Sassy Cidre

I tried their Rose’ flavor and the Poire’ flavor. I did not like them. I thought they were too sweet and left an undesireable flavor on the pallet. It did have the ‘smell of french ciders’ so I don’t doubt that they start with real fruit but something happened on the way to the bottle.

F.H.S.

First Hole Silver!
George VI sixpence made me smile but a BIT later I got a ‘florin’ and was very happy. Not old, not solid, but shiny and Not a pull tab. After weeks of not being able to get out it was nice to have these come up. I know a lot of people do better but two silver coins in the same weekend is a rarity for me so I had to show ’em to ya.

The Highs and Lows of Metal Detecting

 This came up all gold and shiny in the sun and really got my heart racing! But little did I know how sad a perfectly crushed bottle top could make me till I looked a little closer. I found myself wishing I’d found the whiskey bottle it was once attached to instead. This and a thimble were the only remarkable finds of the day.
Then almost exactly 24 hours later I’m gobsmacked to find this:
image1.jpegDoesn’t look like much but it’s very interesting from a historical point of view. It’s an Iron Age stater.  From the Durotrigian tribe based on the Isle of Wight. Though I can’t make it out, the museum says it depicts the head of Apollo and a horse. Very stylised I guess. BUT ITS AT LEAST 2100 years old! Blows my mind to think some guy was buying his sheep or paying for his beer with this a century or two before Christ was born. Blimey!

Confidence in my hobby restored I endeavor to find more, preferably the gold and silver versions.

Finds from a long weekend

I got out to detect twice over the long weekend and found some interesting things:

A 17th c. thimble, completely flat but still with some interesting details visible.

A badge from something, maybe a saddle, maybe a tractor.

A musket ball with some odd dimples in it.

 

A button with gilt remnants. Dates from 1790-1823.

Fusee Watch museum assessment

Some of you may remember my posting about a pocket watch I found last year. The local museum had a look at it some months ago but has just released a lengthy assessment of it. This watch remains my favorite find out of literally hundreds of items.

An incomplete late post-Medieval or Modern yellow metal plated copper alloy pocket watch, probably dating to c AD 1750 – 1800. The watch, circular in form, is enclosed in an outer case and it is probably a demi-hunter (or half-hunter), where the outer lid (an open ring) of the case has a glass panel (there is no glass present in this item but a flange on the inner side of the lid suggests there might have been) or hole in the centre giving a view of the hands. The hours would be marked on the outer lid or its glass, thus with this type of case one can tell the time without opening the lid. The name derived in England where fox hunters could read the time without letting go of the reins of the horse (hunter). The lid hinge is at 9 o’clock, the stem, crown and bow or loop (bow, for attachment to a chain, now missing) at 12 o’clock. The stem does not seem to incorporate a winder, in that there is a small hole for a winding key in the back of the watch itself. This is an indication of an English watch.

On the back of the case, where almost all of the plating is missing, is an heraldic shield with Swiss shape, diagonal band (bande – from lower right to upper left) with vertical inscribed hatchings in the opposing corners of the shield. There appears to be some design across the centre of the shield, subject uncertain. Inside the centre back of the case, there may be a number ‘5’ inscribed or stamped and other figures, also, but there are dark stains and other matter inside the case which obscure much of the inner surface. There is a strip of what may be a textile running from the catch of the case towards the centre of the inner surface. It now adheres to the metal. This may be what the remains of what is known as a watch paper – originally printed with details of the watch maker.

The watch itself has a lid hinge at 12 o’clock. Any glass which would have been in this inner lid is now missing. The watch face is a white/cream colour, perhaps enamel or porcelain. There are no numbers or other marks on the face and may never have been if this was, in fact a half-hunter (see above).There is some crazing and a small chip on the surface of the face. A single hand remains, probably the hour hand, and there may have only been one, with circular attachment loop fixing the hand to the face, small collar close to the attachment end, spine and arrow head pointer. The reverse of the watch shows wear, with the yellow metal coating peeling off. The inner lid, followed by the face and mechanism, hinge outwards from the back of the watch. The mechanism is displayed and is a verge fusee movement, with what appear to be standardised parts which match illustrations of similar watches.

The movement is held between two plates, probably brass, and the components of the movement can still be seen, though they are encrusted with material, including iron corrosion, mainly on the upper plate. On the plate is inscribed – James (or possibly Jas or John) Wild LONDON – and a number – 3952. A James Wild is listed as a watchmaker in Frith Street, Soho, London in 1790.

