Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Old New England Glassware in the Home - Part Ten - "In My Hair"


Old New England Glassware in the Home

Part Ten

"In My Hair"



            The ‘net’; the summary, of ‘whale oil lighting’ in the ‘old New England home’ may now be treated... and exposed... and... turned away.
            In fairness:  Whale oil procurement was... awful, horror filled, raunchy, deadly, aesthetically unfounded... not romantic, not as in a mind’s eye, not an adventure and...
            Stank (smelled bad to ‘very bad’).  All the time.









            Offsetting the last was
            That
            “Smelled bad”
            was the norm
            In and of human relations.  “Greasy” humans who never bathed were only off set by a handful of pilgrims seeking the esoteric ‘water cure’ (taking a bath).  Your shower was not.
            “Invented yet”.
            No.  That ritual of self ...with it’s massive environmental impacts (note plural)
            Didn’t
            Happen.
            Hot water on the cook stove.... a foot bath.  A (wet) ‘toweling off’, a standing in a washtub in the kitchen while grandmother poured that ‘hot’ ‘water’ over one.  The... environmental footprint of
            The modern shower.  Its corrupt energies (note plural) waste, corrupt bottled chemical compounds, corrupt box store products of bathing accessories (a ‘design forms),  Yes, yes, yes:  “Icky”... you are it.  ALWAYS coming BACK from the camping trip AREN’T WE.  And the bad habits, poor senses, pour judgments... insensitive blindness-es... behind the fresh clean smiling face OF YOU and
            “MY HAIR”
            And... the.... old New England. girls... smeared... bear
            Grease
            In and on... that: “MY HAIR”... back then OHOHOH no. Yes.
            “Icky”.
            So the burning up of whale oil didn’t smell ‘any worse’ than the bear grease in your hair.  The texture; ‘look and feel’, was ‘similar’.  Too.
            Design form history study shows us that BEAR GREASE has that too:  Design forms,
            I will stick to this grease in the hair and leave the rest of your never bathed body ‘on its own’.  But... “yikes honey”... just what does ‘design form’ mean for ‘underpants’.
            Yes... it was... and is still ‘that bad’
            In the old New England home.





            Returning to the whale oil lamp, we now notice the fragile production process.  It is fragile because it requires a gathering of glass and glass craftsmen that may not, from the get go, be able to ...cost effectively... ‘do this’.  That concern is rammed and sunk by ‘ran out of whales’.  Same thing happens with ‘bear grease’; the girls ‘tax’ the ‘supply’.
             “SO GET ‘em to BUY something else WE MAKE and ...streamline the COST of that.  TOO”.  They did that; the glass makers, they did that.  Drunk men stomping goo-gobs of glass cost less then glass blowers blowing glass “and anyway’ improvements in mold making and production processes... with these improvements NOT requiring an improvement of ‘men’... ‘naturally took care of the ‘elimination’ of the need to have ‘them’ (glassblower)... on the payroll.  Or anywhere.
            “Ah.... really?”




            But now, back to the bear grease.  What makes bear grease particularly ‘cool’ as an old glassware in the New England home is it’s ‘iota’ qualities (Part Nine).  The ‘this’ of bear grease has a... pressed glass container... “ah”... made for it....; for usage and storage and... display... in the New England home... that is ‘cute’ too.  So... ‘even today’ “I LIKE IT”... carries the (old New England glassware) “BEAR POMADE”.  Antiquarian appreciation is, actually, smothered by a fair “I LIKE IT” general thumbs up from even the most... most, most... ‘don’t know’.  Oddly too... no ‘repros’ (reproductions) are ‘around’.  “COOL”.
The bear pomade ...jar... is a two piece ‘the head comes off’ bear shaped ‘little jar’ in the shape of a bear sitting up on its hind legs (butt).  It is most commonly found in a dark purple (‘black amethyst’)  glass but does ‘be found’ in (ordered of rarity included) milk glass, opalescent, clam broth (that is a color... a very ‘old New England’ color), opaque blue, canary yellow and... any other color is very... very... rare..  Ok so the head sits atop the body and the neck has a thick glass rim on each piece (top and bottom) and these... formed the seal whereby the jar was ‘filled’ with bear grease, sealed, sold, taken home and used (smeared into the hair) (after breaking the seal), used up, taken  back to the ‘perfumer’, refilled, resealed, re-seal broken, reused, over and over... that’s’ why these ‘bear pomades’ are
STILL glassware IN THE OLD NEW ENGLAND HOME.  The bear grease contents is long gone.  The mice ate it.
Did I just say that should one be seeking... correct specimens of old glassware... that are ‘in (recognized by museums grade ‘I like’ – Part six) good taste’ too... for one’s old New England home...  that one “MUST HAVE” a “BEAR POMADE”?
 YES.
            And it is CUTE... TOO.
            We’re not gonna touch your hair.  We won’t even sniff it.  We just want to see ‘your’ bear pomade... across the room. AND THEY DO ‘HOLD STRONG’ to the eye ‘across the room”.  [That, I add, should be noted as a characteristic of ‘good design’ (‘good taste’) found in an ‘old New England home; the ‘holds across the room’]







