Images(3)

Tester, Alcohol

Object number2010.14.14 a-c

OriginUnited States of America

Mediumglass; paper

Credit LineGift of Marilyn Di Matteis

DescriptionVinometer with original rectangular box. Vinometer is clear glass tube; cup with spout on one end. Printed numbers on side and horizontal lines on body; background white. Box lid is covered in blue paper and has stamped maker text on top left corner. Box bottom is covered in white paper.Dimensions(a) Height: 4.875 ; Width: .625
(b) W: .875 ; Length: 8.25 ; Depth: .75
(c) W: .875 ; L: 8 ; D: .75
Inscriptions(a)
Printed numbers, "0", "5", "10", "15", "20".
Marks(a)
Printed with numbers, "U.S.A."

(b)
Stamped on top left corner, "HERTER'S / VINOMETER / 25-7000-A7".
Historical NotesUsed by the Di Matteis family during the wine-making process. Most likely bought in the Strip District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Part of a collection that represents three generations of donor Marilyn Di Matteis' family of Italian Americans in the Western Pennsylvania area. Her father was born in the United States, went back to Italy, and then returned as a young teenager in the mid-1920s. His family stayed behind in Italy. He had a very difficult relationship with his father and revered his mother. The donor's mother (Elvira Martinelli) was born in Italy and came to the United States as a young girl, though she was never naturalized until the late 1940s. Her family settled in Dennison, Ohio, to work on the railroads but moved south to Weirton, West Virginia. The railroad work as not particularly constant, so other forms of work were often substituted, such as picking up vegetables in the Strip District when the train stopped in Pittsburgh and selling them in West Virginia to neighbors. The family also had a farm at various points in their lives. The young couple married in 1934 and bought a farm in the 1940s.

Subjects

Terms

On View

Not on view