Might it have been oiled with linseed oil and had lamp-black added to
it?  Fishermen often used that combination for their oil clothes, on the
Grand Banks.  Although we often think of them in their yellow (linseed
oil) clothing, lamp-black actually made the clothes warmer.  The dark
colour absorbed the warmth of any  sunlight that was available.

If it is a linseed oil-soaked material, you need to be careful.  These
clothes can be combustible.  There are many accounts of linseed oiled
clothes being stored ... and then bursting into flames.  It's one reason
why there are so few original pieces of such clothing still in
existence.

Hope this helps,
Heather

Heather-Anne Getson
Historian, Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic
P.O. Box 1363
Lunenburg
Nova Scotia    B0J 2C0

E-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Telephone:  902-634-4794
Toll Free:     1.866.579.4909
Fax:             902-634-8990
Website:  http://fisheries.museum.gov.ns.ca
Part of the Nova Scotia Museum!

>>> Milissa Brooks-Ojibway <[log in to unmask]> 7/27/2006
2:47 PM >>>
I am looking for information about an unusual coat.  It is calf length,

plain design, long-sleeves, corduroy collar.  The odd part is that it 
appears to be coated with a black substance similar to creosote.  It is

stiff in cooler temps and get more pliable as it warms.  The owner
stated 
that her father worked as a painter, but doesn't recall him ever
wearing it 
for such.  Is this a predecessor to "oilskin" dusters?  If so, can
anyone 
tell me what substance they treated the material with?  And then
lastly, if 
any of you have any experience with this kind of object can you give
some 
advice as to how the owner should preserve it.

Thank you,

Milissa Brooks-Ojibway
Registrar, St. Louis County Historical Society
Duluth, MN
[log in to unmask] 
www.thehistorypeople.org 

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