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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: talesofthesevenseas on October 04, 2010, 06:32:02 PM
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Here's another "what is it?" for y'all. I think this is some type of kitchen gadget- That's what I'm hoping at any rate! The seller thinks it is a meat tenderizer (I'm kinda doubtful about that). I thought perhaps it is an herb or spice grinding pestle, but the head is flat. Some kind of press or masher? I'm at a loss.
Here's what I do know. It was made by the Union Porcelain Works of Greenpoint NY and looks like it dates to 1877, based on the info below. The overall length is 9-1/4". The flat surface of the head is 2-1/8" in diameter.
Union Porcelain Works ID sheet:
(http://marksfinder.com/wp-content/main/2009_05/u-marksfinder-005.jpg)
The thing:
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I was figuring spice grinder (mortar/pestle style) but...honestly do believe iit could be a tenderizer as well!!!! Are there any wear marks?
My mom would use the edge of a plate sometimes to help tenderize meat and never broke/chipped one!
Here's an older one in blue onion/different style!
(http://www.icollector.com/images/215/3165/3165_0286_1_sm.jpg)
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I haven't got it in hand yet, I just did a "Buy it Now" on Ebay so I only have the photos. It's looks like there is some wear around the edges of the porcelain in the hallmark photo, but that's about it. You can see it if you enlarge that hallmark photo.
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and another
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/blue-willow-porcelain-hammer-mallet-meat-tenderizer (http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/blue-willow-porcelain-hammer-mallet-meat-tenderizer)
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It certainly could be, there are some old porcelain meat tenderizers out there and some pestle style ones as well. I guess if it were a meat tenderizer that you'd still use it "hammer style" since the bottom is flat. The wear looks consistant with some kind of either grinding or whacking, from what I can see.
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In looking for Union Porcelain Works I keep seeing references to oyster plates. Could this thing be for an oyster hammer? If not, I was actually hunting for a meat tenderizer when I found it and that's what I'll use it for if its sturdy!
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I would be leery that it was to pound oyster shells....that would chip or break them after some time. Whereas the meat is "soft" and pliable and wouldn't run the risk of breaking/cracking.
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Yeah I'm not into seafood myself, but I think an oyster knife would be more practical, since you would end up with bits of shell mixed in with the meat if you whacked the oyster with it. A meat tenderizer is about all I can come up with, unless I'm able to locate another like it.
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I don't think it would last very long as a meat tenderizer. And besides, the flat edge around the circumference would not be conducive to tenderizing a steak.
With that flat bottom and the flat edge around the circumference I think it is the "plunger" part of a "press" with the missing part being a porcelain base with a hole in it that matches that plunger.
Maybe it is an old Drug Store Pharmacy item. Just about everything a Druggist used was made out of plated steel, glass or ..... porcelain.
I once purchased 4 large porcelain Apothecary jars, with gold knobs on the lids, decorations and names of the contents on the front of each one. Attached is an old picture I scanned in, enlarged and then cropped, showing them sitting on a desk in the bottom left of the picture. They were probably 14” in height.
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Maybe it is an old Drug Store Pharmacy item. Just about everything a Druggist used was made out of plated steel, glass or ..... porcelain.
Thats my guess too Cogar.I'm looking forward to learning what it is.GL
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Another way to research is by the name of the chief designer, Karl Mueller, a German-trained sculptor whose tenure at Union Porcelain Works was (1820-1887).
Interesting enough, in the past we went over water containers for hygiene/health and the owner of UPW also owned a filter company and made water containers/filters! They have lots of displays in the Brooklyn Museum. If it was me, I wouldn't hesitate to inquire with them what they think it would be!
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/2327/Water_Filter (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/2327/Water_Filter)
(http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/images/objects/size2/1995.143.1a-c.jpg)
The more I find out about his company the more I like I will start looking and hoping to collect some pieces!
http://31corp.blogspot.com/2010/03/union-porcelain-works-daryle-lamberts.html (http://31corp.blogspot.com/2010/03/union-porcelain-works-daryle-lamberts.html)
"This hard or true porcelain has been, ever since the days of Böttger of Meissen and the philosopher’s stone, a dream of the whiteware potter. It was the goal of many early American craftsmen but it was not until 1865 that it was first produced in this country. Thomas C. Smith, a New York architect, acquired the Union Porcelain Works in Brooklyn, built by William Bloch in 1854. On a trip to Europe he became interested in the manufacture of porcelain and returned to New York to initiate its production in 1865.For 45 years or more this factory made fine tableware and Karl Muller, who was its designer for most of that period, modeled a series of vases and statuettes, particularly the large and elaborate “show pieces” — the Century and Cerames vases and the Poets’ Pitcher and Liberty Cup (fig. 7). The firm used no mark until 1876, then, briefly, a conventional Eagle’s head, and finally its name, printed." http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/american-art-pottery/
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/archive/category.php?category_id=27&id=23636 (http://www.brooklyneagle.com/archive/category.php?category_id=27&id=23636)
WOw! Impressed with this American porcelain company!!!!
