An Artist's Tool Box Mystery chapter 2

Continuing with the examination of the contents of the box begun in my post from yesterday. Here are the rest of the items that were in the top compartment.  These old bottle caps.

I am assuming that these were probably used to mix small amounts of paint or hold small amounts of solvent. I had never heard of the Clark-Lurton Corp. and thought that might be a lead. I found the company history on-line and Bingo! a clue as to a possible time frame. From the Savogran Website:

"The Savogran Company purchased Sterling-Clark-Lurton in 2004 to capitalize on the synergies of these two historic companies. SCL was incorporated in 1922 as the Plymouth Rock Paint Company. In 1924, the name was changed to the Sterling Paint & Varnish Company. The product line consisted of a full line of exterior, interior and marine paints, as well as putty for wood and steel sash windows. Over time the product line expanded to include artist oil colors, caulking and glazing compounds and paint removers.

In the 1950's, with paint sundry products outselling paint, the company name was changed to Sterling Quality Products to reflect the success of their trade name “Sterling Quality.” In 1961, Sterling bought out the Clark Lurton Corporation. Both companies sold solvents and served the same customer base. SCL serves the paint and hardware trade, glass industry, marine trade and automotive aftermarket."

So maybe all this stuff is only as old as I am.

Also in the top tray were these items.

The green thing on the left is one of those things they used to stick in food like a sandwich to hold it together or as in this case probably to mark which steak is cooked medium-well, etc. It reads New Yorker Steak House Boston. Not sure what those were used for.

The brushes are odd. 

All are rather small with long fine bristles that have stiffened so they are unusable in their present condition. Even the shapes are different than the brushes I am used to. They do not seem suitable for oil painting like Madge did.

 Looking closer for brand names I found something strange. Most of the brushes were repaired with sticks or other old paint brush stems and taped together. The original stems on these brushes were hollow transparent tubes.  In the photo below you can see the light shining through the hollow transparent part. I have no idea what that means or why they would be made like that. I am now thinking that these are for some unknown to me art form. What could it be?

A couple of the other items had me stumped too. 

The palette knife is not much different from those found in stores today.  Next to that is one of the unknown items. It is just a wooden stick with a sharp metal point, what I would call a stylus but for what craft? Next to that is a peel-able eraser and a blending stump just like the ones I use. The yellow handled tool is I think another stylus. The end is angled and rounded slightly, not as sharp as the other one. I really want to know how this was used.

And finally there were these two writing implements with some good clues written on them. 

The wood pencil reads "Armco Drainage Products New England Metal Culvert Co. Palmer Mass, Boston, Mass, Portland, ME."  So this is the second reference to Boston. The mechanical pencil says "Overhead Door Sales Company of New Hampshire, Complete Sales, Service & Installation, Milford N. H. Phone 707. We had family in New Hampshire. And in fact my Great Uncle Maurice worked with the DOT of New Hampshire. He might be a likely candidate to receive a promotional pencil from a metal culvert company. I remembered learning that his wife, Bertha had done some sort of crafty thing. So I went to ask Dad if he could remember what type of work she had done. He said he did not know but that it involved paper because there was a lot of that in Maurice's house when they cleaned it out. So at this point I am leaning toward this being Bertha's paint box and not Madge's. Next up the treasure in the bottom of the box.

An Artist's Tool Box Mystery

I have pretty much given up on my blog but this story was too long for a quick Facebook post. It concerns a box that I found in the basement. It looked like this on the outside and I had thought it was an old gun cleaning kit.

This is what it looked like when I opened it.

What? Art Supplies! Oh how exciting. The cardboard thing on top looked like this when I opened it.

It was pieces of velvet with smudges of shiny color. A closer look at the sides of the card board revealed some writing.

My first guess was that it was some type of experiment. Some long ago family artist trying out painting on velvet? 

I had no idea who the box had belonged to or how old it was. There have been several family members who have done various types of art. I had a Great Aunt who painted with oils a lot. We have quite a few of her paintings and even some of the programs from art shows she was in. (Yes, we save everything) Could this have been Madge's paint box? I asked Dad if he recognized the writing and he said "No".  Well that just made me determined to find out who the mystery artist was. I needed to look for more clues. Back to the box.

First I examine the contents of the smaller metal box. 

The scrap of paper was on top of the other items. It had more writing and five common pins and a needle....but no name. The text is some sort of recipe, "3 parts turpentine, 1 part varnish" and some other words I could not make out.

Also in the box were a few paper clips, 5 dice (I can't imagine what they were in there for), white conte crayons, and these...

The metal object is like an awl without a handle. The other item is a tiny bottle. I tried to read the printing on the label but could only make out the words "headache" and "constipation". Inside the bottle was a fine silver powder. (Yes, I know it probably was toxic and yes, I tried to be as careful as my curiosity would let me be. And yes I do know that old art supplies often were health hazards, lead in the paint and tubes made of lead...etc..)

Next I looked at the paints. Madge painting a lot of landscapes and still lives with an occasional portrait so maybe the colors would be a clue. Here is the lot divided into color groups.

The largest group was the Reds. 

There were two tubes of Signwriters colors in Japan; Poster Vermillion and Signwriters Red. I have no idea what those types of paint are. The others are oils:  Cadmium Red M, Alizarin Crimson, English Vermillion, and Harrison Red. The last two are color names I have never heard of. The horizontal tube at the top was the only black; Lamp black.

