The Country Lady Antiques : Tour
SEPTEMBER 1ST~SEE ALL NEW PHOTOS OF THE HOUSE NOW UP!
We have dug out, completely by hand a portion of the backyard, outside the kitchen door, constructing stone walls and preparing to make a 'kitchen garden' with raised beds and crushed stone. Our efforts are chronicled here.
Adam started the digging by hand. This area is a continuation of the hill behind us, and where the terrace garden is on the left, the ground was over 2 feet too high. He dug it all down by hand, chopping out huge roots, and digging up stones in every inch of earth!
What a mess... every bit of this has to be dug up and leveled by hand. Here is just one of the many piles of dirt we had to either spread in low areas or wheel out of the yard in a wheelbarrow and dump.
Here only a small, high area is completely dug out, and you can see a lot more to be done...
When you have to look at this, it is helpful to picture 2 raised bed gardens, and the rest of the area all filled in with lovely crushed bluestone...
The two of us built the L shape stone wall and EVERY SINGLE ROCK WAS ONE THAT WAS DUG UP OUT OF THIS SMALL AREA ALONE! The rock wall borders the terrace hill garden and our little brook. Here is the spot where we are going to build the two raised bed gardens, with crushed stone walk in between.
The stone steps to the left lead up the hill. The raised beds will be in the area to the right, by the stone walls we just built. We are still digging and leveling the entire garden area, some of which is not visible in this photo.
The bricks mark the border of the new garden and will separate it from the yard. You can see our stone firepit and stone table. This are is not yet dug up in this photo.
The raised beds will be in the area to the left. The little stream is just out of view to the left as well. Crushed bluestone will fill in this entire area all around the raised beds, up to the house and the brick-and-granite kitchen stoop, and over to the curved brick border.
These are the raised bed we made with the thick white cedar planks we got on our daytrip to Vermont--(see Mary's blog). They look stark now, but will weather to a lovely grey-brown color soon.
We put one lone basil plant in one of the raised beds, but next Spring they will be full with all manner of early herbs and flowers!
WOW! The garden is now done, and this is the lovely view when sitting at the table looking out the window~We look forward to next summer when they are weathered looking and full of herbs, vegetables, and flowers.
OUR HOUSE IS FOR SALE
Adam made the wattle fence for me one Saturday morning as a suprise. It is around our herb garden in the back. Our next DIY project for outside the kitchen door in the back are raised bed gardens with heirloom herbs and perennials!
The little footbridge in our yard, over our stream.
We two hand-built our diamond-scribed, nail studded batten doors.
May 2010~ We planted concord grape vines on the arbor!
Our 'babbling brook' flowing down the hill.
We have raspberry bushes along our stream. We pick them and make our own HOMEMADE RASPBERRY SHRUB, which we served at our DINNER WITH THE PILGRIMS!
Our 18th century cape is locally known as the " the mill house". This is a photo of the mill just a few doors down from our house. It was built in 1784. This mill is owned by a friend, and houses the 1920's lathe that Adam is using to handmake our lovely 17thc. style treen candlesticks! He is working on them in this idyllic setting, just a few doors down from our house!
We built a PERIOD CAGE BAR in the room in the 'ell'. This is now our '17th century taproom', and is the best place for entertaining! We have had several parties and our friends just love this room! In the 17thc. a 'taproom' was known as an 'ordinary'....
WELCOME TO SPENCER'S ORDINARY~
My husband is my best friend, soulmate, and dearest love. He hand painted this sign for me, for our taproom, or 'ordinary'. He painted an exact replica of our signed Westerwald jug on it!
THE MERRY LADS~ Raising an elbow to the strains of the 17thc. music, 'Johnny Cock Thy Beaver' with mugs of Mary and Adam's homemade Rum Shrub.
Dear friends, and fellow reenactors Ken and Jeremy~honored guests at 'Spencer's Ordinary'!
Adam put a long wooden piece the length of one taproom wall, with rosehead nails for 'hanging hooks'. We keep some of our 17thc. reenacting clothing and gear here!
All throughout the house, we have slowly collected and electrified all ANTIQUE lanterns for our lighting.
Hanging on the cage bar is some dried native American tobacco---a gift from a friend.
Below are photos of the butt'ry, which is off the taproom. I bought this house over 10 years ago, as a widow from the midwest. The house was a disaster, and I worked for 7 years alone, restoring it, teaching myself to do as much of the work myself as I could. I built this tiny 'butt'ry' years ago with NO money, using ALL garbage-picked PERIOD materials!
