Friday, June 26, 2009

Antimacassar Update

Today I met Bernie Rossbach, an IRM member who seems to be the go-to guy for antimacassars. He let me inspect one of the IT ones in his collection, so I could get good measurements and pictures, and he gave me some scans of the lettering:


This is silk-screened, which is good. Since I had to go to Des Plaines to get some more paint mixed for the 277, we met at Des Plaines Hobbies. Thanks, Bernie!


Now I just have to determine how much it might cost to produce these in quantity. We need 20 to equip the car. I notice, for instance, that the holes at the top where it hooks onto the knobs on the seats are sort of key-hole shaped; that's got to add to the cost. Great.

Anyhow, at least I now have a new slogan:

Hicks Car Works -- stopping macassar one seat at a time!

3 comments:

David Wilkins said...

For those of you playing at home:

macassar referres to macassar oil, which is a compounded oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times as a hair oil. Thus antimacassars were used to keep seats from becoming oily and dirty.

RidinTheRails said...

Before looking the word up on wikipedia, I thought it was something that was designed to deter Scottish or Irish boors from causing trouble.

Anti-Mac-ass-ar

The hair oil thing makes more sense

:)

Glenn Prow said...

The keyhole shape holes look like button holes that can be made on a sewing machine that has a buttonhole attachment. The slit is then made with a razor blade after the sewing is complete.