Featured Phonograph № 29

[MordEth]

Please explain for those of us born in the Midwest, (not to mention Europe and Australia), what on earth is a...
- piazza (my guess would be back porch?)
- firebarn
- packie (my guess would be a Packard car?)

Bruce,

B.B.B. already covered the first one, so I‘ll hit the other 2 before heading off to work. ‘Firebarn’ would be a fire station (some of which resemble barns, I suppose). And ‘packie’ is slang for ‘package store’, or a liquor store (i.e., a store, not a bar).

I doubt there are many kids that would be likely to be talking about Packard’s automobiles these days.

— MordEth

[Henry]

Heywood-Wakefield made a ton of car seats for the railroad and streetcar builders. If you've ever ridden on a train or trolley, chances are you've sat in a H-W seat. I'm told that their furniture from the '40s and'50s is eminently collectible today.

[JohnM]

The Heywood (pre Heywood-Wakefield) wicker baby carriage we use as a prop for baby photos, and oak Opera on Thonet bent-wood table in our studio in Madison.

Heywood.jpg (36.6 KiB) Viewed 2693 times

John M

[Neophone]

Folks,

To me, growing-up, a piazza was a simple stacked usually covered porch on the back and or front of a "triple-decker" house. One of my favorite photos of my great grandmother is of her standing on her back piazza under the clotheslines. I'll have to see if I can find my copy of it.

Regarding cleaning wicker-The Wicker Woman has some hints.....

Regards,
John

[estott]

Totally off topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza

In the United States, in the early 19th century, a piazza by further extension became a fanciful name for a colonnaded porch. Yet, the word piazza was used by some, especially in the Boston area, to refer to a front porch, fanciful or otherwise, connected to a house or apartment.

And yet to some Bostonians there was a difference. In Lucretia P. Hale's "The Peterkin Papers" (set in the 1870's Boston area) the family complains that their new house has no porch, only a piazza. I think that possibly Porch might signify a raised up area with a railing while a Piazza is just a roofed over area, on or near the ground level. Just my opinion.

[bostonmike1]

And yet to some Bostonians there was a difference. In Lucretia P. Hale's "The Peterkin Papers" (set in the 1870's Boston area) the family complains that their new house has no porch, only a piazza. I think that possibly Porch might signify a raised up area with a railing while a Piazza is just a roofed over area, on or near the ground level. Just my opinion.

For what it is worth, trust me, the picture John posted accuratly depicts what a Bostonian piazza was known as. BOSTON----a great historical city with a language all its own. When I first moved to Manhattan in 1976, at times people had no idea what language I was using---forget the accent!

[Phonofolks]

Brdad:

Nice machine. Wicker does enjoy a good cleaning. As a matter of fact wicker enjoys a good drink of water, seriously. You may want to contact a wicker restorer who can give you some pointers on cleaning wicker. The advice given to me is as follows:

1. Vacuum the piece first to remove as much loose dirt as possible. Using a brush to loosen the dirt and vacuuming goes hand in hand.

2. Next, use warm light soapy (dish washing liquid) water and brush it on the wicker. Beware that your water will turn black due to the dirt so you will change your water several times. Brush until with you feel the water is clear enough or if you feel enough is enough. The trick here is that you don't want to soak the wicker to the point that it could damage the wood on the cabinet or damage the paint. Use your judgement.

3. After it dries you can apply a very thin coat of diluted shellac. I am not sure if you would use orange or clear, but the shellac is a very acceptable way to seal the wicker. Most likely it had a coat of shellac at one time whe it stood on a show room floor.

Good luck.

Rick

[JohnM]

Brad,

I love your Perfektone! To me, they speak of cool screened-in porches on hot summer days . . . iced-tea and chicken-salad sandwiches.

My avatar is an external-horn wicker machine. I wonder where the molecules of that grotesque monster are today?

The patent in question is likely a design patent for the cabinet. I published a book in the early '90's entitled American Phonograph Design Patents 1897-1918 and it depicts several wicker cabinets design patents assigned to Heywood-Wakefield. Again, we're on the road and have no reference books with us, but I'll make a note to double-check if your cabinet design is in there when we stop by our home in a couple of weeks, and I'll send you a PDF of the patent.

John M

[estott]

I've seen at least one non- heywood wakefield wicker machine. It had a white painted cabinet with cast composition ornaments, the lid was lined with pleated flowered chintz. It might have been pretty when it was new but by the time I saw it everything was a wreck, and it had pot metal issues. Still it had a $600.00 price tag on it.

[FellowCollector]

Nice machine, Brad! Thanks for sharing the pics and info with us. I also have a wicker phonograph in the collection. Mine is in white (also an upright) and has interesting contrast weaving on each of the cabinet sides that make for great "eye candy". Whenever I look at the sides I wonder how the "weaver" did it. Years ago I also had a chance to buy a console (ie. lowboy floor model) wicker phonograph that was in black finish. This was before I found my white upright wicker machine. I passed on the black console one as it was just not attractive at all. I'll bet the guy still has it too. It was very plain...no contrasting weaving at all. I must admit that the wicker itself which is very easily demaged on these models especially at the legs where brooms, mops and feet come into contact was still in nice condition. On a side note, that's one aspect that I always scutinized when considering a Victor Schoolhouse model (those that were actually used in a school!) was the condition of the legs where school janitors might slop the mop water around and damage the legs over time. Anyway, thanks again for sharing this nice example! Doug