Recognising and understanding the object
- Materials
- wood
- Parts
- handle, broad head, working face
- Purpose
- Beat wet laundry during washing.
- Period
- Context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century household collections and historical accounts; individual objects differ in date.
- Place and distribution
- An example from Gražjūris held by the National Museum of Lithuania.
What it is and how it works
The washing kultuvė is a wooden paddle with a short handle and a broad working end. It belongs to the washing stage, when wet cloth was beaten, rather than to the later smoothing stage. Calling it a wooden iron obscures that difference.
Evidence and examples
The National Museum of Lithuania records paddle EM 10823 from Gražjūris, made in 1932. Its carved date and initials allow a discussion of a particular object rather than an undated idea of the past. Practical use and ornament can coexist: a working implement could also have a personal identity.
How to identify it
Distinguish the beating face from the decorated back. Note whether a date is carved into the object or assigned by the museum. A heart or star alone does not establish that the paddle was a wedding gift or ritual implement. Such an interpretation needs a recorded account or other evidence.
