While “weighing” the merits of taking the time to write this blog entry I decided I needed to take a closer look at some of the items in the collection that might relate to not only the writing world, but to some of the portable tools available to our 19th century kinfolks they carried on their daily busy lives in the heart of the bigger cities and towns. During the course of a single day, one might be visiting a number of shops, perhaps dropping by the post office to mail some letters, and maybe even heading to the bank as a first stop in order to obtain a bit of cash to be able to pay for your purchases.
At the bank they may withdraw several gold sovereigns and half sovereigns. Before departing, they would pull out their handy little sovereign balance so that they could verify the weight and size (& therefore value) of the coins they had been given. There were a variety of these pocket scales available at the time. This one was made by Stephen Houghton & Son (Ormskirk) – c.1820.
Heading on to the the post office to drop off a business letter might require a couple of interesting little items. The first is a John Sheldon Gentleman’s Pocket Compendium
Dawson’s Patent – for the stamp…
sheldon’s, dawson, houghton, canada post