Included in my collection so far, the most valuable leg has been made of Silver. I admit I have a small amount of Ivory and a couple of Mother of Pearl, but in metal, there are just 10 items made of Silver or Silver plate.
Apart from the very nice glass boot with a silver collar and
an imported silver boot for holding vestas, the others are so small, or old,
that they do not have a silver hall mark.
It is with great pleasure that I can announce I now have my
first leg made of…GOLD!!!!
As you can see from these photographs, the gold boot (bottom left hand corner) is about the same size as my other comparative silver boots, and like the others, it is in fact a charm. I happened to see the boot on a tray of gold charms at a Derby pawnbrokers and it was only at a later date when I had thought about it that I went back to see if the leg was still unsold, which fortunately, it was. As I expected, when I asked the price the broker weighed the item, and I paid the price based on the current rate for gold.
It was no different from the time when I was working in the
70’s in Dubai when I bought Mary a filigree gold charm of an Arab Dhow, and the
gold market stall trader gave me a price after weighing the item on his scales.
Anyway, to the Golden leg. As you can see it is roughly the
same size as other charms, with no space for any hallmark. The boot has a
huntsman style wrinkled boot, together with what looks like a
disproportionately large spur! It is
solid, and complete with a ring to attach to a charm bracelet.
As well as the gold addition, I am writing about a selection
of another 6 of my Pipe Tampers and there will probably only be one more
session in due course, to complete the 49 Tampers in my collection.
But first, I want to recap on the name – Pipe Tampers. It also prompts me to sing my own praises
about the times that I have corrected antique dealers for incorrectly
describing an antique.
1.The first occasion was at an antique shop in Newark, where
I saw several items in the basement made of stone and looking like a stand with
a circular piece of stone on top. They had a label saying they were saddle
stones, whereas the correct name was staddle stones.
The name “Staddle” stones derives from the word Stathol,
meaning a foundation. A staddle comprises a stone pillar with a stone overhanging
the top and looking like a large mushroom. The staddle holds grain up high preventing
it being attacked by rats or spoilt by water.
2.The second one was a brass item bought at a fair at
Nottingham racecourse. The dealer said it was an old devise to grip and lever
out stoppers from wine bottles and sold it described as a bottle opener. On subsequent
examination, I found that the inside of the device had sharp notches and it was
clear that it was in fact a nut cracker, the notches being to hold nuts firmly
in place as they were squeezed.
3.The third case was more a miss-spoken description!! I heard antique fair dealers talking about pipe tamperers!! A tamper comes in many different forms, such as the devices that are used on the highway to tamp down tarmac. And the same principle applies to smoking pipe-tampers. The object of a pipe tamper is to push burning tobacco (on top) into contact with the tobacco below and thus maintain combustion with less re-lights and provide continuous enjoyment.
These are two photographs of the 6 tampers, the two photos
giving opposite sides of each leg. .Starting from the left………
1.This tamper was said to be French and is made of Ivory. The top looks
like a skirt, and is a right leg, as evidenced by the buttons being on the
outside and on the right.
2. Number two is a bone tamper, with a lot of intricate carving and hatching, and as can be seen from the second photograph the button holes on the outside makes it a left leg.
3. This one is made from bone and is probably the most unusual and hopefully valuable of all my Tampers. The key thing to notice is that it is double headed, with two faces facing in opposite directions.
The hat is the same as the State dress hat worn by Tower of London Yeoman
Warders. It is open to conjecture whether this tamper has any link to Beefeaters.
It is hatched, and is a right leg. The shoes on 2 and 3 are actually very
similar.
4. A nicely shaped piece of Treen, with the lovely colour of Oak. Wood is seldom hatched, and the toes indicate a left foot.
5. The heaviest of the group, this is a bronze leg and has the rough feeling of bronze. Not hatched and is the only one with nothing to indicate which leg it is, but it does have all the signs of being old.
6. The final item is brass, a nice substantial leg to carry in a waistcoat pocket. Very little engraving and such as there is is very rudimentary and basic. Left leg and hatched.
An interesting aspect of all Tampers is how faithful many of
the calf carvings are to the Gastrocnemius muscle, the oak one being a particularly
good example.
And so we head towards the final days of my leg blog, which
I anticipate will be completed by Christmas!!
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