Send your answers to the What Is It contest, postmarked by May 20, to the Mountain States Collector, P.O. Box 1003, Bailey, CO 80421. At least three winners will be drawn. Winners will receive a year’s subscription to the Mountain States Collector.

We had no correct guesses for May’s What Is It. It is, of course a butter mold. A butter mold is a tool that enhances the presentation of butter to set out on a table at a gathering. An old primitive butter mold was hand-carved with a design etched into the flat bottom. To use the mold, the butter maker […]

Ever since repeater pocket watches were made over 300 years ago for the wealthy and nobility, they have been seriously collected by those who could afford them. There is something fascinating about their characteristic tiny gongs that ring out when a lever on the side is pushed in. The original purpose of the gongs was to tell time in the […]

 William McLaren of Ancorage, Alaska, ventured a guess for our February’s What Is It. William writes, “At first glance, the What Is It? appears to be a painting or a drawing of an American frontiersman of the 1700’s, holding a long-barreled weapon, presumably a Kentucky rifle.  The clothes worn appear appropriate for the period.  I am uncertain of the hat, […]

We had no correct answers for our January What Is It. The object is a 19th Century pharmacy tool — a powder folder used to hold meds in the days before solid tablets. This brass powder folder was listed in an 1874 catalogue. It is a rare device today. Readers, try your luck with the February What Is it. You […]