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  • #49231
    chris mabbott
    Participant

      I’ve just returned from the cradle of life, commonly known as the UK ;)
      It was an obligatory family visit, so you know what I mean 🙄

      Anyway, to stop from going totally insane, I planned a few visits to some olde englishe antique shops & fairs. One of them was an amazing place, the size of a telephone booth on the outside, and inside, the size of New Jersey 😯
      Unfortunately, there were clocks aplenty, enough to make my sledge hammer carrying colleagues happy for years 😆 Although not as many as in the Castle of sir William :D

      The only delicate and refined time pieces were of the unattractive brass type, key winders YAWN, you do know I only collect American PWs, don’t you 😆 And they were horribly horribly over priced for what they are, so PASS.

      Then my eye caught a black object tucked in the corner of a glass cabinet… A dirty old silver pocket watch chain, single Albert, from the late 1800’s, that had a little provenance, bonus. How could I say no?

      So, when I returned on Wednesday, the first thing I did was… Hold on to your shorts boys… I broke out my ultrasonic 😆 This is what they’re for, you can’t clean chains properly by hand..

      So here is that little gem, minus the fob which is having the catch repaired..

      #59502
      chris mabbott
      Participant

        Unexpected thing #2… My mom decided to give me my grandfathers watch chain and fobs, which for the past 45 yrs has lived its life as a charm bracelet, which was the normal fate of these chains when wristwatches pushed out the pocket watch.

        The original Tbar has been lost to time, as was two of the dog clips. Fortunately there was a good and nice jeweler, a local chap, who had some antique clips and Tbar from the same period, 1912 ish.. So he rushed to complete the task before I came back.. I want to change the fobs as the mood takes me, so he added small clips to them rather than a permanent fixture..

        I can’t wait to wear this now the weather is cooling down 8-)

        #59503
        chris mabbott
        Participant

          This is not really a new haul, but it’s one I forgot I had in the place it was. I was searching in my moving boxes for something else and I came across this box within a box..

          I also collect 1813-1939 Iron crosses and their associated awards, so these were on the top level.. 😯

          #59504
          chris mabbott
          Participant

            As I removed them to investigate and have a little play, I noticed that there were other…. things underneath.. More medals?

            Nope, watches, go figure 😆 So, I was behind before, now I’m REALLY behind :?
            I love to find this stuff hidden away..

            #59505
            bernie weishapl
            Participant

              Cool beans my friend. Love that watch fob and the iron crosses are just cool.

              #59506
              randy
              Participant

                Very nice to see that you now have your Grandfather’s fobs and chain.
                I really appreciate your ideas on keeping all things historical, in a manner to which they were originally presented/used. I like to restore family items as I run across them.
                I have my great-grandfather’s Elgin PW,..and one of only three fobs specially built, using gold flakes from my families long gone gold mine in Sun Valley Idaho.
                It’s a superb piece for it’s age, around 1883 if memory serves me correctly.
                I didn’t know that it existed until last year, when my older brother presented it to me.
                The really freaky part, is that on one side of the case, there is the engraving of a four-masted topsail schooner.
                It perfectly matches the one tattooed on my arm from my days in the Coast Guard, right down to the direction the pennants are flying…

                If I ever get a moment,..I’ll post some pictures of it.

                You take care,

                Best,
                Randy

                #59507
                chris mabbott
                Participant

                  Thanks guys..

                  Randy please do post the watch, I would like to see it. Family items are always interesting on a personal level.. And of course, the tattoo :)

                  I suppose in our disposable, mostly plastic world, that items really have no value, neither historically nor sentimental.
                  Something I commented on recently during my float through the time capsule that is an antique shop.
                  I was looking, for example, at a clothes iron from around 1900. A heavy cast iron type with a wooden handle. On the top was a little door that lifted off and allowed the user to insert hot coals from a fire place, this would heat up the iron and viola. Simple and ingenious, but in today’s world it would be a safety hazard, too heavy to lift and inconvenient BUT, it has survived and if push came to shove, a person could still use it, even as a novelty, as it is still functional..

                  I wonder in 100 years from now, will some future person go through an antique shop and buy an old plastic laptop, or one of millions of bic plastic lighters, will anything, apart from the plastic, survive into the future and really, what would be valuable or collectible from our time :?:

                  #59508
                  bernie weishapl
                  Participant

                    Chris you are right. Kids today don’t value much anymore. I have my grandmothers two black mantle clocks. I told him they would be his when I am gone. His response ok but if you want to sell them that is ok. He may change his mind as he gets older but just amazes me. My sisters daughter and son really didn’t want anything out of the house when we cleaned mom and dad’s house out after they passed. I have the handle and 3 irons my grandmother used to iron clothes. These are the ones she would put on the wood burning cook and let them heat up. The handle would just snap in the top and she would iron till it was cold. Put it back on the stove and get another one. Nobody wanted them but me.

                    Just a throw away society and nothing is sacred anymore. Nobody values anything anymore.

                    #59509
                    bernie weishapl
                    Participant

                      Chris you are right. Kids today don’t value much anymore. I have my grandmothers two black mantle clocks. I told him they would be his when I am gone. His response ok but if you want to sell them that is ok. He may change his mind as he gets older but just amazes me. My sisters daughter and son really didn’t want anything out of the house when we cleaned mom and dad’s house out after they passed. I have the handle and 3 irons my grandmother used to iron clothes. These are the ones she would put on the wood burning cook and let them heat up. The handle would just snap in the top and she would iron till it was cold. Put it back on the stove and get another one. Nobody wanted them but me.

                      Just a throw away society and nothing is sacred anymore. Nobody values anything anymore.

                      #59510
                      chris mabbott
                      Participant

                        Bernie I can’t personally say much about the kids, because I am also guilty of this 😆

                        I gave my mom a bit of verbal because she had misplaced some of the chain parts, the links, T-bar and a couple of fobs etc.. How could she 😮
                        She kindly reminded me that years ago, I must have been 20ish, that she asked me if I wanted the chain parts and another chain that had been made into 2 bracelets, one that I have somewhere. I apparently said NO 😆

                        The moral… You can’t win with mothers… bless :D

                        #59511
                        bernie weishapl
                        Participant

                          Oh hey don’t tell me something I don’t know. My mom God rest her soul before she passed always told me I don’t care if you are 90 yrs old I am still your mother and don’t you forget it. 😆 I guess I grew up back in the late 40’s and in the 50’s we didn’t have much so I guess I had a whole different way of looking at things. Then my dad growing up thru the dirty 30’s they didn’t throw anything away and I guess rubbed off on me.

                          #59512
                          randy
                          Participant

                            <div class=”bbcode_quote”>
                            <div class=”bbcode_quote_head”>Chris Mabbott wrote:</div>
                            <div class=”bbcode_quote_body”>Thanks guys..

                            Randy please do post the watch, I would like to see it. Family items are always interesting on a personal level.. And of course, the tattoo :)

                            Here they are Chris…</div>
                            </div>

                            #59513
                            chris mabbott
                            Participant

                              Randy, having a Too of an object is 9/10ths the law of possession 😆

                              That’s pretty cool though, but I reaally think that you need to send me that pocket watch ;)

                              #59514
                              randy
                              Participant

                                Uh…that would be a big NO ! :D

                                It’s a cool piece,..perfect hands and face,..very little plate discoloration as well…I can’t believe how nice it is overall

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