For those of you who don't know this, my Grandpa Mendl was a bronze chaser, meaning he created molds and cast objects in bronze. We've always had a lot of stuff lying around that he made, from the dinner bell that called us home as kids to the turtle pictured here that until last weekend was brown and dull with the dirt of ages on it. The turtle's shell lifts up to reveal a small receptacle, probably for holding cigarettes. Grandpa made a lot of little ash trays too. so even though I don't remember, I suspect he smoked.The photo below is one of those ash trays, this one featuring an image of Teddy Roosevelt in quest of a ferocious tiger. The ages have not been kind to this piece; even with a vigourous scrubbing with some pretty powerful brass cleaner, some discoloration remains. Nevertheless, if you've ever seen these pieces in our house, you'll notice a huge difference. Too bad I didn't think to do this sooner!
5 comments:
Mom, I nicked one of the book ends, with the sailors on the boat fighting a storm. What'd you use to clean the turtle? Maybe I should clean mine.
Nicked, as in, stole it from you, not "it's got a nick in it."
Why is this not a Belgian adventure? If you had not gone to Belgium, you probably would not have had time to clean these artifacts? They are neat.
Could the pictured terrapin be an ancestor of a Maryland Terrapin? The men's team wore gold uniforms in the last home game that could have been polished versions of a brass turtle. Just wondering ...
yellow jerseys for the win!
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