Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Nippers
Johannes and Daniel Tears (or Tearse) both purchased nippers (spelled nipors & nipers) at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years ago.
 |
| Sugar Nippers and Sugar Loaf. |
Search the DayBook
This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.
Webster's 1828 Dictionary defined nippers as "Small pinchers." In 18th century writings, nippers almost always were referred to in connection with sugar, ie. sugar nippers. They were used to remove a bit of sugar from a the highly refined sugar loaf.
Another usage was in the shoe-making trade as 'shoe nippers' (See Wastebook of Francis Jerdon 1748-1749)
 |
| Shoe Nippers circled. Cordonnier et Bottier, The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert |
The Tears surname appears 28 times in the DayBook. In the prior eight months they purchased 53 items. The items purchased (or sold) do not hint at any involvement in shoe-making.
The DayBook recorded only one purchase of loaf sugar by the Tears' family in the prior eight months. It is hard to believe the Tears' would need two pairs of sugar nippers costing almost five times the cost of the single loaf sugar purchase.
Maybe the nippers were simply a versatile tool of the 18th century yeoman?
===================
Search the DayBook
No comments:
Post a Comment