy and specific: a baker, someone setting up a first kitchen, or anyone who likes their tools to have been made by a company that took its name from two towns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and it is the one rule that kills flour sifters. \u003cstrong\u003eNever wash it, never soak it, and never put it in a dishwasher.\u003c\/strong\u003e Water gets into the seams and behind the screen where it cannot dry, and it rusts the mesh from the inside out; it will also lift a printed decal and swell a wooden handle off its rivets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClean it dry. Tap it out, brush the screen with a dry pastry brush, and leave it. If something sticky gets on the outside, wipe that spot with a barely damp cloth and dry it immediately, keeping the cloth off the decal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStore it somewhere dry and open rather than sealed in a bag, sift only dry ingredients through it, and do not put the wooden handle near heat.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48041038282857,"sku":"VE-0706","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_2045.jpg?v=1789131035"},{"product_id":"folk-art-carved-wooden-deer-sawn-silhouette-body-with-four-knife-whittled-legs-socketed-through-unsigned-american-c-1930-1960","title":"Folk Art Carved Wooden Deer, Sawn Silhouette Body with Four Knife-Whittled Legs Socketed Through, Unsigned American, c. 1930–1960","description":"  \u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small standing deer, carved by hand and put together in two stages.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003ebody is a flat silhouette\u003c\/strong\u003e, cut from a single board: head lifted, neck arched, back curving down to a short raised tail, with one ear standing proud and a notch cut behind it. Run a thumb along any cut edge and you feel the \u003cstrong\u003esaw striations\u003c\/strong\u003e — fine parallel lines left by the blade, still there because nobody sanded them out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe eye is a \u003cstrong\u003esingle small circle\u003c\/strong\u003e pressed or drilled into the face. That is the entire facial carving, and it is enough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003efour legs are separate pieces\u003c\/strong\u003e, whittled from stock with a knife rather than turned, each one faceted where the blade took its cuts and each one slightly different from the others. They are \u003cstrong\u003esocketed through slots in the body\u003c\/strong\u003e and stand splayed, front pair braced forward, back pair set wide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wood has a strong open grain running the length of the body, and the whole piece has darkened to a deep olive brown with the high points worn paler.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is folk art in the proper sense of the term\u003c\/strong\u003e — not a style, but a category of maker. As the catalogue of MoMA's landmark 1932 folk art exhibition put it, folk art is \u003cem\u003e“the expression of the common people, made by them and intended for their use and enjoyment”\u003c\/em\u003e, not \u003cem\u003e“the expression of professional artists made for a small cultured class”\u003c\/em\u003e. Untrained hands, ordinary materials, and an unselfconscious result.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCarved wooden animals sit at the centre of that tradition. They were made for children, for mantels, for the pleasure of making them, by people who never called themselves artists — and the field only gained institutional standing in the twentieth century, through that 1932 exhibition, the WPA's documentation work during the Depression, and collectors like Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe construction is the interesting part, because it tells you how the maker thought.\u003c\/strong\u003e A trained carver takes a block and removes wood until the animal appears, legs and all — and then has four fragile short-grain legs that snap. This maker did something smarter: cut the body as a flat profile from a board, where the grain runs the long way and the piece is strong, then add legs separately in fresh stock with the grain running down them. It is the solution a practical person arrives at, and it is why the deer still has all four legs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery mark on it is a hand tool.\u003c\/strong\u003e The silhouette was cut with a saw and left unsanded. The legs were shaped with a knife, not a lathe — they are faceted rather than round, and no two match. There are no machine-turned dowels, no screws, no nails, and no visible glue line. The eye is a single impression.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe deer is \u003cstrong\u003eunsigned\u003c\/strong\u003e. There is no name, initial, date or mark anywhere on it, and no attempt is made here to give it a maker or a region.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDating a folk carving honestly means dating the tooling and the surface rather than the style, because the style has never stopped. Hand-sawn and knife-cut throughout, with no machined components, and carrying the depth of colour and the worn high points that take decades: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1930–1960\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCarved wooden deer figure, freestanding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAmerican folk carving tradition. Unsigned and offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eFlat silhouette body sawn from a single board with the saw marks left unsanded; four legs whittled separately by knife and socketed through slots in the body. No dowels, screws, nails or visible glue.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCarving\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eRaised head with one projecting ear and a cut notch behind it, arched neck, short raised tail; a single impressed circle for the eye\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSolid open-grained hardwood, darkened overall with paler wear to the high points\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone. No signature, initials, date or label anywhere on the piece.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1930–1960. Dated on the hand tooling and the depth of the surface; folk carving is a continuous practice and the style carries no date of its own.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good and structurally sound. All four legs are present, tight in their sockets and original to the piece; it stands unsupported without rocking. The body is free of splits, cracks and worm, the ear and tail are intact, and there are no repairs, replacements or restoration. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect the saw marks to be visible and the legs to be irregular\u003c\/strong\u003e — that is the making, not damage — along with overall darkening, paler wear at the high points, light surface scuffing, and a few small pale specks of dried paint or plaster on the legs left from wherever it once stood. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRooms full of good furniture often have no personality in them at all, and one object like this fixes that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is small, it is brown, and it will sit anywhere — a bookshelf, a mantel, a windowsill, a desk, the top of a chest, among a stack of books. It does not compete with anything. But it is the thing guests pick up, because the proportions are slightly wrong in the way only handmade things are: legs a little too long, neck a little too proud, an eye that is one circle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePut it where the other objects are precise and it does the most work — on a shelf of matched books, beside polished silver, next to a framed print. The contrast between something machined and something whittled is one of the oldest tricks in decorating and it still works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also a good children's object, in the sense that it was very likely made as one. It is solid, it has no small parts, and a child will handle it the way children handled it eighty years ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and with old carved wood there is really only one enemy. \u003cstrong\u003eKeep it dry and keep it away from heat.\u003c\/strong\u003e Wood that is baked next to a radiator, a heat vent or a sunny window will check and split along the grain, and on a flat sawn body that split runs the whole length. Steady room conditions are all it needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDust it with a soft dry brush — a paintbrush gets into the leg sockets better than a cloth. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not wash it, do not soak it, and do not strip or sand it.\u003c\/strong\u003e The dark surface and the worn high points are the age, and they cannot be put back once they are off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf it ever looks dry, a very light wipe of paste wax or a neutral furniture wax, buffed off thin, is enough. Use no oil soap, no silicone polish and no stain. Lift it by the body rather than by a leg.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48041820848233,"sku":"VE-0708","price":130.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/DE478018-CC8E-433B-8C5E-05013DFD4D15.jpg?v=1789140307"},{"product_id":"blue-satin-glazed-pottery-baby-bootie-vase-moulded-knit-with-tasselled-cord-and-beaded-cuff-inscribed-from-otto-1935-to-the-base-1935","title":"Blue Satin-Glazed Pottery Baby Bootie Vase, Moulded Knit with Tasselled Cord and Beaded Cuff, Inscribed “From Otto 1935” to the Base, 1935","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small pottery baby's bootie, modelled as a soft ankle boot and open at the top to hold flowers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe modelling is detailed for its size. The upper carries a \u003cstrong\u003eknitted texture\u003c\/strong\u003e — fine vertical ribs running down from the ankle, with a pebbled stitch across the toe. Around the top runs a \u003cstrong\u003erolled cuff\u003c\/strong\u003e edged with a band of small beaded circles, and across the instep a \u003cstrong\u003ecord is tied in a bow with two hanging tassels\u003c\/strong\u003e, each tassel modelled separately and standing clear of the surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe glaze is a \u003cstrong\u003esoft satin medium blue\u003c\/strong\u003e — matte rather than glossy, even and quiet, without a shine on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe base is \u003cstrong\u003eunglazed, flat and dry\u003c\/strong\u003e, and it carries a \u003cstrong\u003ehand-written inscription\u003c\/strong\u003e: a name and a year, \u003cstrong\u003eFrom Otto — 1935\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis piece tells you its own date, which is rare, and worth leading with.\u003c\/strong\u003e The inscription is on the underside, written by hand onto the porous unglazed clay rather than printed or stamped, and it gives both a giver and a year. That is not decoration. That is somebody recording the occasion on the object itself, the way people wrote in the front of a bible or the back of a photograph.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1935 is a pointed year for a baby's shoe to be turned into an ornament, because the idea was brand new.\u003c\/strong\u003e In the early 1930s a woman named \u003cstrong\u003eViolet Shinbach\u003c\/strong\u003e saw a pair of bronzed baby shoes while shopping in Cleveland, Ohio. She had her own bronzed, showed them to friends, understood what she was looking at, and in \u003cstrong\u003e1934\u003c\/strong\u003e founded the Bron-Shoe Company to sell the idea. It worked: the company has since bronzed \u003cstrong\u003emore than fourteen million shoes\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSo the keepsake baby shoe was roughly a year old as a commercial idea when this was given.\u003c\/strong\u003e Before that, a first pair of shoes was handed down, worn out or thrown out. After it, a shoe became a thing you kept on a shelf. A pottery bootie does exactly the same work as a bronzed one, at a fraction of the price, and it holds flowers besides — which is why potteries made them by the thousand for the next thirty years, and why 1935 sits at the front of that run rather than in the middle of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe mould was fresh.\u003c\/strong\u003e The beaded band round the cuff is crisp circle by circle, the knit ribs are sharp all the way to the toe, and the two tassels are fully modelled and undercut rather than softened into the body — all of which goes first as a mould is worked, so this came out of one early in its life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is \u003cstrong\u003eno maker's mark, backstamp, impressed number or country-of-origin stamp\u003c\/strong\u003e on the base, and the piece is offered \u003cstrong\u003eunattributed\u003c\/strong\u003e. Dated at \u003cstrong\u003e1935\u003c\/strong\u003e on the inscription itself, supported by the satin glaze and the unmarked base, both of which are consistent with small-pottery production of that period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePottery baby bootie vase — a small figural vase or planter modelled as an infant's knitted boot. Approx. 2½ in high, 3½ in long and 2 in wide.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMoulded ankle boot with a rolled cuff edged in beaded circles, ribbed and pebbled knit texture to the upper, and a tied cord with two fully modelled hanging tassels across the instep; open at the top as a vase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMoulded ceramic in a soft satin blue glaze, matte rather than glossy, with an unglazed base\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNo maker's mark, backstamp or country-of-origin stamp. Hand-written inscription to the unglazed base reading \u003cem\u003eFrom Otto\u003c\/em\u003e over \u003cem\u003e1935\u003c\/em\u003e. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003e1935. Dated on the hand-written inscription carried by the piece itself, supported by the satin glaze and unmarked base.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood, with one noted fault. \u003cstrong\u003eThere is a chip to the rim of the opening at the back\u003c\/strong\u003e, roughly ½ in across, through the glaze and into the body, with bare clay showing; it is stable, with no crack running out of it, and it sits out of sight from the front. Otherwise the piece is sound — no other chips, no cracks, no repairs and no restoration; it stands level, the tassels and cuff are complete and undamaged, the modelling is crisp and the glaze is even with only light shelf wear. The inscription is legible. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn object with a date written on it is a different thing from an object without one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlmost everything on an antique shelf is dated by someone's judgement — by a mark, a method, a glaze, a construction detail. This one was dated by the person who gave it, in pencil, at the time. You are not being asked to take anyone's word for the year. You can turn it over and read it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is also a very good small vase, which is the harder thing to find. The opening is narrow enough to hold three or four short stems upright without a frog, and the proportions suit the flowers that come at the right scale anyway: violets, sweet peas, lily of the valley, grape hyacinth, a single rose head, a sprig of herbs off a windowsill.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmpty, it works as a catch-all. A ring dish by a sink, paper clips on a desk, stamps, a single pen, matches by a candle. The soft blue is an easy colour against white, cream, wood and brass, and the scale means it can sit on a narrow shelf, a windowsill, a bedside table or the corner of a mantel without asking for room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it gives well. A nursery, a christening, a first birthday, a baby shower, a grandparent — it is a ninety-year-old object about the arrival of a child, with somebody's name on the bottom, and it costs less than a bunch of flowers to give.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eThe base is unglazed and porous\u003c\/strong\u003e, so it will mark a polished surface if it stands there wet. Use it with a small glass or vial inside for fresh flowers, or stand it on a felt pad or a coaster.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDo not put it in a dishwasher\u003c\/strong\u003e, and do not soak it — water goes into the unglazed base and into the chipped area and takes a long time to come back out. Wipe it with a barely damp cloth and dry it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHandle it by the body rather than the cuff or the tassels, which are the thinnest and most exposed parts, and set it where it will not get knocked; the existing chip is stable, but a rim that has been broken once is the rim that breaks again.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48044862505065,"sku":"VE-0722","price":48.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_2165.jpg?v=1789190583"},{"product_id":"budweiser-label-belt-buckle-cast-brass-finish-with-anheuser-busch-brewery-list-datable-to-1972-1976-by-the-cities-on-its-face","title":"Budweiser Label Belt Buckle, Cast Brass-Finish with Anheuser-Busch Brewery List — Datable to 1972–1976 by the Cities on Its Face","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA cast metal belt buckle in the form of the Budweiser label, in a warm brass finish with honest darkening in the recesses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe design is the label rendered in relief: the \u003cstrong\u003ebow-tie cartouche\u003c\/strong\u003e at the centre with \u003cstrong\u003eBudweiser\u003c\/strong\u003e in script across it, \u003cstrong\u003eGENUINE\u003c\/strong\u003e running vertically down both sides in beaded panels, and \u003cstrong\u003eAnheuser-Busch\u003c\/strong\u003e with the A-and-eagle device above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBelow it, cast in small capitals, the company’s \u003cstrong\u003ebrewery list\u003c\/strong\u003e: ST. LOUIS MO., NEWARK, LOS ANGELES, TAMPA, HOUSTON, COLUMBUS, JACKSONVILLE, MERRIMACK, WILLIAMSBURG.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe casting is crisp, the lettering is fully legible throughout, and the reverse carries the standard bar and hook.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThat list of cities is a dated document, and it is the reason to own this buckle.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnheuser-Busch opened its breweries in a documented sequence: St. Louis in 1852, Newark in 1951, Los Angeles in 1954, Tampa in 1959, Houston in 1966, Columbus in 1968, Jacksonville in 1969, Merrimack in 1970, and \u003cstrong\u003eWilliamsburg in 1972\u003c\/strong\u003e. The next one, \u003cstrong\u003eFairfield, California, opened in 1976\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis buckle names every brewery through Williamsburg and does not name Fairfield.\u003c\/strong\u003e The die was therefore cut after 1972 and before 1976 — a four-year window, established from the object’s own text with no style judgment involved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt also lands in the exact years the belt buckle was an American obsession.\u003c\/strong\u003e The mid-1970s were the peak of the novelty buckle: breweries, tobacco companies, farm equipment makers, trucking firms and rodeos all issued them, they were collected in the hundreds, and a great many people wore one every day. Budweiser buckles were among the most widely produced of all, which is why the ones that can be dated precisely are the interesting ones.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe buckle is \u003cstrong\u003eoffered unattributed as to manufacturer\u003c\/strong\u003e; a number of firms produced Budweiser buckles in these years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCast metal belt buckle, Budweiser label design\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 3½ in wide by 2½ in high\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDesign\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBudweiser label in relief — bow-tie cartouche with script logo, GENUINE in beaded panels down both sides, Anheuser-Busch with the A-and-eagle device, and the brewery city list below\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrewery List\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eST. LOUIS MO. · NEWARK · LOS ANGELES · TAMPA · HOUSTON · COLUMBUS · JACKSONVILLE · MERRIMACK · WILLIAMSBURG\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e1972–1976\u003c\/strong\u003e, fixed by the brewery list: Williamsburg opened in 1972 and appears; Fairfield opened in 1976 and does not.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eManufacturer not identified. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVery good. The casting is crisp with all lettering and the full brewery list clearly legible. The finish is warm and even with the natural darkening in the recesses that gives the relief its contrast. The bar and hook on the reverse are intact and sound and the buckle functions as intended. No cracks, no bends, no repairs. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is a wearable object that can be dated to four years, which is unusual at any price.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eMost vintage accessories are dated by their look. This one is dated by a list of factories cast into its face, and that is a genuinely satisfying thing to be able to explain — the kind of detail that makes an object worth having rather than merely owning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn a belt it does what a good buckle does: warm metal against dark leather, heavy enough to sit properly, and a design people recognise across a room without it being loud about it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOff the belt it is bar decor with a reason to exist. Stood on a shelf among glassware, propped on a bar cart, framed in a shadow box with other buckles, or simply left in a dish where people pick it up — and they will pick it up, because relief casting invites a hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is also a good gift with a story attached, which is a rarer combination than it should be. Anyone who likes beer, Americana, or the 1970s gets it immediately, and then there is a second layer underneath about how you know the year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not polish it bright.\u003c\/strong\u003e The darkening in the recesses is what makes the relief readable — strip it and the lettering flattens into the background. If it needs cleaning, a dry cloth on the high points only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eKeep it dry. Cast metal in a humid drawer will spot, and spots in the recesses are hard to reach without disturbing the patina you want to keep.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIf you wear it, run it on a belt whose keeper fits the bar properly. A loose bar wears the hook, and the hook is the only part of a buckle that cannot be repaired invisibly.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48047805595753,"sku":"VE-0768","price":77.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/B94A465D-7697-4905-9885-DDAD23C45F55.jpg?v=1789321070"},{"product_id":"taylor-smith-taylor-rooster-coupe-bowl-stylised-cockerel-in-olive-gold-and-rust-marked-oven-proof-and-detergent-safe-chester-west-virginia","title":"Mid-Century Taylor Smith \u0026 Taylor Rooster Coupe Bowl, c. 1960–1981","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA shallow white bowl with a rooster standing in the middle of it, drawn in the flat graphic style of American mid-century kitchenware.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bird is stylised rather than lifelike: a gold body worked over with fine dark hatching and scale patterning, a tail of olive green and yellow plumes swept back, a rust-red comb and wattle, and one dark eye.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe stands on a spray of small flowers — coral pink blossoms, olive leaves and yellow buds curling out to either side.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe body is a warm off-white with a clean unpatterned rim, so the whole design sits in the well and reads from directly above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnderneath, printed in grey inside an oval: OVEN PROOF, TS\u0026amp;T, the pattern name Rooster in script, MADE IN USA, and DETERGENT SAFE.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe script word on that backstamp is the pattern name, and it is the one most people get wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTaylor, Smith \u0026amp; Taylor produced two rooster patterns. The famous one is Reveille, which turns up constantly and is what almost every rooster-decorated TS\u0026amp;T piece gets called. This is not that. The mark reads Rooster, which is a separate catalogued TS\u0026amp;T pattern in its own right — documented as a green, yellow and brown cockerel in the centre, exactly as here. Naming it correctly is the difference between a piece someone can find and a piece filed under the wrong name forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe firm behind it was a serious American pottery. Taylor, Smith \u0026amp; Taylor ran at Chester, West Virginia from 1900 to 1981. It began as Taylor, Lee \u0026amp; Smith under five owners — Colonel John N. Taylor, C. A. Smith, Joseph G. Lee, Albert G. Mason and William L. Smith — and took its lasting name after Lee left early. Through the middle of the century it worked with designers including J. Palin Thorley and the industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague, and it produced Lu-Ray Pastels, one of the most collected American dinnerware lines ever made.