Tuesday Treasures - February 14, 2023
Only two items this Tuesday, but they are both nice ones from St. Vincent de Paul.
This is something I'd never seen before. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd ever heard of them before. It's a hair receiver. Yep... a two piece porcelain vessel for the hair pulled out of brushes and combs. It's hand-painted Royal Kinran Nippon. Nippon dates it prior to 1921, just barely a true antique. The KcKinley Tariff Act in 1891 required items imported to the U.S. to be marked in English. Nippon is close to the Japanese pronunciation of Japan. However, in 1921 U.S. Custom Agents no longer accepted items marked Nippon, as the word was then decided to be Japanese in origin! I learn so much about U.S. history, that I never learned in school, by researching my treasures.
Why would hair be saved? To stuff pillows and pincushions. Since hair wasn't washed as often as now, and perfumed oils were used on it, the hair was ideal for pincushions since it lubricated the pins and needles so they slid through fabric better. The wads of hair were also wrapped in mesh as "ratts" to add volume to hair. I will guess that is where the term to "rat" hair comes from.
The other item is a beautiful peach lusterware (and I love lusterware) Fire King (made by Anchor Hocking) Rio Grande Railroad (1879-1992) mug from the 60's. It's a triple collectible! Fire King, lusterware, and railroad history! I don't collect railroad history, and only have a few Fire King mugs (I pick them up for cheap, this was $1, or near free as the McDonald's one was in the Goodwill Bins). My lusterware has been only salt and pepper shakers and Shofu vases.
Oh man, if I had saved the hair that I lose on the daily... I could have a cottage industry of pincushions and such. Wow. (I remember reading someplace that our name for Japan came from some random place, and it has no resemblance to what the Japanese call themselves.)
ReplyDeleteI hate cleaning hair out of brushes, so wouldn't like to save it! Yes, the name Japan may have come from Chinese or Malayan. Leave it to "us" to decide we don't like the name they gave themselves (Nippon), so we'll call them something completely different, not even related to Japanese.
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