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I saw the two UPW museum collections and went through their photos, hoping to find this funny little gadget, but no luck. I also left a comment on the blog of Daryle Lambert who wrote a blog post on UPW porcelains, hoping that he might have some insight. So far the blog comment hasn't been processed, but I'll keep checking on it. Maybe he's stumped by this one too, LOL!
UPW does look like it would be a really interesting porcelain to collect, and some pieces are very valuable but go unrecognized so there is the potential to score big with it too. That was what inspired me to grab this little un-ID'd thing-a-ma-bobber, since it was only $12 bucks and it seemed like a fun way to learn about this company and pick up an interesting kitchen gadget, plus have fun doing yet another "what is it?" with you guys. This mystery piece was actually mis-listed on Ebay as United Porcelain Works but I googled UPW found what it really was and ID'd it with the 1877 logo. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for other UPW pieces in the future. Always good to know this stuff.
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(http://shop.showcaseantiques.com/images/items/DJB2209.jpg)
PLANT SYSTEM RAILROAD PORCELAIN ADVERTISING MATCH HOLDER AND STRIKER; MARKED "MADE BY UNION PORCELAIN WORKS, NEW YORK." Height=2.75
I will post pics of unusual items to get our brain cells buzzing....maybe something will touch a cord and we will figure this out!
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Okay....after much searching this morning....I am convinced that this is a stomper. Stompers were made for sugar (to make into cubes) and UPW made lots of tea set items.....they were made for butter (and they made lots of butter items)...... and it could have been used for the charcoal in their filter systems for water!
But, what kind of stomper I don't know!
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You might be onto something here KC! Check out these old sugar molds.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/2315034461_d808483bc1.jpg)
And this thing is from a modern sugar mold company who calls it a "cookie stamp mold" but I think it has a design whereas mine if flat and might be a sugar mold press or plunger:
(http://www.cookie-molds.co.cc/images/1995-Brown-Bag---The-Cookie-Stamp-Mold---Little-Rabbit-8-img-B003KCUQZO.jpg)
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In searching for info on sugar molds, I'm finding that almost all of them are 2-1/4" diameter holes. My plunger is 2-1/8" which does seem that it is exactly the right size for pressing sugar into your average sugar mold.
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If it is a grinder, stomper, or a presser, I would think that UPW mark would have been worn off years ago, especially since the porcelain edges show wear, because it is right in the middle where all the action was. I think it is something else. Is the wood handle screwed on, glued on, or fastened how?
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I don't know, but I'll post that info as soon as I get it in hand. Maybe there will be some other clues as to what it is when I get it.
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The shape looks like a candlestick phone mouthpiece. I'm not saying that a phone was related to it's use but I'm trying to think outside the box all together. Kind of an odd shape for a kitchen utensil.
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If it is a grinder, stomper, or a presser, I would think that UPW mark would have been worn off years ago, especially since the porcelain edges show wear, because it is right in the middle where all the action was...
Would it make sense if it had been used in a sugar mold that we would see edge wear from bumping against the wooden sides of a sugar mold which are only 1/8" diameter difference (that gives us about 1/16" on each side of the porcelain) I'm guessing that the logo is painted beneath a clear glaze and would have pretty good protection (will know about this soon) and if only pressed against sugar dough as it is being compacted, I think that might result in edge wear but no significant bottom wear.
The shape of both the porcelain and wooden parts seem to indicate it was designed to exert downward pressure, but it must have been on something soft, against bumping hard sides. The shape of the head just doesn't jive to be used hammer style.
Boy this has been buggin' the heck out of me all day! (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/insects/story7/housefly.gif)
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That fly is buggin' the heck out of me! Where is the fly swatter?
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Got me stumped .
First thought it may be Pharma-related , but not so much now ... it does appear to be some sort of tamper , though ...
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I am leaning toward the sugar tamper/stomper one......
