Buckets of Fun at the Seashore

 

QUESTION: As I was browsing a local antique mall, I noticed an old tin sand pail sitting on a shelf along with a variety of other old toys. Seeing it brought back a flood of memories of vacations at the seashore with my family. Every summer, my father would pack up the car for our week at the New Jersey shore. Two items I made my father pack were my tin sand pail and shovel—indispensable for building sand castles. I never thought of sand pails as collectibles and seeing one on a shelf with other old toys was a surprise. What can you tell me about how these little pails got their start?

ANSWER: Sand pails appeal to both boys and girls around the world. Even those living  from the seashore played with their pail and shovel in a sandbox at school or at home in the backyard or by a lakeside. Sand pails weren’t expensive; costing just a few cents, a small price to pay to set a child's imagination off on an adventure. 

Originally, craftsmen made sand pails of wood, decorated with either a simple designs or lettering hand-painted or stenciled around them to appeal to children. After about 1840 tinsmiths started to use tin to make toys. Initially, they made pails from 12 by 14-inch sheets of tin plate imported from Wales. The small size of the sheets restricted the size of these early pails to about 4 ½  inches in diameter. As tin plate technology developed, larger, thinner sheets became available and tin plate started to be produced in the U.S. 

The designs on the earliest tin sand pails were simple, following the pattern of the earlier wooden pails with few bands of color or some letters applied free hand or stenciled over a japanned finish. Japanning consisted of several layers of paint followed by a coat of lacquer. As the market grew the decoration became more complex, a process imported from France in which tinsmiths employed a mixture of varnish and paint burned on in alcohol, then baked to produce a thin translucence to the finish.

They also used embossing on other pails to accentuate the design or lettering. It usually involved a stamping or rolling process so that parts of the surface were raised up while the pail was still in sheet form. It was then very easy to enhance the raised portions with a second color, using a paint pad or roller. 

A major technological advance came in the late 1880s with developments in lithography allowing this printing process to be applied to thin tin sheets. This innovative process printed with a detail that had previously only been possible on paper. This transformed the making of toys, as well as tin food cans and tin advertising signs. It was then possible to use multiple colors and produce fine detailing and a smooth, relatively hard wearing, durable finish. A lithographic press printed the designs and colors on flat sheets of metal from which toys could be formed using tools and dies.

By the turn of the 20th century a family visit to the seashore had become very popular.  America was on the move on weekends and took annual vacations in places like Coney Island, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, or Cape Cod.

Additionally, developments in the technology of printing processes in the 1930s enhanced the colors and details possible on tin pails, and several of the toy manufacturers employed famous illustrators to design the graphics.

The 1930s and 1940s with the popularity of radio and the movies created new heroes, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White along with the Seven Dwarfs all appeared on pails, spades, sprinkling cans and water pumps. The traveling circus was extremely popular. Exotic animals performing amazing acts along with daring performers and clowns with their crazy antics all have their place on beach pails.

As the years passed, cowboys chasing Indians across the range and other Western themes became popular from the influence of television programming. Then the atomic age with space travel captured the imagination and took its place on sand pails.

Tin sand pails and shovels offered a designer a large surface on which to tell a story. Children could identify with the events depicted on pails by The Ohio Art Company of Bryan, Ohio, Kirchoff Patent Company of Newark, New Jersey, T. Cohn Co. of Brooklyn, New York, or U.S. Metal Toy Manufacturing Company of New York. Toddlers could recite favorite nursery rhymes as they looked at the four sides of a beautifully illustrated square sand pail by Julius Chein and Company of New Jersey, or delight in the exploits of Disney characters.

Children delighted in swashbuckling heroes and pirates and acted out their own stories, their pails becoming little treasure chests to transport shells from the water's edge to their ever growing sand piles. 

People are often surprised at the higher prices collectors pay for Victorian and early 20th-century sand pails. This is particularly true of examples showing early airplanes, dirigibles, steamships, Old Glory, the American Eagle, early teddy bears, early Disney characters. 

Condition is everything when collecting tin sand pails, as with other tin-lithographed toys. The design may be worth $500 or $5 the only variable with be condition. Rust, dents, missing parts and major scratches have a serious impact on value.

In establishing an antique or vintage sand pail’s value, subject matter of the illustration on it is also extremely important. Size has no real effect on value. Some collectors like large pails to display on shelves or hang from ceilings, while others prefer the mid-size ones to exhibit in small cases. Many more collect all sizes and include the minipails that were first candy containers, grouping them eclectically.

As with any toys, the best examples of tin sand pails, in mint or excellent condition l always sell for the highest prices. Considering what children did with their sand pails, it’s a wonder any survived at all.

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 "Coffee--The Brew of Life" in the 2023 Summer 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 Mark of the Lady of the House

 

QUESTION: I recently purchased a beautifully crafted device at an antique show. The dealer called it a chatelaine and said that it dated to the 1860s. What attracted me to it were the small objects attached to individual chains which in turn were connected to belt clip. I’m sure it will become quite a conversation piece in my home. What can you tell me about its origins and uses?

