Today, we would never be able to bring a cast iron pot in a suitcase! First of all, now there are strict weight limits on baggage. If you suitcase weighs more than 50 pounds on Iberia Airlines, you are assessed a fine of 60 Euros (more than $80!) It would never pass through security either, because on an X-ray machine it would look like one of Wiley Coyote's Acme bombs in the old Road Runner cartoons. We were lucky to have moved it when we did, in pre September 11th days.
Now this little pot sits on my hearth, except on Halloween when I move it to a more prominent place to display it or perhaps fill it up with treats. There is only one mark on the pot, and it is the word GRESTUMA which is a monastery in Portugal. Since La Bouza is on the border of Portugal, and myhusband's great grandmother, the mother of Tia Ascencion and his grandfather, was from Portugal, this is a clue to its origins. A Portuguese pot, residing in Spain and now in New Hampshire. A little pot that took a long journey!
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A photograph of ancestors from La Bouza, Spain |
Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
How large is it? It is very handsome!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful piece - the pot and the post. Were it a larger pot it would evoke the Weird Sisters or a Salem witch this Halloween. But then you truly never would have gotten it aboard a plane.
ReplyDeleteCarol, see the black old fashioned phone behind it? That gives you a good idea of the size. About 12 inches tall.
ReplyDeleteVery nice - exactly something I would have gone for - a "useful pot." I guess if I were trying to bring something like that home these days, I'd do something hare-brained like try to carry it on the plane with me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story! So glad you got it out when you did.
ReplyDeleteVery cool Heather, I love cast iron.
ReplyDeleteLucky you saved this family treasure - it would look exactly like an Acme Wiley Coyote bomb on an X ray machine!
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