Clay marble

jude061 · Jul 24, 2016

My apartment is in a building that was built in the 1860s. I've done quite a bit of research on the historical tenants, and have found some interesting items on the property. In the late 19th century, one of the boarders was a school teacher. While doing renovations to my kitchen, I found an old steel pen nib. In the neighboring yard on the property, I found an 1841 Rutherford Brothers token from St. John, NF. In my garden, I found an atlatl dart point and an 1863 fat Indian head cent. When I was working at a local museum, the photo archivist found this photograph of my building from 1882. While it's changed significantly over the years, it isn't difficult to match up some of the features. This morning, I was bored and decided to swing the detector where the steps used to be (indicated in the photo). I got one solid hit, which turned out to be an old spike. In the pile of dirt from the hole, though, I found a small ceramic marble. In the past, I've dug a few from my garden, and I've found a few on the nearby beach. The coolest part about this marble is thinking that one of the two little girls (who I have yet to identify), lost it while playing near the steps until I came along 134 years later to recover it. My favorite part about this hobby is being able to hold something that someone else held a century or more ago.