A Look At Some 18th Century Artifacts.

Primary documentation can't be beat, this is what every living historian looks for. But what I like most in some of the following images, is the proof that people used to make their own things from recycled materials. This does not give us licence to make just anything because it is made from period materials, but it does allow us to make the items that we know were self-made.

A white-tailed-deer antler with saw marks from the north cellar, evidence the Spragues were working antler.

http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Sprague/foodways.html;

A Barlow type folding jackknife and whetstone. Barlow jackknives had large iron bolsters (the iron behind the blade) which gave them more durability.

http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Sprague/foodways.html;

Several artifacts made from scrap brass: a small saw, a repaired kettle rim, and a small hasp for a small box.

Cufflinks were often decorated. Most have geometric designs or floral themes. The cufflink on the bottom right has a cornucopia engraved on it, likely symbolic of men’s roles as growers of food. On the top left is a brass aglet for lacing clothing and a possible “hook” part to a “hook-and-eye” fastener.

http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Sprague/personal.html;

A lead net weight, a lead line sinker and two fishhooks.

http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Sprague/foodways.html;

European flint strike-a-lights and ballast cobble debris. The largest reddish piece is a strike-a-light made from Pennsylvania jasper.

Slag, a fragment of a nail header, scrap iron, nails blanks and various types of nails, including T-head, L-head, rose-head, headless and shoeing nails.

17th-century gunflints, found at Le Vieux Fort, Placentia. 

Photo courtesy of Amanda Crompton.

http://www.arts.mun.ca/nahop/image_pages/Gunflints.html;

Gunflints, lead shot, musket balls, a lead gunflint wrap, a fragment of a brass side plate with dragon motif and the finial to a bayonet scabbard.

http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Sprague/foodways.html;

A claw hammer head, side and top view.

A variety of items made from scrap iron, including a sieve, a funnel, and two knife blades made into strapping to reinforce something.

Personal items including a George II Oldhead halfpenny (1740-1754), George I “Irish Wood” halfpenny dated 1723, a William III halfpenny dated 1699, and a small piece of a silver coin. There are a plain brass ring, iron mouth harp, and pieces of a bone comb and a copper-alloy comb. These combs have two sizes of teeth: the larger for grooming, the smaller to remove nits and lice from the hair. In the bottom left is a small brass plate with the letters “IB” stamped into it.

http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Sprague/personal.html;

Scissors, a needle, glass beads, straight pins and thimbles.

http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Daniels/crafts.html;