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[How-doFolks]

I couldnt believe my eyes when i found this! We went on a day trip to Lexington Mo. to check out some History & antique shops, we were just about done with this 1 shop & i saw 3 ashtrays that looked like skillets. Well, the very bottom 1 was this one! My parents had 1 like this in their RV this when i was a teenager. I freaked!! It was only $4.00. It was the hi-light of the trip.

[sanddunerider]

Thats a great find..

I would tear off off my pocket on my shirt getting out the 4 bucks!!

[eagle1]

Thats a great find..

I would tear off off my pocket on my shirt getting out the 4 bucks!!

Ha it would then match the "sleeves"!   

[KBCraig]

Congrats on a great find.

Is it dated? It looks like an aluminum casting, which would make it appropriate to the late 1970s through mid 1980s, when they did very little blacksmithing (to my bitter disappointment!), and a lot of casting aluminum trinkets. The irregular casting, probably green sand, supports it being from 35-40 years ago.

Period note: aluminum is a cheap metal today, but even in industrial quantities in the early 1880s it was over $20 per pound. Think about that in terms of inflation: aluminum was worth more than silver (the closest year I can find for comparison is 1900, when silver was $0.64/ozT, or $6.40/lb avdp; roughly 3x the price of aluminum). There was no aluminum industry in the Ozarks in 1880, so it would be even more outrageous in SW MO.

Knowing that even as a 10 year old, I always resented Shad casting trinkets instead of demonstrating how to flux a forge weld so that it would take instead of break. 

And this WAS in Miss Mary's Time! 

[How-doFolks]

nope, no date.

[Junior]

Yup, it appears to be from Miss Marys time. I could never figure out back then why they did the aluminum casting. I thought it was a cheapening of the experience. They did it for years, though.