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A Ring To Die For...

9/29/2014

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Yep. 


You heard me right.

A ring...

to DIE for. 

Cue ominous music.


Dun, dun, duh. 


It sounds a little J.R.R. Tolkien, does it not?


"Don't leave me here alone! It's your Sam calling. 
Don't go where I can't follow! Wake up, Mr. Frodo!"
As the story goes…
 
If you were next in line for the throne and you had the chance to have a lovely meal with your elder brother, the king, all you would need to do is slip some poison into the hole in your very stylish ring and you could nonchalantly tip your hand over his glass while kindly pouring him a second glass of wine. Then, poof! In goes the poison and you are the king of the land! 
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Courtesy Photo
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This poison ring ^ was found at the site of a former medieval fortress in Cape Kaliakra, not far from the Black Sea coastal town of Kavarna in northeast Bulgaria. It was probably worn by a man on the little finger of his right hand.

It is said to date back to the 14th century and may possibly be the missing link in many unexplained deaths of royalty at the time. 

It was possibly used in one era to keep the stench away, for smelling salts in another, and for Quinine and heart attacks in yet another. 

The path of research that led me to this morbid piece of jewelry all started with this beautiful turquoise and silver ring.  It is marked .925 but, it is unusual because the band is adjustable which is something generally found in less expensive rings.  The vendor who brought it in told me that it is called a “Poison Locket Ring” and went on to show me how the ring opened.
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A poison ring or pillbox ring is a type of ring with a container under the bezel or inside the bezel itself that could be used to hold poison, hair, teeth, bone or other substances. They became popular in Europe during the sixteenth (16th) century. The poison ring was used either to slip poison into an enemy's food or drink, or to facilitate the suicide of the wearer in order to escape capture or torture.
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Rings like these have been used throughout history to carry perfume, locks of hair, devotional relics, messages and other keepsakes, and have been known by other names. Artists would paint tiny portraits of loved ones, to be carried in what was called a “locket ring,” which was popular during the Renaissance. By the seventeenth (17th) century, jewelers were creating locket rings in the shape of caskets which served as mementos for mourners. These were called “funeral rings.” Rings with compartments are also called “box” rings or “socket” rings. (Wikipedia)

This type of jewelry originated in ancient days of the Far East and India. It replaced the practice of wearing keepsakes and other items in pouches around the neck. The wearing of vessel rings was so practical that it spread to other parts of Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean before reaching Western Europe in the Middle Ages. By then the rings were part of the “holy relic trade”. 

Come on down to Grandma’s Attic and check out this unique ring...
No worries, there's a very slim chance that we will offer you a soda from our Pepsi machine while wearing "My Precious", err, this ring...

very slim indeed.

Dun, dun, duh. 

-The GA Gang

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Grandma's Gate to Indian Screen Door

9/22/2014

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Three months after the opening of Grandma’s Attic in 2010 we were in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  We were going through antique shops to get ideas and find merchandise, when we came upon  “the gate”! We snatched it up and brought it to its new “home”, because you don’t find a piece like that everyday!

For awhile we had it just leaning against a wall.  Then we decided to put it up in the doorway between the back room and the front room of Grandma’s Attic.  It is an older gate and someone had to have spent a lot of time arching the top.  My thoughts were that is was a European gate because I have seen gardens in Italy and on the internet with similar gates.  We didn’t know for sure where it came from or what it was used for, but we knew it was attention grabbing, we got price inquiries almost daily! It is a part of the character of Grandma's Attic. 

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Then in June of this year, a vendor brought in another gate set.  This one had the exact same latch and was shaped the same, as well as having bars that are the same size as our gate.  The person that sold the gate to our vendor said that the gate is from India.  
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That got me to thinking about an incident that had happened when I took a trip to India in 2009.  We got up one morning and everyone was pulling clothes from the lines, closing windows and doors.  Apparently, there had been a monkey alert.   Roving monkeys had moved into our community and they are curious characters.  The radio had announced the movement of the monkey troops around town.  


It was then that I remember seeing  two doors together-one was solid and one made with bars.  These gates are normally placed in front of traditional wood doors, allowing air ventilation into a home, while keeping the roving animals out. This type of door/gate combinations makes perfect sense with the freedom animals have in India.  

This started my internet search on gates from India.  There is not a lot to find.

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I found this one ^, but it was not exactly the same.
I believe maybe there was a specific era that this type of gate was built in, and the lack of finding them on the internet is because India has changed the style somewhat in current years. 

