The Collector: Weighty pleasures: Jack and Shirley Vines’ scale collection comes from down the road and around the world

On a drive to Pullman to attend a graduation, Jack and Shirley Vines stopped at an antique store.

Shirley spotted a cast iron candy scale painted gold.

“I just loved it,” she said. “The store owner told us it came from the Palouse Candy Store. I knew if we drove away and left it behind, I’d miss it.”

She handed over $65 and left the store with no regrets.

Next, at the Farm Chicks sale, Shirley saw a metal food scale – its white enamel coating chipped and battered – and couldn’t resist its vintage appeal.

“We use both of these when we put up fruit from Green Bluff,” she said.

When not in use, the grocer’s scale holds fresh fruit, and Shirley fills the candy scale’s bin with seasonal treats.

Speaking of Green Bluff, she discovered a cast iron scale in a store at one of the orchards.

“I came home without it.”

She quickly regretted leaving it behind and went back and bought it.

“It was really heavy!” she said.

Soon, she and Jack were finding scales in all kinds of places.

“It just developed,” Shirley said. “It wasn’t anything we intended to collect.”

For many years, Jack traveled the globe in his work for People to People International. He’d often find unusual additions to their collection in places including Australia, New Zealand and the Soviet Union.

A vintage apothecary scale caught his eye in New Zealand. Its metal base is stamped “Made in Britain.”

He found a set of tiny weights in a case with tweezers at a flea market in the Soviet Union.

“I’m fortunate to have seen the Soviet Union and then Russia afterward,” he said.

While both Jack and Shirley enjoy adding to their scale collection, they’re attracted to different aspects.

“I’m drawn to the unusual, and Jack is drawn to how things work and their purpose,” she said.

For example, he appreciated an antique Roller Smith Precision Milligram Balance Scale made in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

“It’s extremely sensitive and was used in a scientific laboratory,” he said.

Another lab scale was manufactured in New York City by Ohaus, a company founded by Karl and Gustav Ohaus in 1907.

The items in the Vines’ collection were used to measure things from small to large and from featherweight to heavyweight.

Tiny brass scales in a velvet-lined box came from India and were used to measure gold. A vintage egg scale shows if a single egg is small, medium, large or extra large.

By contrast, Jack uses a Dillon precision scale to weigh the Studebaker engines he rebuilds.

“That’s a guy thing, obviously,” said Shirley.

They use several other items in their collection, as well.

“One benefit of collecting scales is there’s always one handy to weigh a letter for postage or to equalize packages going into the freezer,” said Jack.

They also have a scale with family history.

“Shirley’s dad founded the Back Country Horseman Association,” Jack said.

He pointed to a vintage metal Hanson scale with a hook.

“That’s the scale he used to weigh the packs for the packhorses.”

As their collection has grown, they’ve started to run out of places to display new finds.

Despite that, Shirley confessed, “I still love them. I’m drawn to them when I go to a store.”

She smiled.

“A serendipitous collection is what we have,” she said. “We didn’t get them for the antique value – we got them for pleasure.”