General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

2

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

WOODEN BASE/ STEEL BLADE/ METAL FASTENING DEVICES

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

72.5 cm

Width

41.3 cm

Height

N/A

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Agriculture

Category

Crop processing

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Unknown

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Quebec

Period

Unknown

Canada

This tobacco cutter was collected by ethnographer Marius Barbeau in the summer of 1936. It was bought from Joseph Aubin of L'Île-d'Orléans, who reported to Barbeau that his grandfather Léon had made it. Mr. Aubin sold an estimated 22 items to Mr. Barbeau for 60.00 dollars. Marius Barbeau was a renowned Canadian ethnographer and folklorist in the first half of the 20th century known for his work on Indigenous groups and collections of songs and stories. In 1936 and 1937 Barbeau travelled to Ile de Orleans and other locales near Quebec City and bought hundreds of agricultural and domestic artifacts for a museum first developed by the Department of Agriculture in 1920. The former Department of Agriculture museum was located on the same site as the current Agriculture and Food Museum on the Experimental Farm property. Source: Listed on page 15 as number 311 under Joseph Aubin’s name as “Moulin a hacher le tabac ou hache-tabac (instrument with which to cut tobacco),” in the document “Artefacts_Min Agriculture Ottawa 1936” from the Canadian Museum of History’s archival fond entitled the Marius Barbeau fonds. Entreprise link: http://opentext/OTCS/llisapi.dll/link/6642150 This research was performed by volunteer Denise Steeves in November-December 2019.

Function

Notes on the object in Barbeau’s inventory states as follows: “Moulin a hacher le tabac ou hache-tabac (instrument with which to cut tobacco), made by grandfather’s owner, Leon”.

Technical

Hand-made from roughly-hewn planks, this cutter was presumably for home use and would cut up dried tobacco leaves into finer portions.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED ALL INFO IS HANDWRITTEN/ IN BLACK MARKER ON UNDERSIDE OF BLADE GUIDE: 'X-434'/ IN BLACK MARKER ON BLADE GUIDE IS: '6.3'/ IN PENCIL ON BLADE GUIDE IS: 'G 68'

Missing

From CA of 07/17/1997 by Kevin Machan: Undetermined - There may be missing pieces.

Finish

VARNISHED HANDLE ON BLADE HOUSING/ ALL OTHER WOODEN PIECES ARE UNFINISHED & DIRTY/ BASE HAS SEVERAL NAIL HOLES IN IT/ BLACK METAL BLADE & FASTENING DEVICES

Decoration

N/A