Forgotten treasures

The carpenter who fitted the insect screens to some of our small top windows last week came back today to do a few more jobs for us.

The main job was to mend the three drawers in our family room dresser, which were becoming almost impossible to open. He remedied that with a thin application of Vaseline in a few strategic places. He also replaced the six handles because the original ones were of the swan necked type, which move up and down and are quite delicate. In fact, they are liable to spring out of their side fixings if pulled too vigorously. We now have some strong, solid cup-shaped ones which make it much easier to pull open the drawers, especially the one which has quite a bit of heavy cutlery in it.

While the carpenter was working on the dresser, the contents of the drawers were laid out on the dining table. I was quite amused to see some cutlery that I didn’t recognise. I particularly liked these Art Nouveau items, but had to do some research to find out what they were. Apparently they are a sardine serving set! They were made in 1902 by John & William Deakin of Sheffield and I imagine Smithers inherited them from his aunt (his father’s twin sister). They probably belonged to his grandparents.