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnchor Hocking bought the company in 1972. Production continued under that ownership until the plant closed in 1981, and the works were demolished in 2012. Nothing carrying this mark can postdate 1981.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe two claims printed around the edge of the mark are the other piece of history, and they are easy to read past. OVEN PROOF and DETERGENT SAFE are not decoration; they are sales arguments aimed at a specific moment. The automatic dishwasher went from a novelty to a fixture in American kitchens across the 1950s and 1960s, and machine detergent was far harsher than anything a sink had ever done to a plate. Decorated dinnerware started failing in the new machines, and potteries had to put the promise on the back of the ware in order to keep selling it. A plate that advertises its own dishwasher survival is a plate made for a kitchen that had just acquired one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDated on the maker's operating dates and the marking: c. 1960–1981, with the closure of the pottery as a hard ceiling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCoupe bowl in glazed earthenware\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 8 in across by 1¾ in deep\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePattern\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRooster — a stylised cockerel in gold, olive green, yellow and rust standing on a spray of coral blossom and olive foliage, centred in the well\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrinted to the underside in an oval: OVEN PROOF · TS\u0026amp;T · Rooster · MADE IN USA · DETERGENT SAFE\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTaylor, Smith \u0026amp; Taylor Company, Chester, West Virginia\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1960–1981. TS\u0026amp;T operated from 1900, was bought by Anchor Hocking in 1972, and closed in 1981; nothing with this mark can be later.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVery good. No chips, no cracks, no crazing and no repairs. The bowl sits flat and true, the rim is smooth all the way round, and the printed decoration is crisp and unfaded with the colours strong. The backstamp is complete and fully legible. There is a small pale fleck in the well toward the lower left. The glaze is bright with only the light surface marking expected of a piece that saw use. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rooster is the oldest device in American kitchen decoration, and this is a good one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is not a farmhouse cliche drawn soft and sentimental. This bird is graphic — hatched, scaled, patterned, closer to a woodcut than a painting — which is why it still looks deliberate on a modern shelf rather than merely nostalgic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe palette is the useful part. Olive, mustard gold, rust and coral on off-white is a warm, slightly dusty range that sits happily with wood, brass, unbleached linen and painted cabinetry, and it does not fight a room the way a bright pattern does.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA single bowl is more versatile than a set. Stood on a plate rail or an easel it is a piece of graphic art; laid flat it takes keys and change on a hall table, fruit on a counter, or garlic and onions beside a stove. One good object does more than eight matching ones.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt also carries a real American maker. Taylor, Smith \u0026amp; Taylor ran in Chester, West Virginia for eighty-one years, employed designers of genuine standing, and no longer exists — the buildings came down in 2012. That is a closed story, and every surviving piece is finite.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd it is a good gift for anyone who keeps a rooster kitchen, collects American dinnerware, or has a West Virginia or Ohio Valley connection. The pottery towns along that stretch of river made a great deal of what American families ate off for a century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA note on use. The maker marked this bowl oven proof and detergent safe and meant it, and the decoration sits under a hard glaze rather than on top of it. It is a sturdy piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat said, hand wash it. Sixty years of dishwasher cycles is not what the promise was underwriting, and modern machine detergents are more aggressive than the ones it was tested against. Warm water and a soft cloth will keep the colours as strong as they are now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor food use, treat it as occasional rather than daily. American dinnerware of this period predates modern lead-in-glaze standards and carries no certification to them, so for everyday eating a modern piece is the better choice and this one is better on a shelf, holding dry things, or serving now and then.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAvoid thermal shock and avoid the microwave. Do not move it from a cold shelf into a hot oven, and do not cut directly in it — a knife will leave grey metal marks in any glaze this age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48061043769449,"sku":"VE-1610","price":43.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_4166_a4097e4e-de9f-446b-828e-7b0fd64851ea.jpg?v=1789447318"},{"product_id":"andrew-wyeth-burning-off-1962-four-seasons-folio-lithograph-framed","title":"Vintage Andrew Wyeth Burning Off Framed Folio Lithograph, c. 1962","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA dark barn interior, and one bright rectangle of open doorway looking out onto a field.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe right half of the sheet is the inside of the building — rough board and plaster, deep green-black, with a horse collar and long leather traces hanging from a peg. The left half is the opening: pale sky, a low band of scrub and grass, and a haze lying over the field. That haze is the title. Burning off is what you do to a field before you work it, and Wyeth painted the moment from inside the barn looking out at it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe tonal range is the point. Almost the entire composition is a narrow band of grey-green and near-black, and then one hard-edged panel of light. It is a picture about a doorway, and about standing in the dark looking at the day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is a colour offset lithograph of the original drybrush watercolour, printed on heavy textured wove paper. The caption is printed on the sheet beneath the image: BURNING OFF, DRY BRUSH, 23 × 29″, 1961. COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. NORMAN WOOLWORTH.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWyeth's signature appears at the lower right of the image. It is reproduced from the original painting as part of the printed image, not signed by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe sheet is framed with its own wide printed margin serving as the mat, behind glass, in a stained wood moulding with a black inner band and a gilt fillet at the sight edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe caption line is what identifies this sheet, and it identifies it precisely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003ePrinting the original's medium, its dimensions, its year and the name of the family who then owned it is not how a poster is captioned. It is how a portfolio plate is captioned. This sheet comes from The Four Seasons: Paintings and Drawings by Andrew Wyeth, published by Art in America Company, Inc., New York, in 1962, with a text by Lloyd Goodrich, then director of the Whitney Museum of American Art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe folio ran to twelve plates, and the selection was made by the Wyeths themselves. Andrew and Betsy chose the works from their own house and studio at Chadds Ford and from the collections of friends, arranged around the cycle of the seasons. Burning Off is one of the twelve. Its companions are Canvasbacks, New Leaves, Early October, May Day, Quaker Ladies, Spring Sun, Storing Up, Brinton's Mill, Teel's Island, The Corner and The Berry Picker.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe publication date fixes this sheet at 1962. The painting behind it is dated 1961, which is the year printed in the caption and the year of the drybrush, not of the print.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDrybrush is the technique Wyeth is most closely identified with, and the one that makes him difficult to reproduce. He squeezed nearly all the water out of the brush and dragged what remained across the paper, laying down fine separated strokes rather than a wash. The result is dense, granular and built up in layers. It is slow work, and it is why his darks read as texture instead of flatness — visible here in the barn wall and in the boards behind the harness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn what this is, stated plainly: it is a reproduction, not an original and not a hand-pulled artist's print. Under magnification the image breaks into a regular halftone dot screen across its whole area, which is the signature of photomechanical offset printing. The margin carries no pencil signature and no edition number. The Four Seasons was also issued in a signed, numbered limited edition; this sheet is from the trade folio.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThat is the honest description, and it is also the reason a Wyeth of this quality is available at this price at all. The originals are in museums. This is the sheet the folio was made to put on a wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFramed colour offset lithograph after Andrew Wyeth, plate from The Four Seasons folio\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBurning Off\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAfter\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAndrew Wyeth (American, 1917–2009)\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOriginal Work\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDrybrush watercolour, 23 × 29 in, 1961, captioned as the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Woolworth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eArt in America Company, Inc., New York, 1962; folio text by Lloyd Goodrich\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1962, on the publication. The sheet was issued in The Four Seasons folio by Art in America Company, Inc. of New York in 1962, and the drybrush it reproduces is dated 1961 in the printed caption. The two dates are different things and the caption states both.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSheet approximately 13 in wide by 17 in tall; framed approximately 16 in wide by 20½ in tall\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMedium\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eColour offset lithograph on heavy textured wove paper\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eInscriptions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle, medium, size, date and collection printed beneath the image. Signature reproduced within the image. No pencil signature and no edition number in the margin.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFrame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStained wood moulding with a black inner band and a gilt fillet at the sight edge, glazed, with the printed sheet margin serving as the mat\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHanging\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTwisted cord between two screw eyes, ready to hang\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGood and display-ready. The printed image is clean and strong, with the darks intact and no fading, abrasion or foxing in the image area. The sheet shows light overall toning consistent with sixty years, and a few small scattered flecks in the margin. The gilt fillet is rubbed to the bole along the lower edge and at the corners, and the stained moulding carries general wear. The kraft paper dust cover on the reverse is torn along the top edge and at the corners, with an area of surface loss at the centre where something was removed. The cord and both screw eyes are present and secure. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis picture does something most wall art cannot: it holds a room at low light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBecause the composition is nearly all dark with one panel of pale sky, it does not compete for attention in daylight and it does not disappear at night. The bright rectangle carries across a room. Hang it where a lamp rakes it rather than where the sun hits it and it reads all evening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe palette is the easiest one there is to live with. Green-black, grey, bone and a single warm note in the field, in a stained frame with a worn gilt edge. It sits with wood, leather, iron, unpainted plaster and other dark frames without needing anything from them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe subject is American and specific without being sentimental. A horse collar on a peg, a doorway, a field being burned off. It belongs in a study, a hallway, a stair wall, above a chest in a bedroom, or in a mudroom or entry where the tones of the room are already earth and iron.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAt roughly sixteen by twenty inches it is a single-hang picture rather than a gallery-wall piece. It has enough presence to be the only thing on a narrow wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd the folio sheets are the sane way into Wyeth. The paintings themselves changed hands at prices that put them permanently out of reach, and the 1962 Art in America folio was produced specifically so that the work could be seen properly on paper at a reasonable size. Sixty-plus years on, the plates are increasingly framed and hung on their own, which is what has happened here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. Keep it out of direct sun, which will pale the sheet before it touches the image. Wipe the glass with the cloth, never the spray, so nothing runs under the fillet and reaches the paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eLeave the torn dust cover alone unless you are having the frame opened for other reasons. It is doing no harm, and a framer can lay in a fresh sheet in a few minutes if you want the back tidy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIf you ever have it reframed, ask for archival mounting and UV glazing. The sheet is sixty years old, printed on good paper, and it will outlast all of us if it is kept dry and out of the light.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48061172285545,"sku":"VE-1617","price":227.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/66AA2746-AFDA-43D4-90CF-A877F66CD586.jpg?v=1789456528"},{"product_id":"vintage-brass-candlestick-lamp-laurel-tole-shade-c-1965-1985","title":"Vintage Brass Candlestick Lamp with Laurel Tole Shade, c. 1965–1985","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA polished brass candlestick carrying a brown tole shade painted with white laurel swags, each one tied off with a bow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe decoration is the reason to look twice. Around the shade run three swags of laurel — fine paired leaves on a curving stem — each hung from a small tied bow, with a single dot punctuating the gaps between them. Two white lines circle the lower edge. It is drawn with a loaded brush, and the white sits slightly proud of the brown with a stippled edge where the paint has caught.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAbove the shade sits a pierced brass gallery: a band of interlaced strapwork cut right through, so that with the lamp lit the top of the shade throws a ring of small bright shapes onto the ceiling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe base is a turned brass candlestick — a tapering stem with a collar at its waist, rising from a domed and stepped foot, and finishing in a wide drip-pan seat at the top.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOut of that seat rises a cream candle sleeve, and through it runs the socket, operated by a cast brass turn-key shaped like an old escutcheon key with a scrolled bow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe cord is brown and exits at the base.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTake the shade first, because with a brown shade of this shape there are three possibilities and only one of them is worth paying for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is not glass and it is not plastic. It is painted sheet metal — tole — and the rim proves it. Look along the lower edge and the metal is rolled over on itself into a wired hem, and at one point there is a lapped seam where the cone was closed. The body is completely opaque: with the bulb lit, light escapes at the top and the bottom and nowhere through the shade at all. Inside, the reflective coat has been laid on by brush, and the strokes are still visible across it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTole is the old French term for painted tinware, and painted metal shades belong to a specific tradition: the bouillotte and candle lamps of the eighteenth century used them because metal survives a naked flame and a paper or silk shade does not. The form carried over into electricity because the light it throws is better — an opaque shade sends everything down onto the table instead of glowing at you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe vocabulary here is Federal and the accent is American. Laurel swags caught up with ribbon bows, a pierced strapwork gallery, a turned brass candlestick on a stepped foot: this is the colonial-revival decorating idiom that ran through American brass and lighting for decades, driven by the Colonial Williamsburg reproduction programme and the makers who supplied that trade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe one mark on the lamp dates it. The underside of the shade carries its original Underwriters Laboratories label, intact and fully legible: UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES INC, LISTED, PORTABLE LAMP, ISSUE J-7228, E-20773. It is the yellow oval adhesive format with a registered-trademark symbol, which is the later of UL’s two long-running lamp-label styles — the printed paper band wrapped around the socket came first. On that evidence, with the colonial-revival design and the brass-and-tole construction, it is offered as c. 1965–1985.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNothing on the visible surfaces names a maker. That is ordinary in this trade, where brass founders, shade painters and lamp assemblers were three different businesses and the finished lamp went out under a retailer’s name or none at all. It is offered unattributed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrass candlestick table lamp with a painted tole shade\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eShade\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrown painted sheet metal, hand-decorated with white laurel swags and tied bows and two line borders, with a pierced brass strapwork gallery to the top\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTurned brass candlestick with a collared stem on a domed and stepped foot, with a wide drip-pan seat\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFittings\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCream candle sleeve over the socket; cast brass turn-key in the form of an escutcheon key with a scrolled bow; brown cord\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 18 in tall overall; shade approximately 12 in across the bottom; foot approximately 5 in across\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOriginal Underwriters Laboratories label to the underside of the shade: LISTED, PORTABLE LAMP, ISSUE J-7228, E-20773. No maker’s name on any visible surface. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1965–1985, on the UL label and the construction. The yellow oval adhesive UL Listed label with a registered-trademark symbol is the later of the two long-running lamp-label formats, following the printed paper band wrapped around the socket. The colonial-revival design and the brass-and-tole build place it in that trade.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWorking and display-ready; photographed lit. The tole shade is sound with no dents, splits or rust, and the painted decoration is crisp and unfaded with the white still bright. There is scattered fine scratching across the brown ground, most of it shallow and visible only in raking light, and one raised patch of grey residue adhering to the shade where something was stuck on and pulled away. The white line at the lower rim has small losses along its length. The pierced gallery is complete and firm, with slight waviness to its upper edge and a visible join. The brass is bright with good colour and only light handling marks. The socket works and the key turns. Sold as a period lamp on its original cord: have it checked or rewired by an electrician before putting it into regular use. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is the most useful kind of lamp there is: one that lights a surface instead of a room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBecause the shade is opaque metal rather than paper or silk, everything goes downward. On a desk, a hall table, a bedside or a sideboard you get a bright pool where you need it and no glare at eye level. That is why the form exists, and it is why a metal shade beats a fabric one anywhere you actually do something.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe pierced gallery is the other half of it. All the light that would otherwise be wasted out of the top escapes through the cut strapwork instead, so a dark ceiling above the lamp fills with a ring of small bright marks. Turn it on in a dim room and it draws the eye immediately.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe colours are as easy as colours get. Warm brown, polished brass, and one clean white line of decoration. It sits with mahogany, walnut, leather, old books, brass and tortoiseshell without a moment’s argument, and against a dark painted wall it reads beautifully.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe scale is right for the places lamps are actually needed. At around eighteen inches it will not dominate a hall console or crowd a nightstand, and it is tall enough to be useful over a desk.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd the hand-painting is genuinely good. Laurel swags drawn with a loaded brush, each leaf a separate touch, each bow tied a little differently from the last. That is a person at a bench, and at close range it separates this from the moulded and printed shades sold beside it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on use. Have the wiring checked before regular service. The lamp lights, but the cord is of its own age, and a lamp shop will fit a new one for very little.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFit a bulb of 60 watts or less, or an LED. A metal shade traps heat above the bulb far more than a fabric one, and heat is what lifts and blisters painted decoration from the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eClean the tole with a barely damp cloth and dry it at once, and never use an abrasive or a solvent on the painted surface. The white decoration is paint on a painted ground and it will come away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eLeave the brass alone unless you want it brighter. It is bright and even as it stands; polish removes lacquer as well as tarnish, and once the lacquer is gone the brass will need polishing again every few months for the rest of its life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48061376561257,"sku":"VE-1620","price":350.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/2E7C461F-CA29-4DD0-A772-3877F3DAD7D0.jpg?v=1789459567"},{"product_id":"electric-brass-hurricane-lamp-oil-lamp-form-c-1985-2005","title":"Electric Brass Hurricane Lamp in Oil-Lamp Form, c. 1985–2005","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA brass lamp built in the shape of a Victorian kerosene lamp, wired for electricity and fitted with a clear glass chimney.