What is the iron? A liquor bottle with a no drinking policy!

This week’s mystery object was a little tricky. The bottle which depicts the image of General Taylor on one side and George Washington on the other, was produced by Dyottville Glass Works between 1847-1849.

In the early 1800s Englishman Thomas W. Dyott purchased an earlier glass works near Philadelphia and built an establishment called “Dyottville” which operated into the 1930’s. Dyottville was more than a glass factory; it was a home for 300 boys and  young men. It operated as a small community complete with a school, church, hospital, library and a farm. These workers were obliged to follow a strict code of ethics:

1.  No swearing, improper or abusive language.
2. $5 fine or dismissal for breaking the rule prohibiting liquor on the premises.
3. $5 fine for disobeying the orders of a superior.
4. Personal cleanliness and “necessary ablution” before meals, school and church.
5. Use of all fines to purchases books for the Dyottville Apprentices Library.
6. Strict prohibition of every species of gambling.
7. Immediate notification of the one’s superior in case of illness, so another could take his station in the factory.

The irony was code #2; workers who produced liquor bottles were prohibited from inbibing alcohol!

Read Full Post »

What is it? An imperial Russian plate!

This is one of four porcelain plates brought back to York, Maine by Miss Elizabeth Perkins and her mother, Mary (Sowles) Perkins, from their travels to Russia (1896 & 1909). It can be identified as being from Imperial Russia not only by the double-headed eagle in the center, but also by the cyrillics (“lettering”) that are used. The Russian orthography was changed shortly after the 1917 revolution; the plates retain the older cyrillics from the late 19th-early 20th centuries.

The set was made by the Korniloff Brothers, who had a factory in St. Petersburg, Russia. The factory closed in 1918 when all businesses were privatized by the government.

All four of the plates in the collection feature cyrillics around the rim which give different Russian proverbs relating to food. This plate roughly translates as “If the bread is not yours, don’t open your mouth.”

Read Full Post »