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Stovepipe Hole
Everyone knows what a thimble is, but besides the most familiar meaning there is also that of a covering for a stovepipe hole in a wall. Every parlor wall used to have a thimble where the “airtight” or parlor heater was attached to the chimney in winter. Modern home heating has changed all that.
Back when homes had parlors, there were these thimbles, and generally they were decorated with homely or pastoral scenes. One I recall showed a Pilgrim trudging homeward in the snow, and another that featured sheep grazing in a pasture. When I was growing up, some of my friends lived in old houses that had these decorated thimbles. The ones I remember were made of tin.
These thimbles must have come in mostly after fireplaces were closed up. Before that, fireboards were put in front of the fireplaces for the summer, and some of them were decorated, usually with wallpaper.
Thimbles were papered, too, and not necessarily to match the walls. When the original picture became stained, as it often did when rain trickled down the chimney, any interesting spare piece of wallpaper was used to freshen it.
The old builders were apt to put chimney connections in unexpected places, perhaps under a shelf in the dining room or near a corner instead of in the center of some wall. Wherever they were, thimbles took care of them for as long as they were out of use.
Some old-fashioned appliances are no longer obtainable in the market, but these caps for stovepipe holes may still be purchased, and the art is the same as it used to be.
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Posted by capelinks - (website) on 02/28/06
Categories: Houses
Keywords: architecture, cape cod house
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