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Submit an article to Indago - a peer reviewed journal

Could this be a bubble off?

In the Museum’s collection is a dry razor that resembles a modern bubble off or fluff shaver.

The Thorens Riviera is a gents’ dry razor manufactured in Switzerland in the 1950s. What makes this razor unique is its clockwork mechanism. The mechanism is wound up by turning the large chrome handle on the back similar to winding up a clock. This means no batteries or electricity is needed to power the shaver. In 1971, a similar razor was on board the Apollo 14 Moon mission. That shaver, manufactured in Monaco, became known as “the shaver that went to the moon”.

The razor still works although it is hard to imagine that it would be able to remove more than a bit of fluff.

Predicting the weather

Weather houses, also named weather prophets, have been a tradition in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since the 1700s. In essence, it is a simple hygrometer in the shape of a small Alpine chalet that can predict dry or humid weather conditions.

The house has two doorways or openings with two figurines (a male on the right and a female on the left) mounted on a horizontal bar, which is suspended by a piece of hair (human or animal). The string of hair will relax when there is moisture in the air and shrink or tense up when the air is dry. This causes one of the figures to swing inward while the other swings outward. The female figurine represents sunny and dry weather, and the male figure predicts wet/rainy weather.

The weather house in the object collection of the National Museum can be traced back to Germany and dates to the early 1900s. In 1863, the Wertheim brothers, Hermann and August, immigrated to South Africa. August Wertheim opened a general store, Wertheim & Co. in Fauresmith, Orange Free State. It seems that at some point the Wertheims used these weather houses to promote their business. A name plaque on the front clearly states “Wertheim & Co. Fauresmith”. On the back a piece of the original instructions is still visible.

In Europe weather houses are popular mementos amongst tourist and are still sold today.

Mourners Jewellery: ‘A hairy subject’

Keeping a lock of someone’s hair as a keepsake has been a tradition for centuries, and in the Victorian times (1837–1901) jewellery containing a lock of a loved one’s hair was especially popular. During the era when photography was still in its infancy, hair was a physical reminder of a person.

The Victorians believed that hair had a sacred quality which captured the spirit of a person and symbolised immortality (a lock of hair would keep its colour for decades, and human hair has a very slow decomposition rate). Locks of hair (often braided) were used in brooches, rings and pendants. They were braided into chains to hold watches and pendants. Treasured locks of hair, however, were not only used in mourning or memorial jewellery. Victorian women also used hair (from either living or dead humans) to create handcraft. From an article published in the Home Journal in 1856, it is clear that hair work was a popular practice: “elegant fashion of wearing ornaments made of hair will, we hope, long continue…”. To meet the demand for memorial jewellery England was importing 50 tons of hair per year.

Before the ‘golden age of medicine’ (1900–1955), the desire for a keepsake to remember loved ones was fuelled by the ever presence of death. The average life expectancy during the Victorian time was 40–45 years and one in three children died before they turned five.

Today we are able to order jewellery pieces made out of pet’s ashes and fur, breast milk, loved one’s hair and ashes, online.

The National Museum houses a number of such jewellery pieces in our textile collection. These include a small tree, or hair-work sculpture, encased in a glass dome.

Age is just a number, unless it refers to a doll made out of wood

Wood (being cheap and readily available) was often used in the manufacture of early toys and dolls. Although the wooden dolls with a well-documented history only date from 1680, evidence that wood was used in the production of dolls has been found in Ancient Egyptian tombs. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Grödner Tal region in Austria (today part of Italy), Bavaria and Thuringia in Germany were the cradle of wooden dolls. Of course, these densely forested areas were the ideal environment for the woodcarving industry. Information regarding the manufacturing process of wooden dolls is extremely scarce and researchers must rely largely on evidence that the doll itself reveals. In isolated areas such as Grödner Tal, the whole family would have participated in their manufacturing. Some family members were responsible for the carving, while others did the painting. The final product was sold by peddlers who literally travelled the world to sell their wares.

The textile collection of the National Museum houses a 350-year-old wooden doll. The tongue and groove hinges attaching the legs to the body, testifies to fine craftsmanship. The doll has a flat back possibly because she was screwed to a workbench during production. Her wooden face, torso and arms are covered with a glazed plaster (gesso) that has already peeled off in many places. She has brown painted eyes and arched eyebrows, which gives her an oriental look. The doll is dressed in an exceptional handmade 17th-century outfit that includes an undershirt, ladies’ knickers, petticoat, a green stitched petticoat, a white petticoat, a brown lined petticoat and a blue silk petticoat. As was the custom during that time, the children’s and the dolls’ clothing mimicked the adult fashion. The doll carries a bag that is tied to the waistband of her dress. A Dutch coin, called a zesthalf (rijderschelling depreciated to 5½ stuiver), was found in the bag. This coin was in circulation from end-17th to mid-19th century. A silver mark on the silver fittings of the bag indicates the old Dutch silver town marks of Hoorn and Amsterdam (c. 1650–1710).

The doll belonged to the Kampfraath family who lived in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and immigrated to South Africa in the 1860s. Information revealed by the doll along with the history of its donation prompts dating of this Dutch wooden doll (or so-called “Vaderlandspop”) by the end of the 17th century.

sudre-havenga
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