The Antique Abacus And How I Managed To Ship The Clumsy Thing

Usually if I find antiques or near antiques at all they are broken or damaged. Like this old chalkboard with abacus I picked up last summer. Still I believed it was worth rescuing and my buyer certainly did too. He was a very friendly guy who confirmed my idea that it was from the 1920-s and told me that judging by the walnut it’s made of was used as an educational toy for higher class children. Curiously I asked him what he was going to do with it and he said it would end up as a picture frame. Quite original!

Unfortunately he lived in another town and asked me to ship it. I was pretty worried about that but in the end it all worked out. First I had to find protective wrapping. Being out of bubble plastic I used several layers of this thin isolation foam. That roll was huge and this is what’s left. An old pick waiting to be used, glad I had it, glad I got rid of the bulk.

So far so good. But then I had to cut open a large box and fold the cardboard around the thing (his idea). I cost me a lot of sweat and almost half a roll of tape to stick it all together, but the man paid extra for packing that so it was all covered.

Then to get the enormous packet over to the post office I dug up my plastic hand truck.

Next day I received an email saying the abacus arrived in good shape with compliments on my wrapping. Despite the effort and sweat thinking of the transaction still brings a smile to my face.