The Scottish Carron “turtle” and reproductions
The Carron Company was founded in Falkirk, Scotland in 1759. It continued in operation for over 220 years, closing in 1982. A comprehensive history by Brian Watters (2005) entitled Carron … Continue reading
The Hatton double asbestos pad stand
W.R. Hatton & Sons, Ltd of London, England produced this very interesting cast iron stand in the 1890s. It was available in two versions, to support one or two pressing … Continue reading
A beautiful “Ober” stand, possibly a prototype
In June of 2007 an unusual, 6 1/4″ diameter nickel-plated sad iron stand (trivet) with 4 short feet appeared on eBay. It shared some similarities with the Ober Square Leaf … Continue reading
An antique mall purchase
In May 2021, finally fully vaccinated against Covid, my husband Ed and I took a long awaited 18 day road trip to visit family. We drove from Florida to Tennessee … Continue reading
Reproduction vs Antique
Most collectors are familiar with the most common reproduction trivet designs. But have you discovered the  antique trivets that were their inspiration? In this blog post I compare six trivet designs, … Continue reading
Different binders for my reference books
Over the past two years I’ve been using rainbow colored, heavy duty Staples binders to house my growing collection of unbound reference books. I liked them because I could select … Continue reading
Union Web cast iron horseshoe
This is an interesting little horseshoe shaped advertising piece. Although shaped somewhat like a bottle opener, its roundness and thickness argue against that. Was it intended for use as a … Continue reading