            Ok so your sitting in your old New England home with a new fangled whale oil lamp burning the spermaceti in its font and ...that stinks and... you hair is slickered right up (this includes man and woman) with the bear grease and ...that stinks... and... everyone thinks they’re so damn cool doing this-that cutting edge lifestyle in the... old New England home and
            This is, by the physical fact (evidence), glassware... in the old New England home TOO.  But I dwell on the FIRST; the ‘sitting cool’.





            Up to now I have poked the prose to poke the ‘juice glass’ taste to be ‘bad’ taste and... relentlessly suggested ever more links to that ‘juice glass’ bad taste... to be found at this old glassware in the New England home story moment now (too).
            Smearing bear grease in the hair and ...that is pretty bad on the rack-up of the ‘vain and vanity’.  I mean, I’m even leaving the ‘vain and vanity’ of ‘the shower’ (in the old New England home) (that; “the bathroom”, is aside from the ‘kitchen’... the ‘most expensive room in the house’) (That’s right; the ‘your shower’ involves a lot of cash expended to ‘do that’).  I am leaving that alone and going just ‘grease in the hair’... taste
            Good... or bad taste... here; this bear grease... of the vain and vanities... of the old New England home.  WHAT I WILL SAY is that I... find (and see from a design perspective...) very little dissimilar... between the bear greased hair and the... white SUV (includes “She’s driving”) parked out in front of the... new... New England home.  Flip-flops, beach wear, 4-wheel luxury driving, strip malling, factory outletting, organicing and ...noticing that SOMEONE (“not I”) bent over to pull up “these are organic?” carrots on to ‘solar panel’ ‘is art’ and wood pellet environmental implications to forest management properties to streaming smart phone.  Wait a minute.
            IF... these equal bear grease in the hair of vain and vanity... then it is true:
            The smart phone is smarter than the smart phone user.  That is a declaration I’m making.
            And that is in the new... and old... New England home.  Too.
            Eve and Bing (Part One, onward) ARE historically correct in their home with their crummy juice glasses.  When they sell the “It’s a little BEAR jar I FOUND IT.  Isn’t it CUTE!”
            “How much?”
“So, like, ok... how about five bucks?
            “It’s a little chipped at the top”.
            “Oh... I didn’t see that... your right... ok... how about two dollars”.
            “Ok”.
(The reason Bear Pomades are so often ‘chipped’ at the thick neck joins is a combination of the primitive pressed glass metal qualities and from being ‘re-sealed’ over and over with that seal ‘broken’ over and over with the... just like that man rummaging for a bottle opener (Part Eight)... ‘something to break this seal with’ (pried open with a dinner knife).
            They; Eve and Bing selling the ‘broken’ bear pomade to me for two bucks is, too, historically correct usage of
            Old glassware... they found... in the (their) New England  home.





            So now I must clean this up; wipe up the excess of bear grease spattered about our dressing table of... of old glassware in the New England home.
            One.  Bad taste and having bad taste and... having bad taste in glassware in the... New England home (not ‘old’ New England home) is ok because it (bad taste) is historically present in the New England home.  I... the practicing antiquarian.. don’t need to ‘care about this’ because it is ‘in my face rampant’ ...all the time.
            Two.  Going around of bad taste with phony bleached jeans, “inked” body, flip-flops showing off... aging gracelessly...  chipped and dated toenail polished ‘my feet’ AND a... ah... cavalier persona suggesting an “I KNOW” presence (aura) with this carried to a decorative declaration IN the home ‘for all to see... it’s MY-ME’.  Again.... I see this ‘in face’ “all the time”.
            Three.  “They don’t know; simply no background in New England domestic design in any way including having the classic ‘no clue’ that “My juices glasses” are anything other than that:  “MY... JUICE... GLASSES”... and that... I just declared, is A-OK for it is, based on bear grease smeared in the hair... historically correct.
            Four.  That these three points... leaves it to point four as the antiquarian ‘me’ and ‘the glassware’... ‘in there’ (the old New England home) as my ‘only out’.






