Understanding Fraktur

 

QUESTION: I live outside Philadelphia. About 45 minutes further west lies what the locals call “Pennsylvania Dutch Country,” a landscape filled with Amish farms. Browsing antique shops in the area, I often see elaborately decorated documents called fraktur. I understand these recorded births and deaths but would like to know about their origins.

ANSWER: Fraktur was a highly artistic and elaborate illuminated folk art that originated in Germany in the 18th century. Named for the Fraktur script associated with it, it reached its peak between 1740 and 1860.

Laws in what’s now Germany dictated that all vital statistics on a citizen be recorded, and the art of fraktur began as means by which people could document and preserve important family information.

This form of folk illumination was already a well-established tradition in Alsace and other parts of the Rhineland where it took the form of a Taufschein, a short greeting in verse with illumination recalling the baptism of a child and with only an oblique reference to time and place of the baptism. Its chief purpose was not to record baptism but to convey the wishes of the godparents who sponsored the child.

But Taufschein created later in Pennsylvania had another purpose. It was a formal record of birth as well as of the infant’s baptism. In a land where there was as yet no bureau of vital statistics this certificate became a legal document.. 

Fraktur styles were diverse and varied dramatically between artists. Some fraktur were extravagant documents that draw attention to an artist’s expert skill while others were simple drawings that contained little artistic flair. Most fraktur often had religious themes, though some did have secular ones. Men wrote most fraktur in German text, although they used English text on all types of fraktur after the early 1820s. . 

While Pennsylvania Germans created most fraktur for record keeping, they also made them just for fun. Some schoolmasters created drawings as rewards of merit for their students. Others were simply decorative pieces. Regardless of purpose, fraktur was a personal art that was extremely popular with 19th century rural families of Pennsylvania.

The first Fraktur typeface arose in the early 16th century, when Emperor Maximilian I commissioned the design of the Triumphal Arch woodcut by Albrecht Dürer and had a new typeface created specifically for this purpose, designed by Hieronymus Andreae.

The name Fraktur came from the Latin fractus, meaning “broken.” It was a blackletter typeface—a gebrochene Schrift in German, which meant “broken font”—which the bends of the letters were angular or “broken,” as abrupt changes in stroke direction occur. 

Although its roots lie in medieval Europe, fraktur was an art form that came into its own and flourished amid the Pennsylvania Germans, who brought it with them to the New World.

German-speaking immigrants brought their knowledge of Fraktur lettering to America. Members of the Ephrata Cloister—a religious community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—produced some of the earliest American fraktur during the 1740s using inks, paints, and paper produced at the Cloister. Pennsylvania Germans made most fraktur between 1740 and 1850 in southeastern Pennsylvania, although many early German immigrants who settled in New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and even Canada made produced fraktur.

The Cloister’s brothers and sisters used fraktur letters to copy scriptures and hymn books. Some of the earliest frakturs done there were quite primitive. The written documents they created weren’t official in nature, but rather represented attempts at basic recordkeeping functions, such as birth and baptismal certificates, and marriage records.

Pennsylvania Germans made fraktur for a variety of reasons. The majority of fraktur were birth and baptismal certificates, called Geburts-und Taufscheine. Some of the many other types of fraktur include writing samples, rewards of merit, house blessings, bookplates, hymnals, New Year’s greetings and love letters.

In order to produce more fraktur in a shorter amount of time, the members of the Ephrata Cloister in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, began using a printing press in the 1780s to produce documents. Nearby cities of Reading, Lancaster, Allentown, Harrisburg, and Hanover soon developed important fraktur printing centers of their own.

Many professional fraktur artists used printed documents to keep up with customer demand. Even so, those living in rural farming communities continued to personalize each printed document. They filled-in customers’ personal information and often handcolored or embellished printed designs.