ANSWER: During Victorian times, many women, either mistresses of the house or housekeepers in large mansions, who were in charge of keeping the keys to doors, drawers, and cabinets, wore a decorative belt hook with a series of chains suspended from it, called a chatelaine at their waist. Household items, including a small pair of scissors, a thimble, a pendant watch, a vinaigrette (to use in case someone fainted), a stamp holder, a match safe, and a household seal, hung from the chains. But the most important items hanging from the chatelaine were the keys needed by the person who managed the household.

The name chatelaine is a French term referencing the "lady of the castle." In its earliest form worn during the Middle Ages, a chatelaine hooked to a belt that held keys kept by the woman of the house. The chatelaine evolved, and chains were added to hold various implements. Both men and women wore them, with men's versions holding watches, knives, wax seals, and the like.

Women as far back as ancient Rome wore chatelaines from which hung ear scoops, nail cleaners, and tweezers. Women in Roman Britain wore “chatelaine brooches” from which they hung toilet sets.

Widely worn from the 1600s through the early 1900s, chatelaines allowed women to keep necessary objects handy. Women’s clothes didn’t have pockets, at least not big enough to hold much. A chatelaine kept a lady’s necessities together and available at all times. There were chatelaines for sewing and some for writing and some plainer ones that held keys.

These items were clipped to a belt or the top of a skirt most of the time, but some versions have pin-backs. Each implement was hooked to its chain so that the item could be detached, used, and reattached. Examples of objects dangling from a lady’s chatelaine would be scent bottles, mirrors, button hooks, sewing and needlework tools, pencils, and notepads.

The chatelaine became a status symbol for women in the 19th century. The woman who held the keys to all the many desks, chest of drawers, food hampers, pantries, storage containers, and many other locked cabinets was "the woman of the household." As such, she was the one who gave directions to the servants, housemaids, cooks and delivery servicemen. She would also open or lock the access to the valuables of the house. 

Frequently, the woman who wore the chatelaine was the senior woman of the house. When a woman married a son and moved into his father's house, the son's mother would usually hold on to the keys. However, if the mother became a widow, the keys and their responsibilities and status became the responsibility of the eldest son's wife. 

Younger women and daughters in the house, who wanted it to appear as if they had this responsibility, would often wear an intricate chatelaine without the keys, but with a variety of other objects. Instead of the keys, they attached bright and glittering objects, which she could use to start a conversation. If there wasn’t a woman of the house, the person who’s responsibility it was to hold the keys was often a hired housekeeper.

While women purchased complete chatelaines, they often would buy other objects to hang on them, perhaps while traveling, much like charms on a charm bracelet. 

One of these objects was the vinaigrette bottle. These came in a variety of colors and designs, including ruby red glass, covered with a gilt brass casing, decorated with birds or flowers. These little bottles had hinged gilt lids which closed tightly. Women used them to recover from fainting spells—a malady in Victorian times. 

Besides the household chatelaine described above, women also had specialized chatelaines. The one most used was a sewing chatelaine. On its chains hung items that would help the owner with sewing chores. Often craftsmen made these of European silver which has 800 parts silver and is stronger than sterling which has 925 parts silver, thus making it softer.

On one of the chains hung an Etui, a small box on which would have been decorated with perhaps rural scenes or floral designs which could hold pins or other sewing necessities. 

On two of the other chains hung a large and a small needle holder. These may have been decorated with a repousse of small animals or plants. Some needle holders had the shape of fruits, such as strawberries, and were about one and half to three inches long.

Another chain held a sterling hinged thimble holder with an emery tip and a sterling silver size 9 thimble inside. Yet another held a sterling silver scissor case with sterling handled scissors and sterling capped acorn shaped emery. The sewing chatelaine also included a small notebook and a retractable pencil, and it might also include a round pincushion between two disks.

Finally, a sewing chatelaine could also contained a scent bottle. Many ladies had a scent bottle on their sewing chatelaine's to store clean water in so they could clean the tips of their fingers to keep the garment or quilt they were working on clean. Some small etui's have little glass bottles on the inside that held clean water. In the 19th century there weren't sinks everywhere in which women could wash their hands.

Since the purses carried by Victorian women were rather small, some wore a special chatelaine when they went to parties or went dancing. Dangling from its chains was a small container holding face powder, a small mirror, and a small notebook and pencil for jotting down names and addresses of people she met. It might even have had a tiny photograph album containing four photos of her family which she could show to other guests.

Craftsmen used gold or silver to fashion most chatelaines. Some had beautiful intricate vitreous enamel decorations. Most chatelaines were between 8 and 13inches long and between 2 and 3 inches wide. 

Most chatelaines extended 8 to 13 inches down from a woman’s waist. The chatelaine itself, with no attachments, often measured 10 inches long, including the small central drop.  

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 "Coffee--The Brew of Life" in the 2023 Summer 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.

