home from a lovely New England vacation

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Dear Friends, Jack and I have just returned from a lovely two weeks in New England. I cannot tell you how sweet it was to see a few friends and revisit some of our favorite places, and just soak up the scenery and the architecture and the crisp air of the place that we so love. Jack said he really just did it for me because I wanted to go, but he said at the end that he too had relaxed and felt relieved of some of the cares we have had here. We have lots of photos to share on this site.

Right back into full action, this morning roofers arrived to do our house on Courtney, then tomorrow it will be Jack's father's house to re roof, and last our own home. Fredericksburg had a terrific hail storm earlier this summer. We have been on a waiting list for sometime to have them redone. We are repainting and refurbishing and cleaning up the two houses on Courtney, one to try to rent again and one to ready for sale. Much much to do there, Daughter and son in law Beth and Gary are taking the lion's share of the work load! Our own house is dirty and out of order and the yard looks like a wilderness, with every weed in full seed. It did not get this way in 2 weeks, but in months of neglect as we dealt with other issues. Now to quietly dig out and reclaim our lives.

A box of little things we bought on our trip has come in the mail. Nice little textiles, doll clothes and bits of patchwork to play with. A happy find for me was a wooden sewing clamp with a pin cushion on top. I have added a photo of a shelf full of sewing birds and other iron things, and in the top right corner is one of these blue and white wooden ones. Can anyone tell me what this is? County of origin and time frame? I have two pieces of this now, have seen little blue and white painted sewing tools of this genre at round top in years past, always expensive. Best, Edyth

This is the doll head made by Marjorie Yost granddaughter of Mary Merritt. It is signed and dated (INSIDE) by her some 20 years ago. I knew her slightly when Jack and I used to visit the museum about twice each year. I never knew she had made dolls! I have since seen a Greiner reproduction on ebay made by her.
This head had a very yellow bad (to me) paint job , Sorry Marjorie! I have repainted her and will glaze her a bit. It was such good fortune to find a great photo on the doll magazine to work from!

I will glue strips of muslin inside the shoulders to make them stronger and thicker. They are very thin, as were the old ones of 1840 from which this mold was likely made. I often strengthen shoulder heads this way before placing them on a body. Mr Greiner had a good idea. This is a large head, about 8 or 9 inches tall and will make a 32 inch doll. I will post her again when she has a body. E

white crepe Myrtles

I read somewhere that crepe myrtles are to Texas what lilacs are to softer parts of the country, just as Indian Hawthorn must substitute in our gardens for azaleas. Our back yard has enjoyed months of bloom from the great white crepe myrtles "Natches" which ring most of the back, and now they are quiet but a smaller variety is still splendid along the path. When we came to this house 5 years ago next month, the whole back yard was untouched by a gardener, having only rough wild grasses and a huge crop of grass burrs. Adding favorite plants has helped to make us more at home now.

Memorial

Our family gathered to remember Jack's father yesterday. The old gentleman passed away at just a month shy of 99. He lived a glorious life!

He is shown here holding small Jackson, my great grandson.. Rest in Peace Grandpa

Hearth Cooking anyone?

Go to our Ruby Lane shop to see Jack's latest offering:

http://www.rubylane.com/item/401593-Rx200124

Two fascinating 19th century brass fireplace clockwork jacks. The first marked Salter Warranted and the number 25. The second unmarked as far as I can determine. These clever devises will turn meat hung before a cooking fire, first one way then the other with an audible CLICK for up to an hour and a half on one winding. Open hearth cooking enthusiasts will entertain and amaze their friends while cooking their meal to perfection. When the food is removed from the device it automatically stops until weighted down with something else to cook. It will not turn without the weight pulling downward. One original heart shaped brass key is included that will wind them both
Condition; The first is in excellent condition with overall dull brass finish, should polish to bright brass easily if desired.
The second functions but needs some brazing on the brass shell and has heavy patina over the whole exterior. This will work without its brass shell and one can observer the clever mechanism as it operates.

Size; the first is 14 inches in length
The second is 13 inches long

Price: $125 for the two
Shipping: $20 USA I found only one more of these for sale on the web today, it is in England and is 300 British pounds.

Jack has been demonstrating these turning curiosities for me all day.

Our wonderful Renters are moving.

