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I had a meeting today with a client who, last time we met, asked about newel posts as an aside to the work we were discussing. I assumed he wanted to change his stairs a little, and today showed him some manufactured posts.
What he had in mind related to an old English tradition of either 1)installing a decorative, non functinal newel somewhere when the house was paid off, or 2) installing the same decorative newel when the house was built, drilling a hole in a flat surface somewhere, and when the house was paid for, inserting an ivory disk. They had this from a magasine article which they are going to dig up for me….his wife recalled that the newel was sometimes built into the stair (not quite sure how that makes it different than a regular newel post). I’ve never heard of this tradition, but I figure it may be a metaphor….you use a newel post at a change of direction, right?
You guys know everything…anyone heard of this tradition, or know what this thing is supposed to look like?
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Yes, yes.
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Speaking of banks, families that no longer need the services of the friendly financial institutions often celebrate their release from the money-lenders' hands by burning the mortgage papers. Taking the ceremony one step further, the unencumbered home owner drills a hole in the front hall newel post, fills the hole with the ashes of the mortgage, and caps the hole with an ivory button inscribed with a date.
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from http://www.nantucketonline.com/Articles/knowledge.shtml
*Yes, Adrian, it is a tradition - we've done it on request just as you describe it. An ivory button (using antique found ivory of course) about 1-1/4" in diameter was turned and set into the top of the newel post. I've also heard it said that an ivory button was used in some cases until the mortgage was paid when it was then replaced by a silver disk.Old English? Not sure.Jeff
*Thanks for the replies.
*As an 'Old Englishman', whose father and grandfather were builders, I can only say that I've never heard of it before. A brand new silver coin under the first brick of the foundation and a piss-up when the roof was topped out were the only two traditions we observed.
*Yeah, my parents are Brits, and my grandfather was a cabinetmaker and carpenter, my dad was too for a while....this is ringing some bells (the 'burning the mortgage' part), but I can't say I've heard of it as a common practice.
*Hi Adrian,Can't say that I've heard of that tradition here in Michigan. Although, as Ian notes, placing a new coin in a wall to date the structure was common practice. Around here, it was a penney rather than a silver coin. I found one when we were remodeling and I put a new one back when we finished.I was just watching Collene Jones on the CBC Morning News. Sounds like you folks are in for a big snow storm today. Take care.All the best,Chip
*Hey Chip, coming to Caperfest? You know how to find the place....
*Nantucket, and to a degree New England tradition was for the Newel to be constructed with either a hollow center chamber (square/hex/oct glue-up) or a bored chamber (turned) of sufficient size to contain the mortgage paper. A Wooden button would be placed over, until such time as the house was debt-free, the paperwork then burned, and the ashes placed into the hollow. A newelpost button of Ivory was then fashioned and placed instead of the original wooden one.Nancy Chase, (One Cobble Court, Nan't) was the last old-time scrimshander I knew who maintained an inventory of real Ivory Newel Post buttons. Her niece, Lee-Ann Papale may still be in the biz, though last I knew she worked with Sue Ottison, and not with her Aunt.
*I believe new mortgage buttons are carved from Tagua nuts.
*built some hollow box newel posts last fall, stuffed a bunch of mine and the wife's poems in each, now if they don't burn the place down in a hunnert years, we'll be famous....
*Here's another one - under the first step of the main staircase going to the second floor I have found a coin the same age as the house - on three occasions - houses built around 1905, 1910 in Toronto. It seems not to be an accident - maybe it just slid there but it couldn't have in at least one instance. One of the coins was actually just a medallion struck in celebration of a local abbatoire (no longer existing). Call me a weirdo but I've started leaving coins there myself. I mean well.
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I had a meeting today with a client who, last time we met, asked about newel posts as an aside to the work we were discussing. I assumed he wanted to change his stairs a little, and today showed him some manufactured posts.
What he had in mind related to an old English tradition of either 1)installing a decorative, non functinal newel somewhere when the house was paid off, or 2) installing the same decorative newel when the house was built, drilling a hole in a flat surface somewhere, and when the house was paid for, inserting an ivory disk. They had this from a magasine article which they are going to dig up for me....his wife recalled that the newel was sometimes built into the stair (not quite sure how that makes it different than a regular newel post). I've never heard of this tradition, but I figure it may be a metaphor....you use a newel post at a change of direction, right?
You guys know everything...anyone heard of this tradition, or know what this thing is supposed to look like?