mixing bowl (artifact #21)

[Franklin collection]  The provenance of this 15" diameter, 4" deep, wooden bowl is unknown beyond being in use by my mother in my earliest recollections.  It was lathe turned, from a section of tree trunk, and polished inside with the lathe tool marks visible outside.  The base was crudely chiseled flat and dressed true.  The grain looks like maple, being more irregular and interesting than most woods.  Pieces such as this were made individually and not sold in stores.  Discounting being passed down in the family, it was probably acquired secondhand early in Mom's married life (1920) in southern Kansas.

The only embellishment is a thin, straight ridge 3/4" down from the rim on the outside.  The wood has warped a little with one side higher and the overall shape something less than a perfect circle.  Remarkably, only one hairline crack has developed, visible in this picture on the right-hand inside surface.  The wonderful preservation of such a large, thin wooden piece might have been explained by C.A. Doyle who knew about curing and preserving wood (a lost art as far as I'm concerned).

Mom made a lot of bread in this bowl and also used it to wilt lettuce and other greens by steeping in vinegar.  From "The Arkansas Traveler" :

Home made bread — thick slices so the stuff won’t come apart — sweet as breakfast rolls.

and

[concerning a wood-fired oven]  “Baking is no trick at all because it’s quick.  Get the oven up and don’t try more than two loaves at once.  A roast is hard because it takes so long and you work constantly to keep the oven going.  Temperature doesn’t matter so much with a roast, though.”