ANDIRONS addendum

For some reason way beyond my understanding I was able to publish the pictures of the andirons but unable to add text??? Ahhhhh, the mysteries of the internet........

Many years ago when 'himself' was a boy he and his family lived in Annandal, NY close to the Bard Campus. Apparently it was viewed a horrible little house, hardly fit accomodation for a family of six. From what I gather the family wasn't there for all that long before moving to Spring Brook Farm in Red Hook , now a family of seven. The Spring Brook Farm house was a great big rambling farmhouse with a touch of elegance .... a lovely medalllion and crown molding on the dining room ceiling, french doors in the living room that opened onto the front porch, and an elegant front entry hall with a large and graceful staircase. There was a working fireplace in the living room and that is where the andirons from the Annandale house 'landed'. In the early seventies the farm was sold and the andirons went on to grace the fireplace in the new house on 9G.
After nearly twenty years of glorious fires that house was sold and the andirons along with a lovely brass fender went into storage in one of the barns at Echo Valley Farm, home of 'himself's elder sister and her family. At some point the brass fender came to us at our Windsor, Mass farm. We attempted to clean it ourselves but the years in the barn had resulted in grime and discoloration that was beyond our efforts so we sent it out to be professionally cleaned and polished.
When we built our house in Reading , Vermont we had two fireplaces and only one pair of andirons so FSS asked for the pair that were stored in the barn. We cleaned them up and put them in the livingroom firelace. Absolutely gorgeous!!! Magnificent!! I wish I had a photo of them in that fireplace but that was before digital photography and I never dreamed that time was of the essence ..... that we would suddenly pack up, leave for Pownal, VT and sell the Reading place. The andirons found a home in the 1744 NW Hill Road house and now they are here at the most recent iteration of Amen Farm. I'll try to attach a photo here but if that doesn't work I'll publish in a subsequent post.