Friday & Sunday Finds – LC’s & Child’s Size Iron

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Last Friday morning I returned to a site in the south end of my town where summer cottages were originally located in the early 1900s. These were expropriated and torn down in the 1950s to allow park expansion and to permit easy public access to the shoreline of Lake Ontario. I have marked the approximate location of the site with a red ‘X’ on the 1870s map. One of the more interesting finds here was monogrammed Coty Face Powder Compact inscribed LDG ’33. I also found a child’s size SAD Iron. I’ll tumble this piece over the winter and make a new wooden handle for it. The Isaac Campbell buckle in the middle came from another site east of Toronto.


Flat Iron & Sad Iron History

Blacksmiths started forging simple flat irons in the late Middle Ages. Plain metal irons were heated by a fire or on a stove. Some were made of stone, like these soapstone irons from Italy. Earthenware and terracotta were also used, from the Middle East to France and the Netherlands.

Flat irons were also called sad irons or smoothing irons are shaped pieces of metal that are flat and polished on one side and have a handle attached to the other, created for the purpose of de-wrinkling fabric. “Sad” is an Old English word for “solid,” and the term “sad iron” is often used to distinguish the largest and heaviest of flat irons, usually 5 to 9 pounds. The forebears to modern electric irons, these flat irons are often triangular or come to a point to make it easier to iron around buttons. The heft of a sad iron would help it hold heat, as well as to press the fabric flat.

To protect fabric and surfaces from singeing, sad irons often came with metal trivets to rest on. These are often-beautiful, intricate, and collectible examples of metalwork that were made in a myriad of designs. Metal handles had to be gripped in a pad or thick rag. Some irons had cool wooden handles and in 1870 a detachable handle was patented in the US. This stayed cool while the metal bases were heated, and the idea was widely imitated.

Irons had to be kept immaculately clean, sand-papered and polished. They must be kept away from burning fuel and be regularly but lightly greased to avoid rusting. Beeswax prevented irons sticking to starched cloth. Constant care was needed over temperature. Experience would help decide when the iron was hot enough, but not so hot that it would scorch the cloth. A well-known test was spitting on the hot metal, but Charles Dickens describes someone with a more genteel technique in The Old Curiosity Shop. She held "the iron at an alarmingly short distance from her cheek, to test its temperature..."

Last week I noticed the beans had been harvested on a field I haven’t detected since May, so on Sunday morning I headed back there for a 2-hour hunt. I’ve already detected this site c1860 site half a dozen times since 2015, so the finds are getting scarce. I felt very fortunate to find two LC’s and a cool looking porcelain fragment here yesterday.

Thanks very much for looking,
Dave

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[TomW244]

Terrific finds and excellent historical background information! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Hawks88]

I really like those old LC coins. The iron is a real nice save also and should look good with a new handle. Congrats

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!!

 

[A2coins]

great area to hunt wow I could hunt that for years sweet finds and post

 

[Whyme]

Nice finds! Very cool old iron.

 

[Randyg12]

Nice finds and great pictures!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Terrific finds and excellent historical background information! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for your post and for your support Tom!
Dave

I really like those old LC coins. The iron is a real nice save also and should look good with a new handle. Congrats

Thank you Hawks, I'm thinking this iron will clean up nicely.
It's unfortunate that it has a little 'bruise' on the front.
Dave

Nice!!! Congrats!!!!

Thanks very much Randy.
Dave

great area to hunt wow I could hunt that for years sweet finds and post

I've detected it for a number of years now Tommy, consequently the finds are getting scarce.
Thanks for all of your support here on Tnet buddy,
Dave

Nice finds! Very cool old iron.

Thank you for your post Whyme.

Best of luck to you,
Dave

Nice finds and great pictures!

Thanks Randy... just trying to give everyone their monies worth.
Dave

 

[Trezurehunter]

Very nice finds. Your "childs iron" is actually a "collar iron". It was used on the collars of the "Sundays best" shirts as the regular irons were a little to big and had a tendency to damage the shirts. I have found a few of those, and was curious as to the small size so I researched them. They look good sitting next to the regular standard size irons of the time.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Nice hunt and LC’s! Funny piece of pottery, wonder what it was from. Congrats

 

[devldog]

Dave, Congrat's to you on some nice finds and saves. I really like the small iron. My wife and I have a couple of the old irons one from each side of our families sitting on our hearth. Enjoyed the History lesson also regarding the irons. Beautiful area you were hunting, and Continued Success to you.

 

[Relicific]

Those are some interesting finds.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Very nice finds. Your "childs iron" is actually a "collar iron". It was used on the collars of the "Sundays best" shirts as the regular irons were a little to big and had a tendency to damage the shirts. I have found a few of those, and was curious as to the small size so I researched them. They look good sitting next to the regular standard size irons of the time.

Thank you so much for the information on the little iron I found Trezurehunter.
I've found a number of "child size" items in the past , such as thimbles, porcelain doll heads & limbs and fragments of tea sets.
So, I just assumed this piece was used in the training of an up and coming homemaker.

Thanks again and best of luck to you in IL & OK,
Dave

Nice hunt and LC’s! Funny piece of pottery, wonder what it was from. Congrats

Thank for your post pa-dirt_nc-sand.
I'm thinking the porcelain frag likely came from a Victorian serving platter, as it has some thickness to it.

My intention is to mail all of the porcelain and glass frags I've found in the past 7 years to an artist in the UK.
She does mud larking on the Thames River in London, she then creates works of art from her finds.

I'll post some pics of her work at the end of this thread.
Dave

Dave, Congrat's to you on some nice finds and saves. I really like the small iron. My wife and I have a couple of the old irons one from each side of our families sitting on our hearth. Enjoyed the History lesson also regarding the irons. Beautiful area you were hunting, and Continued Success to you.

Thanks for your post and for your kind words devldog.
That's so cool that you have a couple of old irons one from each side of our families sitting on your hearth.

Love to see a pic of what they look like... any idea when they date from?

Best of luck to you as well,
Dave

Those are some interesting finds.

Thank you Sir.
I'm just trying to save a bit of our local history here east of Toronto.
Dave