Pennsylvania German fraktur contained elaborate lettering and colorful drawings, along with intricate borders and scrollwork designs. Artists employed hundreds of different motifs to decorate these documents. Their drawings included vivid illustrations of people, buildings and animals, as well as complicated geometric patterns. The most favored designs were of angels, birds, hearts, and flowers. Some fraktur even depicted mythical creatures such as unicorns or the legendary Wonderfish. The American flag, the bald eagle and other political symbols of the newly formed United States became popular motifs at the beginning of the 19th century.

Prior to 1820, most Pennsylvania Germans belonged to the Lutheran Church or the German Reformed Church. Because of their larger population, followers of the Lutheran Church and the German Reformed Church produced most American fraktur, many of which were either  Geburts or Taufscheine, birth and baptismal certificates.

Berks County, Pennsylvania, families preferred “personalized” forms, and residents held onto the fraktur tradition longer than did neighboring counties. Fraktur artists and itinerants  crisscrossed the county producing birth certificates which by that time now recorded the details of births for vital statistic records. Reading printers created the printed source these artists and scriveners needed to expedite production.

Pennsylvania Germans usually made fraktur for personal use and put them in storage for safekeeping. The personal and religious information recorded on fraktur was of great importance to them. Only a few types of fraktur—such as house blessings or valentines—would have been displayed in their homes. More often, people rolled up fraktur documents and hid them away, pasting them underneath the lids of storage chests or keeping them neatly folded inside books and Bibles.

Fraktur thrived in Pennsylvania German communities for more than a century. By the 1850s, however, interest in fraktur began to decline. Prior to the Civil War, the United States experienced a surge in nationalist pride. With the encouragement of speaking only English,  traditional German-speaking parochial schools and their German schoolmasters, who created many fraktur, soon faded into the past. And baptism, a key force driving the mass-printing of fraktur birth and baptismal certificates, lessened in importance in favor of confirmation.

Ministers and school teachers created most fraktur on paper for individuals, although often more than one artist usually created them. A scrivener, or professional penman, wrote out the text of the document in the Fraktur scrips, then outlined drawings, and added scrollwork. A decorator, who may or may not have been the same person, applied the vibrant colors and motifs that decorated it. 

A variety of instruments filled the fraktur artist’s toolkit. Some of the most important tools included quill pens, brushes, straight edges, compasses, stencils, woodcut stamps, pencils and paper. Fraktur artists used laid paper during the 1700s. Woven paper—which has a smoother surface—became common after 1810. Decorators used imported pigments—carmine, vermilion, umber, gamboge and indigo—to make their colorful inks. They mixed these pigments with various binding substances to create glossy or muted effects. Scriveners usually wrote with iron gall ink—a standard writing ink blended from iron salts and vegetable tannins. Unfortunately, iron gall ink was very acidic and caused many fraktur to deteriorate.

Originally, the inks used to draw fraktur would had been concocted of natural ingredients such as berries, iron oxide and apple juice. However, the acids found in these inks led to deterioration and discoloration, or to brown stains left behind by the iron oxides. 

Perhaps because of these concerns, the Ephrata Cloisters’ fraktur artisans relied mainly on black inks and plainer styles of fraktur without the illumination and decoration of others produced at that time.

Images of the bird or distelfink were common on Pennsylvania German fraktur, and, as with most of the fraktur images, they had symbolic importance. Parakeets typically represented the soul, as people viewed the birds as liaisons between heaven and earth.

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Dreaming of Spring

 

QUESTION: I’ve always enjoyed gardening. I guess I inherited that gene from my father. Every year, he would wait impatiently for the first of the season seed catalogs to arrive. As a kid, I loved paging through them to see the lavish illustrations of all kinds of flowers and vegetables. As I got older, I began helping my father choose the seeds to plant for the summer growing season. Now as an adult with my own family, I’m carrying on the tradition with my own children and garden in our backyard. I never considered collecting seed catalogs until after my father died, and I helped my mother sort through lots of old things. I came across some of dad’s old seed catalogs and brought them home with me. But honestly, I have no idea which of them is collectible. Can you offer some history of seed catalogs and which ones might be the best to collect?