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe form follows the original closely. A rounded brass font swells out above a ribbed shoulder and narrows into a waisted stem, which drops onto a domed and stepped foot with two turned rings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAbove the font sits the collar, and it is the best-made part of the lamp: a double band of pierced brass, the lower course cut in narrow slots and the upper in tall openings between a row of applied discs, with milled beading top and bottom. A knurled thumbwheel projects from the side on a short stem, in the position an oil lamp’s wick-raiser would occupy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe chimney is clear glass, waisted above the collar and flaring open at the top like a tulip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe brass is warm and bright over most of its surface, with darker spotting through the lacquer across the font and the foot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eUnderneath, the base is spun metal with a recessed centre, and it carries three labels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe honest identification first, because with a lamp shaped like this it is the only question that matters: this is a reproduction made as an electric lamp. It is not an antique oil lamp that somebody later converted, and it is not represented as one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFour separate things on the object say so, and they agree.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe underside of the base carries its factory Underwriters Laboratories listing label — UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES, PORTABLE LAMP, ISSUE NO. J-2540 — with a second sticker reading E-71054. A lamp listed by UL as a portable lamp was submitted, tested and labelled as an electric appliance by its manufacturer. A converted oil lamp does not acquire one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBeside it is the manufacturer’s printed instruction sheet, headed IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS, and its subject is the plug: this portable lamp is equipped with a polarized attachment plug, a plug having one blade wider than the other, and it warns against defeating that feature. That sheet was pasted on at the factory, to a new product, as part of the instructions that accompany it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe plug itself matches. It is a moulded brown Leviton attachment plug with one blade visibly wider than the other — polarized, and the modern standard. American lamps ran on unpolarized plugs, both blades alike, for most of the twentieth century; polarized plugs replaced them through the later part of it. A lamp that carries a polarized plug and the printed explanation of what a polarized plug is was built after that changeover, not before it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd the base agrees with the paperwork. It is light spun metal with an open recessed underside, not the heavy weighted foot of a kerosene lamp, which had to resist a tall glass chimney and a reservoir of fuel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1985–2005: a reproduction hurricane lamp in the Victorian oil-lamp taste, made and sold as an electric lamp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat it reproduces is worth knowing, because the form is not arbitrary. The kerosene lamp of the later nineteenth century had a font to hold fuel, a burner collar with a wick-raiser at its side, a perforated gallery to feed air to the flame, and a glass chimney to draw that air upward and keep the flame steady and smokeless. Every one of those elements survives here as shape rather than function — the pierced gallery, the thumbwheel where the wick key went, the chimney — which is why the lamp reads correctly even though nothing burns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThere is lettering stamped on the inner sleeve of the collar, showing through the air slots, but only fragments of it can be read at this angle and it is not legible enough to name a maker. The lamp is offered unattributed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eElectric brass hurricane lamp in the form of a Victorian kerosene lamp, with a glass chimney\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRounded brass font on a waisted stem and a domed, stepped and ring-turned foot; double pierced brass collar with milled beading and an applied disc course; knurled thumbwheel to the side in the wick-raiser position\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eChimney\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eClear glass, waisted at the collar and flaring open at the top\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 16½ in tall overall; foot approximately 5½ in across; chimney approximately 6 in tall\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWiring\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMoulded brown Leviton polarized attachment plug, one blade wider than the other; cord exits at the base\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTo the underside of the base: Underwriters Laboratories PORTABLE LAMP label, ISSUE NO. J-2540; a separate sticker reading E-71054; and the manufacturer’s printed IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS instruction sheet concerning the polarized plug. Partial lettering stamped on the inner sleeve of the collar, not legible enough to identify. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1985–2005, on the wiring and the labels. The plug is polarized and the base carries the manufacturer’s printed instruction explaining that polarized plug — both of which place the lamp after polarized plugs replaced unpolarized ones on American lamps. The factory UL Portable Lamp listing label shows it was built and listed as an electric lamp rather than converted from an oil lamp.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWorking and complete; photographed lit. The brass is structurally sound throughout with no dents, splits or losses, and the pierced collar is crisp and undamaged with its thumbwheel present. The lacquered brass carries scattered dark spotting and tarnish blooming through the finish, heaviest across the font and the lower foot, with a few small green specks around the collar and light scratching overall. The glass chimney is intact with no chips or cracks; it shows fine surface scratching and a little lint and dust caught inside. The base labels are yellowed but complete and legible. The cord and the polarized plug are sound and modern. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis one earns its place on what it does at night, and it is worth being clear about why it is priced where it is: it is a reproduction, so you get the silhouette of a nineteenth-century lamp without the price, the fragility or the fuel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe light is the point. A bare bulb inside a clear glass chimney throws light in every direction and upward, which is the opposite of a shaded lamp. In a dim room it reads as a flame rather than a fixture, and the pierced collar underneath breaks the lower light into a ring of small bright slots.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003ePut a warm low-wattage bulb in it — better still, a filament-style LED — and the illusion closes completely. The chimney was designed to be looked through at a flame, and it does the same work for a glowing filament.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eBrass and clear glass are as neutral as materials get. It sits with wood, leather, pewter, stoneware and painted furniture, and it belongs in the rooms where people actually want this look: a cabin, a study, a farmhouse kitchen counter, a guest room nightstand, a bookshelf, a shop counter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is also an easy object to own. Nothing to fill, no wick to trim, no soot on the chimney and no open flame in a house with a dog or a child in it. That is the whole argument for the electric version and it is a good one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd the brass is ready to go either way. Left as it is, the spotting and bloom read as age and the lamp looks lived-with. Polished back, it will come up bright and hard and look like new brass. Both are legitimate; the choice is yours, and it is reversible in only one direction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care. Do not put a high-wattage bulb in it. The chimney is a closed glass tube around the bulb and it traps heat far more than an open shade; 40 watts or an LED equivalent is plenty and is kinder to the glass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eLift the chimney out to clean it and wash it separately in warm soapy water. Do not clean it in place — the collar will not thank you for the leverage, and a wet chimney set back onto a warm lamp can crack.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIf you polish the brass, take the chimney off first and keep polish away from the pierced collar, where it packs into the slots and dries white.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd once you polish it, it is polished for good. The lacquer comes off with the tarnish, and bare brass will need doing again every few months from then on.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48061399138409,"sku":"VE-1621","price":105.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/D2E9CA5B-350C-411F-A14B-8EFFD9AC570C.jpg?v=1789460564"},{"product_id":"vintage-hexagonal-slatted-wood-basket-rope-beckets-c-1920-1955","title":"Vintage Hexagonal Slatted Wood Basket with Rope Beckets, c. 1920–1955","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA small six-sided basket built out of thin wooden laths, silvered grey by weather, with twisted rope loops at the rim.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe walls are courses of flat sawn laths laid horizontally with an open gap between each one, five deep, carried on a vertical post at every one of the six corners. Nothing is glued and nothing is woven — every joint is pinned with a small U-shaped wire staple driven across the lath into the post beneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe floor is a separate lattice of laths running edge to edge, and under it, across the outside, run two heavier battens that stand the basket clear of whatever it is set on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe rim is where the work shows. Driven into the top course at intervals are wire rings, each one bent by hand from a single length of wire — a loop turned over and both tails driven down into the wood, one of them folded flat against the surface. Through several of them are tied lengths of twisted natural-fibre twine, pale tan, frayed open at the ends.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe outside is bleached to a hard silver-grey with the grain standing proud; the inside is browner and softer in colour, and the laths there are darker and less eroded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eEverything about the way this is put together says working gear rather than housewares, and the fastenings are the reason.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThere is no joinery in it at all — no nails, no screws, no glue, no weaving. Every lath is held by a wire staple driven across it. That is how cheap, repairable, expendable equipment gets built: fast to make, fast to mend, and no great loss when the sea takes one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe rim rings are the same argument made more plainly. They are not screw eyes out of a hardware drawer. Each is bent from a single piece of wire, looped, and driven home by hand, and they sit at irregular intervals rather than a measured pattern. Somebody made them at a bench, on the spot, for this basket.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat is tied through them is a becket — a rope loop fitted to an object so it can be carried, hung, lashed down or hauled. Beckets are marine fittings, and they are what turn a box into gear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSlatted hexagonal containers of this construction belong to fishing and shellfish work, where an open lath basket does a job a solid one cannot: water and grit run straight out of it, it dries instead of souring, and it can be dunked, drained and stacked wet. What this particular basket held is not recorded on it, and it is not large enough to be a lobster pot, so it is offered as what it can be shown to be rather than given a job it cannot prove.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe cordage is what dates it. The twine is natural fibre — it is fuzzy along its length where individual fibres have broken and lifted, it frays open into a soft brush at the ends, and its twist is uneven. Synthetic rope does none of that; it stays slick, holds its lay, and melts rather than fuzzes. Natural-fibre line was displaced from working fishing gear by nylon and polypropylene through the 1950s and 1960s, and gear still rigged with hemp or sisal was rigged before that change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe staple-and-lath construction sets the other end: wire staples in this use belong to the machine age rather than before it. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1920–1955, unattributed. There is no stamp, brand, paint, label or name anywhere on it; a port mark or a burned-in initial would narrow it, and there is none.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSmall hexagonal slatted wooden basket with rope beckets\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSix courses of flat sawn laths on six vertical corner posts, every joint pinned with a U-shaped wire staple; separate lath floor lattice with two heavier battens beneath as runners\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFittings\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-bent wire rings driven into the top course at intervals, with lengths of twisted natural-fibre twine tied through several of them\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 8 in across the flats and 5 in tall, excluding the rope\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTimber\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSoftwood laths, bleached hard silver-grey outside with the grain raised; browner and less eroded inside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone. No stamp, brand, paint, label or name anywhere on the basket. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1920–1955, on the cordage and the fastenings. The twine is natural fibre — fuzzed along its length, frayed soft at the ends, unevenly twisted — and natural-fibre line was displaced from working fishing gear by nylon and polypropylene through the 1950s and 1960s, so gear still rigged with it was rigged before that change. The staple-fastened lath construction sets the earlier end.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound as a display object, with the honest wear of something that lived outdoors. The hexagonal form holds and the basket stands square on its runners. All six corner posts are present, the floor lattice is complete, and the wire staples are in place throughout with only surface rust. The wood is heavily weathered: silvered and fibrous on the outer faces, with raised grain, softened edges, small splits along a few lath ends and one short split in the rim. Several laths flex if pressed. The hand-bent wire rings are all present; the twine is frayed, broken at some ends and does not form a continuous handle. Not to be loaded or carried by the rope. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is a texture object, and there is almost nothing that does what it does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSilvered, fibrous, open-slatted wood catches light along every edge and throws a grid of small shadows through itself. On a shelf of smooth ceramics and polished wood it is the thing your eye stops on, and it costs a fraction of what a piece of sculpture would to do the same job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe hexagon is the other half of it. Round baskets and square boxes are everywhere; a six-sided one reads as deliberate and slightly odd, and it looks different from every side as you walk past it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is a genuinely useful shape too. At eight inches across it takes keys and post in an entry, garlic and shallots on a counter, seed packets and twine on a potting bench, remotes on a coffee table, or a small potted plant dropped in inside its own cachepot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe palette could not be easier. Grey, silver and pale tan, with a little rust. It works against white plaster, painted board, dark walls, brick and stone, and it belongs with linen, stoneware, iron and old wood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd it carries a real story without shouting about it. Hand-bent wire rings, rope beckets, staple-pinned laths, bleached by years of weather: this is equipment, not decoration, and the difference is visible from across a room. In a coastal house, a cabin, a workshop or a kitchen it earns its place by being the only honest thing on the shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and the first point is the important one. Do not carry it by the rope. The twine is old, frayed and broken in places, and it is there as evidence rather than as a handle. Lift it with both hands underneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDo not wash it and do not oil it. Weathered wood of this kind takes up water and stays damp inside the laths, and oil will turn the silver grey to a blotchy brown and take the whole character out of it. Dust it with a dry brush.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eKeep it indoors and dry. It has already had its outdoor life; another wet winter would start taking laths off it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIf you use it to hold a plant, set the pot in a saucer or a liner first. Standing water in the floor lattice is the one thing that would undo it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48061411033193,"sku":"VE-1622","price":192.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/7FCE26AC-763D-4939-BDB8-08BB553EDF92.jpg?v=1789460612"},{"product_id":"vintage-slatted-wood-crate-basket-rope-beckets-c-1920-1955","title":"Vintage Slatted Wood Crate Basket with Rope Beckets, c. 1920–1955","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA small open crate built of thin wooden laths on four corner posts, bleached silver by weather, with twisted rope loops at every corner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eEach side is four courses of flat sawn lath laid horizontally with an open gap between them, the ends butting against a square corner post that runs the full height. The posts carry on below the bottom course and stand the crate up off the surface on four short feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe floor is a separate set of laths laid across the width with gaps between, so the whole box is open from every direction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe fastenings are all the same: small U-shaped wire staples, driven by hand across each lath into the post behind it. There is no nail, screw, glue or joint anywhere in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAt all four corners, a wire staple is driven over the top rail, and through each one is tied a length of twisted natural-fibre twine — pale tan, fuzzed along its length and frayed open at the ends.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe outer faces are silver-grey and fibrous with the grain standing proud. Inside, the laths are warmer and browner, with rust staining bled out around several of the staples and an ochre residue across part of the floor. One floor lath carries a faint, regular diamond crosshatch on its surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis crate and the hexagonal basket listed alongside it are built by the same method, and it is worth saying so plainly: laths pinned with hand-driven wire staples onto corner posts, no joinery at all, and rope beckets tied through staples at the corners. They are of a piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThat method is the signature of expendable working gear rather than housewares. It is fast to build, fast to mend, and cheap enough to lose. A cabinetmaker joins a box; a man who needs forty of them by Friday staples laths to posts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe open build is deliberate and it is the reason the form exists. Water and grit fall straight through a slatted crate, the contents dry instead of souring, and it can be dunked, drained and stacked wet. Containers like this did the wet, dirty work of shellfish, produce and market handling, where a solid box would have held the mess in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe rope loops are beckets — rope fitted to an object so it can be carried, hung, lashed or hauled. Tied through a staple at each of four corners, they let the crate be slung, roped down or lifted by two people. That is a rigging detail, not a decorative one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe cordage dates it, and it dates it the same way as its companion. The twine is natural fibre: fuzzy along its length where individual fibres have lifted, frayed soft at the ends, and unevenly twisted. Synthetic rope stays slick, holds its lay and melts rather than fuzzes. Nylon and polypropylene displaced natural line from working gear through the 1950s and 1960s, so gear still rigged with hemp or sisal was rigged before that change. The staple-and-lath construction sets the earlier end, wire staples in this use belonging to the machine age rather than before it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1920–1955, unattributed. There is no stamp, brand, paint, label or name anywhere on it. What it carried is not recorded, so it is described as what it is rather than assigned a job it cannot prove.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOne detail is worth stating without an explanation attached. A single floor lath carries a faint diamond crosshatch across its face, fine and regular and evenly spaced rather than drawn by hand, alongside a pale ochre residue. It is machine-uniform, but what left it is not something the crate can tell you, and no guess is offered here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSmall open slatted wooden crate with rope beckets\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFour courses of flat sawn lath per side on four square corner posts, every lath pinned with a hand-driven U-shaped wire staple; separate lath floor; corner posts extended below as feet\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFittings\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eA wire staple driven over the top rail at each of the four corners, with twisted natural-fibre twine tied through each one\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 9 in long by 7 in wide by 4½ in tall, excluding the rope\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTimber\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSoftwood laths, bleached silver-grey outside with the grain raised; warmer and browner inside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone. No stamp, brand, paint, label or name anywhere. A faint regular diamond crosshatch and an ochre residue on one floor lath, origin unknown. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1920–1955, on the cordage and the fastenings. The twine is natural fibre — fuzzed along its length, frayed soft at the ends, unevenly twisted — and natural-fibre line was displaced from working gear by nylon and polypropylene through the 1950s and 1960s. The staple-fastened lath construction sets the earlier end.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound as a display object, with the honest wear of something that lived outdoors. The crate stands square and firm on all four feet and holds its shape under its own weight. All four corner posts are present, the floor is complete, and the staples are in place throughout with surface rust and rust bleed into the wood around several of them. The wood is heavily weathered: silvered and fibrous outside, with raised grain, softened edges and short splits at a few lath ends. The twine is present at all four corners but frayed, broken at some ends, and does not form a continuous carrying loop. Not to be loaded or lifted by the rope. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAn open slatted box does something a solid one cannot: it shows you what is in it and throws a grid of shadow while doing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eSilvered, fibrous, gap-built wood catches light along every lath edge. Set it on a shelf of smooth ceramics and painted wood and it is the thing the eye stops on, and it does that work for a fraction of what a piece of sculpture costs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe proportions are the useful part. At nine by seven it is the size of a deep letter tray, which puts it in play almost anywhere: post and keys in an entry, onions and garlic on a counter, seed packets and labels on a potting bench, soap and flannels in a bathroom, remotes on a low table, or a row of small pots dropped in on their own saucers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt stacks visually with other things and argues with none of them. Silver-grey, pale tan and rust, against linen, stoneware, zinc, iron, brick and old wood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd it reads as equipment rather than decoration from across a room, which is the whole difference. Hand-driven staples, rope beckets at four corners, posts worn to feet, bleached by years of weather. Nothing about it was designed to be charming, which is exactly why it is.