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.
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.
