Unknown Soldiers

This photograph is in our collection - no provenance, no idea what vintage (except we don't think during a war), and no names.

So we are off looking for suggestions from anyone that will help us. We suspect it is Militia - some of them look just far too young to be enlisted. The one second from the left has no idea how to hold his gun.

There is a large copy HERE. Hopefully some of our online friends will be able to give us a rough date fairly quickly.

Thanks in advance!

Late Note: Thanks to Neville Gibbons at the Gippsland Military Museum at Sale. He believes it is probably members of the 52nd Battalion at camp in Seymour in 1938 or 1939.

Meanwhile, inside the Mousetrap

Yes, we know it is no excuse - but when we were making the first rough sweep, and cataloguing the mousetrap - we didn't even look inside. This mousetrap:

The other day we went back to photograph the items around it again, and had another look at it. It is fascinating. There is a larger photo HERE.

We had suspected it was the work of a local Tinsmith (we are into them a bit here at the moment), and was not a mass-produced item. Taking a closer look at the wire hinges and latch, this was confirmed. (Pardon the quality of the photograph)

Then, we looked inside. It is fascinating - much more complex than expected from the outside:

This and the view from below are from the rear. The mouse obviously has to get into a second chamber to get the cheese - and has no hope of getting out again.

There sure is a lot of work in this to catch one mouse - but then, it was reusable.

Pity about the borer though - we have put it aside for treatment. We're not sure where it will go then - maybe on the counter in the Post Office, where people can get up close and personal with it, although it is behind glass, seven days a week. We just pretend there has been a mouse in there, eating the telephone cables.

The Tinsmithing Machines

Thanks to Rob Pilgrim of the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, who has kindly pasted the comments below on the Flickr pages for the photos. One of them is shown below, but the full photos and posts are HERE and HERE.

He wrote:

I believe that this is a tinsmiths 'rim roller' for putting rims on things like pewter tankards, tin plates etc.

Also for making tight joints where sides meet bottoms

My Technical Curator - who occasionally works in tin, agrees

It's hard to see, but there are pictures here and here.

Apparently it may be called a rim roller / crimper / crimping roller / beader depending on what precisely it does and in what part of the world.

I'm also told that the local plumbers still have some of these in use.

Thanks Rob - much appreciated. The photographs of the Tinsmith shop in Canada are fascinating. Please also Thank your Technical Advisor.

ANZAC

25 April is ANZAC Day in Australia, remembering those who died in 1915 at Gallipoli, and in all other conflicts.

Moondarra is no longer (the town is under water), but their WWI Honour Roll is in our Military Collection. There is a larger copy HERE.

Unknown Plumbing / Tinsmithing Machine II

This is the second unknown Tinsmithing Machine - size is roughly about 40cm / fifteen inches high.

This one has not maker at all on it, so it anyone can even give us a name for the type of machine, it would be much appreciated.

The photograph above is after Glenn has reconditioned it, the one below is from before.

In 1975 Old Gippstown obtained a significant collection from a Tinsmith at Mirboo North. These two items probably originate from that collection.

Unknown Plumbing / Tinsmithing Machine

We have a couple of unknown plumbing or tinsmithing machines in our collection that Glenn is reconditioning. We would very much like to know if they have a name, and exactly what their use was.

This is the first one. I have not actually eyeballed it, only been given the photograph, but I have been told it is about 40cm / 15 inches high.

Here is another view:

I have Googled "Esto" without success, and there are no other maker's marks.

The other one, which is similar, will be uploaded next week, once I have photographs from both side.

Did I mention Glenn would really like to know what this is?? Or anything about "Esto".

Powerhouse Museum blog

There are not a lot of good curatorial blogs out there - So Yay! to Powerhouse Museum in Sydney for starting one.

Powerhouse Museum Object of the Week is only new, but looks really good. Would have to be, when the first object shown is a giant prawn on a bike.

Anonymous Donations

One of the problems we have at Old Gippstown is that, as we have some forty-plus buildings that people wander through unsupervised, people sometimes leave things in exhibits without discussing it with us.

Here is the latest one.

This is a small photograph frame about 7.5 cm square. It is a glass and backing "sandwich", with the glass backed with degraded gold paper and mother-of-pearl.

The back is cardboard with pressed brass fittings. It has two clips at the base, which hold the sandwich, a sliding fitting at the top which, when pushed up, allows the sandwich to be separated, and a pivoting arm that allows the frame to stand up thus:

When the sandwich is separated, there are actually three photographs in there:

You can see a slightly larger one HERE.

The photograph was found in the public area in the Neerim Post Office. We can only guess the people might somehow be associated with the building, and a family members wishes to include them there. And they do not understand just how much we would like to be able to talk with them about the photograph, and who the people shown in it are.

So, what do we do? Do we store it until someone asks where it is, and we obtain some details that way? Or do we put it in a less public (read as "less theft-prone") area, and put an entry in the public browse book for that building, with the story of its unexpected appearance, and hope someone comes back to check on it?

Maybe they are the ones that left a Gippsland military photograph in the Military display a couple of months ago.

One of the unexpected advantages of cataloguing is that we are beginning to know the collection very, very well. So we can spot when there is something in a building that we have not seen there before.

More work by Percy Masters

Old Gippstown has been fortunate in receiving a second piece of work by Percy Masters.

This is one mean-looking Koala that doubles as a letter rack. It is also very similar to the previous piece that we have just discovered in the collection.