Well, that’s it then, one of the novelties of Grandma’s Attic has had its secret discovered!  It is a set of gates from India that they use as their front and back doors.

We’d love to have you stop in and see our “Indian screen doors”!

-The GA Gang

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The Teacup's Secret

9/16/2014

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This is a beautiful little Japanese tea cup that we have in the store right now. 
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At first glance, that's all it appears to be, is a beautiful little tea cup,
but sometimes, looks can be deceiving! 

If you finish your tea, and glance into the bottom of your now empty cup, you will notice that the bottom surface of the cup is uneven. Nothing too exciting, really.
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Then you may think, "Hey, that looks a little like a picture. A face, maybe?"


And when you pick it up to give it a closer inspection, and the light hits the bottom of the cup, you see it! A very detailed picture etched in the porcelain at the bottom of the cup.
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So, it turns out, what we really have here is a beautiful little Japanese tea cup with a LITHOPHANE  in the bottom.
The word "lithophane" is said to have Greek origins, meaning "Light in stone" or "to appear in stone". 

A lithophane starts out as a sheet of beeswax, then a picture is carved into the beeswax, then that sheet of wax is used to make a plaster of Paris mold, and finally Porcelain is poured into the mold and then "fired". 

Where the porcelain is thinnest, more light shows through, thus allowing the artist to create a picture by thinner and thicker sections of porcelain creating a "three-dimensional like" picture, or lithophane.   

I have read that the older lithophanes would start with the image in wax, then the artist would back-light the image and carve it on glass. Their work tables would be beneath a window, sometimes with a mirror underneath to bounce light up on the backside of the lithophane. 

Sounds like tedious work, doesn't it? 

Beautiful work though! 
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Lithophanes change in appearance, depending on the light source that you hold them up to. 


A lithopane picture being lit by a window, would change throughout the day, as the light changed. 
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Where did lithophanes originally come from? Well, that seems to be a subject with differing opinions. Some say they began in the "Tang Dynasty" where people said there were "bowls as thin as paper with secret decorations in them".  

That sounds very mysterious, doesn't it?

"The inspiration for the Japanese "geisha girl" lithophane mark seems more than likely  to have come to Japan during their early contacts with the West around the turn of the 19th century.

All kinds of decorative pieces, probably mostly lanterns were made in this technique in Europe, with its popularity reaching its peak in the 1870's after which point they gradually went out of fashion."

-http://www.gotheborg.com/qa/geisha.shtml
I guess this is just one more lesson of "Don't judge a book by its cover" or "appearances can be deceiving". 


In this case, the moral of the story would be, 


even a tea cup can have a secret. 

-The GA Gang

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This is the House That Dabbs Built

9/9/2014

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  This  Craftsman, Prairie style home with it's look as if it is rising from the earth,  is located at 205 W. Main in Anderson, Missouri. It was built in 1940.  It is 1,700 square foot, 3 bedroom and 2 baths.  It is on an approximate  23 acre lot and the estimated value in 2011 was 94,541.00.


It is the kind of house you would expect for a down to earth person like Dabbs Greer.  I have heard many stories of visits and waves by  Mr. Greer from  the porch of this home; to children headed to school or to people driving down main street on their way home.

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View of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO from up the hill.
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Side view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO
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Another side view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO
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Front view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO
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Side view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO
 There is tell of Dabbs Greer having a 1956 Chrysler light blue and white Imperial provided by Bill McCracken of McCracken Motors for him to take himself and lady friends around here in Anderson, Missouri when he was in town.  

We also know that Mr. Greer apparently had a interest in older vehicles and was honored by a car show at the dedication of Town Hole Park in his honor in 2002 .
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All these little things add up to tell you about a person's life. 

What do you know about Dabbs Greer?

-The GA Gang

For more info on Dabbs Greer, visit:
/dabbs-greer.html
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The Soldier's Deck of Cards

9/2/2014

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A deck of cards can be used in many ways both for good and for bad.  When I heard this description, it changed the way I look at cards...

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Old limited airline cards $4.95
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Furadan cards $1.00
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Rondo round cards $12.00

Now, it doesn't matter the shape of the cards, the age of the cards, or where the cards are used, when ever I see them, here in Grandma's Attic or at home, they will always represent the Bible and the seasons to me.    


Maybe, this will change the way you view a deck of cards too.

-The GA Gang

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