Keeping My Cool

To the list of "museum pieces" in the house, add my penguin ice bucket. They're ubiquitous, so it was bound to happen sometime. Placing one in a room setting would be a great way for the curator to evoke Every Home, 1940-1960.

In fact, the one I spotted last week appears in the Virginia Historical Society's new exhibition, Virginians at Work, which presents the diversity of both work places and goods made in Virginia. A amoeboid panel gives a few paragraphs on the history of Best Products, displays a handful of pages from a 1950s catalog, and tacks on a few samples of the goods: a toaster, a blender, the ice bucket. Having sold a couple at Urquhart's in the last year, and the piece being displayed on a clear plexi shelf, I looked at the bottom of it, to see if there was a recent accession number -- if maybe it was "mine" in an odd way. The VHS did buy it recently, but not from me: the price tag read $45.00!! I've seen dealers at our mall ask 30 or so, but I never ask more than 22 or so for one with dark handles.

At the opening reception for the new exhibition, we also enjoyed chatting with a man about Shockoe Creek and the Church Hill train tunnel, drinking the "175" punch, and being just about the youngest people in the place.

Capital City weather: high 80s, not too humid