Wut dis?
July 28, 2017 8:12 PM   Subscribe

I went to the Park City Museum a few years back and noted this wirey thing that's hanging over the stove in the display. What is it?

There was no explanation that I could find - and if I remember correctly I saw more than one in the museum - always hanging from a wall in an old-timey display like this one. You might not be able to tell from the perspective of the photo but it extends out pretty far - like 12 inches or so.

Apologies for the poor photo but I couldn't find a way to describe it well enough to google search a better image.
posted by egeanin to Grab Bag (18 answers total)
 
Pic isn't very large, but it looks like a antique egg basket to me. They come in all kinds of weird shapes and folding configurations. They're assoicated with the "old timey" pantry kind of kitsch in that picture too.
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:20 PM on July 28, 2017 [7 favorites]


Is it a type of fish trap?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 9:42 PM on July 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


Seconding vintage egg basket.
posted by she's not there at 10:13 PM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


It does look superficially like an egg basket, and that was my first thought but I don't think it's right. I've never seen one with a conical funnel on the bottom, what would it be for? That feature seems far more in line with fish trap, possibly just the top half.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:39 AM on July 29, 2017


Marginally better view.
posted by she's not there at 8:30 AM on July 29, 2017


Just write them and ask.
posted by Miko at 8:51 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


If their was a wire back to it I'd say some sort of crawdad/yabbie trap if not a fish trap.
posted by wwax at 8:53 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I sent them an email this morning. Haven't heard anything yet.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:29 AM on July 29, 2017


Fellow sleuths, here is a more high-res photo of the same part of the museum, showing the thing. Here's another. What appears to be its shadow in the first picture appears in the second one to be a graphic on the wall. What appears to be one complex thing in the first picture is clearly two separate things in the second.

I think the one on the left, in the second (Getty) photo is intended to hold a ball of twine. You feed the twine through a hole in the bottom. The twine would be used for wrapping packages in a general store. The other thing seems to be a general purpose collapsable wire basket.
posted by beagle at 3:18 PM on July 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


Here's a modern version of the twine holder.
posted by beagle at 3:20 PM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I sent them an email this morning. Haven't heard anything yet.

I feel sure they will get back to you, but it may take a few weeks. Typically these kinds of emails have to spend some time slowly awaiting a moment with fewer pressing priorities.
posted by Miko at 8:14 PM on July 29, 2017


I sent the query to their "info" address. In my experience some info email addresses are well-tended, some are black holes, and there's no way to tell in advance.
posted by jocelmeow at 8:26 AM on July 30, 2017


Please consider calling them.
Some of us last century customer service people prefer actually talking with folks.
posted by Mesaverdian at 1:54 PM on July 30, 2017


I sent the query to their "info" address. In my experience some info email addresses are well-tended, some are black holes, and there's no way to tell in advance.

While that may be true, there's a list of direct staff contacts just below it on the right-hand side. I meant to just imply that museum staff, particularly small museum staff, usually have way more work than they can reasonably do, and things that aren't on fire or require a lookup sometimes take additional time. But when you have more addresses, it's fine to send it to multiple people.
posted by Miko at 7:57 PM on July 30, 2017


Response by poster: Oooh Twine Basket seems the most likely, especially considering that a general store would need to wrap packages in brown paper. I'll leave the thread open in case anyone hears back from them!
posted by egeanin at 11:01 AM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I got a reply from a staff member at the PCM just now. She says the item is a bag holder, and sends two photos. Looks from the pics like it's one item, with the twine holder identified by beagle furthest from the wall.
posted by jocelmeow at 12:18 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]


So a combo bag holder /twine holder. Makes perfect sense. Based on a few other pictures of this same scene I found on Flickr, what I said upthread about there being a graphic on the wall is incorrect. There are shadows in some of the photos due to different lighting sources. Here is a hi-res shot that shows part of it.
posted by beagle at 2:49 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thank you!! Mystery solved!
posted by egeanin at 2:38 PM on August 1, 2017


« Older A little _too_ sticky   |   Earnest question: how can I love my body? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.