Frippery

Sometimes you come across things that make you wonder why they were ever made and what they were made for! I’m not necessarily talking about unidentified objects (although I have come across those too) I’m talking about frippery.

I blame the Victorians. They appear to be the masters of having “stuff”. You could have blown me over with a feather when I found out about the auction of a pair of silver plated asparagus tongs that had been taken on an Antarctic Exploration Expedition, not because they sold for A LOT, more so for the fact that they took them in the first place!

Asparagus Tongs

I can’t lie, I do have a little device that removes the stones from cherries and olives which is very useful (about twice a year) but the Victorians seemed to need a device for EVERYTHING. That being said, I can see that life was simpler and yet more complicated in some ways back then. For example; button hooks…can you imagine being late for work but not being able to get dressed if you couldn’t find the button hook. You’d struggle to do up your shoes, gloves, shirt or dress? Nightmare.

Antique Cherry Stoner

The other thing that I find quizzical is hair receivers. For the uninitiated it’s a little pot with a lid on it that has a hole at the top. After brushing your hair, you’d put the strands from your brush, in the pot. It took me a while to find out that the hair was used to stuff pin cushions. Apparently the hair grease stopped the pins rusting. Urgh.

Antique Hair Receiver

Stamp lickers, glove stretchers, moustache cups, skirt lifters, celery vases, knife rests, cheese stands…the list is endless.

Does anyone still use opera glasses? We should have kept those. I sometimes still use mine.

Tracy Skeates