ANSWER: Seed catalogs are the botanical equivalent of a dream book—a grower’s wish list. The most interesting, quirky, art-filled seed catalogs are from the early 1900s.

The hand-drawn and painted, romanticized illustrations and resplendent plant descriptions made them equal parts information and entertainment while offering gardeners plants for their upcoming summer season.

The first known garden catalog appeared over 400 years ago at the 1612 Frankfurt Fair with the distribution of the bulb catalog, Florilegium Amplissimum et Selectissimum, by Dutch grower Emmanual Sweerts. The catalog contained 560 hand-tinted images of flowering bulbs, giving gardeners a glimpse of possibilities for their own gardens.

Many of the illustrations originated in botanical publications, useful for identifying plants and noting their medicinal uses, but this new publication distributed to fair-goers was a first to present bulbs for sale. Sweerts died in 1612—the same year the catalog first appeared in print—but it was reprinted for many years to come, right into the Tulipmania period in Dutch history.

Long before the soil warms, the first weeds sprout, and good intentions give way to busy summers, these gems tempt gardeners with visions of  ‘candy-sweet’ corn, crunchy cucumbers, and perfectly plump tomatoes.

It seems that gardening enthusiasts have been drooling over seed catalogs for a long time. Prior to his publication, other plant catalogs listed ornamental species growing in the private gardens of the rich and famous.

Wealthy Europeans had a penchant for collecting ornamental and newly discovered plant species from around the world. Printed catalogs with beautiful engravings depicting these rare botanical possessions helped them show off their status.

A few years after that Dutch catalog, René Morin published the first known French plant catalog in Paris.

Seed catalogs not only provide a bright spot in winter for the gardener, but they also offer a colorful glimpse into the past.

Seed catalogs continue to hold a colorful and important pride of place in history, and not just gardening history. These publications offered gardeners an interesting and informative glimpse into the past, so much so that the Smithsonian Institute Libraries contains a collection of about 10,000 seed catalogs dating from 1830 to the present day. The pages of these catalogs reveal not only details about the history of gardening in the U.S., but their text and illustrations also provide a fascinating look at printing, advertising and fashion trends through the years.

The honor of publishing the first American seed catalog goes to 18th century horticulturist David Landreth. The D. Landreth Seed Company, founded in 1784 in Philadelphia, introduced the zinnia, the white potato, various tomatoes, and Bloomsdale spinach to America, largely through its catalogs.

As American pioneers moved westward, ordering seed catalogs became an important way to bring fruits, vegetables and flowers with them to their new homes. When the nation's railway system grew and the mail service improved, the seed and nursery trade expanded as well.

After the Civil War, the mail order seed market became quite competitive, and nurseries used their catalogs to announce novelty items such as "Mammoth," "Giant" or "Perfection" varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables.

Catalog covers became more elaborate, and catalogs contained more than basic information and began to include more detailed descriptions, testimonials, special offers, contests and awards the nursery’s plants had won at horticultural fairs or exhibitions. For example, Dingee & Conard's 1889 catalog contained a special insert on pink paper that gave a detailed listing of its discounted collection of popular varieties.

Boston's Joseph Breck & Company, established in 1818, published its first seed catalog in 1840. Called "The New England Agricultural Warehouse and Seed Store Catalogue," the 84-page publication included illustrations and horticultural details next to product listings. Today the company is called Breck's Bulbs, and it still mails free catalogs to customers.

Seed catalogs have reflected the times. For example, catalogs from 1945 celebrated the end of the World War II with colorful pictures and the advice to settle down and to decorate your home with flowers. Seed producers gave flower varieties victory-related names. The back cover of the Jackson & Perkins catalog in 1945 featured the 'Purple Heart' viola, for instance. In one patriotic display, the 1945 Burpee Seeds catalog depicted a V-For-Victory- shaped red Swiss chard plant surrounded by bomb-like carrots over a tomato shaped like a globe.

