Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Check out the headboard images on Shelley's blog: http://sanctaflora.wordpress.com/

I see at least 3 cat faces, the skull...and also, a "bust" of Lizzie with the hatchet!

Fun stuff for the imaginative!

Yes, that's funny TINA-KATE.............

I don't see what you see but:

I see the cowardly lion's face in the center. And, along the bottom center I see a small image of a women with a narrow waist looking forward with her arms outstretched. Beats watching the TV OFF THE AIR symbol late at night..(you probably wouldn't remember that)

Wow, mannnnn.....cool dude. Shut off the Lava lamp and give me another hit..... (just kidding)

[quote="mbhenty @ Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:05 pm]...And, along the bottom center I see a small image of a women with a narrow waist looking forward with her arms outstretched. [/quote]

That's the Lizzie I see. In her left hand (on our right) is her hatchet. She even looks as tho she's in Victorian dress.

Boy, I thought I had an imagination! I can't tell you how excited guests get spotting these things. I thought the skull was the most creepy.

Now I am seeing two mourning angels with wings on each side of a Death's Head skull... hmmm.
Too much champagne or do you see it too?

:shaking2:

cough, cough, hey..............wild dude, give me another hit.

Ho! I see the hatchet in her left hand now. Cool

The entire thing reminds me of the Shroud of Turin.

Not to be outdone MB -(and I ain't puffing no wacky tobaccy)- here's the lady and the Hatchet


and I see two screaming faces

Face 1, distinctly male


Face 2, distinctly female in left profile

All in all it is beautiful wood. Worked with wood all my life but still have trouble telling them apart.

What sort of wood is that Shelley? Do you know? My guess is birdseye maple, which is old growth and very, difficult to find; probably one of the rarest woods around. Birdseye maple is used for the dashboard of the Rolls Royce. It is also popular in the use of making music and jewelry boxes, humidors, along with fine furniture. A board foot of Birdseye maple can be over a hundred dollars.

But, there are other woods, such as ash, birch or walnut that have similar patterns, that is, the birdseye. Birdseye is not a type of wood but a phenomena that happens in the wood that is not fully uderstood, and which is more common in maple.

http://www.woodworking.org/WC/Woods/126.html

It is walnut- the favorite wood of those old Victorians-especially in Renaissance Revival furniture. The walnut forests were so used up for furniture that oak became the style by the late 19th century as there was plenty of it. Pieces were churned out like mad in the midwest factories.
Some was stained dark to imitate the color of walnut. I am a walnut MANIAC with Walnutty disease. I can smell it in an antique store going by the store in my car at 60 mph- and yes, I have a house FULL of Victorian walnut. These bed panel inserts are burled. But oh the patina of fine old, unrefinished walnut.

"Black walnut (Juglans nigra), also called eastern black walnut and American walnut, is one of the scarcest and most coveted native hardwoods. Small natural groves frequently found in mixed forests on moist alluvial soils have been heavily logged. The fine straight-grained wood made prize pieces of solid furniture and gunstocks. As the supply diminishes, the remaining quality black walnut is used primarily for veneer. "
Len and I have formed The Old Walnut Preservation Society as a joke and an excuse for buying up and restoring every single bit of it we can find in New England!

Shelley @ Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:15 pm wrote:Face 1, distinctly male


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Looks a lot like Andrew to me!!

It does- and face 2 a left profile of Abby, mouth open and wide-eye- spooky!

That head board is cool. Looked at it the other day!

MB I thought exactly as you!

Shroud of Turin! Spooky!

I noticed Shelley has the lady with the hatchet slightly differently from how I saw it...here is what I saw...please excuse the crude outline as I'm not used the to photo program I used.

If you look closely at the actual wood, the woman even has Lizzie's center hair part.

Yes TINA-KATE. That's funny........well done.

Where did the headboard come from? Any way to trace it's history? It's really creepy!

Martha McGinn and Ron Evans got most of the furniture back in 1995 up in Vermont at various antiques places.

Shelley, was this headboard a part of the original furniture from #92 Second Street?

Tina-Kate - I really like the way you filled the area in white, that you are seeing. I am having a hard time seeing the same things that others are seeing in the headboard.

There is not one thing in the house which is original. All the furnishings were picked up by Martha or Ron or recently LeeAnn. I do think the guest room bedroom set is really close to the original though- uncannily so. And I would bet that the black washing day cauldron down in the cellar is probably original. It is a perfect fit to the chimney and I think by the time the house was sold in 1918, wringers and washing machines had been invented (primitive though they were).

We were informed that the cabinet in the cellar- the tall white one with glass panes, was original to the Borden kitchen. That was before the sale of the House.
It's not exactly *furnishings* tho.

I know the one you mean- in the basement- but I am not sure how anyone can say with any certainty that it was there in 1892. It was there during the McGinn tenure to be sure. It is of a plain, nondescript jelly cupboard style that could have been there or put in almost anytime. I would like to think it may be. People are always wishing to put their hand on a piece of furniture from 1892 in that house.

Bill Pavao first introduced me to the House. I should have given him as my reference- sorry.