One of a set of three toiletry tools with mother-of-pearl handles and steel shanks. Most of tool length comprises a stout file. Tip extends to a shart point for cleaning fingernails. Shell handle widens and flattens out to a rounded terminal.
Presentation sword and scabbard of Civil War officer and Lancaster native, Lieutenant Jacob Pontz (1838-1929). Sword has curving steel blade with ornate, pierced brass hilt. Sword blade is etched with scrolls and foliate decoration and silvered. Scabbard is brass with engraved inscription on one side: "Presented to First Leiut. (sic) JACOB PONTZ / Co. K. 77th Reg. PVVI / at Johnsonville Tenn. June 19, 1865". Scabbard fitted with two brass mounts with strap rings, a molded "cuff" at open end and sheath-like tip (a drag) at other end. Stamped at base of blade is "W CLAUBERG" and "SOLINGEN" with a standing knight.
Provenance
Passed from Jacob Pontz (1838-1929) through his daughter Nelle Audrey Pontz (1880 - 1975), who married Maylin Joseph Pickering (1880-1954), to their son Jack (John M. Pickering 1916-2014). Bequest of the John M. Pickering estate, as stipulated in his will.
Sword blade has areas of corrosion, some heavy. Blade has lost much of its silvering on etched decoration. Copper alloy finish on body of scabbard is heavily worn/lost. Some small dents. Cuff at scabbard's open end is loose with missing small nail or brad. Nail also missing on sheath at other end.
Both sword and scabbard were coated with oil (3-in-1), then wiped down with soft cloth.
Object ID
2015.031.1
Notes
See copies of Pontz records in file. Children of Jacob Pontz and Emma Palmer Pontz are:
1. Minnie Grace Pontz
2. Mary E. Pontz Byerly (1875-1950)
3. Nelle Audrey Pontz Pickering (1880-1975)
4. Ethel Maude Pontz McCown (1884-1947)
Swordmaker Wilhelm Clauberg began operations in 1854 in Solingen, Germany.
WRZ consulted with Steve Hench, long-time antiques dealer specializing in armaments, regarding condition. Since a treatment of the scabbard finish to restore original condition is not desired, he suggested minimal treatment by coating with a fine oil (3-in-1) on both sword and scabbard. Trying to remove blade corrosion would harm etched and silvered decoration. Performed 02/23/2016.
Place of Origin
Solingen, Germany
Credit
Gift of the Estate of John M. Pickering (1916-2014)
Upholstered wingback commode chair has four turned Sheraton legs. Has replacement of original soiled handsewn homespun linen (remnants in this file), now an orange fabric with potted and vining flower design. Solid pinewood seat under cushion has center hole with fitted removable wooden disc.
This chair was from the Pownall home at Gap, where it was used by Dickinson Gorsuch, Maryland slaveholder, during his recovery from wounds sustained during the Christiana Riot of Sept. 11, 1851. His father and two others were killed during the skirmish at the home of freedman William Parker, and Dickinson was transported to the Pownall home for recovery. William Parker later published his story in the "Atlantic Monthly" in 1866, making it highly publicized.
This incident "is an important example of the struggle over the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and the escalating tension between the North and the South. This act gave slave owners broad powers to recapture runaway slaves". (ExplorePAhistory.com)
Polaroid photos of chair before re-upholstery, in file.
Likely Lancaster or Chester Co.
Provenance
Provenance: Chair owned by the Pownall family & given in 1973 to the Lancaster County Historical Society by Mrs. Levi Pownall of Lancashire Hall (569-7279).
It was initially loaned to the Heritage Center (# L.77.9 and # 161.64.80) but soon donated to HCLC. Board minutes of Dec. 8, 1975 include Richard F. Smith's Museum Committee report noting a donation of a "Sheraton armed wing chair commode, used by the Pownall home in nursing Dickinson Gorsuch following Christiana Riot in 1851." Later unsigned note (Bruce Shoemaker?) states John Aungst of LCHS was consulted & chair was removed 11/9/84 from list on LCHS loan form, settling an apparent question of ownership.