Get your frustrations out swatting this wayward!!!!
http://www.dailyhaha.com/_flash/flies.htm (http://www.dailyhaha.com/_flash/flies.htm)
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LOL love the fly game! (But I'm really bad at it!) I'm leaning the same way as KC, but will keep an eye out and hope that sooner or later one or the other of us will come across one and have an "Ah-HA!!" moment. I emailed the Brooklyn Museum today hoping that the curator of their UPW collection could offer some suggestions.
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The wifey just told me:
"You dummies don't know how to find anything. It's a ... beetle, ..... circa 1860's".
In other words, it is a potato pounder or masher. ;D
On page 49 of "300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles"- by Linda Cambell Franklin (C-1991), she describes it as:
"Fancy turned handle has a white ceramic "porcelain" (probably ironstone) head. It's from the 1860s and loooks like a pestle for an ironstone mortar."
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Ah-Ha!
Nice fly game KC, but I kill more with a real fly swatter than I did in that game!
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Cogar is there a photo with the book description? If so does it look like mine? I've seen the all-wood potato mashers and they are quite a bit different in shape.
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This is how most of the potato mashers I've seen look:
(http://www.icollect247.com/itempics/155_1238266065A.jpg)
Although there are other styles, here is a collection of European potato mashers. That English "mushroom" style one is kind of close, but the head on mine is only 2-1/8" across. I'm not finding anything with porcelain, although as you say maybe this is a "fancy" version?
(http://www.vintageweave.com/store/media/PotatoMasher.jpg)
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I'm trying potato beetle, potato masher... nothing is coming up with ceramic or porcelain.
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I had the same results, Tales, but decided not to post after I looked at the length of yours. I came up with many pestles that had wood handles and porcelain heads but thought they should be shorter than 9+". A masher would be that long. The convex head on yours would fit the concave bowl of the mortar.
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Darn it.....I think there is a possibility it could be another item......
A darner!!!!! My mom's was wooden and I have seen many wooden ones.....but there are porcelain and porcelain/wooden ones!!!!!!!
(http://images.goantiques.com/dbimages/LFY5083/LFY5083g7332.jpg) (http://images.goantiques.com/dbimages3/LFY5083/LFY5083g7332.jpg)
(http://images.goantiques.com/thumbnails2/LFY5083/LFY50836677.jpg) (http://)
Cracked me up...this person has the same problem....
http://pages.tias.com/8824/PictPage/3923641225.html (http://pages.tias.com/8824/PictPage/3923641225.html)
Tales....does your handle screw off? Is it hollow inside if it does?
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KC thought the same thing they also made glass blown darners. I have the same book as Cogar 300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles but mine is 2003 and on page 24 it shows a drawing of the beetle in porcelain and I agree I think that is what your piece is.Yes Tales it does look like yours. potato mashers have been found up to 24" long for use in restaurants & boarding houses.
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Darn it!
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"Darn" good research there... LOL! ;)
If it looks like the one in the book I guess it's a potato beetle! Wendy or Cogar, could you photograph the picture in the book so that we can lay the question to rest when you have a chance? Thanks everyone, and please extend my thanks to "Mrs. Cogar" too!
I saw one of those wooden darners listed as an English potato masher. I can just imagine how our grandmothers up in heaven must be chuckling, as we darn our socks with the potato masher and mash the potatos with the sock darner!!
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Multi-tasking tool...A Popeil Mash-O-Matic! Masher, darner, & pestle all in one!
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I love it when we are ALL right!!
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Here is the best I can do on short notice.
Sam
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an enlarge & crop
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There Tales, does that make you happy that you now have a potentially 150 year old kitchen collectible.
Now how much did you pay for it? ;D ;D ;D ;D
That should deserve an honored spot on your Baker's Cabinet.
Great find. Those intuitions pay off sometimes, don't da.
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I am happy! ;D That's VERY cool!!
I paid $12 for it so I think I did OK since the book says $8 - $35. I guess we could add something for inflation, subtract something for the economic downturn. I have no idea if the UPW brand would up the value much since it is a kitchen gadget. I guess it would depend on how many of these are still in existance and if you could market it to UPW collectors. Although I guess its an oddity and fancy by kitchen utensil standards, it isn't ornate in the way that other UPW items are. I guess it would all boil down to rarity.
It does make me wonder who owned it originally. I suspect something like this may have been a wedding gift since most of these were wood and more utilitarian than this one.
I have a nice little gathering of functional antique kitchen gadgets and they are in the dough bowl, which sits on the Hoosier and was going to put it in with them. It should be here in a few days and I'll let you guys know if there is any additional info when I get it in hand.
I think it's official...
