45 Treasures is crowd-sourced research, a way for readers to get involved in creating the world of my next historical novel. What treasures do you have, circa 1900-1945? E-mail me at KLCzepiel@att.net with a photo of your early 20th century treasure, and I’ll post it for other readers to see here and on my
Pinterest page. I’ll post some on Facebook and Twitter as well. Feel free to include a little description or story (just a sentence or two) about the treasure you’ve shared, and let me know whether I can include your first name. I’ll choose 45 of these treasures to include in the novel itself. Your treasure might be one of them!
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- 1920s Bakelite letter opener (Wikipedia)
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- from Annika: wine glasses
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- from Roger: Pearl Harbor poster, 1942
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- from Claire: 1920s electric toaster, made in Torrington, CT
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- My grandmother received this candy dish as a bridal shower gift in 1934.
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- from Roger: a WWII poster of US Citizens Defense Corps insignia
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- from Annika: metal collanders
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- from Annika: drawer pull
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- from Tricia: antique iron, “patented Dec. 30, 1924”
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- from Annika: china pitcher
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- my great-grandmother’s thimble
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- from Lucia: Flyboy 1928 cast iron bookends
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- from Lucia: Long Focus Premo Special, manufactured at the Rochester Optical Co. Circa 1898
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- from Lucia: “my mom’s china doll, given in 1920”
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- from Lucia: leather Turn O’ Top cigarette dispenser with wind up clock cover, circa 1940
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- from Lucia: Zira cigarette silk collectibles from 5-cent cigarette packs (made into quilts, pillow covers, clothes, etc.)
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- from Lucia: “leather case containing great aunt’s reading glasses with photo”
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- from Lucia: “Ribbon Art” magazine, 1920s
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- from Lucia: Sno-ette sled
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- from Lucia: National washboard
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- from Jennifer: 1912 Steinway made in NY
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- from Jennifer: 1920s scooter
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- from Jennifer: tea tin
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- Barstow stove circa 1931, via stovehospital.com/
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- from Fiona: French ladies’ hats advertisement, 1923
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- from Fiona: French ladies’ hats advertisement, 1927
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- from Fiona: Kodak camera, late 1920s or early 1930s
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- from Mildred: bottle and mugs. “Jerome was in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. After the battle he was given leave in London where he bought his mother this bottle and mugs. Wasn’t that a wonderful thing that a son could think of his mother in the middle of war and didn’t want her to worry.”
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- from Mildred: china clock. When Mildred’s grandfather and grandmother and mother, Lillian, immigrated from Poland, they brought the clock with them.
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- from John: WWII ration stamp books
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- from Alice: Austrian glass candlesticks. “They were given to me for Christmas in 1938 or 1939. I had admired them, knowing full well that in those Depression times I could never spend the $60. When Christmas came, there they were, from “Mom” (my mother-in-law)…… heart was full of thanks.”
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- from Jean: “My grandmother who came from Austria and couldn’t read English instructions, used to crochet antimacassars just by looking at the picture and made them for everyone in the family.”
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- from Jean: antimacassars to protect the furniture
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- from Shelly: painting of child with dog
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- from Shelly: Grandma’s ring in its original box
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- from Shelly: decorative plate
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- from Rebecca: tatted doily
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- from Mark: travel guides
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- This “Mr. Ree!” board game dates to the forties. It’s a detective game similar to “Clue.”
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- From Frana: Fostoria crystal plate. “My grandmother was a schoolteacher in Oklahoma from 1920 til 1940 and the first thing she bought with her very own pay check was a ‘starter’ set of this crystal.”
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- from Dorothy: “This was a gift from my father to my mother when she gave birth to me in May 1939.”
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- from Rosemary: “early 1900’s butterfly motif tin candy box manufactured by the Artstyle Chocolate Company of Boston and St. Louis. My mother’s cousin gave this to me when I was a child to keep my sewing in.”
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- from Rosemary: “The foot form is stamped 1907. The pink one for children’s socks/clothes is just as old. The other one was my mother’s so I guess it was circa 1930. I still use these.”
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- from Rosemary: “made by my husband’s great aunt Christine circa 1920”
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- from Janis: rocking chair. “This belonged to my grandmother who immigrated from Russia. My grandfather was a musician in the czar’s army, and even though he was Jewish, he was spared because the czar loved music… He came to America and my grandmother came later.”
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- from Janis: sewing machine in cabinet, also belonging to her Russian grandmother (see rocking chair)
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- from Lorna: antique ladies’ gloves
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- from Nina: “a cast-iron nutcracker that once belonged to my great-aunt Pia, a notorious miser in her Syracuse neighborhood”
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- from Rosemary: “early 1900’s butterfly motif tin candy box manufactured by the Artstyle Chocolate Company of Boston and St. Louis. My mother’s cousin gave this to me when I was a child to keep my sewing in.”
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- 1928 gold-rimmed champagne glasses
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- from Pat: coffee set given to my mother before her wedding in 1937. It held a place of honor in her china cabinet. The bottoms of the cups, plates, and saucers say “hand painted Japan.”
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- from Stephen: Edison Disc Phonograph, 1916. “Great for when the electricity goes out. Light the oil lamps, candles and crank up the music.”
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- from Stephen: Waltham pocket watch
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- from Maureen: sewing rocker
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- from Heather: berry dishes
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- from Heather: water decanters
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- Maine watercolor
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- Uncle Wiggily Story Book
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- from Amy: debate club pin
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- from Vivian: dominoes set
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- from Amy and Ken: our grandfather’s golf clubs
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- from Ann: perfume bottles
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- from Joyce: stereopticon
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- from David: ornamental lawn rabbits