Unusual item begs identification...

[Externet]

Hi all.

Does anyone knows what is this pictured item ? It is about 7 to 8 inches, appears to be iron.

Thanks

[michel123456]

looks like a hot stamping device.

[imatfaal]

A smoothing iron that someone got artistic with once they had bought an electric iron?

[michel123456]

cast iron.

 

A smoothing iron that someone got artistic with once they had bought an electric iron?

 

difficult or impossible to do in cast iron. it has been modelled in one piece.

Edited October 27, 2010 by michel123456

[Mr Skeptic]

Well if you heat it up and press it onto leather, I think that would result in the image being imprinted on the leather.

[Sisyphus]

Looks like a brand or stamp. Origin?

[StringJunky]

I think it might be the positive image mould for bas relief where the image appears raised from the surface...I don't think it's heated because it is all metal and doesn't look to me that there was an insulator material attached to it...the twisted bar handle makes me think that it's the finished article. My guess for its operation would be that it was pressed into some soft impressionable substrate then some molten material was poured into the resulting impression to make the 'raised' plaque or picture which is what a bas relief image is.

 

Here's an image of a mould (in heated clay) and the finished product in bronze...it was sandcasted:

 

Edited October 27, 2010 by StringJunky

[Moontanman]

It looks like it might be a bed warmer, when i was a kid we would heat pieces of cast iron, until it was very hot in the fire place and wrap them in newspapers and a thick cloth and put them under the covers to keep your feet warm. We didn't have any heat other than the fireplace in the house and these cast iron bed warmers really helped keep you warm. I remember several of them around the house, some were just pieces of cast iron but most were dedicated bed warmers and often had various fancy details like the little boy and the dog or goat on this piece.

[michel123456]

Hi all.

Does anyone knows what is this pictured item ? It is about 7 to 8 inches, appears to be iron.

 

What is the representation?

 

As I see it at low analysis, the man is represented backside, keeping a deer in one hand, and a knife in the other, ready to kill it. It doesn't look like a hunter, I see no other weapon, and the tall hat suggests some kind of profession (soldier, but he wears no boots?). Does he wear an apron? Also the peculiar scheme makes me think of application on irregular surface. The hand of the device suggests it was heated before use. The horn is very intriguing. Maybe it was a lever for pushing harder.

The whole makes me think of some butcher instrument for marking meat product, like gigot (lamb leg).

Just a guess.

Edited October 28, 2010 by michel123456

[Xittenn]

What is the representation?

 

As I see it at low analysis, the man is represented backside, keeping a deer in one hand, and a knife in the other, ready to kill it. It doesn't look like a hunter, I see no other weapon, and the tall hat suggests some kind of profession (soldier, but he wears no boots?). Does he wear an apron? Also the peculiar scheme makes me think of application on irregular surface. The hand of the device suggests it was heated before use. The horn is very intriguing. Maybe it was a lever for pushing harder.

The whole makes me think of some butcher instrument for marking meat product, like gigot (lamb leg).

Just a guess.

 

 

I'm not seeing a tall hat or a deer .... it looks to me as though it is a bald man, what I thought to be Indian or Pakistani, holding a goat?

[michel123456]

A goat, right.

In french, "boucher" (butcher) means etymologically "the one who kills goat (bouc)".

 

The goat may be a symbol.(i found somewhere that the goat was a symbol used in the French 2nd Empire, but I lost my source...)

 

The figure reminds also a soldier of Napoleonian epoch.

 

Maybe the peculiar scheme means it was part of a bigger representation.

 

Where does it come from?

 

Nothing further to say.

Edited October 30, 2010 by michel123456

[JohnB]

It strikes me as an impliment to leave impression, in wet clay paving stones perhaps?

 

The design would appear to be for a right handed person, as the "horn" part is offset to the left. This perhaps implies that the right hand holds the handle and the left holds the horn. Holding it this way would allow you to get good downward pressure with both hands and an even imprint.

 

I can't prove it, but that's my thought. A hand held device for putting decorative impressions in clay paving stones.

[Dune]

cast iron.

 

 

 

difficult or impossible to do in cast iron. it has been modelled in one piece.

 

Why is it difficult or impossible in cast iron? I agree it was likely molded in one piece.

Edited November 9, 2010 by Dune

[michel123456]

Why is it difficult or impossible in cast iron? I agree it was likely molded in one piece.

 

Cast iron is a very hard material but very fragile, it breaks easily in pieces and you cannot carve in it, as much as I know. Maybe another member can explain it better than I do.

Edited November 9, 2010 by michel123456

[Dune]

Not sure you could call it fragile, except in thin sections, which the decorated surface is not. Brittle, yes. While there are very hard cast irons, grey cast iron is relatively soft. There is no problem carving a thick section of grey cast iron with a sharp cold chisel or graver. If you consider the action of a common twist drill bit, this can be readily imagined, as cast iron (grey) is exceptionaly easy to drill. Most cast iron objects of antiquity are grey cast iron.

[michel123456]

Brittle, right. Lost in translation again.