GREAT AUNT JETTIE’S ROLLING PINS
Wooden rolling pins have been in use in America since the 17th century. According to the Folk Art volume of The Knopf Collectors’ Guides to American Antiques, the tiger maple pins above are probably from New England and date between 1870 and 1890. The large one is double handled and lathe turned from a single piece of tiger maple. Its beautiful graining accentuates the shape and movement of the roller. The smaller pin also is made from a single piece of maple and may predate the large one because it has only one handle. The earliest pins had no handles at all. Tiger maple pins are rarer than pins made from plain maple or cherry and the factory-made pins that arrived in the late 19th to early 20thcenturies. Knopf advises against using them for baking today because pastry dough could darken the wood and obscure the grain, reducing their value.
The bottom example is scrimshaw, a solid carved rosewood cylinder with turned ivory or whalebone handles and knobs at each end, probably dating from 1850 to 1860, possibly in Massachusetts. Knopf explains that rolling pins are a common form of scrimshaw, made for home or shipboard use. Their simple shape made them easy for even an inexperienced carver to complete.
And here’s what Nana wrote about her aunt, Jettie Booten:
“If there ever was an angel on Earth, it was my Aunt Jettie. She was completely selfless, always thinking about others. Jettie was Grandma’s only daughter, and when she became engaged to a Mr. Goddard and wanted to marry him and move to Kansas, Grandma wouldn’t allow it. So she never married. She stayed home with her parents and worked as a typist at Uncle Hans’ real estate office. If she resented Grandma’s interference in her life, she never showed it.
JETTIE, GRANDMA AND NANA
I went to live with Grandma and Aunt Jettie when I was about 2 years old. Jettie became my mother and that of three cousins who also lived with us. She tried hard to make musicians of us, giving me, my cousins and some of my brothers music lessons on various instruments. She was also very active in church work and refused to lie under any circumstances. If someone called me or my cousins on the telephone, Jettie would put her hand over the receiver and tell us who was calling. But if we didn’t want to take the call, we would have to run into the back yard and climb a tree before she would say we weren’t home.
NANA’S VIOLIN LESSON
I remember Aunt Jettie saying, ‘If I can just hold onto this job long enough for you to grow up, I’ll be happy.’ I married young to get out on my own, and when my husband Tim and I moved to Indiana, Jettie came with us. “
