The history of human innovation and artistic expression isn’t as straightforward as you think. Craftspeople have created plenty of items that are odder than odd. And though they might raise a few eyebrows or make you do a double take with their weirdness, you can’t deny that there’s something captivating about them.
‘Anonymous Works’ is a long-running social media project whose curator features photos of rare and mysterious vintage objects and artifacts. We’ve collected some of the coolest ones to show you just how bizarre things can get. Keep scrolling to see the awesome pics.
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A Collection Of Tactile Pictures For The Blind - Created By Martin Kunz, 1902
I wonder what tools he used. I've done some paper sculpture, but certainly nothing so precise and elaborate.
I think the figures are embossed in some way. Perhaps by laying wet paper over a sculpted base and allowing it to dry. The level of detail though is surprising.
Load More Replies...A Door Lock Created In 1911 By The German Locksmith Frank L. Koralewsky (1872-1941)
It is made of iron, gold, silver and copper, and depicts the fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
Now imagine you're drunk and it's dark and you're trying to fit the key in the keyhole.
I would like one on all my doors. Not just house doors. Cars, cupboards, small boxes. Just gimme!!!
It’s Unbelievable To Think That A Roman Glass Work From 300 Ad Can Survive Intact. This One Is At The Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier An Archaeological Museum In Trier, Germany
I don't supposed it self-reassembled on command. (Having done this sort of work myself, that would have been really useful.) 🧩🧩🧩🧩😕
Load More Replies...I had a small Roman glass vase, dated somewhere between 2 thousand, and 1.8 thousand years old, which I've given to my grandson. I won't post a picture because BP will downvote me and hide my comment, it is roughly 4" (10cms) high, and probably held perfume or similar. It is perfect, though. Oh sőd it, pic included in BP hidden link below!
The local joke in Trier was that you couldn't dig anywhere without turning up Roman artifacts. It's a beautiful, small city right on the Mosel river. The Landes Museum is one place among many to visit there.
Predicting what the future of human technology, innovation, and production will look like is harder than it looks. While it’s easy to make a handful of educated guesses about broad trends, it’s hard to be specific without lots of data. There are so many different factors to consider, after all, including shifts in the investment space, changes in demand, global economic shocks, ever-changing consumer tastes and demands, etc.
One thing that you can do is look ‘upstream’ of an industry’s investment space.
This Love Letter Was Written By Alfred Joseph Frueh, An American Cartoonist, And Illustrator
He wrote it to his wife Giuliette Fanciulli on January 10, 1913.
When folded according to the instructions, the letter transforms into a mini model of an art gallery.
Frueh made this model to inform his wife about the details of a specific art gallery before her visit.
Image courtesy of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Portrait Of A Group Of Lumberjacks
Depending on what kind of trees they are that's a lot of houses/buildings, furniture or firewood.
Stained Glass Cicada Lamp By Artist Cady Poorman
This is very nicely done. Some cicadas are green. That would be cool to see, too.
This particular one is not on her website, but her similar lamps retail for just under $4k
In a nutshell, if you want to predict what the tech landscape will likely look like in a few years, look at what corporations are designing today. That way, you can see what technologies specific companies are ‘betting on’ to be relevant in the future.
Broadly speaking, if you see companies investing billions upon billions of dollars into specific technologies, they are expecting that these products will be around at least long enough for them to earn their initial investment back. Though, of course, the aim is to be (extremely) profitable.
Four Horses, Details From A 17th Century Persian Manuscript
I have the instructions to make a quilt block based on this picture, altho I haven't attempted it yet.
You can edit your own post you know. No need to write a separate correction. Plus you can't count either - there ARE 4 horses.
Load More Replies...Who can't count? There are four horses but it's very cleverly done. I had to take a beat before it made sense...
Load More Replies...This Crocheted Wedding Dress Was Made From Hospital Bedsheets
It was made by Marguerite Sirvins (1890–1955) while she was confined to a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Alban, France.
Marguerite was institutionalized after developing symptoms of schizophrenia at the age of 41. While in the hospital, she produced drawings, watercolors, and embroideries.
She ultimately stopped creating artworks when she became increasingly troubled by hallucinations, but produced this wedding gown as her final work: deeply wanting to one day experience marriage, she began to make a bridal gown for an imaginary wedding day. Unfortunately, she died in 1955 and would never wear the dress.
