Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Partly sunny and mild
Partly sunny and mild
Cast Iron Doorstops
Our Canadian election is finally over. The Conservative Prime Minister, Mr Stephen Harper decided to call the election 79 days ago - a record for an election campaign. Whatever strategy he had obviously didn't work as a new Liberal Prime Minister buy the name of Mr. Justin Trudeau won the election with a clear majority. Mr.Trudeauis the son of the famous late P.M. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and I'm 99.999% sure that the father-son Prime Ministership is a first in Canadian Politics.
However, I digressed, and so back to toys, which is again another digression (that doesn't sound too good, since the word "digression" is usually associated with doing something wrong -a sin),for my blog, as I decided to write about cast iron doorstops.
Foundries that produced cast iron merchandise for the growing American public produced more than just toys. I've written innumerable times about cast iron toys, which are one of my favourite toy categories. However, the foundries also produced lots of tother fine merchandise such as hardware for the home. This included door hinges, locks and keys, butterfly latches to hold in screened and glass windows and lots of other items.
I have written ever-so-briefly on cast iron doorstops, but decided to give these magnificent items their own post. The upcoming Bertoia Auctions auction on November 14, 2015, and titled Holiday Surprises Auction 2 features lots of nice cast iron toys and of course today's subject - doorstops.
The houses of yesteryear weren't made the same as today's homes. Foundations might be large stones from the field, walls weren't as well-built as today, and doors weren't finished to the level of today either. As a result, most homes in olden times would move, just as today. As a result, doors would tend to tilt and wouldn't remain open. So with every problem there is a solution, and the doorstop was invented probably thousands of years ago, but in the form of a rock.
What's interesting about doorstops is that there were so many different models and different categories to choose from. And of cords, there were all of the cast iron toy companies and hardware manufacturers making these interesting items. While I was writing and assembling the photos with their respective data, I "discovered" that in fact, some of these door stoppers were actually small, compared with what I had originally thought they would have been. I'm quite sure though, that if someone had a smaller door, they wouldn't need a large doorstop, and if the reverse was true, or the door was quite heavy and didbnlt hold its' place, a larger doorstop was called for.
So without further adieu ( a French term for more talking), lets' get to these fine items.
What I like of doorstops is the craftsmanship that went into making the mild and of course the design and content itself. It's like taking artwork and adding the third dimension of depth into the doorstop. The colours were of course hand painted, and so one can imagine all of the workers who worked for long hours painting the many different doorstops.
My mother loved China, and had a nice collection of Royal Doulton, Helmsley, Rosenthal, and Lladro. The item below of the Southern Belle lady reminds me of a fine porcelain figurine.
I would think that the rabbit with the overalls (below) would have been selected for a child's door. So imagine iof a house was exceptionally tilting, and was a very large house, how many doorstops there might have been!
Beautiful!
Being a photographer and nature person, you have to adore the fine pair of quail below.
And the same for this magnificent peacock with its plumage in full show to attract, of course,
the peahen!
THe Turkey, whci is most likely a "Tom", the name for a male turkey is my favourite for its exceptional carving, skill, and detail. If you select slide-view mode for Blogger (this blog by Google), you will bye able to see all photos off this post and others in a magnified mode. There the detail of this Tom Turkey will stand out!
I like detail. I don't know why, but perhaps it's being a photographer and needing to see detail and pay attention to detail when doing portraits, taking landscapes, or photographing products. Also, I seem to retain lots on information. Sometimes, I am even surprised at the answers I get when I watch the American TV Quiz show - Jeopardy. Of course, if I ever went on the show, I would "freeze up" like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, and wouldn't be able to answer the questions.
What I learned from the Bertoia Auctions description below of the doorstop of the house (below) is that it has a resemblance to a saltbox. I never heard of a saltbox before, and now I know. I would also assume, that people must have had a large supply of salt, especially if they lived in remote places throughout any country, in this case being America, so a larger-sized container would have been used.
So that's it for today. The leaves are already falling off the trees, so the fall season is already underway. It snowed earlier in the week, this the freeze caused the leaf stems to break away from the trees.
Lots of work to do around the house, but still some time to write.
Thanks for dropping by,
and as always,
haste a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be.
Stacey Bindman
Toysearcher@gmail.com
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