The beauty of seed catalogs comes from their photography and, in earlier examples some cases, their engraving. Even today, companies such as Territorial Seed Company, based in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

One of the most well known seed catalogs belongs to W. Atlee Burpee & Company,  founded in 1876 by Washington Atlee Burpee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after starting a mail-order chicken business in 1876. The company expanded to selling garden seeds, farm supplies, tools and hogs after customers began asking for seeds they had grown in their native farms. 

In 1888, Burpee established the family farm, Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, as a family farm and the first experimental test field station in the United States. After he traveled to Europe to collect seeds which needed to be adapted to North American climates, Burpee conducted crop field trials.

In 1900, distant cousin Luther Burbank visited the farm inspiring him to create his own experiments. He later created additional research stations, including in California in 1909, to test seeds. By the turn of the century, Burpee's had created one of the largest mail and freight businesses of the time.

By 1915 Burpee was mailing over a million catalogs a year to American gardeners. But that same year, its direction began to change when Atlee’s son, David, inherited the company upon the death of his father. David’s main interest lay in victory gardens, and he became an early promoter of them during World War I. He also prioritized the company’s output in flower seeds and initiated several flower hybridization breeding programs. Burpee geneticists also began to modify the genes of seeds using x-rays and colchicine.

The advertisements began to include full-color advertising to include Burpee's strengths of reliability of seeds using the motto "Burpee's Seeds Grow" and leader in the industry while the catalog was compact, arranged by category, and easy to find the order form.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "folk art" in the 2023 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Those Happy Waffle House Days

QUESTION: One of the happiest memories I have from when I was a kid were the Sundays spent at the local Waffle House. My dad took Mom and us kids there after church on most Sundays. If I close my eyes, I can still smell their delicious aroma, smothered in melted butter and warm maple syrup. It’s been a while since I visited a Waffle House—there aren’t too many around anymore. Today, I use a shiny stainless steel and chrome electric waffle iron when I want to indulge. But it’s just not the same. Recently, as I was browsing through an antique coop. I noticed a pile of old, neglected waffle irons. Now I’d like to know more about them. When did the waffle originate? Who invented the first waffle iron? Who came up with the idea to electrify them?

ANSWER: Reading about your waffle memories makes me want to go make one. To me, waffles have always been a treat, especially if smothered in fresh strawberries, syrup, and whipped cream.   

The origin of waffles is highly debated. Some historians believe the earliest waffle irons originated in the Netherlands in the 14th century. These consisted of two hinged iron plates connected to two long, wooden handles. The plates often imprinted elaborate patterns on the waffle, including coat of arms, landscapes, or religious symbols. The waffles would then be baked over the hearth fire. Though blacksmiths made waffle irons back then, historians are unsure whether they or their customers created the designs imprinted on the waffles.

In fact, waffles can be traced back to ancient Greece, when Athenians cooked obelios—flat cakes between two metal plate—over burning embers. The word waffle evolved from wafer, one of the only foods early Catholics could eat during fasting periods because they contained no milk, eggs, or animal fats. Monks were the only ones making these wafers until the late 12th century, when peasant bakers began making their own flour and water waffles, although some started adding eggs and honey to make them lighter and sweeter. 

Eventually, waffle iron makers molded the plates with religious symbols and the familiar honeycomb pattern, which was supposed to represent interlocking crosses. In 1270, bakers founded a special guild to train the street vendors who sold waffles. 

To use a traditional waffle iron, a baker poured batter between the plates then held it  over a wood fire to bake the batter poured between them, one side at a time. Knowing when to turn the iron took skill learned by trial and error since these early waffle irons had no temperature controls.

The Pilgrims discovered waffles while seeking asylum in Holland before sailing to America and brought them across the Atlantic in 1620. Later, Dutch immigrants popularized the waffle in New Amsterdam.

But the waffle wouldn’t achieve nationwide appeal in America until Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s as a souvenir. He had his cook make and serve them at the White House, which helped popularize "waffle parties." 

