Another Sunday, another market

Well, it's Sunday again, so time to find another market to go to.  This time we chose “I Rigattieri di San Basilio” in the Via Del Casale di San Basilio, about 12 km bus ride from where we stay.  This market professes to be different from the others we have been to, in that it is more about people clearing out their attics and basements than people with an ongoing business of setting up shop.  Well, it turns out it was a little bit of both, but more like a garage sale than a flea market.  It was clear that many of the sellers are permanently set up here, but they had an interesting array of items for sale.  There was lots of vintage clothes, old newspapers, books, pictures, etc; along with a wide array of kitchen items, dishes, cups , glasses, miss matched cutlery and the like.  There were even bikes, motor scooters and a WWII jeep for sale.

One seller had some really interesting antique items.  There was a set of block stamps used to print a repeating pattern by hand on fabric.  I have seen them used on shows that focus on Pan Asian countries, like India, Indonesia, Malaysia.  They were really intriguing.  He also had an interesting looking machine, that looked somewhat like a sewing machine, but  the needle travelled horizontally instead of vertically.  It also had a cutting wheel that worked horizontally.   I thought maybe it was used for sewing leather, but the seller indicated no.  As best as I could understand, he of little English, me of little Italian,  it seemed that it was used for sewing bristles or tufting and cutting it to length.  I am going to have to investigate more.  He had lots of turn of the century woodworking tools including an array of contour planes.  There was an old hot press(iron) that weighted 3 kg.  I can't imagine what would need that kind of weight to press, unless maybe heavy wool uniforms, but you certainly would have developed good arm strength using it.  

But, the most intriguing item I saw, appealed to my medical background,  was an antique medical inhaler.  It was a hand held device, about 6 inches long and 5 inches high.  A water tank was heated by a spirit lamp and the steam generated is passed across a capillary tube suspended in liquid medication. The passing steam causes the medication to be sucked up the tube and aerosolised.  The patient inhales the warm moist medication through the glass mouthpiece. 

I forgot I was a tourist and should have been taking pictures of these things. Sorry. But I did find this picture on the Internet that is very similar.  This device dates from the late 1800's. I may have to go back and have a good look again.