There are no known photographs of Marguerite Sirvins, but a drawing was made by surrealist artist Gérard Vulliamy in 1945.
I did a little digging and I've found a few places that mention things like "she crocheted it using threads taken from unraveled bed sheets" and that "she used bits of rags as her ground fabric and colored wool and silk threads she obtained by fraying rags she got from rubbish piles" for some of her other textile artworks, so yes, that's what it sounds like she did.
Load More Replies...Marguerite was defiantly not suffering from a mental illness when she made this dress.
Check Out This "Cat And Mouse" Regency-Era Cobweb Made By The English Artist, Eleanor Green In 1817
The original watercolor artwork depicts a calico cat, and when the upper layer of the cobweb is lifted, two cheeky mice are revealed to be scampering below.
“Cobwebs” are a rare example of a mechanical valentine with at least two layers of paper patterned with concentric circles and an image on the top layer
Cool! I've recently read about a very similar structure being used for a flat, folding parachute design that falls straight down rather than drifting sideways. The idea is to improve the landing accuracy of air-dropped supplies, scientific instruments, and things of that sort.
Meanwhile, even if you have a fairly good grasp on current investment trends, it’s still important to be skeptical. You can never fully tell how tech might actually evolve until after it happens.
If anyone tells you that they 100% know what is going to be the Next Big Thing, they likely have no clue what they’re talking about. (But they’re likely trying to hype you up to get you to invest in whatever it is they’re selling.)
A Message For The One You Love Today: “You And I Are Earth”, 1661. Creator Unknown. Found In A London Sewer. Tin-Glazed Earthenware Plate. Collection Of The Museum Of London
Dee Rutherford: I suspect kNuss is right about the plate having been repaired. The thing about household pottery is that it's been in mass production for thousands of years and it survives being buried in mud better than most household objects - basically, there's always going to be *some* pottery you can fit back together lying around here and there.
Load More Replies...These plates are mentioned in Neal Stephenson's historical fiction, "Quicksilver." Fantastic novel, by the way. 10/10
He's a brilliant author all around. His novel "Anathem" is one of my lifelong favorites and I re-read it at least once a year. I can't nearly wrap my brain around the math and physics in any of his works, but his characters and worlds are absolutely wonderful.
Load More Replies...Lipstick Case By Jewelry Designer Louis Nichilo, Rome, 1950
Anyone who has ever been to Pisa - do they sell anything equivalent to this as a souvenir?
not lipstick they sell smalls leaning tower in all the forms (lamps even)
Load More Replies...Lion Sandals Ghana CA. 20th Century Collection Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
That's some beautifully done leatherwork on the sandals. Probably ceremonial, it wouldn't be practical to walk too far in these, you'd trip or snag on obstacles
I can imagine many of my older Hispanic relatives wielding these magnificent lion chanclas, just waiting for the chance to whap one of us kids upside the head with it XD They are ceremonial whappin' chanclas.
Load More Replies...The Chinese have lucky Shoes for children with Tigers on them for protection. This might have the same idea behind it.
However, one thing that we might be (almost always) certain of is that humankind’s love of storytelling and need for connection will survive. No matter what other things the future might bring, people will still want to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.
So, they’ll want to be entertained in a way that brings them together with other people. We can count on entertainment to be a core part of the future… even if the specifics of entertainment technology might be hard to predict. What seems ‘normal’ to us now would have sounded like sci-fi a couple of decades ago.
Circa 1880’s Photograph Of A Maori Carving
That is beautiful! I wonder if some of those still exist, or are the Maori still making them?
Maori artisans are definitely still producing works to this day. Wood, bone, pounamu (greenstone/jade) are the typical materials used but stone carving is practised too. 🙂
Load More Replies...A Circa 1845-1846 Daguerreotype Memorial Portrait Of A Pet Squirrel. Collection Of The Nelson-Atkins Museum
Imagine how much loved the pet was to pay the cost of getting a photo taken back then
I Love Cat Themed Furniture😻😻😻 From The Archive
I know if I'd had this when I was a child, I'd absolutely have taken my crayons and paints to it to "customize" the sides into looking like my childhood cat, Kaz! XD
Load More Replies...But the lack of reality. These cats look worried. As we all know, real cats NEVER look worried.
