Ahes Wallpapers: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Sony Ericsson Watch MBW-150 Music Artist -Mp3 in Watch

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Victorian Bride and Garter

A Few Victorian Wedding Facts

In 1850 the average cost of a wedding gown was $500 and $125 for the veil. By law weddings could only take place in the morning. In the 1880's the laws were changed to extend the hour to 3:00. Wealthier couples arrived at the church together in a horse drawn carriage. After the ceremony the bride and groom leave the church looking only straight ahead.

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Victorian garter

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Enjoy!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Delftware Tiles

I have always loved the look of Delftware pottery and tiles. I find the simple scenes of a time gone by so enchanting. Delftware pottery has a white glaze

usually containing metal oxides and includes plates, pottery and tiles and was made in and around Delft in the Netherlands.

Delftwork, also known as tin-glazed pottery was first made in Antwerp in 1512. The main period of the tin-glazed work was made between 1640 and 1740. By about 1700 many factories began using enamel colors and gilding that required a third firing.

Delftware ranged from simple household items to works of art and depicted simple scenes of windmills, fishing boats, hunting, landscapes and seascapes. The delft potters also made an estimated 800 million tiles over a period of about 200 hundred years. Many homes still have these tiles in them that were laid in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Here are some delft tiles

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Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Victorian Umbrellas

Some lovely Victorian umbrellas for you today

An umbrella is also referred to as a parasol. In 1902 London's The Daily Mirror published an article instructing women on how to protect themselves against ruffians with their umbrella or parasol. In March of this year it was revealed that French President Sarkozy has an armor plated umbrella to protect him from potential attackers. And in 1978 a Bulgarian dissident writer was killed after being injected with ricin from a modified umbrella. Oh my.

Click on image to download

Click on image to download

Enjoy these lovely embrellas!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Rise and Fall of America's Textile Industry

The Willimantic Cotton Mills Company was founded in 1854 to process flax into goods and eventually changed over to all cotton. The original plant was situated on the Willimantic River in Connecticut. The company was started with $75,000 and within 18 years had amassed a fortune of $1,000,000 and used this fortune for improvements to their factory as well as donations to charities in Hartford.

For more than 150 years the textile industry in New England and along the Willimantic River had employed thousands of workers in their mills and helped build a thriving New England economy. But in the early 1960's, one by one, these textile mills began to shut their doors and shift their operations to Mexico. And in 1985 life in New England changed forever - the last textile mill closed.

We have seen this scenario play out across the United Stated in the last 25 years in almost all of the industries of the great Industrial Age here in America. In the last 10 years alone 50,000 factories have closed their doors in the United States and took millions upon millions of American jobs with them. And those jobs are never coming back.

Our generation has witnessed the decline of industry and with it the decline of America's middle class. The rise and fall of New England's textile industry was a predictor of what was to befall the entire nation. When the mills and the factories thrived so did the local economies, as did science and technology. But we don't make anything any more.

How can a country the size of the United States sustain itself when the middle class - the heart and soul and backbone of our country - has been essentially decimated?

The United States used to have the highest standard of living in the world thanks in great part to the factories and mills that employed millions, where we actually made stuff. But for the last 25 years or so we have fallen way down the list in education and infant mortality for example. And to think that thread and textiles predicted it all. So sad and something I never thought I would witness in my lifetime.

The Willimantic Cotton Mills Company became quite famous for ads promoting their thread.

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Here I have removed the writing on the chalkboard

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Here is another lovely trade card

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Thanks to the Millmuseum.org

and Textilehistory.org

for the information used to create this post.

Enjoy!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Victorian Lady and Shoe

A lovely Victorian lady and her shoe perhaps?

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Enjoy!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Vintage Microscope

A vintage microscope and scrapbook

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Enjoy!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Vintage Hot Air Balloon

This is so awesome!

The first manned hot air balloon voyage took place in Paris on November 21, 1783 with two French brothers who stayed up in the air for 20 minutes and hot air balloon travel was born. Then two years later Jean Pierre Blanchard and an American became the first to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon. In 1793 Blanchard became the first person to fly a hot air balloon in North America and President George Washington was present at its launch.