Old Butter Mold?

Hi, I picked up this piece at a church sale. I think it's an old butter mold but I am not sure and I am not sure how old it is.

And how would it work?

I would like to clean the mold surface, is that a bad idea?

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated

The 2 pieces together seen from the top:



The outside box seen from the top:



The outside box seen from the side, the holes in the bottom feet have common screws:



The mold seen from the top:



The mold seen from the side, those are common screws:



The mold seen from the bottom:

 

If you intend to sell it, don't clean it.

 

Yes, a butter mold. Following is a link to antique butter molds. One similar to yours, but bigger, is about 1/3rd of the way down the page - the 6th picture. Under the picture are 3 paragraphs about that type of mold and how they worked. It says it was presumably advertised in 1884 and first advertised in the 1870s.

"The butter mold pictured above was advertised as Kinerson's Combination Butter Print. These were advertised around 1885 and manufactured by James Kinerson of Peacham, Vermont. In that advertisement Kinerson claims they have been used for 9 years, dating these prints to about 1874. "

http://dairyantiques.com/Butter_Molds.html

One the same page the 9th pic down is identical to my my great grandmother's butter mold that I have. It is a very interesting website on antique dairy stuff and such.

--- Susan

 

Thank you very much Susan

 

I got an old pudding mold at a church sale, Marie. Federated Church. Is that where you got this?

 

Wonderful site!! I have added it to my favorites.
Peggy

 

Ohhh love that mold. I am a sucker for all things for baking or cooking or for the kitchen.

 

Hi Bev, nope, Church of the Holy Spirit for $2

 

To use it: you put the mold in the box, pack the box with butter, then push on the mold to extract the butter block from the box.

 

Great mold Marie! BTW, my grandfather helped build that church MANY years ago!!!!!

 

Do you live near here?

 

I remember using a mold similar to this in the 1950s. Wrote a poem about it. You have shown me there are still such molds to be found. Patricia Mitchell Lapidus

MOLD

A mold will hold a pattern.

Parents mold a child to give strength of character.

When Mom set me to pressing butter

into the wooden molds, she made sure

I pressed hard into the corners, got out all the air,

building from the bottom to the top. The full molds

sat in the cold. We took the wood apart.

Behold: yellow butter flowers on the butter blocks.


Odd how that which holds must soften,

must, strength gone, fold its gluten,

let purpose go and dust apart.

My grip is loose; I am old.

I suppose those woods have molded.

 

Love this. Just the sort of thing I come home with and then don't know what to do with!

 

I can appreciate that!!