I love everything I buy and sell in one way or another (usually in many ways!), but there are some things that cut right to my heart, and that I know I'll carry around there forever, and this is one of those. A Rose (surely) and a rose, growing together on one stem, as full of soul as could be, and both also seeming embodiments of life's fleeting nature--their rendering in iron here as if to forever stave off the inevitable withering to come. There is a yet a sense of resilience too, with the angle of the iron block from which they rise making it feel as if they were growing up in a forgotten corner, or through a crack in the sidewalk, pushing up, against the odds, toward the light. And on the front of that iron, into the surface, is etched a leaf (see detail photos.)
I know she was found in New England, but don't know more of her origins that that, though guess the work of a blacksmith/iron worker, and certainly the portrait of a specific woman-- his wife, or perhaps his mother, made as a love token of sorts, or perhaps as a memorial? Hand-forged/hand-wrought iron I believe, with the iron stem/base mounted in a lovely wood box with jointed corners (looks perhaps like a compass case) that appears to have been filled with plaster, then covered with a coat of black that has the look of tar. Altogether it feels just right, a bit off-kilter in an excellent way, and interesting from every perspective. With a beautifully aged surface to the iron.
8 1/4" t. Base 3 5/8" x 3 1/4". All in very good condition, no issues, some surface aging that is all to the good. She feels early 20th century-1930s to me but a bit of a mystery. Green felt added at some point to the underside of the box.
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