Day 4 of 100 Days

Here is my detail from the Sarah Carter Collection at Old Gippstown (previously Gippsland Heritage Park).

I have decided I will try and stick to that collection, although maybe an iron or two will creep in from other buildings as we reorganise them - the best collection is heading for the window at Sarah Carter's.

This one is the Mrs Potts - the iron I grew up with in the 1950s and early 1960s, as I did not live in a home with proper electricity until I was 12. My mother would have a number of these sitting on the stove, and you went from one to another with the detachable handle. As one cooled, you put it back on the stove and picked up another. Ironing in summer was murder, as it had to be done near a stove hot enough to heat the irons.

It was first patented in the USA in 1871 by Mrs Potts.

And here is a follow-up from yesterday. Although I could not date yesterday's iron, it has to be earlier than this one, which I can date.

This one is from Stratford Historical Society - where we know the exact date in 1947 that it was purchased. It was bought by a student nurse with her first pay, so that she could iron her starched uniform.