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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jo Taylor, post: 32458, member: 372&quot;]This was during the heyday of the diamond mines at Kimberley: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape</a> </p><p><br /></p><p>£6000-worth of diamonds was a HUGE sum of money in 1871. All those ostrich feathers were, no doubt, to adorn the costumes of the elegant fashionable ladies of the day, they&#039;d have been very valuable too. Of course, there were probably no ostriches outside Africa at that time. </p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Ostriches were farmed for their feathers in South Africa beginning in the 19th century. According to Frank G. Carpenter, the English are credited with first taming ostriches outside Cape Town. Farmers captured baby ostriches and raised them successfully on their property, and were able to obtain a crop of feathers every seven to eight months instead of killing wild ostriches for their feathers.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>I do like a back-story to antiques! (N.B. We have VERY long generations in my family, which is why my great-grandma was around such a long time ago. Most families pack in five or six generations to our three!)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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