It wasn’t until 1869 that Cornelius Swarthout patented the first waffle iron in the U.S.. What made his waffle iron unique was that he joined the cast iron plates by a hinge that swiveled in a cast-iron collar.

Soon after the invention of electricity came the electric waffle iron. Lucas D. Sneeringer eventually designed the first electric heating elements that used a built-in thermostat to prevent overheating, a common pro with early versions. With his revolutionary design and General Electric funding, the first electric waffle iron rolled off the assembly line on July 26, 1911. 

While the first electric waffle iron did the job—the process of making waffles this way is a relatively simple one—it didn’t look very pretty. So designers began to make the exterior of their waffle irons more attractive. Other innovations, like an iron that could cook two waffles at the same time, soon followed.  Charles M. Cole invented the first twin waffle iron in 1926, but it wasn’t until 1939 when Karl Ratliff designed the "Twin-O-Matic" for the New York World's fair that it really caught on with the public.

By the time the New York World’s Fair rolled around, Art Deco design had influenced everything from dishes to utensils and small appliances. Some waffle irons, like the Hotpoint Waffle Iron by Edison General Electric, became works of art in themselves. Some resembled flying saucers, having lost their legs and taking on a lower, sleeker look. One of these was General Electric’s Diana, designed by August Propernick. Toastmaster and Sunbeam soon got in on the act and began producing their own electric waffle irons.

Because of the "teeth and gaps" of the waffle mold or "iron", considerably more of the surface area is heated and caramelized relative to the "pancake" -- thus, the waffle has more taste and a crispness that enables it to serve as a support for other foods. Even though the waffle makers have changed over the centuries, the basic waffle recipe----a blend of flour, milk, eggs, and oil—hasn’t. In the mid-1930s, brothers Frank, Tony and Sam Dorsa created a dry waffle batter that only required users to add milk. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

On a Wing and a Chair

 

QUESTION: Recently I purchased an old wingback chair at a local antique shop. It seems very old to me since it has ball and claw feet, plus it’s upholstery looks good but older in style, leading me to believe it had been done long ago. But I’m puzzled about the springs supporting the upper pillow. Perhaps they were also added at a later time. Can you tell me more about this type of chair and how old this one might be?

ANSWER: Unfortunately, your wing chair isn’t as old as you think. It dates from the Great Depression of the 1930s and would be considered a Colonial Revival piece. What led you to believe the chair was older were its ball and claw feet, made popular by Thomas Chippendale in the mid-18th century in England.

The Chippendale style of furniture remained popular until the end of the 18th century. Interest in it disappeared until the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. The fair inspired furniture makers to re-create the styles of the American Colonial Period until all such furniture became known as Colonial Revival or just “period” furniture. Chippendale created chair designs for comfort, unlike the still, but stylish designs of Federal ones. His wingback chair offered the ultimate in comfort.

But where did the idea for a chair with wings originate? As early as the 17th century, people living in cold weather areas of Northern Europe gathered by their fireplaces on crude wooden benches to keep warm. As the century progressed cabinetmakers added high backs with small wings to these benches. While they were functional, they were far from comfortable. 

Furniture historians believe they originally intended the wings to prevent drafts from reaching the upper body of those who sat in these chairs. The chairs also prevented the intense heat produced by a roaring fireplace fire from affecting the makeup of ladies who might be sitting too close to it. Makeup then was clay-based and tended to run when heated.

Unlike other chairs, wingbacks offered a greater level of comfort and beauty. With the onset of the 18-century, chairmakers began incorporating upholstery into their wingbacks adding comfort and luxury. French furniture makers reinvented the wingback chair in the bergere chair, designed for lounging in comfort with a deeper wider seat.

English furniture maker George Heppelwhite lowered the seat in some of his designs. 

