Tintypes

Among my paternal grandmother's possessions are several tintype photographs with no provenance dating between the 1880s and early 1900s. I consider us lucky to have them because many family photographs were destroyed in the flooding of 1972's Hurricane Agnes. I only wish I had names to go with faces! These photographs obviously meant something to someone, but we'll probably never know who their subjects were. Alas, they provide a glimpse into lives lived more than a century ago.

I do believe the boy in these first photos is my great grandpa, but otherwise, I'm clueless.

.

For help dating photographs, check out:

Dating Your Vintage Photographs (1840-1900) Part I: Image Formats

Dating Your Vintage Photographs (1840-1900) Part II: Women's Clothing Styles

Grandma Box Diving

Another hidden treasure in the basement.

The newspaper date is 1995.

The box appears to contain an assortment of my Grandma's (or her mother's/mother-in-law's) vintage china and glass ware. Here are some highlights and the limited information I managed to glean from many Internet searches.

Noritake serving dish, made in Japan ca. 1921-1941.

Luster ware serving dish, made in Germany ca. 1st half of 20th century.

Moschendorf Bavarian bread plate, ca. 1900-1930.

George Jones & Sons blue and white transfer ware plate with "farm" pattern, made in England ca. 1874-1924.

And cute porcelain turkey figurines, possibly from the 1930s.

Book Chain

Possibly the only thing I love more than finding old family photographs is finding old family jewelry. When my grandmother moved from her home in the early 1990s, she was forced to downsize and my dad volunteered to store some of her belongings in our shed. Little did we know, there were valuable (sentimentally) pictures in there! The picture below is of the Ottemiller children: Walter, Anna Mary, and Rebecca. Anna Mary was my paternal grandmother's mother. She was born in 1886, and since she appears to be at least 1-year-old, I would guess this picture was taken in approximately 1887. Most exciting though, in another box (this one inside the house), I found Rebecca's necklace!

The necklace is a gold Victorian book chain necklace with cameo pendant from the 1880s. The name derives from the chain of book-shaped links.

Cameos are one of my antique jewelry weaknesses. Love them! I like the angular look of this cameo and the elaborate engraving on the pendant.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened to the tassels shown in the picture. Perhaps I'll have to do another extensive search of my grandmother's belongings. Love you, Grandma. :)

Victorian Hair Jewelry

Ah, the Victorian period -- creepy, and yet, fascinating. Perfect for me and my "tendency to cheery morbidity" (the protagonist's self-description in Gregory Maguire's Lost). I've spent many hours with the dead: in the research facility, in skeletal collections, in cemeteries, in family history. Respect and remembrance are important.

Victorians popularized mourning jewelry in memory of the dead in the 19th century. Hair jewelry was sometimes made as mourning pieces or reminders of mortality, but could also be made as tokens of love. One of our family heirlooms just so happens to be a piece of hair jewelry. Not just a lock of a dead loved-one's hair, but a necklace of intricately woven human hair with a locket. I'm generally not a fan of other people's hair (when not attached to a head), but the artistry of hairwork can't be denied.

Inside the locket is a photo of a woman who I am fairly certain belongs to the Webel family. Below is a photograph of my great great grandmother, Annie Webel Miller. That nose and jaw-line are unmistakable. Perhaps it's her mother (my great great great grandmother), Elizabeth Thiess Webel, who died in 1894?

Surprisingly, hairwork is not an entirely lost art. Just visit the Victorian Hairwork Society or the Victorian Hair Artists Guild. Or, for some beautiful mourning jewelry browsing, visit the Art of Mourning. Personally, if this piece of hair jewelry did not belong to one of my ancestors, I'm not sure I would want it because it kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies.