Out of the Ceiling

As usual, we found lots of exciting stuff in the ceiling. The dining room is under the large attic at the back of the second story, which has been used for storing stuff by everybody who lived here. So this ceiling did not disappoint.

For example, we collected a large number of plastic liquor bottle tops. I'm guessing the kids used to go drink in the attic on the sly? Or, as Noel points out, maybe the parents, since the family that lived here had lots of kids.

I liked this ad for Cream of Wheat. It's from the inside cover of Good Housekeeping.

And here's the flip side: Good Housekeeping, February 1906.

There were several mangled pages from the same issue in the debris, with this charming ad for a corset (only $1!)

And I should send away for this guy's booklet on the poultry business.

We also found some cancelled checks that turned out to belong to the sister of the woman we bought the house from. They were made out to a building supply place that was near the address on the checks. (Noel got really curious and called the previous owners to ask.)

Most of the paper stuff was pretty early, though. Like this little cutout fairy from a magazine:

And these pieces of paper dolls. I had a Dover reprint of that same paper doll when I was a kid. This one has the text from the magazine on the other side.

I think we actually found one of the jars from this stuff when we were digging in the garden.

Gene was most impressed by the idea of an ear spoon with blackhead remover as a multifunction tool.

Our neighbor told us to look this up to date it: this is a souvenir photograph, and apparently the backs changed often enough to date them fairly precisely.

And here she is. Chances are she was a friend of a member of the household rather than somebody who lived here, because these cards were traded like school photos.

Plenty of match boxes, too. I know that people used to give those to their kids to play with, so maybe that's how they came to be in the attic. We found five more of these in varying states of decay.

And lastly, a kind of hokey little piece of popular music. Noel sung it out for me and it is pretty cheeseball. We found a few other sheets with music on them that were less intact.

Another fun little tour through the history of our house. We've peeked into the dropped ceiling in the kitchen and it looks to have its own set of surprises to share, as well.

Technorati Tags: found objects, renovations, victorians

posted by ayse on 10/27/09