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt also pairs. The hexagonal basket listed alongside it is built the same way, by the same method, and the two shown together make an obvious and well-priced group for a shelf, a shop display or a photograph.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and the first point matters. Do not carry it by the rope. The twine is old, frayed and broken in places, and it is there as evidence rather than as a handle. Lift it from underneath with both hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDo not wash it and do not oil it. Weathered wood takes up water and holds it inside the laths, and oil will turn the silver grey to blotchy brown and take the whole character out of it. Dust it with a dry brush.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eKeep it indoors and dry. It has already had its outdoor life, and another wet winter would start working the staples loose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIf you set anything damp in it, put a liner or a saucer underneath. The rust bleed around the staples shows exactly what standing moisture does to this piece.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48061568188521,"sku":"VE-1624","price":164.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/728865E6-057D-4725-8119-D2DB7BFF3A58_4_5005_c.jpg?v=1789467433"},{"product_id":"antique-nine-piece-carving-tool-set-hand-shaped-handles-c-1900-1940","title":"Antique Nine-Piece Carving Tool Set, Hand-Shaped Handles, c. 1900–1940","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNine carving tools with red-dyed wooden handles, each shaped by hand, each ground to a different cutting profile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eLook at the handles closely and the first thing that shows is that they are not round. Flat planes run down the length of each one with soft ridges between them, and the silhouette carries subtle angles rather than a true curve. That is the surface a spokeshave or a hand-held turning leaves. A copy lathe makes a perfect cylinder every time; none of these is a perfect cylinder, and no two are alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe diameters differ. The ends differ — some cut flat, some slightly domed, each finished by hand rather than parted off to a stop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe colour is dye, not paint. It has gone straight into raw timber with no film over it at all: the end grain has drunk it darker than the sides, the open pores of the wood still stand proud of the surface, and there is no lacquer, no varnish and no build anywhere — nor anywhere it has worn off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eEach handle finishes in a plain drawn ferrule of white metal, and out of that comes the tang and the blade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe blades are ground from flat stock. In order there is a wide flat chisel, a narrower flat, a true V-parting tool with a crisp angled point, a skew ground to a long diagonal, and a run of smaller gouges and narrow flats down to a fine veiner. Nine profiles, no duplicates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThere is stamped lettering on several of the ferrules and impressed lettering running down at least two of the handles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe handles and the blades are telling two different stories, and separating them is the whole of understanding this set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe blades and ferrules are commercial work. The ferrules are drawn, plain and consistent; the blades are ground from flat bar stock to nine clean, deliberate profiles with no repeats. That is a manufactured graded set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe handles are not. They are hand-shaped — faceted, uneven in diameter, each end finished individually — and they are all dyed the same red. Uniform colour across nine tools with non-uniform shaping means one person, one batch, one bench. Somebody either handled these from the start or re-handled the whole set at one sitting, and dyed them together when the work was done.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe finish points the same way. Penetrating dye into bare wood with no film over it is the finishing practice of small-shop and home work, from a period before sprayed film finishes became the default on everything with a handle. There is no lacquer here to have worn away; there never was any.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat the profiles tell you is what the set was for. A V-parting tool cuts the outline. A skew cleans into corners and slices across grain. Flats of graded width clear the waste. Small gouges and a fine veiner do texture and detail. That is the working kit for relief carving and for cutting blocks — woodblock and linoleum — not for furniture joinery, which wants heavier bench chisels struck with a mallet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe handles agree. Slim, waisted, light, shaped to be held like a pencil and far too light to be hit with anything. These are push tools, driven by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn date, the honest answer is that the handwork carries it and the handwork cannot be dated closely. Hand-shaped handles and penetrating dye on bare wood with no film finish belong to a period when that was ordinary rather than exceptional, and the ground flat-stock blades and plain drawn ferrules are consistent with it. On that evidence the set is offered as c. 1900–1940. It is not a later imported hobby set; the handles rule that out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat would settle it is the lettering. There is stamped text on several ferrules and impressed text down at least two handles, and neither resolves in photographs. A maker’s name or a country of origin on those blades would fix the date properly. Until it is read, no maker is named here and the set is offered unattributed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSet of nine carving and block-cutting tools with hand-shaped handles\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eProfiles\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNine distinct grinds with no duplicates: a wide flat chisel, a narrower flat, a V-parting tool, a skew, and a graded run of small gouges and narrow flats down to a fine veiner\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHandles\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-shaped hardwood, faceted along the length with visible ridges between planes, varying in diameter and end profile; dyed red straight into bare wood with no film finish; plain drawn white-metal ferrules\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBlades\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGround from flat stock, commercial work, graded across the set\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 6 in long for the largest tool down to approximately 4½ in for the smallest\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStamped lettering on several ferrules and impressed lettering down at least two handles. Neither resolves in photographs and no maker or country is identified. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1900–1940, on the handwork. The handles are hand-shaped rather than lathe-turned — faceted, uneven in diameter, individually finished at the ends — and dyed straight into bare timber with no film finish over it, which is small-shop and home practice from before sprayed finishes became standard. The ground flat-stock blades and plain drawn ferrules agree. The stamped lettering on the ferrules would narrow it if it can be read.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eComplete and usable, with honest workshop wear. All nine tools are present, every blade is intact with no snapped tips or bent tangs, and every ferrule is tight on its handle. One handle is chipped at the end, a wedge of wood torn away in fibrous steps along the grain and showing pale bare timber; several other ends carry smaller knocks and scuffing. The dye is worn lighter along the grip zones of most handles, which is where hands have been. The blades show light surface oxidation and the fine scratching of use and previous sharpening. Sold as working tools with workshop-sharpened edges; any carver will want to hone them to their own standard before use. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eComplete sets of nine with no duplicates are far harder to find than the tools themselves, and hand-handled ones are harder again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eCarving sets get broken up. The useful sizes get borrowed, lost or sold singly, and what usually survives is three mismatched gouges in a drawer. This one is whole, and whole is what a carver actually needs — the V-tool to outline, the skew for corners, the flats to clear, the veiner for detail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe handles are what separate it. Somebody sat down and shaped nine handles by hand, fitted them, and dyed them together. You can feel that in the facets, and you can see it in the way no two are quite the same diameter. Factory handles are interchangeable; these were made for these blades by a person.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThey are also the right tools for the work people actually want to do now. Relief carving, spoon and bowl detail, sign lettering, and above all linoleum and woodblock printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd they look extraordinary. Nine red handles stepping down in a row, bright ferrules, blue-grey steel below, against a black bench or a white wall. In a studio, a workshop, a shop window or a photograph they do as much decorative work as practical.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDisplayed on a magnetic strip or a simple rack they read as a collection rather than clutter. Laid in a drawer they take almost no room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on use. Hone before you cut. Old edges are almost never sharp enough for clean work, and a carving tool that is not sharp tears the grain and slips — which is how hands get cut. A slipstone shaped to the gouge profile and a strop will bring these back quickly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNever strike these with a mallet. The handles are light, the tangs are slim, and the set is built for hand pressure only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eDo not sand or refinish the handles. There is no film finish to renew, the dye is in the wood itself, and sanding would take off the facets that make them worth having.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eKeep them dry and lightly oiled. A film of camellia or light machine oil on the steel stops the surface oxidation going further, and store them so the edges touch nothing — loose in a drawer they will nick each other.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48065151631465,"sku":"VE-1628","price":416.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/098F1B38-392E-4A2D-99EB-7CBFD2414406.jpg?v=1789514897"},{"product_id":"antique-stanley-no-965-ratcheting-bit-brace-10-in-c-1910-1935","title":"Antique Stanley No. 965 Ratcheting Bit Brace, 10 in., c. 1910–1935","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA Stanley ratcheting bit brace, stamped on the frame No. 965 – 10 IN, complete with both original hardwood grips and the whole of its mechanism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe frame is a single steel bar bent into the classic double crank: down from the head, out across the sweep, back down to the chuck. Ten inches across that sweep, which is the size a carpenter reaches for when a job needs leverage rather than fine control.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe head is a turned hardwood mushroom, worn to a dark polished brown with the wood showing through pale on the crown. Concentric turning rings are still visible across the face, and the rim carries the dents and scuffs of a palm and a chest bearing down on it for years. It spins free on its collar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe crank carries a barrel-shaped wooden grip, the same aged brown, turning smoothly on the bar between its collars.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAbove the chuck sits the ratchet, a knurled selector ring over a slotted housing with the pawls visible inside it. Turn the ring one way and the brace drives clockwise on the forward stroke and freewheels back; turn it the other and it reverses; centre it and the brace runs solid in both directions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe chuck is the two-jaw alligator pattern: a knurled steel shell that screws down to close a pair of shaped jaws onto the square tapered tang of an auger bit. The jaws are present and clean, and the shell runs the length of its thread.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe steel throughout has gone to an even warm brown, with the stamping still crisp and legible on the crank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe brace is a medieval idea that reached its final form around 1900 and then stopped changing, because there was nothing left to improve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eWhat it does that a modern drill cannot is torque at low speed under total control. A ten-inch sweep multiplies a hand’s effort enormously, and a large auger bit in a brace will bore a two-inch hole through a joist by hand, slowly, with the operator feeling every fibre it passes through. Cabinetmakers and timber framers still keep one for exactly that reason.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe ratchet is what makes it usable in a real building. Set into a corner, against a wall, or under a floor, there is not room to swing a full turn — so the ratchet lets the user work in short back-and-forth strokes, driving on one and freewheeling on the other, without unseating the bit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe alligator chuck is the other piece of the design. Auger bits for a brace are made with a square tapered tang, not a round shank, and the two shaped jaws grip those flats so the bit cannot slip under load no matter how much torque is behind it. It is a better grip for this job than any three-jaw chuck.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eStanley came into braces by absorbing the trade rather than inventing it, taking over the works of John S. Fray \u0026amp; Co. of Bridgeport, Connecticut — one of the great American brace makers of the nineteenth century — and continuing the line under its own name. The numbered Stanley braces that followed became the standard tool in American toolboxes for the next half-century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis one is a No. 965, a ratcheting model in the upper part of that range, in the ten-inch sweep.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn date, the number itself is the evidence. Stanley later issued a revised version of this model as the 965N, which the tool trade places in the 1930s. The brace here carries the plain unsuffixed number, so it belongs before that revision. On that, and on Stanley’s brace line running from the absorption of the Fray works early in the century, it is offered as c. 1910–1935.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTwo things would date it precisely and neither has been found in the areas examined: a Stanley sweetheart trademark, the heart-shaped SW device the company used for a defined span, and any patent date stamped on the chuck shell or the ratchet housing. A buyer with the tool in hand should look for both.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRatcheting bit brace with two-jaw alligator chuck\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStanley\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eModel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNo. 965, ten-inch sweep, stamped on the frame: No. 965 – 10 IN\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMechanism\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThree-position ratchet — forward, reverse, and locked solid — selected by the knurled ring above the chuck; two-jaw alligator chuck taking the square tapered tang of a brace auger bit\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGrips\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTurned hardwood mushroom head and barrel-form crank grip, both original, both turning freely on their collars\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNo. 965 – 10 IN stamped on the crank frame and fully legible. No sweetheart trademark or patent date found in the areas examined.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTen-inch sweep, approximately 14 in from head to chuck\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1910–1935. The frame stamping gives the maker and model outright. Stanley subsequently issued a revised version of this model as the 965N, which the tool trade dates to the 1930s; this brace carries the plain unsuffixed number and therefore precedes that revision. The lower end follows Stanley’s brace line, which the company built on the works of John S. Fray \u0026amp; Co. of Bridgeport early in the century. A sweetheart trademark or a patent date on the chuck or ratchet housing would fix it precisely.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and fully working. The ratchet engages in both directions and locks solid in the centre position. The chuck runs the full length of its thread and both jaws are present, clean and closing true. Head and crank grip are both original hardwood, sound with no splits, and both revolve freely. Finish is honest: the steel has gone to an even warm brown throughout with light surface oxidation and scattered pitting, heaviest around the chuck and the lower frame. The wood is worn dark and polished with the pale grain showing through on the crown of the head, and carries the knocks and scuffing of long use. No bends in the frame, no cracks, no repairs, no replaced parts. Sold as a working tool. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is the tool that built the American house, and it is still the best way to bore a large hole by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA brace is not a lesser drill. It is a different machine with a different advantage: enormous torque, no cord, no noise, and complete feel for the cut. A timber framer boring a mortise, a chairmaker setting a leg, a restorer working on old oak without wanting to shatter it — all of them reach for a brace, and a ten-inch sweep is the one that does the heavy work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe ratchet makes it genuinely useful rather than merely charming. It will bore in a corner, under a joist, inside a cabinet carcase — anywhere a full swing is impossible — which is where a cordless drill with a long auger simply will not fit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is also a beautiful object, and an unusually graphic one. That double-cranked line, the dark mushroom head at one end, the knurled steel at the other, brown steel throughout. Hung on a wall against plaster or bare brick it reads as sculpture; laid on a shelf of books it reads as intent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe wood is where the history sits. Somebody leaned on that head with their whole chest, over and over, for years, until it took a polish no finish can imitate and the pale grain came through on the crown. That is a record of work, and it is the first thing anyone who knows tools will look at.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA named, model-stamped Stanley in complete original condition is also a considerably better thing to own than an anonymous brace. The number on the frame tells you what it is, and it puts this one in a line a collector can follow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt suits a workshop, a study, a joiner’s bench, a shop fit-out, or a wall of tools where one object needs to anchor the group.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on use. It takes brace auger bits with square tapered tangs — not round-shank twist drills, which the alligator jaws will not hold under load. Those bits are widely available secondhand and are worth buying as a graded set. Seat the tang fully and screw the shell down firmly before boring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn care. A drop of light oil into the ratchet housing and onto the chuck thread will keep the action sweet. Wipe the steel with an oiled cloth occasionally; the brown patina is protective and worth keeping, so do not strip it back to bright with a wire wheel or a rust remover. Leave the wood alone entirely — no oil, no wax, no sanding. The polish on that head took decades and cannot be put back.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48066871853161,"sku":"VE-1638","price":133.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/C2DFDCC9-5AFE-4B1B-9968-444B39917AC4.jpg?v=1789538494"},{"product_id":"antique-hand-forged-gooseneck-nail-puller-bar-green-c-1900-1925","title":"Antique Hand-Forged Gooseneck Nail Puller Bar, Green, c. 1900–1925","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA short forged bar drawn from octagonal stock, bent through a tight gooseneck at one end and finished in a two-tined claw. The head is swelled well beyond the width of the shaft, so the fork carries metal where the load sits, and the outside of the bend is rounded into a heel that rolls against the work as the bar is levered back. The slot between the tines is a narrow V, sized to take a nail shank or a fencing staple rather than a broad board edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is finished in a hard green paint laid straight onto bare forged steel. That paint has worn off every surface a hand or a workpiece touched: the shaft flats are burnished down to brown-grey metal, the green survives in the hollows of the gooseneck and as a stripe along one face of the shaft where the fingers never closed. Both tine tips are polished bright, and there is a rubbed bright patch in the throat of the fork where nail heads were drawn. The butt is chamfered around its perimeter and shows no mushrooming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe two tines are not identical. One is slightly narrower and sits marginally lower than the other, and the outer curve of the gooseneck carries shallow hammer facets rather than the even surface a closed die leaves. The bar is one piece throughout, with no weld, collar or rivet anywhere on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the everyday drawing tool of a working property: a bar for pulling nails out of framing and crating, and for lifting fencing staples out of posts without splitting the wood. The gooseneck does the work. Because the heel is rounded rather than squared, the bar rolls rather than digs as it is pulled back, which is what lets a nail come up straight and a staple leave its hole intact. The narrow V and the short overall length say it was made for drawing fasteners rather than for wrecking, where a longer bar and a wider claw are wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo maker's mark, model number, size marking or country of origin appears anywhere on it. That is the ordinary condition of a tool of this kind: the branded American tool houses made forked bars in closed dies, but unmarked one-piece bars came out of country and shop forges continuously alongside them, made to the smith's own pattern and sold or traded locally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dating rests on how it was made rather than on how it looks. The unmatched tines and the hammer facets on the bend are positive evidence of work done under a hand hammer at an anvil, not struck between matched dies, which produces symmetrical tines and a parting seam around the head. The finish agrees: a hard oil enamel laid directly onto bare forged steel, with no primer visible where the paint has chipped away in plates, is the older practice, superseded commercially by primed and baked finishes. The absence of powder coat, of a stamped catalogue number and of any moulded grip carries a ceiling only and says nothing about how early the bar may be. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1900–1925.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAntique, offered as c. 1900–1925 on construction evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGooseneck claw bar — nail and staple puller\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne piece, hand-forged from octagonal bar stock; fork slotted and drawn, head swelled, no weld or joint\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForged steel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOriginal hard green paint over bare steel, worn through on the shaft flats and the working faces\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone present\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApprox. 13 in. long, 1 1\/2 in. across the head\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and straight, with honest working wear. Both tine tips and the fork throat are worn bright; paint loss across all the high points. Surface oxidation and darkening consistent with age and handling.