November

  Back Burners

My sincere apologies for letting the blog sit for months now with nothing nice to read. I do get to my Instagram more, because it is quicker I guess, but that's no excuse. I have had more bad days than good, everything is a struggle for me, its been hard to juggle everything. More than just the blog has been put on the back burner...but hey, they're not off the stove entirely so I guess that is a good thing. 

 I have been getting little things done here and there, and this past week I came to the blog for something and saw it has been so long since I have posted(!!) and that's just unacceptable to me! 

One of my back burner to-do's was making an archival mount to store of the many 18th c quilted layette basket linings in the collection. I do have one still stitched into its original 18th c woven basket, but the others are long separated from theirs. This lining in particular was stored for years before I got it folded and by how sharply the folds were creased I suspect this was placed on the bottom of the stack and under much weight. Silk does not like to be folded. It really needs to be stored flat and not folded, but because it is a shaped construct, it does not just open up and lay flat. 

I took careful measures and made a basket /tray form from archival materials to store it, as seen above. Ideally, I will have triangular inserts that fit up against all sides that will fully support the silk ruffle as well. 

I am always looking for deals, and this past summer had a couple of happy finds. One was this table, 50 dollars in a junk shop I found while waiting for daughter to get out of school up in Pueblo..

I brought it home and refinished it. It's a great little table, better than anything you can get new these days. One of my favorite things about it is the hand made cove/ridge molding around the table edge, its wavy and wonderful. 

Can you believe these were not even 50 dollars?! Colonial shoes, thats what they were sold as, 49 bucks. Not in the greatest shape, but ya'll know how much I love shoes. Even the poorest condition pieces are valuable, as we can see construction details not seen in pristine ones. This is them out of the ENVELOPE they were mailed to me in (oh my golly I am never amazed at how people ship things)

 I was absolutely over the moon when I removed the olde paper stuffing and found the provenance of the shoes written on the footbed and interior of both latchetts of one of the shoes. Grandma may no longer be with us, but her wedding shoes are, and they cannot wait to help me uncover her story.

All these need is a little love to bring them back to life. 

One more happy under 50.00 find of the year...this one just 33.00 on eBay

 A precious boys wool tunic late 1830s to very early 1840s I thought...and upon unwrapping it when it came, not one but two provenance notes along with a museum loan document it being worn in 1840 in New York.

I love the neoclassical design of the applied braid on the front. 

I would have loved to have the matching trousers that there most definitely once was, but hey, beggars can't be picky. I'll take it how it is, with gratitude!