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Monday, February 10, 2014

What's In A Name?

It's been too long since my last blog post.  I've been thinking about all of you, and wanted to post, but I was in serious design mode for the last ten days or so, working on new fabric collections, and quilt designs.  My next collection is already well under way, and I submitted a new one last Friday.  All that new stuff is something I can't yet share with you, so that meant not as many blog posts while I was working on it all....But...it also means new fun stuff to look forward to!

Now that the bulk of that design work is over, I will be working to wrap up a few things that have been works-in-progress, and those I can share with you later this week.  

For now, however, I have some fun trivia to share.  When I'm reading about life in the 1800's for the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle club, I often come across great information that isn't really suited to the club, but is rather fascinating, to me anyway, and I thought perhaps you'd enjoy it, too.

1800's Trivia
What's in a name?  Back in the day, your last name could say a whole lot about what you did for a living.  With a last name of Miller, Potter, Wheeler, Carpenter, Weaver, Baker or Taylor, you knew his profession.  But...what if your last name was Cooper?

A cooper was a tradesman skilled in the art of making a wide variety of wooden, leak-proof (both wet and dry) containers.  His craft provided items that were very necessary to early American living, such as buckets and pails, firkins, butter churns, and barrels.  The earliest settlers brought coopered items with them as storage containers for any number of things.  

Barrels large and small held liquids, and of course, are still used today for wine and other spirits. Butter churns, like mine, may still be used today, but not so much!  Thank goodness!  

Quilt design is Fritzie's Closet pattern by Heartspun Quilts
Among the most collected items are firkins and buckets.  Basically, a firkin (Dutch origin) is a bucket with a cover.  The term, firkin, originally meant one-fourth of a barrel, but later in the nineteenth century after firkins were made in numerous sizes, just simply meant a covered bucket.

All of these items are highly collectible by those of us who love colonial living.  Having a grand stack of firkins in graduated sizes is a prize collection.  For me, firkins (and any treenware) with original paint is a real prize!  Especially those with a lovely patina of wear showing it's years of service.

Hope you enjoyed reading about a little known profession that has deep roots in early American living.  I think these hand-made items are a true American treasure!  Stay warm and cozy....it's cold out there!


12 comments:

  1. Wonderful firkins, Pam! The only one I have is a reproduction. I LOVE wood items--bowls, boxes, buckets, you name it! When my daughter and I go thrift shopping, she is looking at the vintage glassware and I am looking for wood. : )
    I actually knew about the Cooper trade because I have cousins with that last name, so I grew up knowing its origin. I find this kind of stuff fascinating!

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  2. Love the grain of the wood. My maiden name was Peck, and the ancestors must have been in the mill industry in England.

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  3. Very informative. Thanks for sharing

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  4. I am totally in love with old wood, treenware, too. And original paint is a treasure. As far as coopers go, I believe I read where in the whaling boat days, the cooper was paid almost as much as the captain of the ship. What good is whale oil w/o barrels to hold it? I don't know how extensive your reading has been, but I'm an Army wife and I've read quite a lot about the lives of Army wives on the frontier, and it wasn't easy! Custer would come home and break a piece of furniture to announce that they were moving. He did that because there was no way to take the furniture with them. Anyway, there is a fascinating book called, Army Wives on the American Frontier by Anne Bruner Eales, that I highly recommend. One daughter of a wealthy family back east had asthma and couldn't wear the black veils for mourning a dead relative, so instead facing the shame of breaking the required mourning, they sent her away to visit her Army wife sister. They were some brave women. The west wasn't even part of the country at that point. It was like going to the moon for us, and yet they went with their husbands. I'm truly inspired by their stories.

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    1. WOW, JoAnne, thanks for sharing all that fun stuff!! Way cool...there's a whole lot of us out there inspired by their stories.

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  5. That is so interesting... love reading your blog!

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  6. Your collectibles look beautiful, but especially with those quilts in the backgrounds!

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  7. Very interesting reading, Pam... thank you for opening up this conversation!!! I'm excited, also, to see what you have been designing :-)

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  8. Thanks I had wondered what a firkin was after seeing pubs with "....and Firkin" in their title when I was in England. So nice to see some actual examples as well!

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  9. Hi Pam,

    Enjoyed seeing your firkins as well as your other containers/boxes. Love your vignettes.
    I have several firkins and I am wondering is there any way that you can tell the approximate age of a firkin? Prices seem to range quite a bit.

    Thanks - keep sharing your antiques.

    Charlotte

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    1. Charlotte, I'm afraid I have no idea how to date a firkin. Wish I could help you!

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  10. Wow, love the snippets of your home <3 and this truly interesting history lesson! :) thank you for sharing,

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