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe gooseneck is the reason to own it. Seen from the side the bar draws a single continuous line that turns hard at the head and stops, and the eye follows it the way it follows a good piece of sculpture. The green is the other reason: a flat, aged, slightly chalky green sitting against brown steel is a colour pairing no one designs and no reproduction gets right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt reads well laid flat on a console or a stack of books, stood in a crock with other forged pieces, or mounted on a plaster wall where the profile can throw a shadow. It suits a room that already has iron in it, and it holds its own on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48067020816489,"sku":"VE-1639","price":298.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/7241ED63-1D78-4E83-8861-FD61BFFE2E6A.jpg?v=1789541459"},{"product_id":"vintage-ajc-guardian-angle-roofing-knife-red-paint-c-1965-1990","title":"Vintage AJC Guardian Angle Roofing Knife, Red Paint, c. 1965–1990","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA one-piece cast knife body finished in bright red, drawn as a closed loop so the hand passes through it and the fingers are wrapped on every side. The grip swells into a bulb at the back where the palm sits; the front of the loop rises into a knuckle bar; and the nose runs forward and drops slightly, presenting the blade below the line of the hand. The whole shape exists so that a blade can be drawn hard toward the body without the knuckles reaching the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe blade is a plain trapezoidal utility blade, held between the body and a steel clamp plate and drawn down by a wing nut on a threaded stud. The blade sits in a slot so its exposure can be set and reset, and the plate is registered by a rivet beside the stud. On the opposite face the slot is repeated and closed by three slotted round-head screws. Every fastener on the tool is slotted; there is no Phillips, hex or star drive anywhere on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe maker's legend is cast into the body rather than printed or applied: GUARDIAN ANGLE KNIFE arcing over a diamond device holding the AJC monogram, with the catalogue number 57-MCGA beneath. The diamond stands proud of the surface, and the red has worn off it entirely, so the monogram now reads as bare metal set in a red field. Elsewhere the paint has chipped away in plates over the handle bulb and along the spine, exposing grey metal that shows no red oxide at all while the steel screws and clamp plate are heavily rust-stained.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAJC began with one tool. A.J. Crookston, a roofer, made hatchets for his own crew and started selling them to other roofers as they asked for them, and the firm carried his initials. His son Jim took over in 1962 and turned a single-tool maker into a full line: roofing, siding and gutter tools built to the pattern a working contractor would want. The Guardian Angle Knife belongs to that expanded catalogue rather than to the hatchet years, which sets the earliest it can be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe knife itself is a shingle knife. Asphalt shingles are cut from the back, hard and fast, with the blade pulled toward the body across a bundle or a roof deck, and the closed loop is the answer to what that does to a hand. The angled nose lets the blade meet the work at a cutting rake while the wrist stays straight, which is where the name comes from.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe number 57-MCGA is still AJC's catalogue number for the Guardian Angle Knife, but the tool it now names is a different machine: an aluminium body with a moulded ergonomic grip, a retractable blade and a three-blade kit of hook, bowtie and utility patterns. This example is the configuration that number carried before that revision — a fixed blade set by hand in a slot and clamped under a wing nut, with slotted screws throughout and the legend cast into the body rather than printed on it. The tool carries no warning legend, no country-of-origin mark and no barcode panel, and those absences give a ceiling only, not a floor. The body is a light non-ferrous casting on the evidence of the exposed metal, which has not rusted anywhere while the steel fittings have. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1965–1990.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1965–1990 on documentary and construction evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAJC — Guardian Angle Knife, catalogue number 57-MCGA, cast into the body\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eClosed-loop shingle and carton knife with knuckle guard\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne-piece cast body; blade held in an adjustable slot under a steel clamp plate and wing nut; three slotted screws on the reverse face\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCast non-ferrous body with steel blade and fittings; the alloy has not been verified and none is claimed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOriginal red paint, chipped through to bare metal on the handle bulb and spine\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApprox. 8 in. long, 3 in. across the loop\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStructurally sound. Paint loss and surface scuffing throughout, rust staining on the screws, clamp plate and blade. A blade is fitted; it is sold as a display and collecting piece and no cutting service is represented.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery few tools are this red. The colour was chosen so the knife could be found on a roof, and half a century of use has taken it from a uniform coat to something mottled and matte, with grey metal breaking through exactly where a hand went. That is a finish a paint chip cannot imitate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe silhouette does the rest. A closed loop with a bulb at one end and a blade at the other is an odd and memorable shape, and it photographs and displays far better than it has any right to. Put it on a shelf of small metal objects, in a shadow box, on a workshop wall, or on a desk where it will be picked up by everyone who sits down.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48067021340777,"sku":"VE-1640","price":220.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/86AAE9D5-CF09-4943-929F-378300AD5FA9.jpg?v=1789541424"},{"product_id":"vintage-warner-tools-wood-wallpaper-seam-roller-usa-c-1935-1960","title":"Vintage Warner Tools Wood Wallpaper Seam Roller, USA, c. 1935–1960","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA paperhanger's seam roller: a turned hardwood wheel carried in a pressed steel yoke, on a turned hardwood handle. The yoke is a single stamping, bent to a U and plated, with the two arms sprung around the roller and the axle set through a soft-metal eyelet at each side. The handle swells through a long belly and finishes in a flared button, and a hole is drilled through the neck so the tool could hang on a nail at the bench. A drawn steel ferrule closes the joint between handle and yoke.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe maker's legend stands raised out of the stamping itself rather than being printed or applied: WARNER TOOLS over MADE IN USA, laid in three lines along the curve of the yoke arm, where the plating has stayed bright while the surrounding steel has gone soft grey with a bloom of orange around the eyelet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wood has faded to a pale honey and the grain has lifted slightly on the roller face where it was worked wet. One end of the roller is darkened and slightly fuzzed, and there is a fine split running along the roller body. The handle is clean, uncoated and smooth from handling, and the end grain at the butt shows the concentric rings of the turning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWarner Manufacturing was founded in Minneapolis in 1927 by Harry Warner and has stayed a family business, building tools for painters, paperhangers and drywall finishers. A seam roller is one of the small specialist tools of that trade: after two lengths of paper are hung and butted, the roller is run down the join under light pressure to set the edges into the paste before it grabs. Everything about the tool follows from that job. The roller is soft enough not to burnish or polish the paper, the yoke is narrow so the wheel can be sighted along the seam, and the handle is short so the pressure comes from the wrist rather than the arm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dating rests on what the tool is made of. Its roller is turned hardwood, its handle is turned hardwood, its yoke is pressed and plated steel, and there is no polymer component anywhere on it — no moulded roller, no plastic handle, no printed graphic, no applied label. Paint and wallcovering tools moved comprehensively to moulded plastic rollers and handles in the decades that followed, and Warner's own later seam rollers were catalogued under a separate wallcovering brand. Those absences carry a ceiling only. The floor is documentary: the firm did not exist before 1927, and a specialised paperhanger's roller is a settled catalogue line rather than a founding product. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1935–1960.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1935–1960 on documentary and construction evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWarner Manufacturing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota — marked WARNER TOOLS \/ MADE IN USA\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePaperhanger's seam roller\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTurned hardwood roller on a steel axle in soft-metal eyelets; single pressed and plated steel yoke; turned hardwood handle with drawn steel ferrule and a drilled hanging hole\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHardwood and plated steel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBare wood, unfinished and faded; plating bright on the yoke arms, grey and lightly oxidised elsewhere\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApprox. 7 in. long; roller approx. 2 in. wide\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and complete, and the roller turns. Fine split along the roller body; one roller end darkened and lightly fuzzed; surface oxidation on the yoke and around the eyelets; general handling wear to the handle.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the kind of object that earns its place by being exactly right rather than by being large. Pale bleached wood against grey plated steel is a quiet, almost Scandinavian palette, and the shape — a fat cylinder set square on a slim turned handle — has a toy-like directness that reads well on a shelf beside books, bowls or other small wooden things.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt suits a kitchen shelf, a studio, a bathroom ledge, a cabinet of small tools, or a tray of collected objects where the eye wants something to rest on. It is also genuinely useful to anyone who still hangs paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48067022913641,"sku":"VE-1641","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/14B12FC3-8DA5-49FD-A7FA-D0A2DE7684F8.jpg?v=1789541383"},{"product_id":"vintage-stanley-handyman-h1294-18-wood-brass-level-c-1957-1973","title":"Vintage Stanley Handyman H1294-18 Wood \u0026 Brass Level, c. 1957–1973","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn eighteen-inch carpenter's level in close straight-grained reddish hardwood, rectangular in section, with the vials set behind brass plates let flush into the face. The plumb vial sits in a brass plate with a rectangular window, screwed into a mortise cut through the body so the bubble can be read from either side. The level vial reads through an oval port lower down, and a second port answers it on the narrow edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wood has the deep warm red-brown of an old oil finish that has darkened rather than been stripped, with the grain lines standing slightly proud where the softer early wood has worn back. One end is finished in a bright pink-red that has faded unevenly and gone chalky at the arris. The brass has toned to a soft ochre and sits a fraction below the wood surface where the face has worn down around it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStanley's mark is printed in red on the face above the plumb plate. It has worn into the grain and is now legible only in part, which is the usual fate of a printed mark on an oiled wooden level that spent its working life in a hand and a nail apron. The face carries fine scratches, a small plugged hole and light bruising through, none of it structural.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Handyman line was Stanley's answer to the postwar homeowner. The name had been in use at the company since the 1920s, but it became a full hand-tool series in the later 1950s, sold through hardware stores to people building and fixing their own houses rather than to the trade. The tools were simpler than Stanley's professional lines and priced to match, and they are the reason a generation of American garages had a Stanley plane and a Stanley level in them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the No. H1294 wooden level in its eighteen-inch length. Stanley catalogued the pattern in two sizes, H1294-18 and H1294-24, with a shorter H1293 beneath them. The form is the traditional one: a single piece of hardwood with the vials mortised through and faced in brass, read by eye through the window rather than through a magnified sight. It is a carpenter's level rather than a mason's, short enough to lie across a door head or a cabinet rail and light enough to carry all day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dating follows the catalogue number. Stanley's Handyman hand-tool series ran from the later 1950s into the early 1970s, with the plane line documented from 1957 to 1973, and the plain H-prefix number this level carries precedes the hyphenated product numbering Stanley later adopted, under which Handyman items appear with both numbers together. Nothing on the tool carries a date, a patent line or a barcode, and those absences give a ceiling only. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1957–1973.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1957–1973 on catalogue evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStanley — Handyman No. H1294-18\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCarpenter's level, plumb and level vials\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSingle-piece hardwood body, vials mortised through and faced with brass plates on screws\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHardwood and brass\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOriginal darkened oil finish; one end in worn pink-red; brass toned to a soft ochre\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStanley's printed red mark on the face, worn and partly legible\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e18 in. long; approx. 2 in. wide and 3\/4 in. thick\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and straight, with honest working wear. Fine scratching and light bruising across the faces, a small plugged hole, uneven fading to the painted end, and the printed mark worn into the grain. Offered as a decorative and collecting piece; no accuracy is represented.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA wooden level is one of the few tools that reads as architecture. It is a long clean rectangle with two small windows punched through it, and hung on a wall it does exactly what a horizontal line is supposed to do in a room, which is settle everything around it. The brass gives the eye somewhere to land.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt works laid flat on a mantel or a long shelf, leaned in a corner of a bookcase, hung above a door, or propped behind a run of smaller objects to give them a baseline. The colour is the argument for this one in particular: warm red-brown wood, ochre brass and a single stroke of faded pink at the end, which is a palette that sits well against plaster, brick and dark paint alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48067789389929,"sku":"VE-1642","price":238.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/EAF880E8-078A-4A09-B664-A75E49026F62.jpg?v=1789552032"},{"product_id":"vintage-norman-rockwell-outward-bound-collotype-print-framed-1979","title":"Vintage Norman Rockwell Outward Bound Collotype Print, Framed, 1979","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn old sea captain and a small boy stand on a rise above a harbour with their backs to us. The captain's hand rests on the boy's shoulder. The boy holds his hat against his chest with both hands. A spaniel waits at their feet, and beyond them a schooner stands out past the point under a sky full of moving cloud and wheeling gulls. Below the rise, a shingled roof and a red brick chimney, and off to the right the masts and rigging of vessels still tied up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNeither face is shown. That is the whole design. Rockwell puts two figures in front of us, hides their expressions completely, and lets the boy's grip on his hat and the old man's hand on his shoulder carry everything the picture has to say. The viewer supplies the feeling, which is why the image has outlasted almost everything else Rockwell made that year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is presented in a period frame: a stepped moulding in gilt over dark brown, a broad cream mat over a narrow dark liner, glazed, with a sealed paper dust cover and a hanging wire on the reverse. Outside dimensions are approximately 29 by 34 1\/2 inches.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRockwell painted Outward Bound in 1927. It also carries the longer title The Stay at Homes, Looking Out to Sea, and it was made as a story illustration for the October 1927 Ladies' Home Journal, one of thirty-seven works he contributed to that magazine over forty-nine years beginning in 1924. Rather than illustrating someone else's fiction, it ran with nothing but its title and was left to tell its own story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is an unusual painting in his body of work. Rockwell had studied under Charles Hawthorne, and the influence shows here in a way it rarely does elsewhere: the roofs, the waves, the trees, the grass and the old man's trousers are handled with a loose impressionist touch rather than the tight descriptive finish of his magazine covers. The Norman Rockwell Museum notes exactly this about the picture. It is Rockwell painting rather than Rockwell illustrating.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis impression is a colored collotype. Collotype is a photomechanical process in which a light-sensitive gelatin layer on a plate is exposed and then printed without any halftone screen, so it reproduces continuous tone directly instead of breaking the image into dots. It was the finest reproductive process available before modern digital printing, it is why the soft passages of sky and water here hold together the way they do, and it is effectively no longer practised commercially.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe signature at the lower right, in red, is printed as part of the image. It is a plate signature, reproduced from the painting, and it is not a signature applied by hand. No hand signature and no edition limitation are claimed for this impression. The certificate affixed to the reverse is from Royal Art, Ltd. of North Hollywood, California, a firm that supplied artwork to the charity auction trade, and it records the artist, the title, the medium as colored collotype plate signed, and registration number 78-57055. The backing is pencilled with the same registration number, the date 4\/9\/79, and the dimensions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, issued 1979 on certificate and backing evidence; after the 1927 painting\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eArtist\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNorman Rockwell, 1894–1978\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOutward Bound, also known as The Stay at Homes, Looking Out to Sea\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMedium\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eColored collotype after the 1927 painting. Plate signed; no hand signature and no edition limitation are claimed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRoyal Art, Ltd., North Hollywood, California — certificate affixed to the reverse, registration number 78-57055\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOriginal publication\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLadies' Home Journal, October 1927\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePresentation\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePeriod frame, gilt over dark brown; cream mat over a dark liner; glazed; sealed paper dust cover; wire hung\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFrame approximately 29 in. wide by 34 1\/2 in. high\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eImage clean and strong in colour. Wear to the frame consistent with age, including rubbing and small losses to the gilt at the corners and along the edges. The paper dust cover on the reverse is toned, creased and torn in places, with old tape and a paper label. Not examined out of the frame.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eShipping\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGlazed and oversized. Ships crated; freight quoted separately.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery few pictures of this size are this easy to live with. The palette is almost entirely blue, green and grey, broken only by the brick chimney and the orange handkerchief in the old man's pocket, so it cools a room rather than competing with it. At roughly 29 by 34 1\/2 inches framed it has real presence over a sofa, a console, a bed or a stair landing without needing anything else on the wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it is a picture people stop in front of. Two figures seen from behind, looking at something you cannot quite see, is an old and reliable piece of visual grammar, and Rockwell handled it here with a lightness he did not often allow himself. It reads as a seaside painting first and as a Rockwell second, which is exactly why it works in rooms where a Rockwell would not.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48067936092265,"sku":"VE-1643","price":1225.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_20d7259c-4019-4491-88b7-134a3ca26129.jpg?v=1791410492"},{"product_id":"vintage-refinished-fir-plywood-carpenters-tool-tote-c-1920-1945","title":"Vintage Refinished Fir Plywood Carpenter's Tool Tote, c. 1920–1945","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA carpenter's tote of the oldest and plainest kind: two gabled end boards, long sides, a turned dowel running the full length between the peaks for a handle, and an open top so everything inside can be seen and grabbed at once. Twenty-five inches end to end and nine across.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sides are rotary-cut Douglas fir plywood, and they are the reason to look twice. Rotary cutting unwinds the log against a blade rather than slicing across it, which produces the enormous swirling cathedral figure running the length of each panel. Under finish it reads like flame-figured exotic hardwood rather than what it actually is, which is shop sheet stock. The end boards are a different surface entirely, heavy vertical grain with burl-like eyes and open checking, with the raised weathered texture left legible under the finish rather than sanded flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside, a spine board runs the length below the handle, and cross partitions divide the space into square compartments down both sides, with an open bay at each end for longer tools. The nail heads through the sides stand out bright silver against the dark wood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Refinish\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis one was refinished in our own workshop at Viridian Eclection. Walter Hinchman sanded it, took steel wool to it and brought the finish up, and the result is the deep orange-red gloss it now carries. The bright nail heads are part of that: they are the original nailing, polished up by the steel wool rather than replaced, so the box is fastened exactly as its maker left it and simply looks it again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe judgement call was what to leave alone. The checking in the end boards, the raised grain, the broken notch out of one partition edge and the small loss at a top rail are all still there. Sanding those out would have produced a smoother box and a duller one, and the figure in the plywood is doing more than enough work without help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA tote like this was never bought. It was built on a bench by the man who was going to carry it, out of whatever offcuts were within reach, sized to the tools he actually used and the distance he actually walked. That is why the compartments are the sizes they are and why no two of these are alike. It is the humblest object in a working shop and usually the one that outlives everything else in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe material sets the earliest this can be, and it is a hard limit. Douglas fir plywood is a twentieth-century American product: commercial production began in Oregon in the first decade of the century, and fir sheet was in ordinary shop and cabinet use through the nineteen-twenties. A box built from it cannot predate that, and no argument moves it earlier. Everything above that floor is shop work rather than manufacture: nailed butt joints throughout, no screws and no hardware of any kind, a scavenged turned dowel doing duty as a handle, and no maker's mark or model number anywhere. There is no particleboard, no MDF, no production fittings and no plywood grade stamp on it, and those absences carry a ceiling only. