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  1. #21
    Starting to feel at home
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    Thank you, I will try those sites. I am sure it is most likely from the people who took my dad in (evacuee) as he never returned to his parents, so I can't see how he would have got this otherwise, but I could be wrong. And carte de visite - are they the postcard photos?

    Mainly I am curious as to why I can't find anything about this. When I found it I felt sure it was mass produced but now I am wondering if it is home made because in some areas it is crude and, thinking about it, my "Uncle" worked with wood (furniture making) so maybe his Dad did too.

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pipsqueek View Post
    Mainly I am curious as to why I can't find anything about this. When I found it I felt sure it was mass produced but now I am wondering if it is home made because in some areas it is crude and, thinking about it, my "Uncle" worked with wood (furniture making) so maybe his Dad did too.
    I think you might have solved the mystery yourself, Pipsqueek.

    It looks to me like fretwork, which was a popular hobby in the early part of the 20th Century. My father had a treadle-operated fretsaw, on which he produced toys made from offcuts of plywood.

    One could buy patterns and panels of wood from such firms as Hobbies, who produced a catalogue of tools and designs, as follows:

    https://www.
    finescrollsaw.com/hobbies1912catalogue/hobbies1912catalogue.htm

    Your design might have been produced as a commemorative item. It doesn't appear in this catalogue, although some of the pipe racks on pages 177 and 178 are similar.

    If you come across some strange tools or equipment, that might clinch it!

    Peter

  3. #23
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    Wow - thanks so much for this information. I will take a closer look at the catalogue but I think you could be right!

    I will let you know if I get to the bottom of this (I now want to know who made it!), but thank you all so much for your very helpful replies :-)

  4. #24
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    I would suggest it was a fretwork pipes stand (for at least eight pipes) possibly home made to commemorate a personal or family connection with army (cavalry & artillery).
    The trumpeter in the centre could suggest commemorating lost comrade(s) or family member(s).

    From what I remember my mother telling me about pipe smokers they tended to have a number of pipes that they would smoke in turn resting each pipe between use.

    Cheers
    Guy
    As we have gained from the past, we owe the future a debt, which we pay by sharing today.

  5. #25
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    Thanks. Now you mention it we have found quite a few pipes too.

  6. #26
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    If you google
    fret work king and country photo frame
    it will bring you to an auction from 2015 from The Saleroom with an image not unlike yours. It has a photo of a soldier in the middle circle and is said to be from WW1.

  7. #27
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    Thanks for the link. It is similar (though I think mine is nicer!) and it does make it more likely that a photo used to be in it. I just hope that turns up at some point so I can trace its origin.

  8. #28
    thewideeyedowl
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    Default Memorial photo frame??

    Good evening, all...

    Have been following this from the sidelines. When I read the initial post, on 15th(?), my first thought was that the item was a photograph frame made to commemorate a soldier who had been killed in WW1. If the handiwork is not up to professional standard, then perhaps it was made by a family member(?) to display a photograph of the father/son/brother who had been killed.

    You say that your father was taken in by a family but have not given their surname. I suggest that you visit the CWGC website and search for that family name, or for names connected with the family, e.g. members from the mother's side who would have a different surname. CWGC can be found here: https://www.cwgc.org/.

    If the search yields definite name, or a list of 'possibles', then we (you/BG) can get going on researching what happened to this soldier and information about his background.

    Or perhaps it is a pipe rack after all. Who knows?

    Off to roost.

    Owl

  9. #29
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    Thank you Owl. As my Dad never returned home after the war my "Uncle" effectively was my grandfather, so I do know his name (Stratford) and his wife's maiden name (Hudson). From documents I can see that my uncle's father-in-law died in a mental hospital in 1925. Unfortunately, there was some bitterness about the situation so my Dad never really told us much about his adopted family, which means I have no idea about siblings, etc. My Uncle fought in WWI and lost a leg at Passchendaele so maybe this piece was done by a family member when he went to war? Was fretwork a predominantly male hobby? If so, I suspect I need to find his father.

  10. #30
    thewideeyedowl
    Guest

    Default Now research 'Stratford'

    Hello again...

    Thanks for this information - good to know that you know some names. Every little helps, as the grocer says!

    I suggest that you temporarily put the frame research to one side and start a new thread on 'Stratford' in BG's WW1 forum. Head the thread with the man's name(s) and dates (if known). Give as much definite info as you can and tell us the source, e.g. birth certificate/hearsay. BG sleuths will probably be able to find him and family in the 1911 and 1901 censuses, and possibly earlier ones too. This will build up some background for you.

    I entered 'Stratford WW1 Medal Index Card' in Discovery, the online catalogue of The National Archives [TNA] and got 652 hits - which I have not ploughed through. Sorry! Here's the link: https://discovery.nationalarchives.go...e+dates=Refine.

    Can you find Uncle there? If you can, and if you have a sub to Ancestry, then you will be able to see his Medal Index Card and thus discover what he got. You mention that he lost a leg at Passchendaele, so I think he may have got a Silver War Badge to acknowledge this. (Some compensation, eh - obviously, keeping his leg would have been preferable.) If you are very very lucky, then the service record of 'your' man may have survived, though possibly not intact. Please be aware that about 60% of WW1 records were destroyed in a devastating fire in 1941. It is just pot luck if you can find your relative. (The records of both my grandfathers were among those destroyed, alas.)

    So, if you can build up a picture of this man's life, then the fretwork frame might start to make sense(?).

    Let us know what you yourself can find, and I can guarantee that you will get lots of help from willing sleuths here.

    Swooping off.

    Owl
    Last edited by thewideeyedowl; 19-05-2018 at 3:42 PM. Reason: Punctuation

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