An Artist's Tool Box Mystery, Chapter 3

The bottom of the box contained two more separate boxes that held their own treasures. But first there was a pile of rags such as every artist needs. As a textile artist I also saw some beauty in the rags themselves. Subtle colors and interesting patterns in the stains. Note that the artist was using old embroidered bed linens for rags. Old cotton has such a distinctive feel to it.

There were several different jars containing various mysterious liquids and powders.

 

Many of the jars were re-purposed cosmetic and medicine jars.

I love the one with the flowered top.

Some of the bottles and jars have hand written labels but the labels mean nothing to me.

Well, I know that Turp is short for Turpentine but I have no knowledge of what Hour Varnish is or what Cabots could be.

The small bottle of Higgins Ink looks very familiar as does the jar of  Vaseline though with a notable difference; there is no 'Ponds' after Cheesebrough so it is from before those companies merged.

 "White Petroleum Jelly"; you mean there were other colors?

There was also an unopened box of an oil paint medium

Another mention of Boston

The Cigar box was a treasure on its own. The outside looked really good.

And the inside cover was beautiful.

Besides being wonderful containers for all sorts of things cigar boxes mean something to me since my hometown here in Connecticut has a long history in the tobacco and cigar industry. In fact the first cigar factory in the U. S. was located here. I grew up with a tobacco curing shed right in my back yard and spent quite a bit of time working to raise tobacco. In fact this particular box came from a factory in Connecticut.

 

The labels on the box are all clearly legible. There might be some information here that could solve our mystery but will take more research. When did cigars last cost between 8 and 15 cents?

 

 

One side of the box looked great but the other....not so much.

Apparently something that was stored in the box at leaked at some point.

 

This is what I saw when I opened the cigar box.

Another small bit of that black velvet and many bottles. The bottles hold metal powders.

There were many colors and various makers.

And the artist had apparently also made a mix that was put in an old salt shaker.

I am guessing that the silver powder from the pill vial in my first post was one of these metal powders. I did some research and found that these are used for tole painting;often with a stencil, and other types of decorative painting.
Remember the metal box from the first post? I am guessing that that was painted with these powders for practice using them.

And in the bottom of the cigar box there were a few more of the sharp pointed styluses (or styli), a large paper clip, something that looked like foil, and a few tongue depressors.

The small bottle is another old pill bottle that now holds silver powder. It originally held Alophen a mix of Aloin extract, Belladonna, Powdered Ipecac and Phenolphthalein. It was another medication for constipation. I have no idea who in the family had that type of problem so that is no help.

And now since I am tired and we will be having a family get together tomorrow I find I have to end this post without finishing the story. More tomorrow or the next day.

             

   

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....