Featured Antique Cast Iron Urns - Victorian? Vatican? almost 6' tall

Hoping for help id'ing if these 2 beauties (5'5" identical urns) are: cast iron? Victorian era? And if symbols - cherubs, lion, images of ppl playing instruments, drinking wine, etc. - are Vatican & can be id'd? Paint' peeling, under appears bronze/brown color w/ metal sound when knocked on. Believed to be antique & rare - appreciate any help id'ing any symbols/materials? VERY heavy! Made of 2 pieces (top comes off, not sure if drain hole b/c too heavy for me to lift.) Thanx to the group in advance for ANY help!!

 

Try a magnet if you aren't sure about them being cast iron.

 

Whatever your intentions are just don't try and paint the bare spots. People like the weathered look!

 

Do the magnet test as suggested, but I would think if they were cast iron, and old, they'd have some rust on them...unless they lived inside as decorator pieces. Color under the paint almost looks like Terracotta

 

Thanks and great catch - hadn't even seen the Fleur de lis!

 

Will try the magnet test - thanks! Definitely rust, not Terracotta.

 

No plan to alter -- hoping to sell once I can appraise or at least have better understanding of the pieces. Thanks!

 

Those are very very cool. Should be worth quite some money. Love the look.

 

where found or bought ?
with the three fleurs de lys that are normally the royal crest it's anybody's guess. could be from a smaller royal hunting castle with the crossed rifle and pike.

 

Three fleur-de-lys can be found in several European countries, so that is a difficult one. They are seen a lot in family crests from the region of eastern Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Here is one which belonged to my ancestors, not royalty, but Medieval mayors and aldermen in the town of Amersfoort, Utrecht, the Netherlands. (Botter family, there are variations.)

 

So not royalty. But mayors and aldermen or members of the town council were considered noblemen?

 

Not through their function per se, at least not in the Netherlands. Many mayors were noblemen though.
Some sources classify my Medieval Botter ancestors as nobility, others do not. I know they weren't from the 18th century onward. One of the reasons for a possible change in status could be that they were Catholics in a staunchly Protestant region, which is why they ultimately left (fled) Amersfoort.

Fun detail: The wife of the first Botter mayor owned a brewery.

 

Interesting.. And that is a rather a fun fact. Maybe that’s why he was popular and chosen to become mayor (a wife with connections)

 

Free beer certainly would have livened up council meetings. Consumption of alcohol wasn't a problem in those days anyway, a result of poor water quality.

The Botter family were already wealthy butter merchants though, hence the name, 'botter' is Medieval Dutch for a butter merchant. They traded abroad, even across the sea to England. So presumably the Botters were already well-connected.

 

Great that you know this ancestral history.Botter family- Butter family (good descriptive name for you trade). Iam Afrikaans so still botter to us.

 

Nice. In modern Netherlands Dutch it would be boterverkoper or boterhandelaar. They did complicate things, didn't they, botter is much more simple.

 

Agreed

 

Thanks for clarifying