Chippendale molded the wingback design by adding an elegant frame such as oversized wings and scrolling arms to offset the upholstery. However, most of his designs didn’t have a pillow seat. Instead, chair makers stretched the upholstery over the springs and a small amount of padding. The “knees” of the chair were also chunkier and lower to the ground than those of Sheraton and Hepplewhite.

Also called fireside chairs, wingbacks allowed a person sitting by the fireside to catch the heat while eliminating cold drafts from creeping around their back or sides, so chairmakers developed a new kind of chair known as the “Sleeping Chayre.” Not only did this chair have wings, enabling the sitter to stay warm, it’s back could also rachet to different angles for sleeping.

This led to an unusual use in the 18th century. Respiratory diseases were rampant back then, and people commonly believed that it was better for the sick person to sit up to prevent fluid from accumulating in their lungs. So wingback chairs eventually found a home by the fireplace in American Colonial bedrooms. 

During  the 19th century, chairmakers generously stuffed wingbacks with horsehair for an added dose of padding. Covered in velvet or needlework to imitate contemporary French styles, they sported bright patterns and ornate fabric embellishments.

It was often common to find two of these chairs—one for the master and one for the mistress of the house—facing a small round table by the fireplace in the master bedroom of the house. Colonial couples often took their supper, known back then as “high tea,” in the warmth and comfort of their bedroom rather than in the drafty dining room downstairs.

Known and loved for its graceful curves, fluid framework and antique, throne-like feel, the wingback chair remains a symbol of comfort and elegance in modern decor. And it makes a great place to knot off for a quick nap. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Ancients" in the 2021 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Cream of the Crop

QUESTION: Last year I went antiquing in the English Cotswolds. In nearly every shop I went into, I saw at least one or more little cow creamers waiting for new homes. How did these little ceramic accessories come about and why did they choose to make them in the shape of a cow?

ANSWER: Originally made in England, then in Scotland and America, these unique creamers were the pride and joy of many late 18th and early 19th-century English housewives, both rich and poor. They kept these spotted bovines sitting on top of their dining room dressers, ready to use on special occasions.

These pottery cow creamers are little jugs standing firm on all four legs. They’re  usually about six inches long and four to five inches high. Housewives would pour fresh cream through a hole in the cow’s back, then seal up the whole with a cover. Unfortunately, many a cow creamer today is missing its cover. The cow’s curved tail served as the handle while its mouth served as the spout.

Cow creamers are among the oldest forms of decorative tableware still in existence today. Their ancestry can be traced back  to a decorative European jug used for washing the hands before and during a meal called an “aquamanile.” These jugs were very fancy and often doubled as a centerpiece. Ironically, an aquamanile had many of the same features as a cow creamer—a body in the shape of an animal standing square on its legs, a tail arched to meet its back that served as a handle, a hole in its back by which the jug could be filled, and a gaping mouth from which to pour the water.

Made from gold, silver, bronze, or pewter, the aquamaniles were most commonly shaped like lions, sometimes encrusted with precious stones.

It was the Dutch that chose the cow as the shape for the cow creamer which became a luxury accessory.

During the 18th century, coffee drinking became popular among the social elite of Europe. The new coffee ritual demanded novelty jugs to hold the cream. Those depicting a cow with a bee perched on its back were the most popular.

Initially, silversmiths created cow creamers in different sizes but using the same freestanding cow. There were all sorts of whimsical variations—some had garlands around their necks, hinged lids, or handles shaped like flies, bees, or flowers. But when the Dutch began making the creamers in tin-glazed Delftware, the fencegates opened and a whole herd of creamers rushed out.

The first cow creamer came from the Whieldon Pottery, which imitated the silver cow jugs made in 1755 by John Schuppe. The most well-known of these had a mottled brown tortoise shell-type glaze. Others had brown and yellow spots, black with a criscrossed yellow pattern, and even light blue with yellow circles.

But the clay was more difficult to control and sculpt than metal, so the potters introduced a few changes to the design to make it conform more to the different material. While a silver cow could stand directly on its legs, a pottery cow could not. This necessitated the addition of a base to help stabilize and strengthen the clay.