Little Japanese Treasures

 

QUESTION: While most people go to antique shows looking for items to add to their collections, I go to see what I can discover that I’ve never seen before. And though the larger items dominate the show, I prefer to look in the glass cases of smalls—objects too small to display on the table by themselves. At a recent show, I was looking intensely in one of these display cases and discovered several small sculptures of figures and animals. Some seemed to be made of ivory or bone while others had been carved from various types of exotic hardwoods. The dealer referred to them as “netsuke” and added that they usually hung on the strings of an inro, a small wooden purse worn by men in traditional Japanese dress. What can you tell me about these intriguing items? They weren’t cheap, so I’m guessing that they’re pretty valuable.

ANSWER: Antique Japanese netsuke (pronounced "netski") have been prized by collectors since the late 19th century for their beauty and aesthetic appeal. From the 17th through mid-19th century, Japanese citizens wore the kimono, a simple T-shaped robe wrapped around the body and held in place with an obi sash. In order to carry small items such as tobacco, medicine, and seals, ingeniously made sagemono, meaning  “hanging things,”) hung on cords from the obi sash

Netsuke served as anchors or counterweights for stacked, nested containers, known as inrô and sagemono which held personal seals and medicine. Eventually, craftsmen divided the inro into sections to hold money, perfume, and tobacco. The wearer threaded a single cord through a cord channel on one side of the suspended container, through two holes in the netsuke, then through the other side of the container, and knotted on the underside of the container. A decorative bead, or ojime, slid along the cord between the netsuke and sagemono, allowing the user to open and close the container.

The wearer would slip the netsuke under and dangle it over the obi, allowing the sagemono to hang suspended between waist and hip. In order to access the contents of the sagemono, the wearer slipped the netsuke behind the obi sash, liberating the ensemble. By sliding the ojime toward the netsuke, the contents of the container could easily be accessed.

Originally worn as part of a male kimono ensemble by men of the warrior class, inro and netsuke evolved into a mark of class, with warriors at the top, followed by farmers who tilled the land, artisans who crafted material goods, and merchants at the bottom.

Because merchants were economically better off than many members of the socially superior military class, inro and netsuke also allowed merchants to display their wealth.  Inro and netsuke, often made of expensive, rare materials and bearing the signature and seal of the carver, were an indication of wealth. 

Sculptors most often carved netsuke from wood or ivory, but as their popularity and status increased, they made them of richer materials, such as mother of pearl, porcelain, lacquer, amber, and semi-precious stones. If a collector finds a netsuke made of two materials, it's probably from a later period. Ranging in size from one to three inches, sculptors carved these tiny treasures in a wide variety of forms, including shells, animals, vegetables, and favorite characters from Oriental folklore and religion.

Netsuke carvers preferred boxwood for its fine grain and durability. They also used various types of native Japanese wood—cypress, cherry, black persimmon, yew, camphor, zelkova, and camellia. However, one of the most popular materials for netsuke was elephant tusk ivory. 

These little sculptures came in many forms, such as badgers, known for their mischievous pranks, or carp, the symbol for courage. Some took the shape of a  baku, a mythic, elephant-like creature believed to eat the nightmares of those who sleep on a piece of paper bearing its name.

Netsuke carvers worked with general subjects but in an often lighthearted, humorous way. Originally, they created netsuke of wood to be worn, and eventually discarded after daily use. Carvers also made sure their netsuke had no sharp edges and balanced them so they hung correctly on the man’s sash. A netsuke’s size depended on the weight of the inro and the proportions of the owner.

Carvers used the tusks of walrus or narwhal or the teeth of a sperm whale, as well as woods such as mahogany and ebony, to carve the best netsuke. Most of the best netsuke sculptors at the peak of fancy netsuke lived near where marine ivory was more plentiful. They began using this material because they knew how to carve it. It’s not only the subject of each netsuke, rather than the material used, but the extraordinary workmanship that gives each one its special artistic appeal.

Traditionally, netsuke carvers worked in specific formats. Three-dimensional figures, or katabori, account for the most of them. Carved in the round and often referred to as miniature sculptures, the undersides of which were also completely carved. Rounded forms, named after the round sweet bean cakes they resemble, were also quite popular. Another conventional netsuke shape is the kagami, or mirror, consisting of a round, bowl-shaped base and a lid fashioned of a flat disk of metal. Craftsmen employed a variety of metals, such as brass, bronze, copper, gold, iron, pewter, and silver. Carvers favored two alloys, shakudo, made by combining copper and gold,  and shibuichi, combining copper and silver, for their range of colors and patina.

Carvers drew on varied themes for these accessories—nature, mythical tales, historical figures, masks used in theatrical performances, and gods and demons. Other themes included h erotica, the grotesque, or parodies and satirical depictions of elite culture. 

Some of the best Japanese artists, such as Yamada Hojitsu and Shuzan, carved netsuke. But it’s those who specialized in making them that collectors prefer.

Eventually, netsuke represented the fashions, fancies, and fables of Japanese society. After the reopening of Japan to the West in 1853, Japanese gentlemen soon took to wearing western style suits with pockets, and the need for carrying an inro with its accompanying netsuke quickly disappeared.

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 "Coffee--The Brew of Life" in the 2023 Summer 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.