Mysteries Solved & Some CQ Too!

Thank you all for your wonderful and interesting comments on my last post.  There were a lot of great ideas about what some of those "mystery" artifacts were, which led me into some fun online research.  So, I thought I'd just do a post to answer some of the questions and comments....
Let's start with this:

There were suggestions from Lesley and Leaking Moonlight that this was perhaps a bourdaloue.  From Lesley's description, I had a pretty good idea of what she meant, but I was wondering why it would be so decorative. Marilyn and Ruby both thought it was a spoon rest.  The answer is .... it IS a spoon rest.  Or more accurately, a spoon stack.     

This is a bourdaloue:

It is a portable chamber pot from the "good old days", LOL.  And yes, it's rather ornate for its function, don't you think?   Come to think of it though, even though most of the chamber pots I've seen (like in the historic farmhouse at Wheeler Farm where I work) are plain, I have seen some quite fancy ones.    By the way, a bourdaloue is also a fancy tart which can look something like this: 

Try not to get the two confused!!!  :-)  

So, this is what I found out about the spoon stack.  Here is a sample of a Noritake spoon stack.

Most of them were made between 1890 - 1910.  The Noritakes I've seen online at Replacements Ltd. and other auction houses sell for between $60 to $95 each.  But remember, mine had no markings?  Well, apparently Noritake made some blanks, and those were sold in more limited numbers to handpainters.  You can see the style is nearly identical, although my handles are more ornate.  The blanks are more rare, but I've only seen one sell, and that was for $45.  Either way, not a bad investment for the $5 I paid, was it??

Moving on to the mystery of this:

Kimberly in SLC (shout out to Kimberly!!!) suggested it might be a southern-type beverage cover.  So, I began Googling those.  But I noticed that they were less "airy" (to protect the pitcher or glass from bugs flying in) and were FLAT.  The flat crocheted protectors were draped over the pitcher.

So, then I checked out snoods, my original hunch, and I believe I'm right. Check out this vintage image:

Yes, they are LONG compared to today's shower caps and hair nets. Wow, and were there ever some stylish ones!  I saw a number of modern day versions that are being made (check it out sometime!) that are absolutely lovely.  I think I'll let my hair grow, LOL!!

And finally, to keep this somewhat related to stitching and crazy quilting, here is a picture of my Images of Africa quilt.  I made it for the $100,000 Quilting Challenge back in 2006-2007.   I was one of the ten semi-finalists (or was it quarter-finals?) in the Crazy Quilting category that were asked to send in their quilts.  However, it did not make it to publication in the magazine.  Oh well, it looks great in our African-themed library.

I've been thinking of perhaps posting this quilt block by block, but honestly, it has a lot of interesting  STUFF and ideas on it, but the stitching was a little on the lean side (at least compared to how I do things now).   There's another crazy quilt in me trying to get out, and I'll hopefully embark upon that this winter to meet the CQ by 2012 Challenge that I started on some of the CQ lists.   I ought to "put my money where my mouth is", eh?  (I ought to put something where my mouth is; this post has rambled on long enough!)