It seems every potter added his touch of whimsy. In fact, there are almost as many different decorations as there are creamers.

 potters also crafted these unique little jugs, essentially copying from the earlier Whieldon design. None of these have markings on the bottom. The Welsh potters added their own creative touches to their cow creamers. Many decorated them freehand or applied transfer designs of rustic farm scenes. After 1850, the Scots developed a love affair with the cow creamer. Scottish potters experimented with sponged decoration and brightly colored glazes.

After the American Revolution and into the early 19th century, imported English pottery became too expensive, so the United States Pottery in Bennington, Vermont, began making its own version of the cow creamer. Each cow had crescent-shaped nostrils, open eyes, folds in the neck, and visible ribs. I guess the American cows weren’t as well fed as their English, Scottish, and Welsh cousins. After Bennington closed in 1858, its potters sought work at potteries in Ohio, Maryland, and New Jersey, taking their skill at making cow creamers with them.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  La Belle Epoque in the 2020 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

It's About Time

QUESTION: I have inherited a very plain tall clock made in Philadelphia. How can I tell how old it is?

ANSWER: To tell the age of a tall-case clock, or grandfather clock as it’s more commonly known, you need to first look at the dial. The early ones at first showed 24-30 hours. Owners wound them at the end of that time by pulling the driving cord down.

In the earliest clocks—those dating from the 17th to early 18th centuries—the hour circle appears in a silvered ring with a doubled circle appearing within the numeral circle.

Many old clocks have only an hour hand. Some have both an hour and a minute hand. Even though clockmakers had used minute hands since 1670, most clocks, except the most expensive ones, didn’t have them. Early tall-case clockmakers gave their hands a fine finish and often made them the most decorative part of the clock. The hour hand was often the most elaborate and the second hand, if the clock had one, was sometimes long and graceful. Later, when clockmakers introduced white dials, the hour and minute hands became even more ornate and some even had a smaller second hand.

Originally, tall-case clockmakers made their dials of metal with a matt center circle. By the mid-17th century, they added ornamentation around the edge of this matted center, engraving birds or leaves to form a border showing the days of the month. They brightly burnished this date ring as well as the rings surrounding the winding holes. Silvered dials, containing no separate circle for the hours and minutes, appeared in 1750. Instead of a matted center circle, these dials featured an engraved overall pattern in the center circle. Many early tall-case clocks also had a small separate dial showing the days of the week.

Dials remained square until the beginning of the 18th century, at which time clockmakers introduced the arched dial. Dutch clockmakers found good use for this extra space, filling it with decorative figures and animated devices such as a see-saw or a shipping rolling at sea. They also added a moon dial, thereafter common on many tall-case clocks, which displayed the phases of the moon under the dial’s arch. English clockmakers, mostly in Yorkshire, went one step further, creating a globular rotating moon dial.

Clockmakers usually only made the works of tall-case clocks. They subcontracted the making of the cases to coffin makers, who used this as supplemental income when business was slow. During the second half of the 17th century, casemakers employed walnut to build mostly plain cases. The Dutch introduced marquetry to the fronts of the clock cases, using woods of different colors and grains.  Mahogany didn’t come into general use for tall-case clocks until about 1716. At first, casemakers imported it from Spain, then after that supply ran out, from Brazil.

Before 1730, the doors of most tall-case clocks were rectangular, but around that time casemakers included an arch in them to match the arched dials. The earliest clocks didn’t open with a door. Instead, the entire hood–the top part of the clock–slid backwards revealing the works.

For more information, read “Grandfather Time” and also visit the Web site for Bowers Watch and Clock Repair and read about the works of tall-case clocks in their clock section.


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Slipping and Sliding Along

QUESTION: I’ve loved to ice skate ever since I was kid. When it got cold enough to the local pond to freeze over, my parents would take my siblings and I ice skating. I remember the first pair of skates I received for Christmas when I was just six years old. Over the years, my interest and love of skating has grown. Even though I’m no Olympic champion, I’m a good skater. I also have an interest in the history of skating and have begun to collect bits and pieces of skating history—old skates, postcards, photographs, and such. What can you tell me about the origins of skating and the possibilities of collecting skating memorabilia?

