Topic: Glass washboard salesman's sample or child's toy?

[ian.macky]

I've been trying to pin down a glass prism tile embossed "RICE'S ARISTO" and a recent search found something interesting: a small salesman's sample of a glass washboard using one of these tiles.  The ribs are too sharp for a washboard, yet this thing exists.  Does everyone agree that it's some sort of washboard, or could it be something else?  Does this thing make sense??  Perhaps someone made it as a child's toy using this prism tile?

[keith]

Looks too small for a washboard, I take it you googled 'Rice's Aristo ? 

[keith]

Could this be it ?
https://glassian.org/Prism/us.html#R

[ian.macky]

glassian is my site and that was my best guess for the source of "RICE'S ARISTO"... but now this washboard showed up.

[keith]

That's me stumped 

[chopin-liszt]

Might it have been used in textile and yarn making?
Or in food preparation? Descaling fish? butter patting?
Is it sharp enough to be a grater? Perhaps for nutmeg?

[ian.macky]

I found one more reference to these tiles, from an old ebay auction on picclick:

Take a look at these Sun kissed purple late 1800s manganese dioxide glass panes.
  These industrial panes measure
 5”X5”x1/4”
And are marked
RICE’S ARISTO
with embossed letters.
 These panes are where made to be used with lead seams.
 I have quite a few of these beauties.

The original auction and its pics are long gone but picclick still has this thumbnail saved:



Looks like a duck.  I'm 99% sure these were in fact ducks (prism tiles).  4"x4" was the common size, but there were also 5"x5".   What RICE's ARISTO means is still uncertain, and the toy/sample washboard just muddies the water.  It does look just like the typical washboard of the time, right?  The following is 18" x 7-3/4" x 1-1/4"



And here's another:

[ian.macky]

Found it.  There's a James H. Rice Co catalog at archive.org which specifically lists "Aristo Prism Glass".  I'll add this catalog to my library.  So I'd say the small washboard is a toy someone made.

[ian.macky]

I made a new page for the James H. Rice Co to document what I found about this company.