Some of you know that Jack and I have a beautiful rent house in the center of town here in Fredericksburg. We have had the most wonderful renters living there this past year; now they are moving to another city so the 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house with a small yard and full 2 car garage will be ready for a new person or couple on October 1st and after. Go look inside at this link. Thank you!
http://609courtney.blogspot.com/

Art is such an expressive language

My beautiful little mother in law, Lillian O’Neill, was an artist all of her long life. She lived in beauty with every thing she chose to wear or furnish a home with or paint with her endlessly talented fingers. As a child she sketched a lot and her artwork was an integral part of her personality always.

As a bride, she went from Illinois to Houston Texas with the tall broad shouldered man she would be married to for 75 years. . A stay at home wife and mother in Houston and then in Chicago again, Lillian sought out classic early American antiques in second hand stores and estate auctions, drawn to the honesty and merit of these pieces. She always loved fine windsors, even had a writing arm one. Beautiful furniture could be purchased needing some repair or touch ups, which John, a craftstman all of his life, could restore to beauty and function. Early on, her own joy in creating art was expressed mostly in portraiture.

It was not long until the young O’Neills became part time dealers, befriending many collectors and small dealers where ever they moved. Later, during the 1950’s she was a fixture in the Louisville auctions, and recognized many treasures sneaking through. Lillian also began to paint things to add to their antique sales, and left a string of fans in each place they lived. The family moved a lot. Her work is collected mostly in clusters near Chicago, Ft Worth, Vicksburg, and Southern Indiana.

John was good at his trade, always connected with wood and cabinetmaking, He was foreman of A Brandt, maker of Ranch Oak furniture in FT Worth for a time, and of American Handicraft’s wood shop later. But John was and is a man of mercurial temperament, and would find the grass greener across the country.

Lillian’s bountiful painting made the O’Neill home a fairy land, which I first experienced nearly 40 years ago in east Ft Worth. I met my future parents-in-law by way of common interests in art and antiques. We lived in the same tree-shaded pleasant neighborhood and were surely destined to find each other.

When I was invited to visit I discovered a stairwell painted completely in blue delft designs on off white woodwork. The paneled doors and the door facings were covered in amazing complexity, little scenes with windmills and sail boats and barns and chickens and on and on, all blues and white.

Then I stepped into the living room itself, filled with John’s beautiful handmade furniture and a nice collection of old windsors, set off by a great collection of mostly antique English ceramics, but with some continental things too, like Meissen patterned pieces. One cupboard held only Quimper. Staffordshire figures of children and dogs and hens were everywhere. The blue transfer printed Staffordshire was Lillian’s joy. The windows showed off John’s wooden paneled shutters, painted by Lillian in her own amazing style, mostly birds and fruit in that room. Entering the Kitchen I found a wonderland of Pennsylvania Dutch tulips and distlefinks and hearts. The cabinets and other doors and facings were all painted a light mustard and covered in these designs. Meissen Onion pattern dishes and accessories were everywhere!

Only on a subsequent visit did I see her own bathroom, where it was painted from floor to ceiling with Quimper like designs on a light blue green back ground. A lovely blue room filled with little French boys and girls in the charming and innocent scenes of Quimper ware.

As I came to know Lillian and later became her daughter-in-law, I marveled at the way she painted: the endless variation, no two borders or motifs alike, just flowing free hand from her own mind. The charming little children, in settings with barns and farm houses and flowers and chickens, came from her brush in a never ending stream. Her Fruit designs were much sought after. She would paint a batch of things and John would drive to Vicksburg once a year to sell at a craft show where their offerings were eagerly purchased. Some of the items she decorated were antique tin or wooden pieces and some were small wooden things John made for her. He painted the background colors and antiqued the pieces and let her do the decoration. Then he sprayed them with a gloss finish.

What a wonderful team they were! Several magazine articles celebrated their work and one showed their Ft Worth house in detail. Hundreds and hundreds of examples of their work were sold, and our very large family has managed to retain a good many. I will show a few photos of some of these, and perhaps add a slide show of more of them to this site later. I am assembling a tribute to Lillian’s lovely art. Let me assure you she was even more loved and precious in person. She left us last year at 91 years of life still blowing us kisses off those wonderful little fingers almost to the last of her time with us. A card she sent me one birthday said “ I looked to find a friend, and found a daughter.”