Featured Flower painted Pedestal wood

Hello,

I'm new here. I found an interesting old pedestal along the road. It's a lot of wax on it. Seems to been used for candles I guess. It's about 100 cm tall and 40x40cm on the top. There was something inside. I managed to open it slightly from the bottom after a lot of struggle to not destroy it. Turned out it was pieces of old wax

I showed it to my grandparents and they said I should get it checked out. Anyone know anything about it? Does it have any value?



Thanks!

- Erik

 

Welcome, Erik! This is an international group. Where exactly was "the road?"

Debora

 

Norway

 

Welcome to the forum, Erik.
Such an unusual find, clearly not Norwegian, but you already knew that.
Nice folk art with very cheerful colours, Mexican maybe? With all that wax, used in a church or sanctuary?
@April07 may recognize it.

 

It certainly looks Latin America.

Debora

 

norwegians are extremely floral and colorful. outrageously wonderfully so. maybe don't count that out as being anything but local... and they have been doing it for hundreds of years.

its like 3d rosemaling

 

Not as delicate though.
It doesn't look Norwegian to me. Not even other European. If it was Norwegian, Erik's grandparents would have recognized it.

 

to me it looks like a newel post. i would test the wood. if its northern european wood its not latin american. the styles of europe did not settle on norway lightly [i have been told]

 

There doesn't seem to be anything to attach a bannister or something similar to. There is a lot of candle wax though, and Erik thinks it is a pedestal, which looks right to me.
Having the style checked by someone knowledgeable like April, will be easier than testing the wood.
As a northern European, I don't recognize this as northern European.

 

all he has to do is scratch n sniff. that can be very easy.
he has shown us 2 sides.

 

My first thoughts were Mexican as well. Found in Norway?
What about Portugal?

 

does anyone think it looks dutch in design by any chance?

 

Not like anything Iberian I've ever seen. Oddly, it does resemble some British majolica.

 

This Dutchie who grew up with folk art doesn't.

 

oops. dutch colonial i meant.

 

Very interesting! I made a google search and found this. It has similar shape and measurements.

 

I don't know how to smell different types of wood, but it smells kinda sweet. It's a good smell. There is a bit difference in the bottom wood. Photos shows 3 sides. The 4th side is just flowers. Nothing different there.

 

Which part of the world were you thinking of, Alex? There were colonies all over the globe at different periods in time.

The rather roughly carved colourful general look is seen in certain Balinese carvings, but they have more colour shading.
Madurese carvings can have bi-colour shading, like this pedestal, but the carving would be more refined.
Those are the only two options I can think of in former Dutch colonies.
I have no idea what either of these cultures would do with a European shaped pedestal, and Dutch colonials or Indonesian nobility wouldn't have been interested in the rough carving and rather garish colour scheme. After all, what would the neighbours think.

The use of a European shaped pedestal, the charmingly rough, naive carving and vivid colours would all make sense in Latin America imo.

 

Thanks for good information You seem to be really knowledgeable! Any idea what it is worth roughly and what time period it is from?

 

the dutch arrived in norway in 1665 so dutch east india. and i do not mean its that old. thats when everyone who could carve or paint started to go dutch.
do the flowers seem like they exist or are they imagined? if real do they look like indian flowers or indonesian?

does it smell like a pine tree when you scratch it. i am canadian and i am assuming a norwegian knows what a pine tree smells like.

as to value who knows. maybe offer it to drew pritchard for a larf. he has a utilty on his website. he has made a couple of episodes in norway.

peace