A Useful Blockhead

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Sep 2005 by Kinsey, Ted

The shaving horse that appears on the cover of this issue is in the collection of Genesee Country Village and Museum at Mumford, New York. I it gives the term "blockhead" a new meaning. The shaving head was donated to the museum several years ago by people who found it in a barn on a property they had bought in the area. Close examination shows that the lips were originally painted red and the eyes blue. The museum has no information about its maker.

It has seen a good deal of use as a shaving horse in the past, so it wasn't made as a purely decorative object. I replaced the missing foot treadle; otherwise, it is as found. A similar item made from a burl was featured in a previous issue of The Chronicle (SO, no.1 [1977]: 9). Frank Bawdcn reported that the blockhead and its operating lever were one solid piece of cherry.

Ted Kinsey