This antique flat iron IS in my kitchen, as a bookend for my cookbooks. But in my grandmother's kitchen, it was used for its original purpose, to iron clothes. Grandma did have electricity and she did eventually have an electric iron, but my mother said in the World War I era they used several sizes and shapes of cast-iron irons like this one.
That is really nice. My wife’s grandmother lived in a log house in the interior of British Columbia and she had a wood stove in her kitchen. She had three of those irons heating up on the stove and she would flick a little water on the flat side to check if it was hot enough to use. She would cycle through the three of them as she did her ironing. Quite fascinating. I loved visiting her there, it was like she lived in a museum.
I confess I am the no ironing type, although I do have fond memories of ironing while watching tv when I was first married. I still have an iron and ironing board. Maybe some day people will consider these relics of a long ago time!
I have one of these on my hearth. It came from someone in my family, but I don't remember who now. I used to use it as a bookend in a former kitchen- but no room for book on the counter now in my tiny little home. I iron some things but it takes me a long time to want to drag out the ironing board. I can't imagine how cumbersome using something like this was in order to do the ironing, but it did do the job! Nicely captured.
March 2nd, 2025
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