A mystery solved - illustrated with colorful pictures!

[Nettie]

Five years ago when we were stripping and refinishing our upstairs hallway we pried up a patch that they had put over a knothole and found a picture underneath. It really puzzled me as to what it was and I even posted about it on the OHW. I finally solved the mystery- tracked down the picture and it turns out that it's the illustration that was on the inside of a wooden cigar box.

[Neighmond]

What will you do with it?

[heartwood]

oh my gosh, that is amazing! how long did you jump up and down after your discovery??

tell us the story of how you solved the mystery......

...jade

[Nettie]

Neighmond: I've been hanging onto everything that I find in the house to maybe have some kind of display or collage when it's all said and done. Meanwhile I'm going to track down a cigar box on Fleabay so that I can put it on my antique dresser with the antique clock.

Jade you know that I did hoot a little . When I first found it the top was loose and fell off but I could see the W. Childs so I did a search for that and found George but I only had a Wikipedia description of who he was and that didn't make any sense why they would have a picture of him with wood backing. Then this month I came across it in a drawer and got curious again and this time I searched for images of him on Google and came up with the exact picture and it was on a cigar box.

[Fanner (WavyGlass)]

How fun! The power of internet search engines So they used the top of the cigar box to patch the hole with the picture facing down? Or was the picture just somehow stuck under the patch..?

[Nettie]

Fanner- yes the picture was facing down and nailed with little square hand forged nails and then the floor was painted and covered with a carpet runner(it was in a hallway).

[Chevygirlalways]

Good detective work Nettie, I love when I find something and can figure out where it originally came from or why it was left here.

Susan

.

[phil]

I have a collection of old cigar boxes, now I am curious if I have one with that picture. Ill have a look at them later and report back if I should find one like that.