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1920 to 1945.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1920 to 1945 on material and construction evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRefinished\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIn the Viridian Eclection workshop by Walter Hinchman\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOpen carpenter's tote with a full-length dowel handle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRotary-cut Douglas fir plywood sides, solid gabled end boards, nailed butt joints, internal spine board with cross partitions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eInterior\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSquare compartments down both sides of a central spine, with an open bay at each end\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRefinished in a deep orange-red gloss. Original nail heads polished bright with steel wool, not replaced\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone present\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e25 in. long by 9 in. wide; approx. 12 in. high to the top of the handle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound, square and ready to carry or display. Retained from its working life: open checking in the end boards, a notch broken from one partition edge, a small loss at a top rail, old nail holes and raised grain. Refinished throughout.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe figure is the argument. Ordinary fir plywood, finished properly, produces a wild flame grain that most people assume has to be an expensive tropical timber, and there is twenty-five inches of it running down each side of this box. It photographs extremely well and it holds a room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt works as a runner down the centre of a dining table holding candles and greenery, on a kitchen counter for oils and utensils, on a bathroom shelf, on a desk, or in an entry for keys, mail and gloves. The compartments make it useful in a way an empty bowl never is, and the handle means it moves to wherever it is needed. It also still does the job it was built for, which is worth something.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48069466652777,"sku":"VE-1646","price":500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/6BB26CE0-B936-4074-9775-2E2D9C7DD040.jpg?v=1789605752"},{"product_id":"vintage-reed-barton-silver-soldered-hotel-sugar-bowl-c-1915-1940","title":"Vintage Reed \u0026 Barton Silver Soldered Hotel Sugar Bowl, c. 1915–1940","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA covered sugar bowl built low and wide, the body a flattened globe sitting on a stepped pedestal foot, with two plain loop handles springing from the shoulder and flattening where they meet the wall. A pair of reeded bands girdles the body at its widest point and is the only ornament anywhere on it. The lid is flat, drops into a recessed seat so it cannot slide, and carries a small turned reel-and-button finial.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is nothing decorative about any of it, and that is the whole character of the piece. No chasing, no piercing, no engraved panel, no applied ornament. Every line is either structural or a place to put a hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe surface has gone a soft grey-brown, with a warm coppery bloom coming through at the handle joints, the rim of the foot and the high points of the reeding where the plate has worn thin. The underside carries a small rectangular pictorial trademark above REED \u0026amp; BARTON, SILVER SOLDERED and the number 3000, together with four blue crayon tally strokes left by some earlier inventory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSilver soldered is not a decorative description, it is a construction specification, and it means this bowl was built for commercial service rather than a dining room. Reed \u0026amp; Barton applied that legend to the hollowware it supplied to hotels, restaurants, railroad dining cars, steamships and naval messes. On those pieces the handles and fittings were joined with silver solder rather than soft solder so they would not let go, and the plate was laid on heaviest exactly where a piece gets handled and scrubbed. Domestic plate was never built to that standard because it never had to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plainness follows from the same logic. A shape with no chasing and no piercing has nowhere for coffee, sugar or a cloth to catch, it survives a commercial wash, and when the plate eventually wears it wears evenly rather than leaving ornament stranded on bare metal. Hotel silver looks the way it looks because every decision was made by someone who had to wash it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dating rests on the mark and the idiom. Reed \u0026amp; Barton produced silver soldered commercial ware from around the turn of the twentieth century into the nineteen-sixties, so that legend sets the floor. The number 3000 is a catalogue model number and carries no date and no statement of silver content. The plain banded form is the Colonial Revival language American institutional hollowware used from the nineteen-tens into the nineteen-forties. The piece does not carry the explicit silverplate legend the firm adopted on commercial goods from mid-century, and that absence gives a ceiling only. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1915 to 1940.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1915 to 1940 on mark and construction evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eReed \u0026amp; Barton, Taunton, Massachusetts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePictorial trademark, REED \u0026amp; BARTON, SILVER SOLDERED, model 3000, struck on the underside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCovered two-handled sugar bowl on a pedestal foot\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSilver plate over base metal, silver soldered commercial grade\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUnpolished. Grey-brown tarnish with copper showing through at the handle joints, foot rim and reeded bands\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApprox. 7 in. across the handles; approx. 3 3\/4 in. high\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and stable, lid seats correctly. Tarnish throughout and plate loss to the base metal at the high points and handle joints. Four blue crayon tally strokes on the underside from earlier inventory. Surface scratching consistent with commercial service.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHotel silver is the one silver that looks correct unpolished. Domestic plate wants to be bright or it looks neglected; this was designed as equipment, and grey metal with copper breaking through at the edges reads as use rather than as failure. It sits comfortably next to ironstone, stoneware, raw wood and linen, and it does not ask the room to be formal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUse it for sugar, for salt at the table, for paperclips on a desk, for matches beside a stove, or for nothing at all on a shelf where the low wide silhouette and the two handles can do their work. It also stacks visually with other hotel silver if you are building a group, which is how most people end up owning more than one.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48070498386025,"sku":"VE-1647","price":238.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/222C58D2-7374-483E-BE2A-82C9616DFF48.jpg?v=1789626894"},{"product_id":"vintage-f-b-rogers-footed-silverplate-sugar-bowl-c-1905-1930","title":"Vintage F.B. Rogers Footed Silverplate Sugar Bowl, c. 1905–1930","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA covered sugar bowl with a body drawn as a near-perfect sphere, lifted clear of the table on four cast feet that scroll outward from a shaped and pierced apron. The handles are cast rather than formed, each one capped where it meets the shoulder with a curl of acanthus. The lid rises in a high cone and finishes in a cast tulip finial, its petals folded around a small rosette at the base of the bud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a piece built entirely out of curves. There is not a straight line anywhere on it, and the sphere sitting on four outswept feet gives it the slightly comic dignity of something balanced on tiptoe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plating has worn through across the whole belly and over the crown of the lid, leaving a mottled field of warm copper-gold broken by islands of near-black tarnish, while the cast feet, handles and finial have held their plate and stayed grey. The underside is struck TRADE MARK above a crown flanked by 18 and 83, with F.B. ROGERS SILVER CO beneath it and the model number 1224 below that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRogers is the most contested name in American silverplate. The original Rogers brothers of Hartford began electroplating in the eighteen-forties and their name sold so reliably that for the rest of the century firm after firm attached some version of it to their own goods: Wm. Rogers, Rogers \u0026amp; Bro., 1847 Rogers Bros., Rogers Smith. F.B. Rogers was one of those firms, founded at Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts in 1883 and moved to Taunton three years later, where it spent almost two decades trading as the West Silver Company and making goods for yet another Rogers concern. New owners restored the F.B. Rogers name to its own output around 1904. It became a division of the National Silver Company in 1955 and was gone by the two-thousands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne thing about the mark is worth stating plainly, because it is misread constantly. The 18 and the 83 flanking the crown are the year the firm was founded, not the year this bowl was made. That device stayed in use for the better part of a century, so a piece carrying it can date from almost anywhere across that span, and any listing that reads the mark as an 1883 manufacture date is wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat the mark does give is a firm floor. A bowl struck F.B. ROGERS SILVER CO belongs to the period after the name was restored to the firm's own production around 1904, not to the West Silver years before it. The number 1224 is a catalogue model number and carries no date. Beyond that the evidence thins: the heavily cast feet, handles and finial belong to the ornamented revival hollowware the American plate houses were turning out before the plainer mid-century lines displaced it, which is a softer argument than the floor. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1905 to 1930.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1905 to 1930; floor documentary, ceiling from the ornament\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eF. B. Rogers Silver Co., Taunton, Massachusetts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTRADE MARK over a crown flanked by 18 and 83, F.B. ROGERS SILVER CO, model 1224. The 1883 is the firm's founding year, not a date of manufacture\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCovered two-handled sugar bowl, spherical body on four cast scroll feet, conical lid with cast tulip finial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSilver plate over base metal\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUnpolished and heavily worn. Copper-gold base metal across the belly and lid, grey plate surviving on the cast elements\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApprox. 6 1\/2 in. across the handles; approx. 6 in. high to the finial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and stable on all four feet, lid seats correctly, finial firm. Plating worn through to the base metal over most of the body and lid, with tarnish and spotting throughout. Sold in this state as a decorative piece; it has not been replated and no food use is represented.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wear is the reason to buy it. A fully plated example of this bowl is a perfectly ordinary grey object. This one has spent long enough being handled that the silver has gone from the belly and the copper underneath has come up in a mottled gold that no finish could be applied to imitate, and against the black of the remaining tarnish it looks less like tableware than like something excavated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt has real presence for its size, because the sphere on four splayed feet takes up visual room that a plain cylinder never would. Put it on a mantel, a bar cart, a bookshelf or a bathroom counter, fill it with matches, cotton, rings or nothing, and it will be the object guests pick up.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48070498418793,"sku":"VE-1648","price":255.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/FA0E14E0-7993-401E-8910-A623495A5E11.jpg?v=1789626872"},{"product_id":"vintage-spalding-carl-yastrzemski-42-5375-baseball-glove-c-1967-1978","title":"Vintage Spalding Carl Yastrzemski 42-5375 Baseball Glove, c. 1967–1978","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA full-size fielder's glove in top grain leather, gone the colour of honey and dark tea, with a three-bar laced web, leather lacing throughout and a row of metal-grommeted eyelets closing the heel. It is a right-hand thrower's glove, worn on the left hand, and it holds its shape open on a table without help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe palm carries Spalding's longhorn stamp reading FORM POCKET, TOP GRAIN LEATHER and CHROME TANNED, with the Carl Yastrzemski signature and ADVISORY STAFF stamped alongside it in the thumb panel. SPALDING runs the length of the little-finger side in heavy block letters. The back is stamped 42-5375 across the wrist and carries the oval Spalding S in black and gold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe leather runs pale through the finger stalls and deepens across the heel and the back of the hand, with the lacing still supple and the pocket properly formed rather than flat. One name is stamped into the heel beside the lacing: STEEN. That is the boy or the man who owned it, marked at the counter the way gloves were.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCarl Yastrzemski played twenty-three seasons and all of them for Boston, from 1961 to 1983. He took over left field at Fenway from Ted Williams, which is close to the least enviable assignment in American sport, and answered it with 3,419 hits, 452 home runs, eighteen All-Star selections and seven Gold Gloves. In 1967 he won the Triple Crown and the Most Valuable Player award while carrying a ninth-place club to the pennant, and in the last thirty-seven at-bats of that season he hit .541. He went into the Hall of Fame in 1989.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpalding put his name on this glove under its Advisory Staff program, the arrangement by which a manufacturer contracted a working major leaguer to endorse and use its equipment. The signature stamped in the thumb panel is part of that endorsement. It was applied at the factory to every glove of the model and it is not an autograph. Nothing here is hand-signed and none is claimed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dating runs off the endorsement and the build, and both ends can be drawn reasonably close. Yastrzemski reached Boston in 1961 and took his first Gold Glove in 1963, but it was the 1967 Triple Crown and Most Valuable Player season that made his the name a manufacturer puts on a glove nationally, and that sets the floor. Spalding ran its Advisory Staff line from the nineteen-fifties into the nineteen-seventies, and the 42-series model numbering runs through that same stretch. The build agrees: leather throughout, a laced heel closed on metal eyelets, no wrist strap and no hook-and-loop closure of the kind that became standard on American gloves from the late nineteen-seventies, no import legend and no synthetic component anywhere. Those absences carry a ceiling only. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1967 to 1978.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1967 to 1978 on endorsement and construction evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSpalding, model 42-5375\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEndorsement\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCarl Yastrzemski, Advisory Staff. Factory-stamped facsimile signature, not an autograph\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFielder's glove, three-bar laced web, right-hand throw\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTop grain chrome-tanned leather with leather lacing and metal eyelets\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSize\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e11 1\/2 in., as catalogued for this model\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSpalding longhorn stamp reading FORM POCKET, TOP GRAIN LEATHER, CHROME TANNED; oval Spalding S on the back; 42-5375 at the wrist; the owner's name STEEN stamped at the heel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and complete, lacing intact and supple, pocket formed and holding its shape. Cleaned and conditioned with saddle soap; not restored, re-laced, re-stamped or re-dyed. Surface wear from use throughout, with scuffing at the heel and fingertips. Offered as a collecting and display piece.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA worn glove is one of the few objects that reads as a portrait of a person. This one holds the shape of a hand that is not there, the pocket is where someone put it over years of catching, and the leather is darkest exactly where it was gripped. Nothing designed can do that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe colour does a great deal of work in a room. Honey and russet leather against green, against dark paint, against raw wood or white plaster, is a reliably good pairing, and the object has enough structure to sit open on a shelf, a mantel or a desk without slumping. It belongs in a study, a bar, a boy's room or anywhere a Boston fan will see it, and the stamped name at the heel gives whoever owns it next a small mystery to keep.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48070500712553,"sku":"VE-1649","price":326.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/549D0896-760D-46EA-9ED7-10D77C228CF2.jpg?v=1789626792"},{"product_id":"vintage-craftsman-radial-arm-tool-know-how-manual-sears-1961","title":"Vintage Craftsman Radial Arm Tool Know-How Manual, Sears, 1961","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA shop manual bound in bright red flexible vinyl over a plastic comb binding, printed front and back in black. The cover shows a man in rolled shirtsleeves running a board through a radial arm saw, drawn in the confident commercial line of early-sixties American advertising art, under the Craftsman wordmark in its notched banner. The back carries a second drawing of the same man at the machine from the other side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside it is a working technical book, not a pamphlet. Densely set pages of instruction run alongside photographs of hands on the machine and line diagrams of jigs and setups, covering crosscutting, ripping, mitre and bevel work, dado and moulding cutting, and the accessory heads that turned the saw into a shaper, a drill and a sander.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe vinyl has stayed supple and glossy with the colour undimmed, the comb binding is complete and turns freely, and the text block is clean and square. There is light scuffing and a few small marks to the covers and some edge toning to the paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title page settles the date with no argument required. It reads CRAFTSMAN RADIAL ARM TOOL \"KNOW-HOW\", REVISED 1961, copyright 1961 by Sears, Roebuck and Co., a Midwest Technical Publication, printed in U.S.A. The rights address is given as Legal Department 766, Sears, Roebuck and Co., Homan and Arthington Aves., Chicago 7, Illinois.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat address is worth a second look, because it confirms the printing independently. Chicago 7 is a postal zone, from the numbering system the Post Office introduced in 1943 and retired in July 1963 when ZIP codes replaced it. A book addressed that way was set before the changeover, which agrees with the 1961 on the page above it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe radial arm saw is the machine this book was written to sell and to explain. Sears pushed it hard at the postwar homeowner as the one tool that could be a whole shop: crosscut saw, rip saw, dado head, shaper, drill press, disc sander and lathe, all hanging off a single motor on an arm. That promise is why these manuals are as thick as they are. A man who bought the machine on a Saturday needed several hundred pages before he could use half of it, and Sears wrote them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Homan and Arthington address is the old Sears complex on Chicago's West Side, the headquarters and mail order plant that ran the largest retail operation in the world for most of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, 1961, printed on the title page\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCraftsman Radial Arm Tool \"Know-How\", Revised 1961\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago. A Midwest Technical Publication, printed in U.S.A.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBinding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFlexible red vinyl covers over a plastic comb binding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eContents\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIllustrated instruction in wood, plastic and metalworking on the radial arm saw and its accessory heads, with photographs and line diagrams throughout\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVery good and complete. Vinyl supple and glossy with colour undimmed, comb binding intact and turning freely, text block clean and square. Light scuffing and a few small marks to the covers, edge toning to the paper.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a book that works as an object. That red is a saturated, unembarrassed commercial red of a kind nobody prints any more, the cover art is genuinely good mid-century line drawing, and at this size it holds a shelf or a coffee table on its own rather than needing to be one of a stack.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt reads well face out on a shelf, propped on a workbench, framed open at a diagram, or stacked with other red and black spines. And it is still a usable manual. Anyone who owns an old Craftsman radial arm saw will want it, and anyone who does not will pick it up anyway for the drawings.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48072661237865,"sku":"VE-1651","price":88.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/0CBB5BEA-FB12-457F-B25E-ACB73C0DDF9E.jpg?v=1789632410"},{"product_id":"vintage-red-rubber-coated-steel-fishing-rod-rack-c-1955-1980","title":"Vintage Red Rubber-Coated Steel Fishing Rod Rack, c. 1955–1980","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA formed steel rack finished in thick red rubber. The base is a rectangular plate with one long edge turned down into a skirt, so it stands slightly proud of whatever it is set on. Two identical formed bars run across it in parallel, each rising into a pair of humps with a valley between them, and each is held down by two wing nuts on threaded studs passing through slotted feet. The slots let the bars slide, so the spacing between them sets to whatever is being held.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe finish is a dip coating rather than a spray. It is thick, evenly glossy, rounded over every edge and free of overspray, seams or brush marks, which is what happens when a steel part is lowered into the coating and drawn out. The colour is a saturated commercial red with nothing subtle about it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe hardware is the opposite. Wing nuts, studs and washers are bare steel, uncoated and gone orange with rust, and the contrast between the four rusted wing nuts standing up out of a bright red field is most of what makes the object look the way it does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe construction explains the purpose better than any label would. Steel is doing the structural work and the rubber is doing something else entirely: gripping, and protecting whatever is clamped against it. Anything passing under those arches is held between rubber above and rubber below, which is firm enough not to shift and soft enough not to mark. Nobody goes to the expense of dip-coating a bracket unless the thing it holds has a finish worth protecting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is why it reads as a rack for fishing rods and lines. A rod blank is finished, flexible and easily scuffed, and bare metal cradles would ruin one. The same logic explains the adjustable spacing, since rods vary in diameter along their length and the bars need to set to the section being carried.