            I’ll take it.  And please take your chipped toenail polished and age creepy toes... away.  Just sell me the damn bear pomade jar for two bucks and GO AWAY... in your white SUV.  Or whatever (“Are these carrots organic?”).
            Halo-ed... within the halo of old glassware... IN... the New England home IS the pivot point... of ... salvation.  How?  First I said ‘there was none’ (Part Two) (glassware... in the New England home.)  I have creeped along to ‘now’ where we find ‘some’ (“a little”) glassware in the New England home.  Whale oil lighting and... utility containers (bottles)... and faux Anglo-Irish table glass and a tiny bit of...blown glass, blown molded glass ...and the new innovation of ‘pressed glass’ that
            Well I guess I just jumped to the bedroom dressing table with the ‘all pressed glass’ bear pomade without... ‘explaining’ THAT KIND OF GLASS.  I’ll get to it BUT:
            “WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?” You say.
            It is very simple.  When I... the antiquarian... am out and about... in the old New England home; alone, not supervised and just ‘antiquing’... with Eve and Bing and
            THAT’S RIGHT:
            When I spy ...and purloin by change purse payment... one of these old bear pomade jars... I... DO... KNOW... when, while, during, before and AFTER I ‘do that’ that...
            THAT.... that little cute bear grease jar... was and IS in there (that old New England home) SINCE ITS ‘day one’ (actual domestic acquisition and use) and WAS part of the ‘active day usage of ...GLASSWARE... in that home and... and SURVIVED because of its... “obvious design merits’.  I am totally there with this; I-Home-Glassware; that ratio and that
            I AM THE ONE...and only one.... ‘who gets it’.  In more ways than ‘one’.
            How many of the little bears have I ‘broken the cycle’ of that glassware bear in the old New England home?  Or is it not ‘break’ the cycle but... I as OF the cycle.  Too?
            What do you think?  I’m gonna let Eve and Bing ‘keep it’.  It never happens.
            And one may... if one is a good eye of an antiquarian... too... one day SPY TOO, a ‘bear pomade’ and then TOO... be as I spy... and to myself say:  THERE IS A classic specimen of ‘old glassware’ in “THIS” New England home.  YOU WILL KNOW IT when YOU DO SEE IT.  “It” is a historically correct specimen of old New England glassware in its original and historically correct old New England domestic setting.  Then give them the two bucks and leave ‘with it’.  It’s the  “FIRST TIME THAT WENT OUT THE DOOR... (including its actual ‘to be refilled’ voyages into town over a ‘way back when’ [1840] twenty year period)... in one hundred and fifty PLUS years.”  The little glass bears always ‘ride up front’ in the (truck) cab’ ‘when I get one’.  And I do ‘get them’.






Clambroth


Milk Glass



3 comments:

  1. That some "pressed glass bear pomade jars" have survived in the Old New England Home speaks well for their "good design merit". The bear grease pomade itself was short lived, as were the bears who provided it. The "pressed bear jars" stayed with the home, not even to step outside to celebrate the end of the Civil War and all such events since. If only they could speak. Or perhaps I jealously feel that I wish I were a "pressed bear jar". As Quasimodo said to a gargoyle "Why was I not made of stone like thee?”

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  2. Studying the "four points", I now believe that I understand why "Eve and Bing" have their juice glasses, and why they should either keep drinking from them or drop them in the re-cycle bin. The juice glasses are not what this is about.

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  3. Aside from the "glass", you have touched on the human setting (status) at the time by mentioning "smelled bad". To me it's important to know that the people in the past were not as Hollywood portrays them to be. As a child (post WWII to early 1950's) I remember that people smelled. Bath once a week. Change underwear and socks only when they were "dirty". School and work clothes were same shirt and trousers all week. Most adults had bad teeth and doubly bad breath. Bathrooms were in old closets, no windows or vents with fans. Lots of powders and perfumes to mask the underlying body odors that inevitably snuck out anyway. So what, well, I always try to imagine that "status" of the people at the time they came into possession of the "item". They were not Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.

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