JENNIFER KOPF | Staff WriterCan you identify this object? Send your guess, including your full name and hometown, to Jennifer Kopf at jkopf@LNPnews.com with “Antique Toolbox” in the subject line, or mail to Jennifer Kopf/Antique Toolbox, LNP Media Group, 8 W. King St., P.O. Box 1328, Lancaster, PA 17608-1328.
Tools used in this feature are the property of Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.
Answer for April's tool:
Jennifer Royer, curator at Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, says that this is a ceramic bear-and-stump matchstick holder. They were made to hold wooden matches that were dipped in sulfuric acid and wrapped in sandpaper. The paper was removed before lighting the match for the kitchen stove, fireplace or furnace.
Most matchstick holders were mass-produced, made of cast iron and formed as wall pockets to hang in the kitchen. Others were made of folded and soldered tin.
This holder is an unusual redware figural utilitarian piece, with a whimsical design.
Correct answers
Ford City: Debi Davis; Indiana: Liz Anderson; Lancaster: Mark Stoner; Middletown: Jeffrey Kinley; North Carolina: Aimee Flavin; Oregon: Lori Etapa; Tennessee: Janice Rauhuff.
Best guesses
Toothpick holder: Arizona, Lancaster, North Carolina, Ronks, Wisconsin; Corn sheller: Ephrata; Pipe holder: Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia; honey dispenser: Florida; table marker: Vermont.
Pie vent: Lancaster; candle holder: Lancaster; doorstop: Denver, East Hempfield, Gordonville, Manheim, Rhode Island; mechanical bank: Connecticut, Elizabethtown, Lancaster, Mount Joy; toilet paper holder: Alaska, New York; twine holder, Maine; nut cracker/crusher, Lancaster, Willow Street.
