Thursday, February 1, 2024

Brass......

Growing up my nana and pop had a lot of brass ornaments in their home.  Pop had a lot of brass horseshoes as he loved the big cart/working horses.  Anyhow, those needed cleaning and I remember her cleaning them.

One of the ornaments was an ashtray on a stand.  After they passed away, my mam must have got it, and one year she brought it over for me, as I always loved it.  I was looking at it the other day and thought it was looking ready to be cleaned.  I probably cleaned it last June before my mother came over.  Figured I would be in trouble if it wasn't cleaned when she came.........I know daft!!

So hunted out my Brasso and other cleaning things and got to work.
Now the one thing I loved to do as a child was put my feet on the bottom of the ashtray and move it back and forward like a pendulum.  I can still here my nana shouting at me; "Our Gillian stop doing that!!"  It still makes me smile.
So after a bit of wiping down it looks a little better.
I have no idea if it was ever used as an ashtray.  My pop smoked a pipe.  No one else smoked.
The one thing it was used for was to put your cup of tea or coffee on.  That's why my mam put this coaster on it as well, to make it more stable.  I have a coffee table by my seat so use it instead.
I hope one of the kids takes it after my day.  Age wise it has to be at least 60 years old.  I remember it as a small child and I will be 60 this year.

So there you go a good job jobbed for another six months and lots of lovely memories brought back for me to smile about.


8 comments:

Joy said...

Well done.
I remember 'learning' how to clean silver and brass at Guides even though Mum had already taught me and expected me to help her with it now and again. xx

Linda said...

I love that. The other day I was thinking about a large brass flat bowl my father used as a cigarette ash tray. And, then you post this.

angela said...

Well done. It looks great I’d use it as a side table for my cuppa too. We don’t smoke

My Piece of Earth said...

That brought back some memories. Horse brasses, we lived on a farm. Brass plates on the wall and brass jugs.

I have the jugs, they were a wedding gift for my Mum and Dad, so they have been in the family for about 85 years. The brasso comes out every six months or so to give them a clean.

Thanks for the post.


















Magpie's Mumblings said...

It's a lovely piece and all the more special because of the memories. I've never been a fan of the bright brass that seems to be the 'thing' these days - much prefer the older look.

slugmama said...

It's so nice to have things from ones childhood that bring back cherished memories that make one smile again. 8-)))

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

Oh, we had floor-stand-type ashtrays growing up too. I thought ours was so pretty. Very heavy, with intricate molding, and it was gold with a glass ashtray that fit on the top.
My mom died of cancer at 44 yrs old so when she passed that ashtray didn't seem as pretty to me. Isn't that funny? While only 13 I remember hating it because I was convinced her cigarettes were the reason she wasn't with us anymore. Maybe, maybe not, but for me it wasn't a good memory when I was 13. My dad got rid of it and I was not upset. It went to her sister who also thought it was beautiful. Funny I hadn't thought about that in a bit. Now if I had it, it would be a nice memory of Mom regardless of her darn endless smoking.

Jackie said...

We had a couple of standing ash trays as both my parents smoked. Never a brass one though. You did a really great job of cleaning yours up.

God bless.

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