Today I have three items to show you, two of which I'm sure you can identify:
The little red painted tin cup has "My Boy" stenciled on it, and that captured my imagination. I wanted to show it to you, although it's long gone. It sold quickly from the antique mall after I took it in. Can you picture a crafty mom, years ago, carefully stenciling "My Boy" on her child's cup?
The implement in the foreground (above) is an old curling iron, with which you create your Marcelle hairdo. But you knew that already, didn't you?
But what's that little cobalt blue glass vessel? Is it a salt dip? That's an intelligent guess, but no. It's known as an eye cup, eye bath, or eye wash cup. Here are more more examples in various types of glass:
When you cruise eBay frequently like I do, you can learn a lot. I found a milk glass Eye Bath for sale with its original box, something I had never seen before:
Why would a person need an eye cup? Because years ago, before plastic squeeze bottles of Visine and pipettes/eye droppers with rubber ends became readily available, people used to "bathe" their eyes by filling the eye bath with water, popping it over an eye, and blinking madly, I suppose (I've never tried it).
I've seen eye cups that have the names of pharmaceutical companies, such as "Wyeth", in relief on the glass, and some that are glazed porcelain with various embellishments. One of them said "Mother" on it. Charming, no?
I hope you learned a little something today!
Mitzi
