Sieve
Sieve with silk screen and leather caps, Church Family, Mount Lebanon, NY, 1857
ca. 1857
Description
Wood, leather, silk (three pieces). Ash bands on all three components, silk mesh, copper tacks, leather stops on sieve (a) to limit travel of base cap (b) and top cap (c). Leather headers in top and base.
Notes
According to the Mount Lebanon sisters, this was used to sieve pepper. It is thought that perhaps they sieved ground pepper so that, by making it a uniform size, they could better control the strength of the pepper's taste. The additional lids may have been used to keep pepper particulates from irritating the person using the sieve.