Minstrel Brush: Garage Sale Find

[MBurris]

My mother found this brush at a garage sale and picked it up for me. It is made of wood and appears hand painted. I think the hair is boar and It's really coarse. Thoughts?

[mblakele]

Possibly a neck duster, probably not a shave brush.

[Rivguy]

I have seen similar brushes though not the minstrel design and I have two suggestions as to what it could be. First, it could be what was called a table whisk or crumb brush. These were used when table cloths were in common use. It would be used in conjunction with a "crumb pan" or similar device to remove bread crumbs or other things from the table cloth. Many were rectangular in shape but I do remember some that were round. The other possibility would be a coat whisk that was used to brush lint and dust off cloth coats or other clothing. These came in a wide variety of sizes and shapes as well. We can only guess as no dimensions were given.

Regards,

Doug

[malocchio]

duster,not a minstrel,a woman servant or maid..

[cosmicdoom]

Minstrelsy was traveling live shows where actors dressed up in blackface and acted like buffoons. It degenerated so badly that eventually it was black actors in blackface acting stupid. This country...

[Sledgehammer39]

Cool looking brush!

[ouch]

This country...

A) Sucks?
B) Issued the emancipation proclamation, fought a hellacious war to enforce it, made enormous strides in addressing past wrongs, passed civil rights legislation, holds racists beneath contempt, and elected a black president?



I'm leaning towards "B".

[cosmicdoom]

It's a work in progress