This was one of the last four articles I published in Lost Treasure, it was also one of the four I did not get paid for or get copies of the magazine. This may have been because of Postal improprieties, the Democratic Party of NM, and the Hachita Mayes political wheels. Postal employees at Hachita Bella Flores and Regina Balthazar were directly involved in this identity theft from me, and were also individually rewarded for their actions. Still nothing from the postmasters about this use of federal facilities to try to disappear people into Mexico.
Ice Box Hardware Is A Cool Collectible
By Bill Gallagher
900 Words
Today we have refrigerators to keep our perishable goods from spoiling, but this was not always so. Before modern refrigerators there were cellars and ice boxes and that was it. Sometimes ice would be packed away during winter, in some insulating material like sawdust, to be kept for use in an icebox or root cellar during the spring and summer months. The modern refrigerator is only a little over a century old and they are truly wonders of technology. Sometimes lasting for 30-50 years of full time operation there is nothing that can compete with them still, to do the job they do. If any doubts persist concerning that statement all one has to do is take a dip backward a little, and look at what people had to do in the past, and that usually dispels those doubts right away.
Old ice boxes ran the gamut from simple to elaborate, an icebox for every pocket book, as it were, with easy terms and payment plans. Almost all early ice boxes were made from heavy hard woods, and the hardware was correspondingly heavy. Ice box hardware is quite valuable to restorers of old ice boxes, as can been seen many places on the internet, although this hardware can many times be one of those things that metal detectorist' find in their exploits, but do not recognize for what it is. Yes, that old situation where Gerald is secretly jealous because Harold found a silver Barber dime of fine type worth ten dollars or so, while all Gerald got was a clunky old brass hinge. Because Gerald did not possess the ability to Discern, he did not know his hinge was a brass original from a 100+ year old icebox which was in high demand and would easily command twenty five to fifty dollars. The ability to discern is everything. Starts with reading, so you have that going for you, which is a nice thing.
Along with hinges these old ice boxes had all kinds of different catches and latches, and shelf hardware too. A few years ago I was looking through a pile of hardware I had found over the years, and for some strange reason I took a good long look at a real odd hinge in the pile, and I said to myself "Thats not a normal hinge there". I was right. I started doing research and found the ice box hardware people and said "Whoa-Ho!" because I had a number of these things, and clasps and closures too. I had sold many of those things way too cheap in the past, and I felt very stoopid for a few minutes, but I got over it. These pictured here are metal detector targets I had picked up around Tampa mostly, last time I was there 2011-2014. In Port Tampa Florida there was quite a boom during the 1880s through the 1930s, and people just dumped a lot of their trash all over the place, where ever was convenient, I am sure, and I found a lot of this type of hardware there in the piles of dirt the construction people moved around, and in isolated dumping sites on the tidal flats near the southern tip of Macdill. One large 1880s dump is actually half on the base itself, by the Fuels Squadron Depot, and some killer bottles have been found by people stationed there.
The thing about ice box hardware is that it is very heavy stuff, usually very well done, castings, and if the dowel in a hinge is brass too it will still work. Most iron pieces of these things have gone away by now, and need full restoration/replacement, but there was not too much iron used versus brass. It pays to remember too that some of the brass castings were chrome plated. Because of the brass it is a sure bet some of you readers will probably recognize things you have scrapped for the metal content in the past, and I suppose that would make one feel even stoopider than me, so I am sorry about that, but the future is bright for us from here on out.
Most old city dumps before 1920, and they are ubiquitous, will have a lot of this type of metal hardware, and not just for ice boxes. There is always a lot of iron trash in dumps, but things like these really call out to a metal detectors field. Ah that old familiar squawk announcing another large piece of copper or brass, I loves them a lot. Sometimes its an art nouveau casting of brass as a staff finial, other times an early car part made from copper or brass. Sometimes even icebox hardware. Just remember that treasure doesn't find itself, so get on out there and swing that detector coil as often as possible, the rewards are many. And remember too that just because something looks like junk to you does not mean it is. Good luck, and I will look for you in the field.
Fin
Bibliography
Various construction salvage and restoration sites on the world wide web
Authors personal experience
Photograph Explanations
1-4. Some of the Ice Box hardware found while the author was metal detecting in Tampa Florida.
5. This is a fancy ice box hinge, with a brass dowel so it is still very operational, and though marked brass, it is also chrome plated.
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