ANSWER: Even though people have been skating since 300 A.D., the great interest in skating, especially figure and speed skating, grew out of the advent of the Winter Olympics. And while you and others skated on frozen ponds, many people today, especially those living in cities, skate on man-made skating rinks, both indoor and outdoor.

There was a time when ice skates were more of a mode of transportation with even armies known to have strapped on blades before military engagements.

An animal bone strapped to a fur-lined clog-type boot was the earliest form of skate used 1,500 to 1,700 years ago. At times, skaters may have also used a staff, or pole, to assist in propelling them over the ice and uneven frozen marshes.

Elk, horse, cow and deer bones as well as walrus teeth were the most commonly used material for this rather unsteady mode of transportation. Most of the skates measured 11 to 12 inches. Leather thongs went through holes drilled at each end of the bone and tied around boots.

Eventually, skate makers developed a clog type shoe with metal strap for the blade that was fitted to the bottom, called a snow skate . They carved them out of a block of wood and placed  animal hides into the clogs to keep the feet warm. Styles of skates varied depending on the country of origin and purpose.

Historians believe iron blades originated in the Netherlands as early as the 14th century. To help skaters glide over rough ice, the Dutch developed skates with a high curly prow at the front of blade.  They made the sole of the skate from oak, rosewood, walnut or beech. They stuck a sharp pin or screw into the heel of the wooden sole to help secure the boot heel to the skate. But many skaters still suffered broken bones from these types of insecure skates.

The ingenious Dutch also developed a faster way to skate in the 16th century called the “Dutch Roll,” the current method of skating, which allowed Dutch skaters to travel 40 to 50 miles a day. Dutch peasants skated over frozen canals to markets to sell their wares. This type of skating was more about speed than artistic skating style.

Sometimes, skate makers replaced iron blades replaced with brass or bronze ones. The first English figure skate had short iron blades with gently curved bottoms. No more than two inches of the blades touched the ice at any time. Skaters needed great skill to keep their balance on these early skates. Today’s skaters still wear the curved bottom figure skate blade.  And as skate designs evolved, skaters created new moves on the ice.

Early American merchants imported skates from England, Holland and Germany. In 1883,the C.W. Wirths Co. in Germany exported 600 pair of "high quality skates" to a firm in Philadelphia. They had exceptionally high curls on the prow and brass acorns at the tip.

There was an American skating mania from the 1850s to around 1900. As many as 50,000 skaters crowded onto the Central Park ice in one day. E.V. Bushnell, an American mechanic, invented the first integral, all metal footplate and blade skate in 1848. However, thousands of skaters still preferred the old wood platforms. Between 1800 and 1850, 200 skate models, good and bad, came into the U.S. Patent Office. An additional 400 patents related to skates appeared between 1850 and 1900. In 1870, skate makers developed the hollow ground blade  and became a great help in executing sharp edges for many intricate moves.

An important American skater, Jackson Haines, presented skating exhibitions up and down the East Coast of America and Canada. He invented a new style of skate to help develop his skill and artistic skating. His forged his blade onto steel toe and heel plates that could be screwed directly and permanently onto the sole and heel of the boot. He added teeth to the front of the blade to help in jumping. He became known as the founder of the international style of skating, and invented the Sit Spin, which figure skaters still use today.

In 1914, John E. Strauss, a St. Paul, Minnesota, blade maker developed the first closed-toe blade of one piece of steel. He attached the tip of the prow to the front foot plate rather than protruding unsupported.

Skates from the 1850s with metal footplates sell in the $100 to $200 range, depending on their condition. Rust on any skate will detract from its value.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about religious antiques in the special 2018 Holiday Edition, "The Art of the Sacred," online now.