For yellows there was Yellow Lake, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow D, Chrome Yellow M, and Chrome Yellow. I know from reading various histories of color that the Chromes are not good. According to Wikipedia; "the pigment tends to oxidize and darken on exposure to air over time,^[2] and it contains lead, a toxic, heavy metal, it was originally replaced by another pigment, cadmium yellow."

The blues had a tube that did not look that old to me, the Grumbacher label has not changed much over the years. The tube itself does not look very old either. The colors are French Ultramarine Blue, Thalo Blue, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, and Cerulean.

 

The greens have two more chrome colors: Chrome Green Medium and Chrome Green Deep. There is also a tube of Green Earth and Veridian.

There were three tube of browns; Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, and Burnt Umber. 

The only tube of white was this one that I put in with the yellow group, mistaking the label color for the paint color. It is another paint I don't recognize.

The paints were made by Devoe, Devoe & Raynolds, F. Weber Co., Winsor & Newton, and  Grumbacher. The last two are the only brands I recognize. 

There may be clues here as to how old the paints are but it will take some research. And even if I date the paints that might not get me any closer to know whose box this was or what type of art the artist was making. I so wish these things could talk. 

To be continued....

Fighting a bit....

I seem to be fighting a bit of 'what's-the-point-itis' lately. That feeling of wanting to just give up on stuff that takes any amount of effort....and it all takes effort. I think I am still feeling the physical effects of a cold that Dad and I both had. He is still sick too, and it has been almost four weeks for him. I still have some lingering stuffiness but mainly I am just feeling weak and tired....and a bit depressed. The weather has not done much for my mood either. We had a long string of cold grey days; it has been a cool spring in general, and it seems as if when the sun does shine the wind is gonna blow like the dickens.
We did have a couple of nice days that I took advantage of. One day I went to Granby to take more photos for reference since all of my photos from there seem to be taken in Autumn. I wanted particularly to get some photos of the waterfalls at Enders State park before the trees were fully leafed out since it can get really dark in the gully.

I also went to the McLean Game Refuge and a few other places out there. It was a beautiful day.

The other nice days I spent in the garden. I had to keep resting, sometimes sitting in the wheel barrow if there was not a bench near by. That really makes me think it is not just depression that is making me feel so tired. 

Both of the nice days I also planned on finally doing some painting 'en plain air'. I have wanted to do that since last fall and for Christmas I got a special easel just for that. Well, I packed up my paints and easel but could not get myself to set up anywhere. No place seemed right enough for the effort. I was also afraid that someone would come by and see me painting. Why should that matter? I know it should not but until I do it a few times and build up some confidence I think that fear will be a factor. I thought I should just start by painting something here in the yard but again could not find anything that seemed worth the effort. That IS the depression speaking. Maybe this week I can overcome the fear and depression and just paint. 

I have done some painting but not as much as I was doing. My patron who was buying all my paintings on Ebay has stopped buying so sales have slackened and that is feeding into the feeling of 'what is the point?', though sales never were the point at all. It is times like this that I need to remember that what matters most is doing the thing. It really is all about the process, not the end results, not the sales, not the final product. Just do it, and do it with as much gusto as you can muster in that moment. And it is so true that inspiration follows action. Just get out the materials and make a start and do not wait for the inspiration. 

I had been wanting to do another pastel piece after seeing so many lovely works at the Academic Art show. So, while it was gloomy outside I went to the basement and got to work on a piece I had started a while ago. I really had to make myself get started on it but after a while I could feel a shift in my mood and in my thoughts from negativity and desire to quit to positivity and inspiration so strong I did not want to stop even for meals. It is a lesson I seem to keep needing to learn. 

Here is the finished piece.

And here are the Ebay paintings that I worked on.

I also reworked one of the the paintings that did not sell, and I think I made it better. I really like the texture of the paint in the foreground. I will list it this week to see of other people like it better now too.

Finally a Thursday post on Thursday.....a week late....sigh.

I need to give myself credit for getting back to blogging and not get too critical about the fact that I am not exactly doing what I set out to do. So what if I am not quite blogging every Thursday like I planned?  I am still doing better at it than I was a month ago.
For someone who does not like to go out much I have been rather busy going places. I went to the opening for the CT + 6 show at the West Hartford Art League on the Sunday after my last post. This is a regional show; Connecticut plus the other 5 New England states and New York. I was very happy to have two pieces in this show. I did not realize what a feat that was until I heard that they had about 425 entries and only accepted 85 pieces. I was also very very happy to find out that I had won the Frame Dimensions award for my felt piece titled 'Enders' (the name of the park where the waterfall is located).

My colored pencil drawing titled "City Kitty" is the other piece I did that was accepted into this show.

 I went to help with the hanging of the Academic Artist's show on the 26th. Being on the council for this group has been really good for me in terms of feeling more a part of the local artist community. It has also given me a new appreciation for all that goes in to mounting an art show. We had the opening for this show on Sunday the 1st. It is a fantastic show with some museum quality pieces in a beautiful gallery.

I was also busy doing more paintings for Ebay. Here are the newest paintings.

I also went to the Connecticut Sheep and Wool festival and found out I really am not done with fiber. I did not plan on buying anything and was going mainly to see my friend. I certainly was not going to buy a fleece....

Or any more wool roving....