I have a friend who works at a local scrap yard. This was brought in by a woman with a pile of scrap steel from a home renovation and he paid her extra for it and saved it from being trashed. I'm sure it's not very old but I'm trying to figure out what it's supposed to be (Greek, Roman, EgyptIan, etc.). It appears to have a bat in its mouth. It's about 15" x 17" and heavy as hell. Once again, not old but it's just unusual enough to be intriguing. He did say that the lady that brought the scrap in said that her husband had this hanging in there garden for decades and she wanted it gone because it was haunted. After hearing that, antique or not, i had to have it. SPOOKY!!!
Everyone will want to see a picture of the back-side. We are very nosy. Seriously, looking at the back tells secrets about an item.
Welcome, Christopher! Is there by chance a hole where the "bat" sticks out of the mouth? Like in the underside of the part that sticks out furthest? I'm thinking it might have been part of a garden fountain. Neat!
I thought I included a photo of the back. Here it is. If you see the modern chain and screws (it looks like they were attached with some kind of bondo) you'll see why I don't think it's too old. And I checked for a spout or hole in the mouth...nothing. I'm stumped.
It looks like there is more of that "bondo" in the place on the back where the bat-in-the-mouth is on the front, plugging up where the water line was. I'm still convinced it was part of a wall situated "fountain." There's a term for that, but for the life of me I can't think of it right now.
Sure looks like bronze to me. The figure looks possibly Assyrian ? I agree with Bakers on being a wall fountain. Love it.
I double checked again. That spot on the back was just impacted dirt. I cleaned it out and no hole. And no signs of holes in the front. I will research some Assyrian art and see if I can find something similar. Thanks for the lead!!
It's imperfectly made, I don't think it was made by a professional architectural elements builder. I guess it could have come off of a building and then had the chain applied. I just think some artist-to-be was learning how to dig into the dirt using a form and cast this thing right into the ground and the dirt was never cleaned off. I don't think it's terribly old either. Looks like copper to me, especially by the photo of the bottom side of the whatever under the nose.
I have no idea how any metal worker could melt enough copper to spread out into that size mold, but I'm not an expert in metal making techniques. If not copper, then bronze would be my runner-up choice to guess.
Wow, love it! Thank goodness it was saved from the scrap pile. What an interesting piece. Can't help with ID, but I think it's great.
There have been a number of art and technical colleges which would have no problems casting a piece twice that size.
The 'wings' look more like an upturned mustache. It's hard to tell from photos, but I think the bat thing was added later.
