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Athena Golden

Athena needle case
Needle Case (photographs courtesty of Bunny's Place)


Patent # 2998 (this patent number is stamped on the actual needle case)

Design Details

Needle Case Type:

Flat-Names

Patent/Registered to:

William Avery - Redditch Manufacturer and Albert Fenton of the same place, Machinist

Patent/Design Representation #:

Mechanical Patent #: 2998 (Fig. 14)

Patent/Design Registration Date:

October 14, 1869

Location of Patent/Design Registration:

British Library - Business and Intellectual Property Centre - London

Reference #:

1869-2998

Dimensions:

5.3 x 0.5 x 6.7

Material:

Brass

Name Variations:

a) Copestake, Moore, Crampton & Co - London
b) H. Milward & Sons - Redditch
c) Pratt & Farmer - New York
d) W. Avery & Son - Redditch

Other Variations:

a) Athena without Minerva Head
b) Athena with Minerva Head on one side (the sole source of this information is Horowitz and Mann as no example of this needle case with this company name has been seen by the authors of this website)
c) Athena with Minerva head on both sides
d) Stella Golden

Additional Photographs

Milward signature and Copestake signature details

Pratt & Farmer signature detail and Avery signature detail (photo courtsey of Kirsten Nørgaard)

Facts

Athena is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic war, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill in Greek mythology.  Ancient Greeks worshiped her in many roles through a series of epithets or descriptive titles incorporated into her name.  For example as Athena Parthinos or the virgin Athena, she is the patroness of Athens and the Parthenon on the Acropolis is the temple dedicated to her.  Sometimes depicted as a young woman wearing a helmet, her equivalent is Roman mythology is Minerva.

facts

History

In classic mythology Athena was the daughter of Zeus born from her father’s forehead.  It has been proposed that her origins can be traced from much older deities from other cultures.  She is often depicted with a small owl an association which represents wisdom and possibly an iteration of the goddess in earlier times.  The association has survived today with the owl a symbol of wisdom.  The olive tree is sacred to Athena.  The mythological tale to explain this relates to a rivalry between Athena and her uncle Poseidon to gain the affections of the Greeks.  Each gave a gift, Poseidon a salt water spring where he struck his trident and Athena the olive tree.  The people chose the olive tree with its uses of fruit, oil and shade over the salty undrinkable water so named Athens for Athena.

history

Miscellaneous

misc

The Parthenon, though now substantially in ruins, is considered to be the finest example of Greek architecture and one of the world’s greatest cultural monuments.  Built between 447 BC and 438 BC with decoration continuing a further 6 years, on the site of an earlier temple to Athena, it stood until 1687 when it was extensively damaged.  The Ottoman Turks had used it as a gunpowder magazine and when a Venetian assault ignited this, the resulting explosion caused catastrophic damage.  Although dedicated to Athena the building primary function was a treasury for gifts offered to the gods as indicated by the use of high relief metopes, carved panels around the outside walls, until then only used on treasury buildings.  Looting of the site started with the Venetians who began the removal of sculptures.  Some 15 of the metopes are part of the Elgin marbles along with 17 items of statuary and 75 meters of the original 160 meters the bas relief frieze that decorated the exterior wall of the cella or inner structure.

misc

Note: Right side panel text and photos provided by Lynda Herrod.