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_O8tBsDGKKFI/S71E9GAY1eI/AAAAAAAAD9c/870dZoPSyNM/s1600/case-solved.png)
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Interesting further information on UPW....they dealt with railroads!!!!!!
http://www.kovels.com/200901215985/Mystery-Marks/union-porcelain-works.html (http://www.kovels.com/200901215985/Mystery-Marks/union-porcelain-works.html)
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Vintage early 1900's German related-item image :
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Well antiquers, the mystery of the UPW kitchen implement deepens. It arrived today and it is not a potato masher. All the potato mashers are showing a round bottom. This one is flat and even slightly concave, except for the center where there is a very slight point. This makes it sit almost flat and accounts for the wear and staining in a tiny spot in the center and along the edges, because it teeters a little on this point.
The handle is not glued in. It is loose and lifts up about 1/8" but does not actually come out of the porcelain base. (Not sure how that is accomplished) There is a lot of wear at the point where the handle contacts the porcelain. It looks like the handle has been rubbing against this surface for a VERY long time and it has more wear here than anyplace else. This makes me think the handle has either been designed to move a little, or it has been loose like this during many, many years of use.
The handle is hand carved, not turned on a lathe. It is quite irregular, although it looks like someone really tried hard to make it uniform (Very cool IMHO!!) It is sanded smooth, but looking at it with a little magnification, I can see some very faint tool marks in the form of tiny lines. They are all going the same direction on the biggest part of the handle, and they change direction where the handle starts tapering down to the neck. They go in the opposite diretion here, and it looks like the carver worked the wood from the opposite direction on this part. (I'm learning a lot from this little guy already!) I think this would be consistant with the days prior to the lathe being commonly used. (Post 1880).
The porcelain piece has a nice clear glaze on the white so that it is not porous, much like a bathroom sink would have. The U.P.W. logo is beneath the glaze and has been protected. It is dark green, consistant with the example on page 1 of this thread that dates it to about 1877. The porcelain part was definitely formed in a mold and is very uniform in shape, so I do think that these were mass-produced. Now if we could just find another one!
I'll do my best to get some photos of all of this. My camera is toast and I'm down to just cell phone photography, but I'll give it a shot.
...Guess I posted that "Case Solved" graphic a weeeeeee bit prematurely, eh?!!
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My gut feeling was something to do with dairy, part of a butter press ?????
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Perchance it would be a knob reused as a plunger of sorts? Any remnants of threading on the shaft going into the knob? I think there are only a couple of ways for the shaft to be attached to the porcelain head...1) glued - not if it is loose and won't slip off 2) threaded - left or right hand.
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I am mystified on this point. It is not glued and not threaded. It does not turn within the porcelain base, but it does slide up and down. Photos are on the way.
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Hmmm... Maybe it fits in, and then you turn it to lock it into place. That doesn't explain my thought very well but...
Can you pull on it and then twist the bottom around? Maybe you can feel a slot in the porcelain that the wood fit into originally then perhaps they wet the wood repeatedly so it would swell...
Make sense?
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That does make sense Oceans.
Here are the photos:
Overall shape of the handle. Notice the slightly irregular cattywhompus shape:
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks5.jpg)
Bottom surface. Notice wear on edges, no wear when it becomes slightly concave, wear in the very center by the logo where it has a "high spot"
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks8.jpg)
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks9.jpg)
Sitting on a flat surface, notice how the high spot causes it to rock a little, arrow on the right shows how the right side is lifting:
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks6.jpg)
Wear on the top and handle lifted up about 1/8" as far out as it will go.
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks7.jpg)
What I think are faint tool marks. Arrows show the direction of the marks, which seem to run contrary to the direction of the wood grain.
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks13.jpg)
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks11.jpg)
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks15.jpg)
And just showing some age to the wood, some shrinkage along the grain.
(http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x124/talesofthesevenseas/UnionPorcelainWorks10.jpg)
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This is very frustrating.. The profile of the flat plane, as you describe it, seems to ring a bell... but I think the bell tower is far, far away
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A wax seal squisher? I like Oceans idea of a keyed slot holding the wood in. I would try turning and pulling (gently) to see if it is keyed. The roughness of the porcelain where it fits the wood troubles me a bit. Maybe that handle (or any handle) is not original and the original use has nothing to do with a handle on it. The marks on the wood are indicative of a file (bastard file perhaps) used for final finishing of the wood surface. No wood worker or company would use a file like that for a final finish but a tinker would.
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I'm back to my first hunch....butter press for the butter mold we discussed!!!!!!!!!
