Found some interesting things in my nans attic - Help Required

[Moosic]

Hi Everyone, my nan is coming to live with me so we have been clearing the things she wants to keep and others she has no real use for. We have decided to sell things online but some of the items are difficult to find out about.

I am looking for some help so if anyone could help that would be truly wonderful.

The first two photos are from a painting, i can't make out the artists names although i think it could possibly read W. Matthews. The frame is from Ruskin in Birmingham but that i all i know.

The other two photos have not much background info unfortunately, the photo of the side table [i think it's a side table] photo 4 has been brought through the family for possibly over 100+ years. My mothers mothers, mothers table i think.

The ruskin vase all we know it was produced in 1915.

The grinding wheel we don't know anything about, nor the sand rock Troughs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Moosic]

And another...

[Moosic]

And from outside...

[CollectorsOnlineMall]

Here's a link for Ruskin pottery  http://www.modernsilver.com/ruskin.htm

The round donut shaped stone could be a grinding wheel - is it flat on both sides?

[Moosic]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

The wheel is flat on both sides, i do presume it is a grinding wheel.

Would be interesting to find out what the others are about also.... i've tried looking everywhere but to know joy !

[cogar]

Sandstone grinding wheels and chimney stones (12" to 14" square stones w/6" to 8" round holes cut thru the centers) are fairly common items whereas the sandstone water troughs are not.

My recently deceased neighbor of 95 years young told me that as a teenager one of his jobs was "cutting chimney stones".

I have a "cap stone" for a chimney that is now a decoration in one of the wife's flowerbeds.

[Moosic]

Thanks for the reply Cogar... would you have any idea how much the sandstone water troughs could be worth ? I've tried finding info on the items i have posted here but unfortunately i cannot find much information relating to age or value.

[cogar]

Moosic, those cut sandstone objects are pretty much un-dateable unless you know for sure of the person that made them. Probably the best you could claim was pre-1930 ish. Now chimney stones can be dated if they are "still in place" in the structure they were made for and you know when said structure was built.

For instance, the old Weston State Hospital, in Weston, WV, which was originally known as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum of Western Virginia, is or was the largest “cut sandstone building in the US” which was built pre Civil War.

As far as value they are "novelty items" so, ....whatever you can get for them.

Iffen you "make up" a cute story about them like "George Washington's horse drank here"  ..... they will likely bring more money because the buyer will have "something to brag about".

Cheers

[Moosic]

Haha, i'll have to try that one Cogar !!!

Any ideas on the other items my friend ?

[cogar]

Moosic, after closer look at your "sandstone wheel" I'm more inclined to think maybe that it is a "grist mill" stone rather than a "sharpening" stone. And I say that for 2 reasons.

1) Your stone has a large round hole in the center rather than a small round or square hole in the center.

2) Your stone has "unfinished" sides (non-smooth) which is non-typical for a "sharpening" stone because that would preclude the operator from using the "sides" as a sharpening surface. (Its really tricky to get a flat, smooth grind on a wide surface using the round front edge of a grinding wheel.) 

Anyway, here below are urls for 2 pictures of "sharpening" stones, one showing the typical "seat n' pedal" configuration. I guess some were sold with an "attachment" for holding a small can above the wheel for "dripping" water onto the grinding surface to aid in the sharpening process.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Original-Sandstone-Grinding-Sharpening-Wheel-/130410731438

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sharpening-wheel-stone-farm-tool-mil-76628290
 

[talesofthesevenseas]

I'm not a furniture expert so you'll want to check further into this, but the chair looks to be a bustle chair, designed to accomodate women's fashions when bustles were worn. It's smaller than some I've seen, buy my novice date "guesstimate" would be 1880 to 1890-ish, based on the bustle style and also the fact that it was turned on a lathe, which became popularized in the 1880s

[KC]

Beat me to it cogar...it is a grist mill!  These are very popular with gardeners for decor in their gardens.  Go for $50+ in my neck of the woods.  I would try and find out if it was one of your ancestors!   Really cool item!!!!

 Can you post a pic of the underside of the chair and table?

[cogar]

Moosic, in that I previously told you that .... "I have a "cap stone" for a chimney that is now a decoration in one of the wife's flowerbeds" .... I figured I should post a picture of it in case you or other "viewers" weren't quit sure what I was talking about.

The "cap" stone is the very top stone on a chimney and outside dimensions of all the other chimney stones would have been the size of the base portion of the one pictured below. I have seen "cap" stones that were cut with an unsidedown "V" roof on them with the openings coming out from either side of the "V". They were for small "cookstove" chimneys or whatever.   

So, here it is, sitting between an Azalea bush and a bird bath pedestal. The wife use to plant Petunias in the chimney hole before the Azalea got too big. And it never gets moved because it weighs over 100 lbs.

[fancypants]

Nice items , Moosic .

I can't help myself on this one -sorry folks-
Here's a few more less-vintage music-related cap stones :

[KC]

LOLOLOL!