Demystifying Thingamajig 3

By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer

April 21, 2008 04:00 am

— PLATTSBURGH -- Put on your thinking cap and solve this latest thingamajig.
Geneveive Alvarez was raised in the mountains in Berlin. Her interests include antiques, and she owns one thingamajig. It is a smooth, cast-iron bracket (6.5 inches across the back) with two holes, nine decorative scallops and a concave opening. It is flat on top.
"Most people are baffled by it," said Alvarez, who lives in Plattsburgh.
Her car-salesman husband came across the curious item in a home or barn close to the border of Bennington, Vt., and Williamstown, Mass. She's going to mount the bracket and use rawhide to tie antique tools to it.
"I have all these gadgets, and how was I going to display them? I thought it was interesting. I have been meaning to do this for awhile."
UPSIDE DOWN?
I associate the cast-iron object with coal or wood stoves. It is the density and color that I have observed with objects such as pokers.
But Alvarez's adaptation of her 19th century implement may not be far off the mark.
"I've seen those," said Julie Casey of Rum Trail Antiques at 33 Smithfield Blvd. in Plattsburgh.
"It looks like it could be part of an old drying rack."
George Gowdy at the Antique and Variety Mall at 12 Margaret St. had a different idea.
"I think it's upside down," he said, examining a picture of the object. "It's a wall mount to hang a glass lantern with a chimney or anything of that nature."
If you would to hazard a guess or can definitively identify Alvarez's thingamajig, send a letter, e-mail or call me with your response.
If you have a thingamajig you want demystified, then send that in, too.
rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

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