I keep this stool in the greenhouse. It is a bit too narrow to be stable when you stand on it, so I use it mainly to sit on. The greenhouse is a lovely bright warm place to sit on your own for an hour or two, not talk to anybody, and do absolutely nothing.
The stool is very old, at least a hundred years I would guess, possibly more. It came from my mother’s parents and might have been made by her father or an earlier relative. The legs are fixed by nice tight mortice and tenon joints. Rough and ready, but not many could knock up something like that now.
I painted it white as a child in 1964 or 1965 when I developed a craze for painting things. Well, it’s better than gawping at a screen all day as they do now. Weren’t we lucky to be able to play with tools and messy and dirty things in untidy sheds, rather than having to live in the empty, pristine houses and gardens that seem to be fashionable now.
We used to use it as a cricket wicket. Here it is with my eight-year-old brother in 1964 in front of the coal house. He has his eyes tight shut. I said his bowling was so rubbish I could hit it with my eyes closed, and proved it. He said that mine was no better, and had to prove it too.
Worth about £30 in an antique shop!
ReplyDeleteThey can't have it.
DeleteWe had stools like this in school. They are not rare. I can already see Yorkshire Pudding's comment.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether it was a school woodwork project.
DeleteHe'll have his thesaurus out and be considering the options for crap comments.
Nonsense. See my comment below.
DeleteI think my brother may have made the one we had at home in his woodwork class, I was thinking same. He probably still has it.
DeleteI like it. I like the history of it. Keep it, continue to treasure it, maybe even repaint it, but don't let it go.
ReplyDeleteOur furniture is battered and bears the marks of many children and animals. A friend of ours said of something he had, that he treasured the marks made by wheelchairs - it's life.
It's not good to live in an arid, characterless house. Mind you, there are limits . . .
I think me and my brother exceeded the limits rather too often. Throwing blackberries at that whitewashed wall after it had been repainted was one occasion.
DeletePerhaps it was a milking stool although they usually only have three legs? I think the slot is to put your hand in and carry it. The equipment of a pavement artist perhaps? Great photo!
ReplyDeleteYou make it sound too posh. It was used only at home.
DeleteMilking stools have only three legs because the cow's got the udder.
To bring it up to modern standards you could paint it a nice shade of pink, or chartreuse?
ReplyDeleteI'm not painting anything, and certainly not those colours.
DeleteI like stools. I've got three differently shaped and painted ones. Sometimes, I used to sit on one of the stools and perform some task. Nowadays, I wouldnt be able to get up effortlessly, from this kind of stool sitting.
ReplyDeleteI fling my arms forward and stand straight up. Five stand-up exercises every morning maintain strength in legs.
DeleteIt is quite an historic stool. I remember seeing stools like that, maybe I made one once, and the custom was to have a hole where the legs form the 'V' to prevent splitting.
ReplyDeleteThe joints fixing the legs all have to be at the same angle. Not easy to make accurately. I would not be confident I could do it, so if that's what you did I'm impressed.
DeleteMy family also had a little stool like that and I think it was made by my great grandfather who was a carpenter who came from Devon.. ours was a bit smaller than that. I still have his tool box a very heavy affair that he brought from England, well over a hundred years old.. Gigi
ReplyDeleteTools used to be seriously heavy and robust. I remember my grandfather's tool shed, and we still have some of them.
DeleteHow lovely that that little stool has travelled decades with you. Maybe it is not worth much money but it is a genuine heirloom that elicits memories of the good old days.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that is why I retrieved it from my dad's house, because I could not bear to throw it away. I suspect that eventually it will be seen as scruffy rubbish, but at least I've recorded it here.
DeleteIt is good that you provided the story of this simple little thing. Without the story and the picture, that stool would mean nothing to your children.
ReplyDeleteThe post started when I came across the picture of my brother which I scanned in from the negative a long time ago, and realised what he was standing in front of, and that I still had it. I doubt it means much to anyone else, but as mentioned in previous reply, at least I have told the story here.
DeleteImpressive how durable it's been! And it's great that you have an old photo featuring it in its unpainted state. I agree about kids growing up today -- I would never trade my childhood outside, on my bike, with bugs and dirt, for one in front of video games today.
ReplyDeleteIn the old picture it looks as if it had been painted previously and worn off. My paint is coming off now, but it has lasted 60 years. Modern paint won't, it's rubbish because of environmental concerns making the ingredients illegal.
DeleteComputers and phones have caught us all out. They are addictive. Interest that China limits screen time for children.
The sentimental value alone is priceless
ReplyDeleteIt has always been around, so I don't really think about that. It is just for sitting on.
DeleteI love the photo of your brother. Long grey shorts and grey socks at half mast, at least I think they are grey. Reminding me of wretched uniforms and the clothes of that era. As for the stool I would keep it, let the next generation make up their minds about it.
ReplyDeleteThe picture is one from a batch of home-developed negatives I scanned in over 10 years ago, and looking through them again I realised what a great picture it is. The stool will be in the greenhouse.
DeleteI just love posts like this! The photo is great, it says so much. And why did schoolboys always have one sock at half mast?! We have just patched up a stool that my dad had made when I was a child. I am delighted to have it restored to use.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't registered the half-mast sock. I guess we all had them in those days of short trousers for boys until they were about 12 or even 14. Thank you.
DeleteI like the fact that you still have this small but useful piece of hand-made furniture. My grandparents had a little brown one which I often sat on when playing at their house, but it was more for indoor use, for my Grandma to stand on when she wanted to get something off a high shelf or hide the Christmas cookies on the top of the wardrobe. As far as I know, my Mum has it now. I must remember to look tomorrow evening when I go to see her.
ReplyDeleteI do hope she still has it. But be careful. Safety was not a priority when mine was made.
DeleteWhat a wonderful piece of family history and nostalgia! It sounds like your stool has been a cherished part of many memories and moments. It’s great to see how something so simple can hold so much sentimental value.
ReplyDeleteI just posted a new blog post www.melodyjacob.com, I invite you to read, Thank you.
Certainly not looked after or cherished. Thank you for reading. Looking at your blog, you might be interested in some of the Scottish things on mine.
DeleteRegarding your brother's shorts - all I can say is 'rubber buttons'.
ReplyDelete