Posted 6 years ago
Lisa4254
(1 item)
This is an item that brings me wonderful memories of growing up on one of the finger lakes in upstate NY. But given the subject of the piece, I don't feel comfortable displaying it in our home in Atlanta, GA. We used this as a doorstop at our cottage on Skaneatles Lake and I think it was my grandmother's before that. She is 9" inches tall and 6" wide and is very heavy. We used her to hold the door open during the day that led to the upstairs bedrooms. At night we used our feet to move her out of the way so the door would close. She has a lot of wear and tear because the cottage wasn't winterized and she was used for the 25 years while I grew up there in the summers. Now she lives in the back of my kitchen cupboard and I take her out from time to time in trying to decide what to do with her. Even with her dings and paint chipping, her colors are still very pretty. She's on my desk now while I type but will probably go back to the cupboard before the weekend in fear one of friends should get a glimpse of her and wonder what the heck I'm doing with such a piece.
Where would the markings be? The inside is very rusted and I don't see anything that stands out. This item has been in our family for my whole life (born in '68) and I think it came from my grandmother's home because she had similar doorstops in her house that I use like to play with as a child.
Sorry for the typo in the comment! The doorstop in the Hubley e-bay link you sent is taller than mine but they look very similar. Mine is just under 9" tall but very heavy.
I don't see any markings like the one in the e-bay link. The inside is so rusted that it may be hiding markings. I tried to delete the inside photo in my posting to upload a better photo but I can't figure out how to upload another photo. It will let me delete but not upload.
I'm doubting my piece is a Hubley because I don't see any markings anywhere and I'm paying close attention to the inside front near the screw. In other posts on CW, I see that Hubley sold their molds in the 1940's especially the smaller ones like the size of my piece. But if my piece came from an old Hubley mold, I should see a rectangle where the name was removed from the mold and I don't see that either. The coloring is a light blue dress and the ebay link showed a darker blue coloring. I know the piece is at least from the 1960's but I'm thinking it's older than that because I think my mother brought to the lakehouse from her mom's house.
I wish I had posted a different inside pic so you could see it better. The screw enters on her bow in the back, you can see the screw head in the photo of her back, it's the round outline right under the bow where the two ribbons connect and then fall apart. There's a sleeve on the inside front that the screw goes into. I'm nervous to do anything like removing rust as I've never dealt with antiques before and I would hate to damage the value of the piece.
The paint still covers the screw head but you can see the outline of it because the paint is cracking. You can't tell if it's a phillips head or not, the paint is too thick. Even if the head was exposed, I wouldn't dare unscrew the two pieces given the amount of rust on the inside. Were China and Taiwan were making reproductions in the 60's or earlier? And would the reproductions be as heavy in weight as the originals? Do you know if there are other manufacturers in the US I should research besides Hubley? My mother is from Binghamton, NY and we also have family in PA. I was truly thinking it was a Hubley at first but now I'm not sure because I can't find the markings.