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I tried turning it, feeling for a slot. There is nothing I can feel and it only turns about 1/8". I don't want to force it. Interesting that it seems to have a replacement handle!
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Not that unusual....if it was used a lot and the old handle split.....it was little cost to replace the handle versus replacing the porcelain!
And we are sure it is a replacement????
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I dunno KC. It seems a little crude for a company making high end porcelain oyster plates. However, I looked all the way around the top of the porcelain, letting light shine in there and there's no keyway. No slot. The handle is also NOT glued onto the wood that is down in porcelain. It's all a single piece. It's got to have a flange or bump or something, similar to small teapot lids to keep them from falling off.
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Know any dentists that will x-ray this for you?
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My small-town dentist probably would if I had it when I went in to get my teeth done, LOL! I might just do that.
I don't know if this is a clue or not but UPW also made porcelain line insullators. They were doing hard-paste porcelain at one point which is fired under high heat and is almost non-porous so it doesn't require glazing. Mine looks glazed. I don't know if this could be related to them or not, but they did do some very utilitarian stuff in addition to fancy things.
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Are we sure its not an oyster whacker?
I just read a 1920's advertisement about workers "hammering" oysters so apparently it was/is done that way. I wouldn't think you would have to hit em that hard to crack the shell. Would also be a good reason why many haven't survived!
Update... Then again, I just looked at porcelain insulators. It does look like 1/2 of one put on a stick.
http://www.r-infinity.com/Standard_Porcelain_Insulators/MainPage.htm
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The source those photos came from did show several made by UPW. It does bear a resemblance. Maybe it is some kind of tool to install something and not get zapped?
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You could ask this guy
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/co.html
See the comments link at top on right. He seems to know a bit about insulators
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I highly doubt it is an insulator. Insulators need to be attached thus the hole through the center for a screw fastener. They also need a groove for the wire that is run over them. There is no groove. Porcelain is an excellent non-conductor of electricity but this does not appear to be for an insulating purpose. If someone could locate a UPW catalog or a hardware catalog from 1880, this conundrum could be solved.
And why isn't this a potato masher as was thought before? "Potato mashers are often rounded heavy wooden objects with handles and flat bottoms." from http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/museum/object_075.html
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Well antiquers, the mystery of the UPW kitchen implement deepens. It arrived today and it is not a potato masher. All the potato mashers are showing a round bottom. This one is flat and even slightly concave, except for the center where there is a very slight point.
Now Tales, ....... go into your kitchen, ..... boil some potatoes in a flat bottomed pot, ..... get something with a round (non-flat) bottom on it to use as a "masher" ........ and then see how long it takes you to make ....... a pot of "lump-free" mashed potatoes.
ps: A potato masher of that design would not be a good designed one iffen it didn't have a "slightly concave" bottom.
The reason I say so is, with a slightly concave bottom the downward pressure would force the "lumpies" toward the center point of the masher ........ and not to the outside edge out from underneath it.
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If it makes any difference, I feed oyster shells to my birds every day. They are actually quite brittle. They break apart very easily, kinda flaky. I don't believe they are as hard as say...clam shells. But I may be wrong. Just my 2 cents. :P
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I learn something new every day. Oysters start their lives as males and breed as males. Later in life, they change sex to female and breed as females. Just an interesting tidbit to start the day. :)
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I'm definitely not ruling out the possibility that it is a potato masher, it just doesn't seem consistant with the design of most of them. However it certainly stilll could be. I could mash some potatoes with it to see what happens. I imagine results would vary depending on the shape of vessel the potatos were mashed in- Round bottom bowl versus flat bottom pot. I think most old pots would have been rounded, the type that are hung on a hook in the fire or sitting on legs in the coals. So I'm guessing that a round bottom bowl would be used, right?
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Just for fun, I took our mystery masher to a local antiques collective. They had never seen anything quite like it either, but they did suggest bringing it in a week from today, when the lady they thought would be most likely to know what it was would be in.
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I think most old pots would have been rounded, the type that are hung on a hook in the fire or sitting on legs in the coals.
I always figured those pots were made that way so one could use a long handled rounded "dipper" to easily get the last bite of food outta those pots.
And of course, a rounded bottom pot heats more evenly on an open fire.
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I put the "mystery masher" to use last night. I had a recipe that called for finely ground almonds. After chopping them up, I used the masher as you would a spice grinder. It worked, but it didn't feel quite right and the results were just so-so. Just reporting that I don't think that being a spice grinder was it's intended purpose.