Spider Trivets - Doing my homework first

[talesofthesevenseas]

I have been reading up and doing some research on "spider trivets" the little three-legged, long-legged brass and wrought iron trivets with wooden handles and bar-hangers like this one:


I'm trying to do my homework first before purchasing one of these. I believe this type is Georgian, as they are described in the following article:
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles01/article458.shtml

This type doesn't seem to be produced as an antique reproduction, since hanging hooks are no longer used, nor do there seem to be warnings about fakes on the market.

The prices for these seem to be kind of all over the place. Would you agree that $100-ish plus shipping for one in very good condition would be fair and reasonable?

[talesofthesevenseas]

This is the one I've got my eye on. One question, since this one has a handle that was turned on a lathe, is it more likely Victorian? (1837 - 1901) I know lathes were in use long before the Georgian period, (1714 - 1837) but would they have been used for a common household item like this pre-Victorian? I'm guessing this one may be as late as 1850-ish?



Here's an underside construction view:

[D&b antiques]

I think were talking. 1890's or so. it would have been the Black smith's job to forge a trivet. could be as early as 1880's the machine age took off in the 1880's

The black smith would not have turned the handle.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Thanks, I wasn't sure after reading the article if it might be earlier, since it had the bar hangers. I'm good with anything pre-1900! 

[luxetveritas]

The surface is the same style of piano-book holders you can see on early 20th century pianos. Just thought I'd point that out Aren't I helpful

[talesofthesevenseas]

Yes it's a lyre, the ancient harp you see them playing these on old vases and such, but yes it is a really common theme on music stands and piano sheet music rests.

[luxetveritas]

Yeah, a lyre. I have a standing music stand with one on it- it's Georgian from the 19th century. Got it on eBay

[talesofthesevenseas]

Neat, what instrument do you play? I've played a few different ones over the years, but have never been very good at any of them. Love the piano and violin the most, but hate to subject my family to too much of my playing!!!

[luxetveritas]

I play viola, the violins "older brother". It is deeper than the violin, and a little (tiny bit) larger as a result. Beautiful sounding instrument.

[talesofthesevenseas]

I have a neat old Strad copy from the 1920's with really deep, dark tone that is almost viola-like. Love the violas too, they have a fantastic, rich tone. Sadly, I don't do my violin justice. Frankly I'm really horrible. I once had a guy come up and scream at me to get lost when I was practicing in a park! (true story!)

[talesofthesevenseas]

A spider trivet came up on Ebay today- check this out though, it has hex nuts on it. What do you think, were these added later? It also seems to have manufactured screws. Just how late were these kinds of trivets made? Anyone know?

[luxetveritas]

Can't help with the trivet, Tales, but practice makes perfect when it comes to any instrument! Too bad about the guy in the park But even if you were the best violinist in the world there is always someone who doesn't want to hear. I was fairly good about twenty years ago, but I hardly pick it up anymore. I would rather learn to play piano- always wanted to, just never made the time for it. I have a piano that was my grandfather's, it's out of tune, but an old Russian woman who lives next door to me tunes pianos, so maybe I'll have her tune it and start Who knows, maybe I'll do it this time

Also a note of interest, if you look on Craigslist under "free"- at least where I am- there are usually a few free pianos. I wanted to start a collection just because of the shear number of free ones, but alas, how do you display a collection of pianos?

[talesofthesevenseas]

Actually, I have an neat old antique player piano with both footpumps and a later addition electrical player system, that I picked up on Ebay for $5. However if you count the $500 it cost to move it and the $100 to tune it, they aren't all that cheap! Player pianos have to have someone who does player pianos so it costs a little more. And because of our rural location transporting was a little more than usual too.
It is sad when you see beautiful old pianos and organs that people can't even give away.

Learning to play piano is much easier than learning violin or viola. There's no squeaking and scratching stage to go through! Press the key and out comes the right tone!

You would not have believed it if you could have seen the guy that came out and yelled at me. I was at the far end of the park, trying to kind of get off away by myself, but there were two little houses out that way. He can running out the door of one of the houses, literally screaming at me at the top of his lungs, yelling "You play like sh*t! You're never gonna make it! Get the hell out of here!" True story!! He really did say exactly that! I said "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm just a beginner! I'm leaving!" and I took off as fast as I could! It was crazy!

[regularjoe2]

I can sorta understand where the guy was 'coming from' , talesof , since I remember delighting in driving my family nuts by playing "Oats & Beans" as badly as I possibly could (it was really horrible) when I got my first violin .

It was so serious that they banned the song in our household !

Things got better when I picked up a guitar ....

[talesofthesevenseas]

Yup, there is definitely a big learning curve with the violin! In my household, my then-teenage son decided it would be funny to try to find as many ways as he could to replace the word "sh*t" in a sentence with "Mom's violin playing". So he would say things like. "I have to go take a Mom's violin playing!" or "Boy, this stuff tastes like Mom's violin playing! It got to be pretty funny, but it doesn't do much to encourage one's musical endeavors!!!