Some photographs of my butt'ry show the late 17th or early 18th century hand hewn wood sink. Even it's little drain is a hollowed out piece of branch! It is all original, and very rare. Hanging in the leaded diamond paned window is a glass witch ball with dried sage on it---a blessing on the house.
Mary, in 17thc. clothing ready to take school children on a tour of our home.....She volunteers, and taught fireplace cooking to grammar school children after school. Adam shows them how to light a fire with a flint and steel, and how he loads his doglock musket.
My darling husband hand made me this wooden bake oven door as a Valentine's day present, using wood and rosehead nails we had laying around!
This 17thc. American hanging cupboard has it's original 1600's butterfly hinges and lock and was found in Massachusettes.
This is a c. 1650 chairtable from Yorkshire England, where it was once in the cottage of a Dutch-born weaver there in the 1600's. The rare set of 4 17thc. chairs, 2 side chairs and 2 arm chairs are also English and in untouched original condition.
My home was featured in Early American Life magazine years ago, and MY ORIGINAL wall-aging was featured in Early Homes magazine as well. My home is COMPLETELY different now and looks nothing like it did in the magazine years ago. I got a lot of jobs from both features, hired to do the 'wall aging' process that I 'invented'. Some have tried to imitate it, but never could. I still travel here and there doing wall aging for people, and it looks quite a bit more spectacular in 'real life', than it does in a photo! I have seen some imitations where mustard paint has been used, and mine must have looked yellow in some photos----there is no mustard in mine at all. As true aging would look, mine is soft and flat----NO sheen, and I have seen many a poor imitation with garish mustard paint and glazes, which I never use.
We do not believe in carrying autenticity so far that we do not have a sofa for us, and our friends to sit on and relax. Besides, the pilgrim separatists were not 'backwater rubes'. They had lived in cosmopolitan Holland for over a decade before sailing on the Mayflower, were used to the finer things, and did bring some of these things over to the new world as soon as they could. The children of the pilgrims of 1620 were into conspicuous consumption, and their generation had as fine homes and furnishings as they could afford.
The 2 of us just cut the ugly legs off our sofa and we put these 4 Jacobean legs on it instead! We have an antique oriental rug on the back, and several antique oriental rug pillows on it now!
This 18thc. dated, 'band' style sampler hides an ugly thermostat!
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We both made this shelf in the kitchen out of a 250 yr. old board---a gift from friends.
We put in soapstone counters which we love.
Bottles of Mary's homemade Raspberry Shrub cool on the counter in the sun....
We love our soapstone countertops, and the 'aged looking' soapstone sink we designed. All of the lighting are antique lanterns that we electrified.
The 2 of us also laid the oak board flooring in the kitchen. The fold down shoe foot work table is early, from New Hampshire, and has traces of it's original mustard paint with grey 'squiggle' decoration.
AUGUST 27 ~ MORE NEWER PHOTOS OF THE KITCHEN ARE COMING IN SEPTEMBER
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A peek at part of the bathroom....
Diminutive court cupboard in the 'little sitting room'.
In the 'little sitting room', a close up of the grouping on top of the court cupboard~Mary's Georgian ladies 18thc. style wig from England, a hand embroidered stomacher, and quills and old documents. The leather document box was completely hand made as a wedding gift to us from a reenactor friend...
The settee in the 'little sitting room' is a hand done Jacobean all-over wool crewel.
Adam's chair in the 'little sitting room'. We have NO lamps in the house---only antique lanterns that we have collected and electrified. Most are on dimmers and can be adjusted for reading or mood lighting!
On this wall in the 'small sitting room' we have a number of our reenactment clothing hanging from a wooden bar rack. No one would ever know that underneath these clothes is a flat screen TV ! Under it is an early quilling wheel and baskets of ANTIQUE wool and flax.
Here you can see when we move our reenactment clothing, we have a flat screen TV and DVD player on the wall!
TV is covered, absolutely invisible.....
Adam built the shelf in the 'little sitting room' out of 250 yr. old wood.
NOW THAT'S LOVE~I came into the room one day to see Adam wiring our phone and answering machine into this basket on the floor in the little sitting room to hide it as a suprise for me! We have it covered with a piece of old linen.
