A $26,000 Swift
October 04, 2005
I saw an old whalebone swift on one of those PBS antique shows last night, so I thought I'd google to see if I could find a picture. Evidently there are a lot of them out there. This one is a tad, shall we say, expensive? I'm guessing that this is an average price. Considering that it was carved by hand over a period of months by a sailor on a whaling ship, I think it's priced about right.
Wow! That is one incredible yarn swift. I love the carving of the hand.
Posted by: Martha | October 19, 2005 at 07:24 PM
Yes, isn't it gorgeous? I'm really curious to know how much one of these cost to someone back then - if this was from a very wealthy home, or if they were common and have just been broken and discarded over the years. I'm guessing that they were expensive, but how expensive? The price of a months worth of sugar? A horse? A new silk dress from Paris? Fun to think about....
Posted by: Spinster | October 20, 2005 at 08:03 AM