Howdy, Fiends! Time to get our Halloween on and celebrate with pumpkins (OK, gourds; they’re all in the Cucurbitaceae family), bones, and spooky black cats, all from QBO Estate Sales. Our first gourd is decorated inside, the second, outside. The beaded bowl was made by Huichol people from Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains. Each tiny bead is hand-glued on and there are over 1,000! Besides gourds, these beadworks are made on eggs or wood sculptures and Huichol jewelry (beads woven in 3-D shapes) are just as dramatic. Each tells a story, the main characters on this bowl being squirrels! There’s also a dog, scorpion, flowers, stars and the sun – looks like a fun kid’s book! The pyro-engraved brown gourd was made by people from the Peruvian Andes, where they’ve used gourds since 1,000 B.C.E.. Artisans flay off the gourds’ outer skin, then ‘gut’ and air-dry them. The design is both carved and burned in, using a metal engraving tool called a burin. Burnt grass ash paint is used for fine black lines. This gourd also tells a story, of family life, harvests, and the village marketplace. Again, it looks like a great kid’s book!
Variegated cotton thread was first produced in the U.S. in the 1940s and thread crocheted crafts were popular through the 60s, so this pin-cushion/thimble holder was likely made then. This sewing accessory doesn’t seem grisly but look closer! A REAL chicken wishbone painted red was used as structural support! And this is not a one-off, there are many versions, along with doll-like “pen-wipes” (for cleaning your fountain pen nib) and other hand-made accessories that incorporated real wishbones into them (which were considered lucky, but not for the chicken.)
Our other bone looks like a letter opener but isn’t. “Bone folders” or “folding bones” were historically made of cow, deer, or elk bone, wood, or horn. They were invented in Europe back when monks were copying bibles by hand and then sewing pages together into “folios” and binding them into books. The bone folder creates a clean, sharp crease in paper, vellum, leather or fabric. There’s a similar, curved Japanese paper tool called a “hera” and this bone folder may also have been made in Asia as it’s inscribed with a pagoda. Bone folders are still used by librarians, museum conservators, printmakers, sewers, origami and leather artists so there are Teflon ones now, too. Any time you need to make a sharp crease without damaging your material, a bone folder works. They are never made of metal, which can both tear and leave pigmented marks so if that elegant tool you got at one of our sales is brass, it’s a letter opener.
This self-assured cat by American sculptor Richard Henry Recchia is a ceramic replica of a bronze cast using the lost wax technique and then given a black patina. Recchia (AKA Riccardo Enrico Recchia) was born in 1885 in Massachusetts, son of a marble carver. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, then worked there as a T.A.. His first major commission was sculptural panels for the exterior of the Museum. Recchia died in 1983 and is buried (naturally) under a tombstone he sculpted himself. And although he’d been active in many guilds, he stayed connected to the MFA, Boston and its school, bequeathing his beloved fat cat sculpture to them upon his death. From it, the MFA produced these ceramic replicas. The original is not on display but lurks safely in the vaults, waiting to begin the next of its 9 lives. And although they are only replicas, the now ‘out-of-print’ copied cats sell for over $300.
This arched cat doorstop is cast iron, with only a hint of paint in her eyes. The black is inherent, same as a frying pan. A mind-boggling number of foundries did their own fresh takes on these spooky doorstops. Telling antique from reproduction can be tricky, but the most desirable were made by cast iron toy, doorstop, and bookend maker Hubley Manufacturing Co. Their maker’s mark: 3 numbers or the word “Fish”! And, although kitty here weighs a good 4+ lbs., she is not solid but was cast in two pieces and screwed together, leaving an open, hollow interior that’s made a handy home for a big, LIVE spider! Yikes! Oh, and Happy Halloween from the author’s vintage Moggie, acquired second-hand from the Corvallis Heartland Humane Society. (NFS.)
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!