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNothing on the piece names its maker or its purpose. There is no stamp, no model number, no patent line and no country of origin, and a dip coating would bury a stamped mark in any case. The function above is offered on the evidence of the form and the material rather than on documentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dating rests on the coating. Dip-coating formed steel in rubber and vinyl is a postwar American process, in general use across consumer and sporting goods from the nineteen-fifties, and a part finished this way cannot predate it. Above that floor the piece carries no moulded plastic component, no printed or applied label and no origin marking, and those absences give a ceiling only. On that evidence it is offered as c. 1955 to 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1955 to 1980 on construction evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTwo-bar rack with adjustable spacing; understood as a fishing rod and line rack, unmarked\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFormed steel base and bars, dip-coated in rubber; bars mounted on slotted feet and clamped by wing nuts on threaded studs\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSteel with a red rubber dip coating; bare steel hardware\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone present\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApprox. 7 in. by 6 in. at the base; approx. 3 in. high to the top of the wing nuts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and complete, all four wing nuts present and turning. Rubber coating intact, glossy and unsplit, with light marking. Rust throughout the exposed steel hardware. Offered as a decorative and collecting piece.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt looks like a sculpture and it was not meant to. Two red waves rising off a red plate, with four rusted wing nuts standing up out of them like pins, is a composition nobody designed for looks, and that is exactly why it works on a shelf. The red is loud and the rust is quiet, and the two hold each other in balance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePut it on a bookshelf, a desk, a bar or a windowsill where the profile can be seen from the side, which is where it reads best. It still does its job, so it will hold rods, dowels, brushes, rolled paper or anything else you want gripped and not scratched.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48073762242665,"sku":"VE-1652","price":150.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/8C7E9393-1704-41BC-8205-729DD17B2902_4_5005_c.jpg?v=1789648530"},{"product_id":"vintage-theodore-haviland-clinton-porcelain-set-of-7-c-1936-1957","title":"Vintage Theodore Haviland Clinton Porcelain, Set of 7, c. 1936–1957","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeven pieces of American porcelain in a warm cream body: five plates and two rimmed bowls. The decoration is a continuous swag of blue flowers running the rim, forget-me-nots and small bellflowers carried on fine blue-grey stems that dip and rise around the circumference without repeating in an obvious way. A gilt line runs the outer edge and a second finer gilt line circles the well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe palette is the reason to look. There are three blues doing the work, a deep one for the stems and the flower centres, a mid tone for the petals, and a pale one for the small bells, and they sit on cream rather than white, which is what keeps the whole thing warm instead of cold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe porcelain is thin, even and translucent, and the plates ring when tapped. The glaze is bright and uncrazed throughout, which is unusual on a set of this age and is the single best thing about it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mark reads Theodore Haviland, New York, MADE IN AMERICA, Clinton. The Haviland story starts with David Haviland, a New York china importer who moved to Limoges in 1842 to manufacture porcelain specifically for the American market rather than buy it. It is one of the odder arrangements in ceramics, an American firm making French porcelain for Americans, and it worked for well over a century. Theodore Haviland, his son, established his own house in 1892, and the firm later added American production under the New York name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat gives the date without inference. The Theodore Haviland New York and Made in America mark was in use from 1936 to 1957. The Clinton pattern itself is recorded at circa 1936 to 1961 and is long discontinued. Where those overlap is where this sits, so it is offered as c. 1936 to 1957, documented at both ends rather than argued from style.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClinton is a restrained pattern by Haviland standards. The firm made thousands of patterns, a great many of them dense with roses and heavy gilding, and this one goes the other way: a single thin blue garland, two hairlines of gold, and a lot of empty cream. That is why it still reads as contemporary and why it sets a table without dominating it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, offered as c. 1936 to 1957 on documentary mark evidence\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTheodore Haviland, New York\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePattern\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eClinton, discontinued\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTheodore Haviland New York in a cloud cartouche, MADE IN AMERICA, Clinton, printed in red and black on the reverse\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eContents\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSeven pieces as photographed: five plates and two rimmed bowls\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePorcelain with blue transfer decoration and gilt banding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eExcellent. No chips, cracks or restoration found on inspection, and no crazing anywhere in the set. Gilding bright and essentially unworn. Light surface marking consistent with careful use.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eShipping\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePacked and boxed as a lot; freight quoted separately\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne set of seven, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlue and white china is a crowded field and most of it shouts. This does not. The garland is thin enough to read as a line drawing rather than a pattern, the gold is two hairlines instead of a band, and the cream ground softens everything, so a table set with it looks composed rather than formal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeven pieces is a useful number. It sets four with plates and leaves two bowls for serving, it works mixed into plain white, and it breaks up beautifully: a single plate on a stand, a group hung on a wall, or one bowl out on its own holding fruit or keys. And because the glaze is uncrazed, these can actually be used rather than only looked at.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48074319560809,"sku":"VE-1653","price":650.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/7903927D-DB3E-4D8B-8801-004A8BE6C7EF_4_5005_c.jpg?v=1789649765"},{"product_id":"vintage-grand-master-oak-mechanics-creeper-model-hd-a-c-1950-1975","title":"Vintage Grand Master Oak Mechanic's Creeper, Model HD-A, c. 1950–1975","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn oak mechanic's creeper, the low wheeled board a man lay on to get under a car, and this one still carries every bit of its original printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe body is built the way shop equipment used to be. Solid oak rails running the length, oak boards laid across them, and the whole thing drawn together with large dome head rivets set at close intervals down both sides, every head still bright. Two steel strap plates are screwed across the deck where the boards meet, which is where a creeper works hardest and where the cheap ones let go.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne end rises. The head board is canted up on a short frame so the head and shoulders sit above the deck, and a padded rest in grey vinyl is fixed across the top of it. Underneath, swivel casters are set beneath the frame rails so the whole board turns and tracks in any direction rather than only fore and aft.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe printing is the part that survived, and it is why this one is worth having. GRAND MASTER runs across the head board in bold blue condensed capitals. On the deck below, Professional Quality is laid out in a confident blue script with MODEL HD-A and MADE IN U.S.A. set underneath it in small caps. All of it is screen printed straight onto the oak, and all of it is still crisp and legible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe oak has gone a warm amber with use, darker around the rivet heads and along the rails where hands and oil got to it, which is exactly the surface you want and cannot fake.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe creeper is one of those objects the American garage invented and then stopped changing for fifty years. Oak because it was cheap, stiff and would take a rivet. Rails and cross boards because that is the lightest way to carry a man. Casters at the rails because a mechanic under a car needs to move sideways as often as lengthways. The form arrived with the automobile and stayed until moulded plastic replaced it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe name is a trade brand rather than a manufacturer. Professional Quality, a model designation and Made in U.S.A., printed together with no company name anywhere on the piece, is the signature of a hardware jobber's house brand, a name owned by a distributor and applied to goods built under contract by a factory that put its own name on nothing. That is how most shop equipment reached the counter, and it is why GRAND MASTER turns up on the board with no address behind it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe materials set the floor. The headrest is grey vinyl over padding, not canvas and not leather, and vinyl upholstery of that kind belongs to the years after the war rather than before it. Every creeper of this form photographed from the thirties and earlier carries canvas or bare wood at the head.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe construction sets the ceiling. A full oak body, riveted, with the graphics screen printed directly onto the timber is pre plastic shop equipment. Through the seventies the trade moved to steel frames with vinyl pads and then to one piece moulded bodies, and a creeper built entirely of wood and steel sits before that changeover.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1950 to 1975. Four things would narrow it: whether the casters carry a maker's name or a patent number cast into the yoke, whether the caster mounting plates are steel or moulded plastic, whether the headrest vinyl is original or a recover, which the original tack line under the edge would show, and whether a hardware store or jobber stencil survives anywhere on the underside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAutomotive mechanic's creeper, oak body on swivel casters\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrand\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGrand Master\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eModel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHD-A\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGRAND MASTER on the head board. Professional Quality in script with MODEL HD-A and MADE IN U.S.A. on the deck, all screen printed in blue\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSolid oak rails and cross boards, dome head rivets throughout, two steel strap plates across the deck joints\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHead\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCanted head board on a raised frame with a padded rest in grey vinyl\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRunning Gear\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSwivel casters set beneath the frame rails\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1950–1975\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLength\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e40 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWidth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e17 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e6 in. at the head\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e14 lb.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and solid, sitting square with no racking in the frame. Oak carries the honest darkening, scuffing and oil shadow of shop use, heaviest along the rails and around the rivet heads. Rivets tight throughout. Steel straps in place with all screws present. Blue printing crisp and fully legible on the head board and the deck. Headrest vinyl intact with light wear and some surface marking. Casters turn. As with any piece of shop equipment of this age, check the rivets and the casters before putting weight on it.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBranded shop equipment with the graphics still on it is the whole game in industrial decor, and most of what reaches the market has been sanded, repainted or worn blank. This one kept its name, its model number and its country of origin in clean blue print on bare oak, which is the difference between an old board and an object with something to say.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt reads well on a wall. Stood on end or hung flat, forty inches of riveted oak with GRAND MASTER across the top does the work of a sign, and it suits a garage, a bar, a workshop office or a shop wall that needs one honest American thing on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it still rolls, which keeps the options open. On the floor it takes a plant, a stack of books or a case of something and moves out of the way with a foot, and it is low enough to live under a bench or a console instead of taking up a room. Sold as found, and it will do either job.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50412890816617,"sku":"VE-1695","price":788.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1695-01_1b369c5c-a2c2-41a9-8209-dad59089b1db.jpg?v=1790245857"},{"product_id":"vintage-sunview-grape-crate-end-panel-delano-california-c-1965-1980","title":"Vintage Sunview Grape Crate End Panel, Delano California, c. 1965–1980","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe end panel of a California table grape lug box, with the shipper's label still on the face. A piece of working packaging that became a sign the moment the crate came apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe board is plain sawn softwood, a shade over a foot and a half long and half an inch thick, clipped at all four corners so it would seat into the frame of the box. The back is bare timber, saw marked across the grain, with water shadows and a few dark knots. Nothing has been done to it, which is the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label across the front is lithographed paper, laid on when the crate was made up. A deep navy ground with a green band behind, and two oval vignettes in pale blue cartouches. At the top a bunch of red grapes and a bunch of green gold grapes on the vine with the leaves drawn around them. At the foot a stylised sunrise, orange and rose over a purple ridge, with the vineyard rows running away below it toward the mountains.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBetween them the type. SUNVIEW in tall outlined capitals shaded from white to pale blue, with BRAND spaced out underneath. Down the right hand edge, in yellow, THE BEST FROM THE WEST. In the middle, MARKO ZANINOVICH INC., EARLIMART AND DELANO, CALIF. 93215, a pink panel reading TABLE GRAPES, and at the bottom PRODUCE OF U.S.A. Two small red fleur de lys sit in the field between them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Zaninovich name belongs to a Croatian family that put down roots in the San Joaquin Valley and went into grapes. Marko Zaninovich established what became Sunview around the middle of the last century, working out of Delano and Earlimart in the heart of the table grape country between Bakersfield and Tulare, and the firm is still there and still family run under the Sunview name. This label is from the years when the fruit went out of the valley in wooden boxes and the name on the end of the box was how a grower reached a buyer two thousand miles away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDelano in those years was also the centre of one of the defining events in American labour history. The Delano grape strike and the national table grape boycott ran from 1965 to 1970 and made the town and its crop famous far beyond the produce trade. This label carries no part in that story one way or the other, and nothing here claims it does, but it comes out of that place in those years, and that is worth knowing when you look at it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ZIP code sets a hard floor. Five digit ZIP codes were introduced across the United States on 1 July 1963 and became mandatory for bulk mailers in 1967, and printers added them to commercial stationery and labels through the middle of that decade. A label printed with CALIF. 93215 cannot be earlier than the summer of 1963 and in practice belongs to the years after it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo things set the ceiling. The state is written CALIF. rather than CA, and although the two letter abbreviations were issued in October 1963 the older form held on in commercial printing into the seventies. More decisively, this is a paper label on a wooden lug. California table grapes moved off wooden boxes and onto corrugated cartons through the sixties and seventies, and by the eighties the wooden lug and the lithographed end label had both gone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1965 to 1980. Three things would narrow it or confirm it: whether the label is an original lithograph rather than a later reproduction laid on an old board, whether nail or staple holes survive along the board edges from the crate it came off, and whether a packing or lot stamp survives anywhere on the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFruit crate end panel with lithographed label, wall or shelf display\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrand\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSunview Brand\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eShipper\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarko Zaninovich Inc., Earlimart and Delano, California\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eProduct\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTable grapes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLabel Text\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTHE BEST FROM THE WEST. SUNVIEW BRAND. MARKO ZANINOVICH INC., EARLIMART AND DELANO, CALIF. 93215. TABLE GRAPES. PRODUCE OF U.S.A\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eImagery\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTwo oval vignettes, red and green grape bunches above, a sunrise over vineyard rows and mountains below\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBoard\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSawn softwood, clipped corners, bare and saw marked on the reverse\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1965–1980\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLength\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e16 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWidth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e6 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDepth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e0.5 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1 lb.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and flat, standing or hanging without support. Label complete across the face and fully legible, with creasing and light lifting where the paper has moved on the board, scattered surface scuffing and small losses along the edges. Colour strong with no fading to the navy or the yellow. Board solid with water shadows, knots and saw marks on the reverse and light edge wear. A small adhesive shop tag is applied at the upper right and comes away with patience. Sold as found, unrestored and unframed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFruit crate labels sell, and they almost always sell matted or framed under glass, which costs money and takes away the part that makes them good. This one is still on its board, so it leans on a shelf, sits on a picture rail or hangs on two nails with no framing at all, and the bare sawn timber around the paper does more for it than a mount ever would.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe graphics carry a room on their own. Deep navy, a hot orange sunrise and yellow display type is a palette that works against white plaster, against brick and against a dark kitchen wall, and at sixteen inches it fits in a galley, a pantry, a bar or a stairwell where a framed print would be too much.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it is specific, which is what separates a good sign from a generic one. A real shipper, a real town, a real crop and a date you can argue from the printing. For a wine room, a kitchen, a California house or anyone who grew up near the valley, it is a better object than a reproduction of the same image would ever be.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Marko Zaninovich Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50414019346537,"sku":"VE-1697","price":131.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1697-01.jpg?v=1790261064"},{"product_id":"vintage-sears-amp-wire-stripper-and-crimping-tool-c-1965-1984","title":"Vintage Sears AMP Wire Stripper and Crimping Tool, c. 1965–1984","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA multi purpose electrician's tool from the years when one stamped steel plier did the work of five, made by AMP Incorporated of Harrisburg and sold under the Sears name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth faces are covered in instruction. On the front, crimping nests at the nose marked 22-14 against a red dot and 12-10 against a blue, with an INS. position beside them carrying blue and yellow dots for insulated terminals. Below that a head plate tapped and marked INSERT SCREW HERE with five threaded holes, 10-24, 10-32, 8-32, 6-32 and 4-40, for sizing and cutting a screw without mangling the thread. Further down, STUD SIZES set out in two columns, 3 over 8, 1 over 4, 10 and 6 on one side, 5 over 16, 12, 8 and 4 on the other, so a man could match a ring terminal to the post he was putting it on without leaving the ladder.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurn it over and the other face carries the cutting work. WIRE CUTTER across the throat, a STRIPPING GAGE with arrows and marks for 12 to 10 and 22 to 14, and down the centre a row of bolt cutting holes labelled COMMERCIAL A.W.G., 7 MM, and 1 to 6, 1 to 4 and 1 to 2. CLOSE and HERE with arrows appear on both sides, because the tool expected to be read by someone who had never seen one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe jaws are stamped steel finished in black oxide with the lettering picked out in white. The handles are pressed steel painted a light grey, ribbed for grip, riveted through at the pivot and again at the tail, and one of them carries the Sears wordmark in blue inside a thin rectangular frame. Just above the pivot sits the stepped steel cutting insert, still bright where the black has worn off it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo names on one tool, which is what makes it datable. AMP began in 1941 as Aircraft and Marine Products, formed to make solderless electrical connections for aircraft and ships, and it was the firm that took the crimped terminal from a wartime expedient to the standard way every wire in America got joined to every other. Sears did not make tools. Sears bought them from firms like AMP and put its own name on the handle, and that is what happened here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe maker's name sets the floor. The tool is marked AMP INCORPORATED, and the company only took that name in 1956 when it re-incorporated. Before that it was Aircraft and Marine Products. Anything stamped AMP INCORPORATED is 1956 or later, and the outside edge runs to 1999, when Tyco International bought the company and the AMP name went with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Sears wordmark narrows it considerably. The name is set in lowercase inside a thin rectangular frame, which is the form Sears used from the middle nineteen sixties until the frame was dropped in the mid eighties in favour of a plain wordmark. Overlap the two marks and the window closes to about twenty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1965 to 1984. Three things would narrow it further: whether a Sears catalogue or stock number survives anywhere on the handles, whether the handle paint is original or a refinish, and whether the tool matches a dated Sears catalogue page, which is how tools of this kind are usually pinned to a single year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMulti purpose electrician's tool. Crimper, wire stripper, wire cutter, bolt cutter and screw gauge\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRetailer\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSears\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAMP INCORPORATED and HARRISBURG, PA. MADE IN U.S.A. on the jaw. Sears wordmark in blue on the handle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCrimping\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNests marked 22-14 with a red dot and 12-10 with a blue dot, plus an INS. position with blue and yellow dots for insulated terminals\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStripping\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStripping gage marked 12 to 10 and 22 to 14\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBolt Cutter\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHoles marked COMMERCIAL A.W.G., 7 MM, 1-6, 1-4 and 1-2\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eScrew Gauge\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTapped holes for 10-24, 10-32, 8-32, 6-32 and 4-40\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStud Chart\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e3\/8, 1\/4, 10 and 6 against 5\/16, 12, 8 and 4\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStamped steel jaws in black oxide with white filled lettering, pressed steel handles painted light grey, riveted\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1965–1984\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLength\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e7.5 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWidth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2.5 in. at the head\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1 lb.