Bama Planter

This is a CDV photograph of Mr. Thomas Hines. The studio was in Bowling Green, Kentucky. A carte de visite photograph such as this dates from 1860 to 1865. The initials on the back : T. L. Hines. There is indeed a Thomas Hines age 76 living in Bowling Green Kentucky on the 1860 census. This would be his photograph !!!!! He lived long enough to have a photo taken! He died in 1861, according to descendants on Ancestry. In the photograph, he is 75 or 76 years old.

NOTICE THE SKILL SAW MARKS...LONG AND EASY TO SEE. THESE ARE THE MARKS OF A NEW BOWL MADE TO BE PASSED OFF AS OLD. THE LONG SAW CUT MARKS GO FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP EDGE OF THE BOWL. THE OUTSIDES OF OLD TRENCHERS ARE SMOOTH. ( THE ROUND ONES WILL SOMETIMES STILL HAVE LATHE MARKS GOING ALL THE WAY AROUND, BUT THE LONG ONES WILL HAVE NO SAW MARKS.) I HAVE COLLECTED THESE FOR ALMOST 50 YEARS. THE AUCTION HOUSE DIDN'T HAVE ANY PICS OF THE SIDES OR BOTTOMM OF THIS BOWL, OR I WOULD HAVE KNOW IT WAS FAKE. THE INSIDES OF THESE BOWLS ARE LEFT "RAW" AND ARE SCRATCHED UP AND GIVEN A FEW STAINS TO LOOK OLD. BUT THE OUTSIDE SAW MARKS WILL ALWAYS GIVE THEM AWAY. EBAY IS FILLED WITH THESE FAKE BOWLS, SELLING ANYWHERE FROM $80 TO OVER $200. I PAID $154 FOR THIS ONE, NOT KNOWING IT WAS FAKE. THE AUCTION HOUSE DID NOT KNOW IT, ETITHER. THIS ONE CAME WITH A SMALL BUTTER BOWL, SO IT WAS NOT A COMPLETE LOSS, AS THE SMALL BUTTER BOWL IS WORTH THE $54. So my loss is about $100 plus...

Faux Marble baseboards. My friend Ian in Greensboro, Alabama, paid an artist ( one of the few who still know how to achieve this look ) to paint them in his antebellum in town. I have a book on several such techniques, and think, with a bit of practice, anyone with some artistic skill could do it. Now, sponge painting requires a bit more of the gifted. The pic is from the lovely home called Swamp Lawn in Oak Hill, North Carolina. The home is currently for sale.

My aunt in Destin has moved to assisted living and the cousins had no room and didn't want my great grandparents dining room table. It was purchased at their marriage in 1901, probably from the Sears-Roebuck catalog, for less than ten dollars ( money was a bit more valuable then ! ) . The cousins are heading to the University of Alabama football game so they will be on the interstate tomorrow ten miles from here. So by noon I should have the table at my house. It was offered to me , and if rejected, it was going to the thrift store ! Below is an example of what it looks like. I will put a cloth on it ( after taking the two leaves out) and use if for a craft table James and Susie lost three boys ( ages 2, 6, and 11) in the Great Pandemic of 1918. My grandfather was the only son who lived. He and his sister caught the flu in Selma while visiting an Aunt for Christmas. They came back sick, and the three brothers got the flu from them and were dead in three weeks. The brother-i...