Sepia Saturday: Stamping tools

Neil has all sorts of items tucked away in his shed but he knows where everything is and the history of each item. About ten years ago I began a project of photographing each item but it got too hard and I didn't keep going but the prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday had me going back through my files to find the photos that I did manage.

Neil's family used to own a general store and these three items were in use in those days in the early 1900s.

The first item is a small box that holds a set of ten metal marking stamps, of the numbers 0 to 9. It was produced by Axminster of Devon (telephone 3114)

The second item is also a box of stamps. This time the stamps are designed to be used with an ink pad. I only photographed one of the stamps and it is clean of ink so may never have been used. I didn't check the other stamps.

The third item is a box of metal stamps, one for each letter of the alphabet plus a few other symbols like '&'. They would have been used to stamp words onto metal.

This post has been in response to the theme photo for Sepia Saturday, a type-setter at work. You can head on over to the webpage to see what other bloggers have made of the theme.

Sepia Saturday: Keith's chair

I've always liked these photos of Uncle Keith in his high chair. I wish we still had the chair because it looks pretty amazing but it was probably destroyed when the family's home was burnt down about 15 years later. The chair has wheels and a wheelbarrow-type handle, adjustable height mechanisms, decorative bibs and bobs ... and would be a horror to clean!! The seat doesn't look very comfortable either but Keith isn't complaining. The photo was taken in about 1926 in Victoria, Australia.

Keith Phelan in his adjustable high chair

Keith in his high chair

This post has been in response to the Sepia Saturday theme photo of two women in Belgium in 1914 carrying a painting and dismantled furniture to a safer area. I couldn't find a 'painting' photo in my albums to match so I chose to highlight the furniture instead.