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and working. Jaws meet square and the pivot is tight with no side play. Black oxide good across both faces with the white lettering legible throughout and no pitting found. Cutting insert bright from use. Handle paint sound with scattered chipping and rubbing at the tips and along the edges, and a small paint loss at one shoulder. Sears wordmark clear. Sold as a working tool.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt still does the job. A crimper is a crimper, the AWG sizes have not changed, and this will terminate a lamp cord or a trailer harness as well as it did the day it was sold. For anyone rewiring old lighting, which is most of the trade, it earns its bench space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe instructions are the charm. Every surface is covered in white lettering telling you what to do and where to close it, laid out with an optimism about the home electrician that no modern tool bothers with, and that density of type on black steel is why these photograph so well in a flat lay or a shadow box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it is honest American manufacturing with two names you can trace. AMP of Harrisburg invented much of how wire gets joined in this country, and Sears put it in a million basements. At this size it sits in a tool roll, on a pegboard or in a frame, and it costs less than any of them are worth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50415781707881,"sku":"VE-1698","price":70.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1698-01_d2f5d606-66b5-435a-90ae-98070833e77a.jpg?v=1790318426"},{"product_id":"vintage-wen-model-21-electric-pencil-engraver-chicago-c-1970-1990","title":"Vintage WEN Model 21 Electric Pencil Engraver, Chicago, c. 1970–1990","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA WEN electric pencil engraver, the little red vibrating stylus that put a man's driver's licence number on every television, toolbox and outboard motor in America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe body is moulded in a hot orange red, pebbled over most of its surface and polished smooth where the hand goes, drawn out to a long tapered nose and swelling to a rounded tail where the cord comes out. It is one of those shapes that could only have been designed to sit in a palm, and it does, pen fashion, with the weight over the fingers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the nose a chromed collar holds the tungsten carbide point, worn grey at the tip from use. At the tail sits the white knurled adjuster that sets the stroke, so the same tool scratches a fine line on the back of a watch or bites deep into a steel casting. Beside it a second white collar takes the strain of the cord, which is the original white flex.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nameplate is brushed aluminium, foil printed and still crisp. MODEL, with MODELE beside it, then 21. The WEN mark in its red rectangle. Burin Electrique above Electric Pencil Engraver, both in script. Then the ratings, 120 volts, 12 watts, 60 hertz, with the UL listing mark on one side and the CSA roundel on the other, and at the foot WEN PRODUCTS, INC. CHICAGO, IL.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWEN was founded in 1951 by Nick Anton in the Chicago area, and by its own account its people developed the electric soldering gun, the electric jigsaw, the electric engraver and the chainsaw. The soldering gun claim was contested hard enough to reach a federal courtroom in Chicago in 1954, when Weller took WEN to trial over it, which tells you something about how seriously both firms took the patent. The engraver is the one that stayed in the catalogue, and the Model 21 is the shape it settled into.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nameplate sets the floor, and it does it in two languages. Every line is doubled into French, MODELE beside MODEL and Burin Electrique above Electric Pencil Engraver, with the Canadian Standards Association roundel beside the UL mark. That is a plate built for a tool crossing the Canadian border, and Canada passed its Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act in 1970, after which American manufacturers selling north moved onto dual language plates through that decade. The address helps too. It reads CHICAGO, IL. rather than Chicago, Ill., which is the two letter postal form that took hold from the later sixties.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo things set the ceiling. This is the plain Model 21, and the engraver WEN sells today is the 21B, so this is the earlier designation that the B superseded. And the plate reads WEN PRODUCTS, INC. CHICAGO, which is the original firm. The WEN name now sits with a company in West Dundee, Illinois, so a Chicago plate belongs to the first company rather than the brand's later life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1970 to 1990, with the earlier end the better supported of the two. Three things would narrow it: whether the original box or instruction sheet survives with a printed date or catalogue number, whether the cord is original or a replacement, and whether the plate matches a dated WEN catalogue page, which is how these are usually pinned down.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eElectric pencil engraver, handheld vibrating stylus\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWEN Products, Inc., Chicago, Illinois\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eModel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e21\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRating\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e120 volts AC, 12 watts, 60 Hz\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApprovals\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUL Listed and CSA, on a bilingual English and French nameplate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePoint\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTungsten carbide stylus in a chromed collar\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAdjustment\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKnurled stroke adjuster at the tail for fine to deep cutting\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBody\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMoulded plastic in orange red, pebbled finish, assembled on two screws\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCord\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWhite flex, appears original\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1970–1990\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLength\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e6 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWidth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1.5 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1.5 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e1 lb.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eComplete and intact. Body sound with no cracks found, colour strong, light scuffing and handling marks across the surface. Nameplate crisp and fully legible. Carbide point present and worn grey at the tip from use. Stroke adjuster turns. Cord and strain collar in place with no splits found in the insulation. Sold as found and not tested under power. As with any corded tool of this age, have the cord and plug checked before putting it into service.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a design object that happens to be a tool. Six inches of hot red plastic drawn into a teardrop with a chrome nose is exactly the industrial design that made American tools of that period worth keeping, and it photographs like a prop from a film about the future as it looked in 1972.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt also still has a job. An engraver marks glass, metal, ceramic, leather and hard plastic, and anyone who signs work, labels tools or has ever had a bicycle stolen has a use for one. The adjustable stroke is what separates it from a scratch awl.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it is a genuinely American story in an object you can hold. A Chicago firm, a patent fight serious enough to reach federal court, and a tool that ended up in enough basements that most people over fifty will recognise it on sight and tell you what their father engraved with it. That recognition is worth more across a counter than most objects twice the price.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50415795830889,"sku":"VE-1699","price":67.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1699-01.jpg?v=1790318729"},{"product_id":"antique-the-tenderfoot-framed-sheet-music-cover-witmark-c-1903-1904","title":"Antique The Tenderfoot Framed Sheet Music Cover, Witmark, c. 1903–1904","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA colour lithographed sheet music cover for The Tenderfoot, a musical play in three acts, lyrics by Richard Carle and music by H. L. Heartz, published in New York by M. Witmark and Sons. A turquoise prairie sky banked with white clouds runs behind a red proscenium cartouche, two stylised red trees standing to either side of a photographic portrait of Carle in character as the mild, bespectacled figure in clerical black who gave the show its title. The lettering is drawn rather than set, the capitals of the title interlocking in the loose Art Nouveau manner American music publishers favoured at the turn of the century, and the whole design is printed in three worked colours on a single sheet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlong the foot the publisher has printed the full list of numbers from the score with their retail prices, from The Tortured Thomas Cat and The Soldiery through My Alamo Love and Adios to the Chinese dance Hop Lee, the piano selection at two dollars net and the dance arrangements at sixty cents. The sheet is glazed in a wide gilt composition frame with a carved wave and scroll outer moulding and a beaded inner lip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Tenderfoot opened at the Dearborn Theatre in Chicago on 12 April 1903 and reached Broadway at the New York Theatre on 22 February 1904, where it ran eighty one performances to the end of that April. Richard Carle wrote the book and the lyrics, directed the piece and played the lead; H. L. Heartz wrote the music; Fred Eustis conducted. The action moved between a ranch and an Indian camping ground, and the comedy turned on the figure Carle plays here, the eastern innocent set down in the west.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cover carries the credit As Produced By The Dearborn Theatre Management. That billing belonged to the show only while the Chicago management held it, from the spring of 1903 through the Broadway run that closed in April 1904, which sets both ends of the window without recourse to style. The printed song list is the second anchor. Witmark sold the individual numbers separately at sixty cents, and the list on this cover is the catalogue the house was working from during the run, set in type rather than stamped or amended later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the upper left, in pencil, a previous owner has written the name Earl Bierly with the number 130 beside it, the sort of shelf mark a working musician kept on the covers of a bound run of popular music. It is left as found.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1903–1904, fixed by the Dearborn Theatre Management production credit printed on the cover, which the show carried only from its Chicago opening in April 1903 to the close of the Broadway run in April 1904\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Tenderfoot, a musical play in three acts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLyrics\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRichard Carle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMusic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eH. L. Heartz\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eM. Witmark \u0026amp; Sons, New York\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMedium\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eColour lithograph on paper with halftone portrait\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFrame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGilt composition moulding, carved wave and scroll outer with beaded inner lip, glazed; a later decorative frame, not original to the sheet\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 17.5 in. wide by 20.5 in. high by 1.5 in. deep, framed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGood for its age and handled. Overall warm toning to the paper. An aged tape repair across the top edge and a translucent tape strip laid across the song list, both old and both visible. A small paper loss at the word Fascinating in the song list. Light creasing and wear to the upper corners. The Witmark imprint along the very bottom edge is partly covered by the frame lip. Frame sound and clean.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eProvenance mark\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePencil inscription Earl Bierly with the number 130, upper left\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurn of the century sheet music covers were commercial art made to be seen across a shop, and this one still works that way: a flat turquoise field, three colours, a red architectural frame holding a single figure. Hung alone it reads as graphic design a century before the term; hung in a run with other paper it anchors a wall of ephemera. The subject earns its place as well, a documented Broadway production with a fixed beginning and end rather than an anonymous parlour song, which gives the piece something to say when a guest asks.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50416061382761,"sku":"VE-1700","price":692.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1700-01_8037ca8a-5fe0-4880-9116-0e45e683d243.jpg?v=1790327042"},{"product_id":"vintage-bostitch-h2b-hammer-tacker-rhode-island-c-1948-1986","title":"Vintage Bostitch H2B Hammer Tacker, Rhode Island, c. 1948–1986","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Bostitch hammer tacker, the tool a roofer or an upholsterer swings rather than squeezes. There is no trigger and no handle to grip closed: the staple is driven by the impact of the head against the work, which is why the body is a heavy cast aluminium frame carrying a steel anvil and a riveted linkage rather than the light pressed shell of a desk stapler. The model designation MODEL H2B is cast into the side of the frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe handle is moulded in a dark olive brown thermoset with fine vertical ribbing along its length and the Bostitch name raised inside an oval cartouche. At the butt sits a painted end cap in a strong turquoise, worn back to bare metal across its face from decades of being set down and knocked about. That single stroke of colour against the grey castings and the brown handle is most of the reason the object reads as well as it does on a shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe firm began in 1896 in Arlington, Massachusetts as the Boston Wire Stitcher Company, founded by Thomas Briggs around a machine that stitched books from a coil of wire. It brought out its first portable stapler in 1914 and the cohered strip staple in 1924, which is the ancestor of every staple sold today. In 1948 the company formally took the shortened name Bostitch, and in 1957 moved to East Greenwich, Rhode Island, where it still sits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat 1948 change is the floor for this tool. It carries the Bostitch name on its own, so it cannot have been made while the firm was still trading as Boston Wire Stitcher. The ceiling comes from what is absent: Textron bought the company in 1966 and Stanley Works bought it from Textron in January 1986, after which the tools carried Stanley Bostitch branding. There is no Stanley here. The window is documented at both ends rather than argued from the shape of the castings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe H2B was a working tool rather than a domestic one. It was swung to fix roofing felt, insulation, house wrap and upholstery webbing, and it is remembered by the contractors who used it as heavy, durable and easy to clear when it jammed, which mattered more than elegance when you were holding it at the edge of a roof.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1948–1986. The Bostitch name alone gives the floor, since the firm traded as the Boston Wire Stitcher Company until 1948; the absence of any Stanley marking gives the ceiling, since Stanley Works acquired the company in January 1986 and branded the tools Stanley Bostitch thereafter\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBostitch, Rhode Island\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eModel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eH2B, cast into the frame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHammer tacker, impact driven, no trigger\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterials\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCast aluminium frame, steel anvil and linkage, moulded thermoset handle, painted steel end cap\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 14 in. long by 4 in. high by 2 in. wide\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGood honest working condition. Castings bright with handling marks and light surface oxidation, with heavier rust across the steel anvil and the top plate. Handle sound, ribbing and the Bostitch cartouche crisp. Turquoise end cap worn through to bare metal across its face. Magazine empty and the mechanism not tested or serviced; sold as found and as a decorative object rather than a working tool.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the kind of object that earns a shelf without pretending to be art. The silhouette is good from every side, the mechanism is legible enough that people pick it up and work out what it does, and the worn turquoise cap gives it a colour note that nothing else in a room has to answer to. It sits well on a workbench, a studio shelf or a bookcase among tools and paper, and it photographs better than almost anything else at its size.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50416709599337,"sku":"VE-1702","price":324.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1702-01_9ebaf115-6c07-40e8-a8c5-982eda443168.jpg?v=1790358964"},{"product_id":"vintage-park-cantilever-steel-tool-box-green-crinkle-c-1950-1970","title":"Vintage Park Cantilever Steel Tackle Box, Green Crinkle, c. 1950–1970","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA cantilever box in formed and riveted steel, the kind that opens like a set of stairs. Lift the lid and four trays swing up and outward on their linkages to sit clear of the deep well beneath. The two outer trays are divided by pressed ribs into a row of narrow bays each, the small sorted compartments a fisherman wants for hooks, swivels, sinkers and spinners; the two inner trays are longer open runs for pliers, spools and larger plugs; and the well below takes the reels and the bulk.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe finish is green crinkle enamel, the pebbled texture still crisp across most of the shell. Somebody later brushed the box over in gloss black, inside and in patches outside, and that overpaint is now worn and flaking away in broad islands to show the original green underneath. The result is a two colour map that no finish could be made to imitate. A nickel plated bail handle arches over the lid and a nickel drawbolt latch closes it, over a full length piano hinge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRiveted to the lid front is the original printed label: PARK in black on orange, reg. trade mark beneath, and PARK MFG. CO., GRANT PARK, ILL. alongside a boxed field for the model. That field was left blank, so the box carries its maker and its town but never its model number.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePark Manufacturing Co. worked out of Grant Park, Illinois, a village in Kankakee County an hour south of Chicago. The firm was advertising in Hardware Age in July 1952 and issued its own illustrated catalogue in 1959 under the title Park Quality Tool and Tackle Boxes, both of which survive in the trade literature. That title is the point: Park built one cantilever shell and sold it to the man at the bench and the man at the lake alike, changing the tray dividers to suit. This one was fitted out for fishing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cantilever box was the format the firm sold on. A plain box makes you unpack it to reach the bottom; a cantilever box does the unpacking for you, and every bay stays visible while you work a bank or a boat. It is a mechanism rather than a container, which is why these survive when plain boxes were thrown out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1950–1970. Park Manufacturing Co. is documented advertising in Hardware Age in July 1952 and publishing its own tool and tackle catalogue in 1959; the crinkle enamel, the printed foil label with its blank model field and the nickel drawbolt latch all belong to that production period, and no later branding is present\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePark Mfg. Co., Grant Park, Illinois\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCantilever tackle box, four swing out trays over a deep well, the outer pair divided into narrow sorted bays\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterials\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFormed and riveted steel, green crinkle enamel, nickel plated bail handle and drawbolt latch, full length piano hinge\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRiveted printed label to the lid front: PARK, reg. trade mark, PARK MFG. CO., GRANT PARK, ILL. The boxed model field is blank\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 20 in. wide by 8.5 in. deep by 9.5 in. high, closed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGood honest working condition. Original green crinkle sound across most of the shell. Later gloss black overpaint to the interior and in patches outside, now worn and flaking to reveal the green beneath. Handle and latch sound with plating wear. Hinge sound and the cantilever linkages operate freely through their full travel. Label intact and legible. Light surface rust in places. Used, and it looks used.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOpen it and leave it open. The cantilever action is the whole argument: a stepped array of sorted bays that turns a closed box into a piece of sculpture and a set of shelves at the same time. Those narrow compartments were sized for tackle, which makes them just right for brushes and nibs on a studio bench, spools and bobbins in a sewing room, screws and washers on a workbench, or keys and coins by a back door. Closed it is a green rectangle with a nickel handle and an orange label, which is a good enough object to leave on a shelf and never open at all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50416836673641,"sku":"VE-1707","price":464.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1707-01.jpg?v=1790367645"}],"url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/collections\/americana.oembed?page=3","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}