Same tinder box taken apart to show the working parts. The taper candlestick consists of the damper (used to dowse the glowing tinder after the small taper has eventually been lit) pushed into the reversed box lid to make a tiny taper candlestick of it, the flint, and the fire steel. The repair I had to do was to the damper/taperstick, which had been dropped and (I think) trodden on at some stage, so that it was badly misshapen and one rivet had gone. All's well now though. This tinder box would have been made for a lady. It is the sort of thing that Jane Austen's character, Catherine Moreland, must have wished she had had with her during the most terrifying part of her thrilling adventure at Northanger Abbey.
More later.
1 comment:
Lovely thing. I have a few antiques...nothing startling...just things I like.
A small flintlock pistol is perhaps my favourite. All the mechanism still work but I doubt you'd have much joy robbing a bank with it!
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