Old post office

[wv hilljack]

I was mding an old post office site out in the country that has long since rotted away. I found the stone foundation and a lot of old zinc mason jar lids. While digging the lids I found this white glass thing. I think it's an old sponge bowl for the old glue stamps. The glass has a number 980 on the bottom. Anybody know anything about this piece?

 

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[duggap]

That may be an old Pond's Cold Cream bottle.

 

[unclemac]

i seem to remember back in the day the postmistress would daub her fingers in this paste looking stuff and then flip papers...instead of licking them all the time, the little bowl things looked like that.

 

[CaptEsteban]

i seem to remember back in the day the postmistress would daub her fingers in this paste looking stuff and then flip papers...instead of licking them all the time, the little bowl things looked like that.

YEP !!

 

[Ant]

I remember that they would also used a dish similar to that to keep a money counting sponge damp and depending on size used as a shaving soap bowl:

https://www.google.com/search?q=vintage+ceramic+post+office+sponge+bowl&client=ms-android-boost-us&hl=en-US&v=210020210&biw=320&bih=508&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=-XZ8VJfEOYSrNqqtgcgN&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#hl=en-US&v=210020210&tbm=isch&q=vintage+ceramic+shaving+soap+dish

 

[BosnMate]

Yep, seen them mor'n once. Take a letter into the guy at the counter, buy a three cent stamp, and he would would wipe in on the sponge and put it on the envelope. Ah yes, people counting money, turning pages, sorting papers all used them. And in 1956, in the middle of a very cold winter in Yokosuka, Japan, there was a young lady in what appeared to be an unheated booth changing dollars for yen, 360 yen to the buck. Her hands looked like pure ice, fingers bright red, and she'd wipe those frozen looking fingers on the sponge in the little bowl, and count out brand new yen bills faster than any dealer you ever saw in Vegas. What I mostly remember was how cold her hands looked. Ah yes, the good old days. VO -- a dollar eighty a fifth -- cigarettes -- ten cents a pack, and because this is a family centered outfit, I'll stop there.

 

[wv hilljack]

Thanks fellows, I remember the sponge days. My father who's in his 80's also remembers when he was a kid that they had one with a stone ball in it and water. They rolled the stamp over the ball to wet it.

 

[BosnMate]

Thanks fellows, I remember the sponge days. My father who's in his 80's also remembers when he was a kid that they had one with a stone ball in it and water. They rolled the stamp over the ball to wet it.

Now that you reminded me, I remember some of those also.

 

[coinman123]

You guys beat me to it! Definitely a cream container, I found one, very ornate, in a 1910's trash pile. It was made of the same material as yours, it still had the lid attached, it was rusted to the container, but I could hear what was left of the cream inside when I shook it.