February 22, 2009

Hidden Treasure Inventory

I tried to take some close-up photos of the items that were found walled up inside the closet in my home office. I included a 6-inch ruler to give you a sense of scale -- as any good archaeologist would...

When they first found all this stuff, there were 4 packs of cigarettes, but apparently someone on the crew couldn't resist smoking 50-year-old cigarettes, so here are the three I ended up with. (The 4th pack was Kool brand.)
This bottle of 'Old Tucker' brand whiskey has a copyright date of 1937, and looks similar to the bottle in this ad from a November 1937 issue of Life magazine. This bottle is probably not quite that old. The company that made it, Brown-Forman, was founded in 1870 and is still in business. They own a variety of familiar brands, including Jack Daniels, Finlandia, Korbel, and Fetzer.
This wallet belonged to a man who lived on the next block over. It included several drivers licenses and car registration cards, along with a hunting license, a Gulf credit card, and a guest pass to the Biltmore Club in Washington, DC (which no longer exists). It's still a mystery to me how this person's wallet ended up in my house, but if I ever solve it, I'll let you know!
Another mystery: These keys belonged to a Dr. Clift P. Berger of Oakland, MD -- so how did they end up in my house? (That metal thing holding them open is part of a rifle. No sign of the rest of it, so far...) This tie isn't much to look at, but according to the label, it is "All Silk" and came from F.R Tripler & Co, New York, est 1886, which was a high-end men's clothing store on Madison Ave. From what I can dig up, it closed in the 1980s, but it had a good 100-year run!And then there were 3 pair of aviator sunglasses, in various stages of disrepair, along with an 4 cases. One case had this handwritten inside: 2nd Lieu John Poe; 247th Fighter Group; Andrews Air Force Base. We now know that John Poe owned this house from 1945-1960, so I am working on the assumption that all of these items were left behind by members of that household. If he was in the military, he may not have been around much -- and my neighbor remembers a woman living here with her mother and troublesome teenage son around that time, so the son may be our culprit. Or, maybe this was John Poe's secret stash?
Who would hide a can of shoe polish? This unopened can of Impregnite shoe polish ('For the Hand Impregnation of Shoes') was military-issue during WWII for waterproofing boots -- which explains the bland packaging.
This book was hidden up in the ceiling. The cover is splattered with foam insulation, but it was otherwise in decent condition considering it was published in 1947, checked out from the Arlington County Library on Nov 25, 1950, and has been hidden in our rafters for more than 50 years.
A quick flip through the book revealed why it was hidden. Many of the pictures have been cut out!I actually took the book back to the library -- mostly to see if they could tell me who had last checked it out -- but they said it had most likely been withdrawn from their system soon after it went missing.

This little bottle is one of my favorites. It was actually found in one of the crawl spaces under the house, but it appears to be older than most of the liquor bottles that were in that area. It has an Art Deco style to it, and the bottom of the bottle has a patent date of 1925. The shaker top has a little tab you can push back and forth to open or close the holes. It's too large to be a salt shaker, and the fancy bottle indicates it was intended for a woman. It may have been used for talcum powder or some type of cosmetic.
Well, that's it -- for now. If you have any information or theories about any of these items, please pass them along!

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