Featured What Can You Tell Me About This Make-Do-and-Mend Pitcher?

really nice 'repair' and what seems to be a somewhat historically significant piece.

for those interested in similar repairs try a visit to Past Imperfect

Past Imperfect, The Art of Inventive Repair (andrewbaseman.com)

maybe try contacting Andrew to see if he might be interested in doing a post on this piece...

 

I don't see anything special here. there are plenty around in form and making: also the linked ones - especially the German Bembel ones - are easily available without damage, so why should I care about ones with damage ?

 

I typed a reply, but don't see it posted, so I will try again and if the first one shows up, please accept my apologies and give it a shrug.

What I wrote originally is that it has been my happy experience to have seen the items go to people who are extremely enthusiastic about what they picked up here. The students of a local teacher all waved and cheered when I dropped off one more part that belonged to something the teacher took for her class; a local artist, who makes wonderful masks, needed a sample with shoulders and was beyond excited to pick up one of my half-mannequins--with shoulders; one woman homeschools her children and sent me a photo of something her sons made with a kit she picked up from me; one woman is a laid-off Broadway costumer and takes every single sewing and vintage clothing item I offer; one woman is picking up a maple sap bag to teach her children how Native Americans made syrup from maple sap--and a local man who harvests maple sap from his backyard offered to help her. It has been quite terrific experience for all of us.

Also, years ago I became friends with a man who had one of the best--if not THE best--collections of antique items local to the state in which he lived. Professors from nearby universities would bring their students to visit and learn. He also had a rare item made by my great-great-great grandfather and while he wouldn't sell it to me I asked him to give me first dibs on it if he ever decided to sell it. The next time I saw the SOLD piece was in the list of auction results, when he died and his estate was sold off. I realized that it is all, as the Lion King song says so poignantly, the circle of life.

That circle includes museums, too, as museums have to churn their collections when something is redundant or they need to upgrade to a better iteration of something in their collection. As I was intimately involved in a small museum, my first choice would be to give things to a museum, if appropriate, and I have done so many, many times. Many more times, though, museums tell me they don't need or want my item in their collection.

So, yes, my sympathies are with those of you who encourage me to rehome it in some better way, but I came to realize the joy I see in the faces of the people to whom I give these things is priceless...and THANKS to you all!

 

Repairs are charming!

 

I bought a plate a few years ago because it was staple-repaired. It was a cheap plate originally and the repair cost more than the plate was worth even at the time. (that's why I bought it) I bet that jug will get itself a good home somewhere.

 

I have a feeling I told this story here before, but while at an antiques show several years ago, I stopped to look at a large display of vintage and antique aprons. We were planning a small exhibition on food/kitchen/cooking items in our tiny museum (aprons strung along a clothesline above our heads there, flapping when the A/C went on) and for later addition to my collection, as it had no relevance to the museum collection. I finally settled on a sweet apron with many patches, as I marveled that someone would spend so much time patching this most humble, much-loved apron. The seller came over and was dumbfounded that I wanted that apron and kept trying to sell me a pristine one, but I refused and said the more interesting story was in the patched one. That is what I see in this jug and in the story of your stapled plate...a much more interesting story. Thanks!

 

Somebody loved that apron! It's not the piece itself, it's the story.