Pieced quilt of silks, cotton batting, glazed cotton back, cut in 2 halves, made by Quaker Deborah Simmons Coates, wife of Lindley Coates (1794-1856). Has 19 horizontal bands of dress silks (many produced by Harmonist Community) in alternating triangles arranged in Birds in the Air or Flying Geese pattern using the template method. Large triangles of varying patterns alternate with large triangles with 3 smaller appliqued triangles of contrasting patterns. Colors are browns, tans, beiges, electric and royal blue, peach and green. Each quilt half has a green silk binding on the three outside edges, and tan silk on the inner vertical cut edge. Quilting patterns are clamshell, diamond, cross in a square and diagonals.
At quilt center is a cream-colored triangle with an abolitionist stamp depicting a kneeling enslaved Black male in chains over the words: "Deliver me from the oppression/ of man." This stamped triangle was cut in two when quilt was divided; image now hidden by modern binding. According to Cuesta Benberry research, this image of a kneeling enslaved person originated with the English ceramic firm of Wedgwood in the late 1700s. See items 08.242 and 42.76.11 in the collectiosn of Metropolitan Museum of Art for seals with a similar motif. The Wedgwood family were ardent abolitionists, decorating various ceramics with this image, resulting in its rapid adoption by American anti-slavery groups. Used in many forms and media over the years, it remains the logo of the still-existing Pennsylvania Abolition Society and appears on organization's official publications.
Lindley and Deborah Coates, of West Grove, Chester Co., married there on 12/16/1819 but lived near Christiana in Sadsbury Twp., Lancaster Co. They attended Sadsbury Friends Meeting House near Christiana. Ardent abolitionists, their home was what is now designated station #5 on the Underground Railway. Lindley became President of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, before William Lloyd Garrison. Deborah Coates became a Hicksite Quaker minister according to historian Beverly Wilson Palmer. Hicksites were the more radical Quakers, named after leader Elias Hicks.
Provenance
Quilt passed to son Simmons (1821-1862) & wife Emeline Jackson. (Deborah Coates lived w/ widow Emeline on her Chester Co. farm (Evergreen Hall in West Grove) for many years following Simmon's 1862 death. See census records). Descent to their daughter Elizabeth Jackson Coates who married Marriott Brosius, U.S. congressman from Lancaster. The quilt was then divided between their two daughters, donor's maternal grandmother Graceanna Brosius Biddle and her sister Gertrude Coho Reinhartson. The two halves were then reunited when given to donor, Marjorie Ayars Laidman. Deborah S. Coates was donor's great great great grandmother.
Overall good condition. Two halves of quilt (with recent inside binding on cut edges) are "mounted" on cotton muslin, side-by-side. Silks show significant deterioration -- cracking, splitting and abrasion -- with some losses. Binding also has deterioration with some losses. (See 1985-86 condition report by conservator Linnea Davis.)
Documented in Quilt Harvest #448-B (records in Archives).
Object ID
G.86.05
Place of Origin
Sadsbury Twp.
Credit
Gift of Marjorie A. Laidman, Heritage Center Collection
Ribbon from the 10th reunion of the veterans of the 45th Pa. Volunteers held at State College, PA on 26 September 1919. Likely attended by Blanton C. Welsh.
Provenance
Provenance: Passed down through the family, Blanton Charles Welsh to Emilie Benson (Welsh) Wiggin to Nancy Jane (Wiggin) Townsend.
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This ribbon was in an envelope which contained item numbrs #24-#31.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Leather multi-compartment Wallet. Some remnants of a red printed logo on interior flap. Contained the Civil War discharge papers of William Sweigart, Private, 195th Regiment.
This picture was taken in 1913. I paid 7 dollars 34 cents for it. I was 15 years & 3 months old when I enlisted in the year 1864 at which time it was first taken at Carlisle, Penna. John L. Hackman.
Oscar Hackman gave it to me Sarah E. Warner, Nov. 6, 1957. Oscar is 89 years old now [and in] April 1958 he will be 90 years. One son and one daughter of John and Sarah Hackman had. Oscar is John's son, Lizzie Stiner, sister of Oscar, [is] 85 years old 1957.
I was named after John's wife Sarah Elizabeth Neissinger Hackman. My grandma was Sarah's sister, Fiona Neissinger Hollinger. Oscar is the last of [the] family of Hackmans. I am on the Hollinger-Neissinger side of family. Great Aunt Sarah (?), Oscar's mother __ __ is also the discharge of 1865 of John L. Hackman here ___ time 1957.
