Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Clark's O.N.T. Thread Cabinet

The studio is my new house is almost finished, and it is looking very adorable! (I still have to paint some trim and decorative shelves; can't figure out why Charlie doesn't want to do that for me.)

I recently traded with a friend who had a Clark's O.N.T. Spool Cotton cabinet stored in her old house. After a little cleaning and finishing, it was as good as new, when it might have resided in the sewing corner of a small town general store somewhere. (Like H. D. Reynolds General Merchandise, the store we depended on growing up in Cheshire, Massachusetts.)

Here is the Clark's O.N.T. (what did that stand for? - click here) cabinet as you walk in the front, double French doors of my studio. Beyond the thread cabinet is my always messy work table, so the cabinet has a dual function of covering up my messy work space, as least from the front door.

The top of the cabinet lifts up to reveal a shallow storage space. I wonder what this space was used for -- patterns? advertising? I used the space to dispay some of my collection of antique sewing notions. Carolyn gave me the cute little Hoover vacuum measuring tape!

It's so nice not to have my thread stored in several cigar boxes, by color. It was a pain to thread up the sewing machine when I had to dig around for threads and matching bobbins. Now they are all in one place, what a luxury! I have already used my sewing machine two times!

In fact, there is so much room in these long drawers that my threads only took up space in three of them. So I put more antique notions in the one empty drawer.

12 comments:

  1. Hi Thea! I loooove this. I hope you don't mind I linked to this post (with pictures, credited) on my blog yesterday. Let me know if it's a problem and I'll gladly take it down. =)

    -Erin

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  2. I have a Clark cabinet that was used in the general store by my husband's grandparents. I was told the ONT stood for "Only Nice Thread" or "Only the Nicest Thread."

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    1. No, it is "Only NEW Thread" - this is using the wayback machine on the Coats history website (they removed the complete history from the Coats website now! you have to use the wayback machine)

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  3. Hi, I love old spool cabinets! I have one I am refinshing now. I have to replace the labels on the front of the drawers and some knobs. I read from a history account of the Coats manufacturing that O.N.T stands for "Our New Thread". Hope that helps!

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    Replies
    1. yes that is the correct one- I posted my reply before reading, and I mis-posted " 'only' new thread" as opposed to "Our New Thread"- now I am even more confused!

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    2. Where did you find new labels. I am refinishing 4 drawer spool cabinet and it need new labels.

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  4. This is so gorgeous and I live that you filled it with vintage items! It's just perfect!

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  5. Here is a web link you may like.
    http://ia700209.us.archive.org/3/items/clarksontbookofn00clar/clarksontbookofn00clar.pdf

    I just found this myself.

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  6. I have this same cabinet. Do you know what they are worth? It's for sale. I can be reached at rgreen241@gmail.com.

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  7. Approx wht would value for this cost? I have one and was wondering

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brandi -- I would look these up on Ebay to see what they are going for. I have seen them listed there before. You are lucky to have one of these old cabinets.

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  8. I am the one asking where to buy the labels, Forgot my email. pflum1@sbcglobal.net

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