Reservoir Brush and BarbaraDoone Jewelry Gift Cards
I know you've all been waiting for this. The winner of the August "What Is This?" Contest is Patti Gallagher of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Patti wins a $50 BarbaraDoone Jewelry Gift Card which she can use to purchase current trend jewelry, bookmarks/gift tags, vintage lace and button bookmarks, Bliss Gift Packaging, jewelry repairs and Art Jewelry History Collection jewelry.
This wasn't an easy item to properly identify but Patti put her investigative goggles on and searched online for the patent number visible on the top of the brush - yes it showed in the pictures. The brush is identified as a "reservoir brush" used " in the dry cleaning of clothes, upholstery and similar services wherein petrol or similar inflammable spirit, or a noninflamnmable spirituous liquid, is fed from the reservoir-which constitutes the handle or gripping portion of the bruslh-to the bristles by a process of slow percolation eommencing at the roots of the tufts of bristles and passing downward to the free ends of the latter". This wording was taken straight from the patent description in the website www.espacenet.com . The patent is for improvements to this brush so the brush itself was invented sometime earlier than the date of this patent March 9, 1922. There was even a drawing/blueprint of the brush included in the patent (see the very end of this blog post). This confirmed that our "What Is This " item was definitely a "reservoir brush".
So "BIG UPS" to you Patti for winning the August "What Is This" Contest.
There were many responses to the contest. Suggestions included clothing brush, billiards table brush, men's hair brush, moustache brush, shoe polishing brush, horse brush, silver cleaner and so on; some included suggestions as to what the well was for and some did not.
The item really included identifying two things - what the brush was for and what the well was for. The first person to suggest that it was a clothes brush was Cherylin Collins of Virginia Beach. For this Cherylin is being awarded a $25 BarbaraDoone Jewelry Gift Card.
Cherylin is also an Etsy shoppe owner. Her main shoppe is called My Southern Lace and Cherylin was one of my original fabulous inspirations when it came to designing and setting up my vintage shoppe. Cherylin specializes in jewelry and linens and is a font of southern charm knowledge. Here's her lovely Etsy shoppe Avatar -

This avatar oozes pure southern charm. Cherylin's creative tag line is "Selling the Past to the Future". LOVE IT! Congrats! Cherylin.
Thanks to all of those who sent in their suggestions. It was so much fun seeing what everyone came up with. AND, GUESS WHAT? I've decided to run it as a monthly item on the blog. So, around the first of each month I will be posting a new "What Is This" item. The prize will most likely be a $50 BarbaraDoone Jewelry Gift Card but may be something different depending, who knows? The item will always be an antique or vintage piece and I may already know what it is or I may not. If I don't then I'll tell you that we'll need some documentation or a picture from somewhere to verify your suggestion.
Keep checking the blog as I won't guarantee the item will always appear on the 1st but it will be the 1st or after, never before. And, please send your suggestions by a comment through the blog. If you can't access the blog to comment then send me an e-mail which I will copy and put in the blog. So, get ready for some fun around the first of each month!
Oh and the reservoir brush is now for sale in my BeJoyFulVintage Etsy Shoppe.
BJF!
BTW here's the brush blueprint -
Data supplied from the espacenet database |
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