lambrequins
In the By the Shores of Silver Lake manuscript, LIW called the "pasteboard curtains" they made for the whatnot shelves lambrequins. A lambrequin, says Mr. Webster, is "a short decorative drapery for a shelf edge or for the top of a window casing." Also in the manuscript, Pa makes two whatnots; one is for Mrs. Boast. I always wondered where Mr. Boast was during all this; didn't he help?

A whatnot is something I don't yet have. I've never seen an antique one I cared for, and when all is said and done, I'd rather have one that's oak, mission style, and with no scallops or brown paper points. In the picture I've painted in my mind of the CPI one, the narrow strips of board between the shelves don't sound all that pleasing. Unless the bottom shelf was low to the ground (much lower than in the Garth Williams illustration at the beginning of Chapter 26), I think "narrow strips" wouldn't be substantial enough to hold the whole thing up.

In other words, I want a whatnot, but I don't want a Little House one, and part of me feels guilty for not wanting "the original."

It's like my clock. I should long for a Pansy clock like Almanzo traded the load of hay for in The First Four Years, right? I spent a lot of years looking for a clock like that - and I almost bought one - but I ended up buying an antique mantle clock made by the same manufacturer and in the same style as one that was always hanging over the mantle in my parents' house.

Sometimes you stop and realize that for all the "stuff" you covet because of the Little House connection, there some things that are even more meaningful because of the connection to your own flesh and blood.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:51 AM