What is it? Set 346

And I'd expect to see wax all over the thing. Does the little block on top open up? It sure looks like a rack to hold fancy glasses and a bottle in the 'cage'.....

--riverman

Reply to
humunculus
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OK, wild stab in the dark: I think its a pipe rack for holding those long-stemmed clay pipes and a jar of tobacco...similar (in the most general sense) to this:

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to this site
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the stems of those pipes run up to about 21 inches...the right size.

-riverman

Reply to
humunculus

Or why not something like this?

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Reply to
humunculus

I guess they would have dripped as the tallow cooled. You'd want to catch the drips. When you weren't making candles, you'd hang the table on the wall before somebody tripped on it. I'm going to read up on candlemaking!

Reply to
J Burns

Pipes are normally stored with the stems up so the passages don't gum up. Besides, no slot is needed if the end can be inserted through the hole.

Reply to
J Burns

Why display spoons on a stand that somebody could trip over?

Reply to
J Burns

Conventionally, candles were made in pairs with a common wick slung over a rack. It seems to me that you would have to be slow and careful lest the candles swing against each other, causing deformation and possibly sticking.

I imagine dipping should be as brief as possible. The warmer the candle got, the less wax it would bring out of the kettle, and the longer you would have to wait before dipping again.

I think this stand was designed for dipping candles singly, each suspended from a marble-sized bead. If you didn't have to worry about knocking candles together, you could dip them very briefly. That would mean adding more wax per dip and a shorter cycle time.

If I were dipping candles, I might flare the slots toward the edge of the table, making it a little quicker and easier to slide a wick into a slot.

Normally, perhaps the finish of the table withstood the heat of a kettle full of wax at the melting point, but sometimes the finish could be damaged. I think the center of the table was raised so it could be refinished without refinishing the rest of the tabletop.

Reply to
J Burns

d:

Candle dipping is messy work. No way would a candle maker use a decorative rack like this for it. And it would be COVERED with wax.

--riverman

Reply to
humunculus

Normally, yes, but not always. Google "longstem pipe rack" and you will see examples of display racks where the pipes are stored stem- down. And threading a long clay stem down through a hole is considerably less convenient than just slipping them through a slot.

--riverman

Reply to
humunculus

I think it might have hung, just as it does in the picture.

--riverman

Reply to
humunculus

r"

Look at this. It was sold as a "pipe holder"

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Reply to
humunculus

Hey guys... Candle dipping, candle making is (roughly) and industrial process. It is unlikely that anyone would heat up a vat of tallow, dip 10 canldles, and then move on. I doubt that anyone involved in making candles would want a pretty thing like 1989 to hang the partial candles from. The wax that drips would be recycled into the vat. 1989 seems to have no provision to catch the drippings. 1989 (I argue) has a social display function, and is hardly likely to be a candle dipping rack. That said, I've no idea what would be displayed and hung from 1989.

Reply to
Alexander Thesoso

I googled it and found just one, holding two clay pipes that had never been smoked.

According to my measurements of Rob's first photo, the diameter of the holes is about 2.7% of the length of the top. According to my measurements of Rob's second photo, the top is about 13 inches long.

That indicates that the diameter of the holes is about 0.35". The stems of some clay pipes would probably fit in the holes, but no clay pipe stem wold fit through the slots.

Reply to
J Burns

It looks good to me. The bowls would rest in the trough in the bottom ring. In the top ring, the "slots" are about as wide as the "holes."

Reply to
J Burns

Why put legs on a hanging rack? Why put a big bottom shelf 18" below a spoon rack? If it's to display spoons, shouldn't the holes be along the long side away from the wall?

When a spoon rack has holes and slots, apparently one slides the handle through the slot, then turns the spoon 90 degrees. In that case, the spoons couldn't be wider than 5/8" because that's approximately the center-to-center spacing of the holes.

Reply to
J Burns

I think it might have hung, just as it does in the picture.

--riverman

----------------------------- But why that long?

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

What part of the rack is made for decorative form and not function?

Suppose the household needs ten candles a week, made from tallow, beeswax, or something else. The quickest method would also be the neatest, by getting the wax to stick to the candle instead of dripping.

Before starting, I'd let the kettle cool on the hearth until the wax began hardening around the sides. Having it as cool as possible would help it stick to a candle instead of melting the candle. Then I'd dip quickly so that the candle would stay as cool as possible so that the most wax would stick.

The reason to make ten candles at a time would be to allow each candle plenty of cooling time between dips, without making the candle maker wait.

There would probably be some dripping. To remove hardened wax easily for reuse, I'd want finished wood, perhaps wiped with oil just before I started dipping.

Reply to
J Burns

All of this mention of "tripping over" and "it would be too low" and so on are assuming that the thing is meant to sit on the floor. Why would it not be placed on a dresser or table or shelf?

Reply to
J. Clarke

aid:

Candle Dipping at Middleton Place.

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Reply to
kfvorwerk

With seven big kettles, they must have made hundreds of pounds of candles at a time. Many of the candles are pointed at the bottom. I think that means that during dipping, the bottoms tended to overheat.

A small household operation might minimize the problem by dipping candles quickly, one by one.

Reply to
J Burns

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