Recent finds in an 18th century American house have shown a child's shoe was
found. In a letter to the editor another person reported it so, two different
cases in next to the chimney. I also recall so called "witches balls"
mirrored by mercury spheres held near chimneys to keep salt dry in use in
Western(?) England until about the end of W.W.II. The creation of these lead
to some of the earliest mercury poisonings in there production according to
one author. The child's shoes were I read about in Colonial Homes and their
interiors type magazines. Many times a narrow stairway was in the woodwork
around the chimney up which the children and visitors went to spend the night
over the warm hearth. I am not surprised if things fell into spaces around
the chimney, in my experience of viewing older hearths, not to extensive.
George J. Myers, Jr.