I love this thing. When I first saw it (at an antiques show in Maine), I read "May Friend" as a sort of descriptor rather than as a girl's name, and, because it struck me as looking very much like a cage/stage, with the glass providing a view into the interior, and this excellent lettering closely framing the glass like titles, I imagined a cricket or a butterfly or a lightening bug as the "May Friend" this object might welcome and house. (And with no plug in the bottom, an easy release of that visitor back in to breeze!) I really like the thought of it, and this copper bank definitely has that sort of spirit, even as I now realize it was most likely made, in 1898, for a girl named May, who could watch her pennies accumulate through the window! Made of copper, with those beautiful tall capital letters and dates stamped into it, and these sweet medallions I think nailed into it at the corners. This has a really special feeling to it, I think even more so for the crack to the glass.
I have not definitively identified May Friend, but have found a Friend family located in Etna, Penobscot, Maine area beginning in the 1730s.
4 5/16" x 2 15/16" x 2 3/4" t. Crack to glass as evident but stable and not moving, and plug on the underside if there was one is long gone. Otherwise good condition, terrific patina to the copper, wonderful and special feeling object.
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