The watch is not in working condition. Corrosion is evident amongst elements of the movement.

Dimensions: 47.55mm diameter; 62.45mm in height (including the stem); 17.45mm thick; 79.85g in weight.The inner case, the watch itself, is 41.17mm in diameter; 15.56mm thick and 59.69g in weight.

cf Wikipedia Fusee (horology) accessed 2019: “Used in antique spring-powered mechanical watches and clocks, a fusee is a cone-shaped pulleywith a helical groove around it, wound with a cord or chain which is attached to the mainspring barrel. Fusees were used from the 15th century to the early 20th century to improve timekeeping by equalizing the uneven pull of the mainspring as it ran down.”.

Class: Pocket
Sub class: Verge fusee

Date from: Circa AD 1750 
Date to: Circa AD 1800

Tobacco bats

From the childhood that brought you shivering superpowers and banana based family portraits I give you: ‘Tobacco Bats’ 
 
Back in ol’ Virginny when I was a lad we went to visit my great granddad on his 98th birthday. Grampa Jervis was still spry and rail thin but sadly had gone completely blind at some point.  He was also cold all the time and kept a shawl over his shoulders that draped down like a shroud. Granny had knitted it with a hood on it in case his bald old head got cold too. That day he greeted us at the door with that 1000 yard stare you get when you can’t see and his arms thrown out wide for a hug. He knew we were coming and hollered at me ‘C’mon on in boy! But I, the chubby little boy who watched too much scary TV at night knew what he was looking at with its bald head and tight skin and a cape all furled around him, I was lookin’ at a vampire! I’d seen them on the TV, I knew what they were! So instead I ran off out back of his farmhouse and looked for someplace to stay hidden till it was time to go home. 
 
Anyway, after a bit it was getting on to evening and my family showed no sign of coming out, drained of blood or otherwise. I was eventually distracted by some puppy dogs who were basically living out of the barn and I wandered in to see what they were up to. And there, up in the rafters, were these long dark shapes. I didn’t think bats could get that big! Some of them had to be 6 foot or more! I could hear soft rustling now and then as they shifted in their sleep. Oh Lordy, was I scared! I’d been right about that vampire thing all along!
 
I backed up slowly, silently, and found the edge of the door, turned and ran screaming back to the pickup truck and locked myself in.  Just when I had nearly convinced myself I was wrong that my grandad had become a vampire I see his whole family nesting up in the old barn out back! A lot of praying went on I can tell you, and I KNEW my immediate family was already dead and the thought of my eventual ruination brought me to tears.
 
Well, that lasted all of about 30 seconds cause my dad came out of the house when he heard the truck door slam and yelled at me to get myself inside and say howdy.  ‘Great.’ I thought, he would be the only one to survive the slaughter.  I knew he wouldn’t buy the vampire story so I told him I was hiding in the truck cause the barn was full of bats. He wasn’t having any of my guff. He grabbed me by the shirt collar and marched me around the back and then stood behind me with folded arms. “Show me.” He demanded. I pointed up into the dark and whispered ‘Up there. Don’t wake them…”. He squinted up into the shadows and said ‘“Where? In the tobacco?” I shot a look at his face to see if he was joking then slowly looked back up into the rafters of the old barn. “You…you see tobacco?” I’d never seen tobacco anywhere but in a cigarette before so I wasn’t completely convinced. But my dad had all he could stomach of my foolishness and herded me back to the house, pushing me inside where my family was all sitting round having a nice little visit.  My grandpa asked why I hadn’t come in before and my dad snorted: ‘He thought he saw bats in your tobacco barn.’
“Oh yes.” GrampaGreat Jervis said, “There’s bats out there, bigguns too!’ That tobacco has hung out there for years now, no good to anyone but them bats!“
 
I was left to contemplate tobacco-chewing bats while the family laughed at my discomfort. That’s when I discovered I needn’t have been afraid of a vampire Grandpa, he didn’t have any teeth to start with!
 
keep doin’ what you’re doin!
 
FLASH JERVIS

Catching up on Finds

April’s finds

From Upper Left:
Victoria Ha-penny, George V Penny (1929), George V Farthing (1922), Elizabeth II Sixpence(1954), George V Ha-penny (1935), Trapezoidal buckle (17thc), Copper Alloy buckle, Various plain buttons (1750s-1800s), old old musket ball (16th c.)