Cracked. Reads: "I H 1774" Marked three times: "MZ"
Front and back hounds are heavy wooden members of the running gear. Each is configured into a "wishbone" shape whose "prongs" are attached to front or rear axle. Thus, this iron is likely a hound band that encircles and secures the hounds where they are joined to the coupling pole that runs front to back. (These wooden members are part of what we now call the chassis.)
Lathe-turned wooden tar bucket with fitted lid and remnants of leather straps. Cylindrical vessel has slight taper inward toward middle. Decorated with two double score marks below center. Above center are shoulders jutting outward with vertical holes through which straps of leather handle pass. Handle also passes through lid of conforming shape, although one strap broken off at shoulder while the other is broken off 3 inches above shoulder.Center hole in lid apparently accepted a now-missing stick used to apply tar to wheels. Broken-off 5-inch length of leather strap rests inside. Tar residue in bucket.
Lancaster County or region.
Provenance
Donor believes bucket descended from family members to his parents who displayed it on their mantle. Donor inherited it from parents.
Hanging balance scales with two brass dishes. Attached tag: "Miss Emma H. Ranck". Listed in original accession notes as "Assayers Scales" used specifically for weighing metals.
In 1754 Thomas Cope gave this simple coin to his son, Caleb, when he reached the age of 9. The year on the coin was also the year of Caleb's birth. Twenty-one years later the coin would end up in the hand of a British Officer who would conspire with Benedict Arnold in an attempt to capture one of the colonies' most important military installations.
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Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory and the Lancaster County Archives, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
