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My guess is the paint isn't original too. I'll bet originally the paint probably had some fancy pinstripping or decals...
Thanks for the response!
Welcome , Irishguy ...
Any plates/castings/marks to identify the manufacturer , etc. ?
1. Does it work ? ( are the bearings very loose/sloppy )
2. Is it accurate ? (looks like it is adjustable)
3. Is the base cast iron , or stamped steel ?
It certainly is a simple enough balance-beam scale (not so many parts to wear out) with plenty of character .
I'd suggest you give the raw metal parts a good rub-down & wipe-off with some mineral oil ... this will 'clean it up' a bit & stop the rust for awhile (it's cheap & easy to do too) .
I am guessing that the paint is not the original ?
Have you ever found something surprising inside an antique? You hear stories about someone discovering a valuable painting under junk art, or finding an antique pistol hidden in the wall of an old house. Twice I've found unexpected things and I figured that there might be some interesting stories about finding something unexpected.
Not long ago, I purchase a stitchery made of old tabacco silks. I wanted to replace the backing with an acid free backing and when I took off the old backing, inside was a perfectly preserved 1940's-ish tissue embroidery transfer showing Mother Goose scenes. Nothing valuable, but still a surprise!
My best one was in this old violin coffin case at the bottom of this post. When I purchased it, it had been lined with fabric, but not padded so that it still allowed the violin to slip around loose inside the case. I wanted to protect my violin from damage by adding foam forms to hold it securely.
When I removed the liner, I found writing underneath. at the top of the case in faded pencil were a list of the names of the family who were the former owners of the case. (It was like an ID so that you'd know whose case it was) I researched the family on Ancestry.com and found out that the kids were born in the 1850's and 1860's. Written in bold printing in the center of the case, was a note saying "This old fiddle case restored by Ken (surname omitted for privacy) and then a series of numbers and the name of a town. I did a little research and found out that the numbers were an old-style phone number. I realized that this guy had sent out a "message in a bottle" and wanted whoever found it to contact him. So I decided to give it a try.
I looked up town name and found that a person with the same surname still lived there and the last four digits of the phone number matched the ones in the case. So I called and left a message on their answering machine, saying that I had found the note hidden in the violin case.
Later that day I got a call from Ken's widow. It turned out that he had died a couple of years after restoring the case. He was a volunteer rescue worker and was swept away in a flood on his way to help someone. His widow said she had no idea about the message, but said that it was just like him to do something like that, and he must have been inspired to do it when he found the children's names hidden under the lining of the case when he restored it. How strange that must have been for me to call her out of the blue like that, more than 20 years after his death!
Anyone else have a "hidden treasure" story?