Our 'babbling brook' can be heard out of these windows.
The brass chandelier is a c. 1950 Flemish copy of one of 17thc. style. We saw one almost identical in a Vermeer painting, and it had the same 'Hapsburg double eagles'.
This early chest has it's original dry grain painted finish---not a later one.
The cornice boards over the windows in this room are early---covered with a hand done wool-on-linen crewel embroidered fabric, and were found in a home in Maine years ago.
American chest in untouched, original condition decended in an unbroken line in the Adam's aunt's family, the Nelsons. Made in Rowley, Mass. in 1678, the front board has that date and the first name initials, J and B. The chest bears some Rowley, Mass. characteristics. It went with the Nelson's early on to Lincoln, Mass., where it stayed until we got it from Adam's aunt a few years ago!
Here Mary sits on a stone plaque, and Adam stands in the old cellar hole along the 'battle road' in Linclon, Mass., all that are left marking the location of the home of Revolutionary war hero Josiah Nelson. This is the Nelson family of Adam's aunt, and the same one in which our 1678 chest decended in an unbroken line. It was amazing to sit near the spot where our chest spent much of the 18th century!
This extremely rare c. 1635 livery cupboard is the actual one pictured in John Fiske's book on English 17thc. furniture.
Here is our 17thc. chairtable shown in the upright position. It is in wonderful original condition. This is the table that is in our living room.
Our floorboards are pumpkin pine, and are 22 to 26 inches wide EACH!
Another original fireplace, this one with it's chimney cupboard. 17thc. spoonrack with dry reddish paint, and a 17th century carved bible box on frame.
Another original fireplace, this one is in our bedroom. The cradle is late 17thc. Inside the original wall cupboard are a pair of metallic brocade 17thc. style ladies' shoes, and a gorgeous hand embroidered coif. The coif was done by someone at Plimoth Plantation and was on display in a glass case there for years. They sold it to us after hearing all about the 17thc. reenacting we do.
Hanging above the 17thc. backpanel backstool next to the fireplace in the bedroom is a small very early mirror surrounded by original stumpwork metallic embroidery.
The bible box on top of this carved chest has it's handwritten provenance written on an ancient piece of paper inside the lid. It was made in 1672 and was a gift to the bishop of Durham in England. When King Charles was executed, the bishop was banished to France and this bible box went with him.
The thimble and wrap head pins are 17thc. and were excavated in Rhode Island. This charming old child's coif is of brown velvet, lined with linen.
The find of a lifetime several years ago, our phenomenal English 17thc. bed is all panelled and carved. It bears the initials 'TMA' and the date 1686 at the top of the headboard. My husband said it was 'meant to be'---that that meant 'to Mary and Adam'! The bed has a wonderful provenance. We have dressed it in accurate 17thc. style---most of the time beds of that period had curtains only at the head, and then a cloth valence. Ours are of green linsey-woolsey, with pillow covers of white linen.
Both the top and underside of the bed's canopy are paneled wood with the most amazing original surface. It is so neat to look up at when lying in bed.
The painting of the pilgrim lady is an oil portrait.
The bed has it's original candle shelf.
One of my reenacting petticoats, this is made from the TRUE linsey woolsey that only we sold exclusively, and was embroidered by hand in wool. The motif is taken from a period petticoat featured in a book about early clothing.
Here is a photo showing one of the walls in our entry hall. I have a quote from Proverbs written on the wall which means a lot to us. The picture below shows a close up of the quote. We continue to do things to the house and slowly collect treasures for our home. OUR BOOK WILL FEATURE MANY NEW PHOTOGRAPHS OF OUR HOME, INSIDE AND OUT, NOT SEEN HERE. THERE WILL BE PICTURES OF US AT REENACTMENTS, AS WELL AS PICTURES TAKEN WITHIN ONLY A FEW MILES OF OUR HOME, GIVING THE READER A LITTLE TASTE OF WHERE WE LIVE...
----IT IS A NEW HAMPSHIRE OF OLD GRAVEYARDS AND STONE WALLS, AND GREEN TREE BRANCHES ARCHING OVER MEANDERING ROADS. OUR BOOK WILL ALSO FEATURE SOME OF OUR FAVORITE RECIPES, AND THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF HOW WE MET, AND OUR "COURTSHIP IN 18TH CENTURY STYLE", AND MORE~
The old granite bench in the herb garden....end of the day in our yard.
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