Red Wagon Antique Finds

A few lovely finds I found at Red Wagon Antiques in The Dalles, Oregon. This is a very lovely shop and the lady in charge is friendly and helpful. It had so many delightful things it was hard to take it all in.
Of all the things I saw in the shop, this lovely old carving fork just seemed to stand out to me. I don't usually buy cutlery, but this carved horse I found really rather good. As it was under 20 dollars I thought it would make for a nice display item in my house. When I got home and looked it up online, I was seriously surprised to find that it was made of carved walrus ivory and dates from the 1880's. A truly unique antique indeed!
Here is the walrus ivory cane handle I found online, which is so identical to the horse head on my carving fork, I believe it was carved by the same person. It is the same even to the tiny glass eyes. The auction house gave this an estimated value of $400-$600 dollars. Now grant you theirs is a cane and in better shape, but just finding the same carved horse, and what little information I did, was delightful to me. I only wish I knew who carved it and where?! The guy was really good. Maybe he was a ships captain or something as sailors often carved things like this in their off hours, or once they retired.

Here's a handy pocket sized medical instrument kit I found interesting. I could tell you what each implement was used for, but then you might lose your lunch, so suffice it to say this would have been used in the field, during a battle, or for dissecting bodies afterwards. Many a doctor or med student would have carried around one of these too. Unfortunately, only one of the tools has the same name matching the name on the snap on the outside of this kit. Which leads me to conclude this kit was made up of odds and ends of doctors medical implements. Still, it is interesting all the same.
This particular case was made by Spencer Lens Co., of Buffalo, New York. Spencer Lens Company was founded by Herbert R. Spencer (1849-1900) in 1895. The company was the continuation of the firm established in the 1840s by his father, Charles A. Spencer (1813-1881), who is considered one of the first American microscope makers.
In 1935, it was bought by the American Optical Company, and became a subsidiary. For several years after the acquisition, the Spencer Lens Company continued operation under its own name before becoming known as the Instrument Division of American Optical Company in 1945. Thus my kit dates from 1895-1945. No doubt someone who knows these things better than I could narrow the date.
One thing I am always on the lookout for is old sewing needles. Some of the finest needles to sew with can be found in antique stores. I find modern needles to be a great deal inferior to these old needles. I was in luck and found this delightful bunch of Clinton needles dating from the 1940's -50's. I shall definitely put these to good use. Probably in repairing some of my quilts.
Last but not least I found this lovely darning egg. I do love sewing notions of every kind, and this one looked like it had darned many a garment and sock. I admire the woman, who must have had mountains of darning to do, from the wear I see on this egg. Maybe like the old woman who lived in the shoe, she had so many children, she had too much to do, and some of them, like me, were very hard on their clothes?! Sorry Mom!

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