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Post by bluefrog on Apr 16, 2010 14:52:06 GMT -5
Last night, DH brought a box in from the shed---kind of a smallish box that he'd been tossing broken arrow shafts into (he's an archer for fun) for several years---and this morning I went through it:
Besides the broken shafts, there were several very old, very large, very rusty knives that I think I remember from my grandmother's kitchen; the serving pieces to a Thai brass-wood and-rosewood flatware set that my sister inherited from my parents; an incredibly elaborate, covered in grapevines, silverplate serving spoon; a silverplate wedding invitation frame with a handwritten invitation from somebody we never heard of; a silver spoon engraved "Edna," who was, I think, my great-grandmother's sister; and four 5-piece place settings of sterling flatware that I've never seen before in my life.
It took me two hours of internet hunting to discover that the silverware pattern is "Golden Winslow," and it was made sometime between 1850 and 1978, right up the road in Baltimore. How it came to be in a box in my shed with such a miscellany of other stuff, I can't imagine. It's not the family silver: I know where that is, and what it looks like.
We've been visited by the silver fairies? They got the wrong address? I wonder if they'll come back with more stuff?
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Post by ponygirl on Apr 16, 2010 15:25:37 GMT -5
How exciting! Mystery treasures, for sure.
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Post by messymimi on Apr 16, 2010 15:49:33 GMT -5
What interesting finds! Besides the junk, it's stuff worth keeping or selling, as you see fit.
When I find mystery boxes, they are usually full of cat hair, dust, hairballs, and trash.
messymimi
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Post by eagle on Apr 16, 2010 16:42:09 GMT -5
I have a set of that Rosewood and brass cutlery. Made in Siam. That's how old it is. My Auntie and Uncle brought it back from Siam as a gift for me when I was still a newlywed. The set still remains in the original wooden case. It is a lovely set and approximately 40 years old.
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hopehope
Banned
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,815 
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Post by hopehope on Apr 17, 2010 1:00:23 GMT -5
silver fairies? ooh... I have stars in my eyes....
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Post by mish on Apr 18, 2010 2:13:39 GMT -5
When I find mystery boxes, they are usually full of cat hair, dust, hairballs, and trash.
Yup, that's the way it is here, too! |
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Post by canna on Apr 18, 2010 7:06:35 GMT -5
My aunt and uncle had their own business, golf range, for over 30 years. They had a house and garage and huge storage shed packed full of things. My aunt was a shopaholic supreme. After they passed away, there was so much, that a big, outdoor auction was held to sell it. The auction was a huge success, my aunt and uncle were well known in the town because of their business.
I asked the auctioneer to keep anything they found that might be valuable/sentimental to the family aside and not sell them.
At the end of the sale, the auctioneer asked me to look at a few things I might be interested in.
We went into the house, and there were a few special items. Then he handed me a closed box. It was a mystery box to me! The box was full fo my uncle's WWII things. Pictures, letters, pins, "troop news"unique newsletters printed cheaply for the soldiers in their "troop"or squad, ID pass cards authorizing his "hours of leave" in France and other places. And there was a little red leather, beat up handwritten diary: of his travels in England, France and Germany. Oh what a surprise this was! Also there were his highschool yearbooks. And old local paper stories about his golf range. All of those things are now my treasures. Aother nice surprise was finding a little leather wallet in with all this. In it, was an old $100 bill.
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Post by eagle on Apr 18, 2010 11:22:35 GMT -5
Canna, that is so sweet. My father had a box of his military memorabilia which I was the first to go through after his death. Then I brought my brothers into the exploration in hopes they would know the answers to my suspicions about something tucked into the brim of his cap. What I found eveidenced that my dad had written under a pseudonym for the military paper of the time. I (we) all knew his writing style and never had any trouble identifying what he wrote, even when he didn't have a by-line (he was a journalist for over 50 years.)
But he had never told me or my brothers about this pseudonym. It was quite fascinating and we were enthralled by the mystery. I weaved the story into my portion of the eulogy and read one of the articles and poems that he had written as "Nate the Fox" and telling how we had discovered this amongst his things and how he had never told us. Afterwards, my son came up to me amazed that I had not known. My brother's sons also came forward to tell us that their grandfather had told them as well. We were all so amazed that dad had chosen to skip a generation when sharing this story! He was a great story teller and it still surprises me that he did not share this one with his children.
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Post by bigtimetroubles on Apr 18, 2010 11:48:06 GMT -5
my aunt and uncle were moved into another state to go into a residential care facility and they too were golf crazy at least my uncle was....when they went their rich son came to help clean out the house. He hired a dumpster to toss everything. I got involved and got my sister involved....my sister found darndest thing in the mystery box....my aunts wedding dress...it was made from my uncle (her brother's) silk parachute from WWII....sister grabbed it and it ended up in the MO History Museum in St. Louis where it is a part of their display....
hugs btt
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Post by eagle on Apr 18, 2010 12:07:59 GMT -5
Wow. I would love to see that wedding dress. How cool is that?
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Post by bluefrog on Apr 18, 2010 14:50:02 GMT -5
Such cool WWII stories! My father joined the Navy when the war started, and he and Mom moved to Tacoma, Washington to do something with building Liberty ships---not that he ever talked about it to me. It must have been on the paper-pushing side, because he freely admitted that machines hated him, and he was a complete klutz. After the war he travelled all over the world, but he never wrote more than postcards home. Finding a diary or news articles that your father had written must have been such a thrill!
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