No, no, Doofy. What you think is a surprised-open mouth is actually the cat screaming at you and demanding to be fed at 2 in the morning XD
Load More Replies...According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the biggest emerging technologies of 2025 include things like structural battery composites, which combine energy storage and structural strength in a single material, so reducing weight and improving efficiency.
Other top tech this year includes osmotic power systems (they “generate clean, steady energy from differences in water salinity using membranes”), advanced nuclear technologies (for instance, small modular reactors and next-generation cooling systems), and engineered living therapeutics (modified microbes or cells create medical compounds inside your body).
I Love How Over The Top This Circa 1920’s Folk Art Bird Tree Is! The Anonymous Artist Must Have Had Fun Creating This, Probably Thinking “Just One More Bird”
Circa 1920’s Rubber Bathing Shoes
An Ancient Bowl Depicting A Swarm Of Mice. 180 Bc - 500 Ad. Culture: Nazca; South Coast, Peru. Collection Of The Art Institute Of Chicago. Via Achayatharangel
Reminds me of those Saturday-morning silent-era black & white cartoons with hordes of mice racing madly about.
I thought rats and mice came to the 'new world'' via ships sent by colonizers. Maybe they could be anteaters or some other animal?
Other major emerging technologies, as per WEF, are things like:
- GLP-1 medications for neurodegenerative disease
- Autonomous biochemical sensors to detect health and environmental markers
- Green nitrogen fixation to reduce the high carbon footprint of ammonia production
- Nanozymes, which are synthetic nanomaterials that mimic natural enzymes
- Collaborative sensing, which connects sensors across homes, cities, and vehicles into AI-powered networks, to enable real-time monitoring and decision-making across these systems
- Generative AI watermarking, to help verify content’s authenticity and origins
It’s Not Christmas Without “Asbestos Snow”!
Asbestos Snow was a genuine product produced in the early 20th century, most famously used in the 1939 film, “The Wizard of Oz”.
When snow made from asbestos falls on Dorothy and her friends in a poppy field, they awaken from a spell cast by the Wicked Witch of the West.
The snow scenes in Citizen Kane also used asbestos. You could also buy asbestos bedsheets, so you did not accidentally set fire to yourself whilst smoking in bed. Asbestos was wonderful stuff, until it wasnt.
Did an engine room asbestos insulation rip out on a submarine I was station on 52 years ago. I'm still waiting for my biilion dollar cancer, but so far no luck, dammit!
A former work colleague had a previous job doing this on Australian naval vessels. He told us they used to have 'snowball' fights with the asbestos
Load More Replies...Asbestos - the Christmas gift that really keeps on giving the whole year long.
As it says in the addional text below the posted pic and title
Load More Replies...This Folk Art Sculpture Of A Bird Was Made By Moses Ogden, Sometime In The 1890’s. It Consists Of A Natural Root Form Minimally Altered By The Artist
Who was Moses Ogden?
Ogden was born in the 1840's and served in the Civil War. After the war, he built a small cabin for himself in Angelica, New York. At night, after his day job as a blacksmith, he would go out into the forest and bring back pieces of wood that spoke to him as an artist. His cabin ended up being filled with these fantastical carvings. It was known locally as "Moses Ogden's Wonderland". It was one of America’s first folk art environments and Ogden was its backyard visionary.
During his lifetime, Ogden was offered vast sums of money to sell his artwork but he always refused. It was said that he found too much enjoyment "in contemplation of the forms and reminiscence of their discovery, conception and execution."
In September, 1917, Popular Science magazine did a small article on Ogden’s “curio shop”. That Popular Science article shows this bird sculpture as well as other pieces. It would be the last public notice of his work and eventually the objects were lost to time and the fading memories of those who remembered it.
Then, in the early 1980’s, a grouping of roughly forty sculptures were discovered in an attic in Olean, New York, not far from Angelica. The answer to who created them remained a mystery until the antique dealer Richard Rockford discovered an old postcard of a moustached man in a bowler hat sitting in his front yard, surrounded by these fantastical carvings. In the lower left corner of the postcard was written “Mose Ogden’s Wonderland” and the mystery started to unravel, the beginning of an artist’s rediscovery story.
Today, Moses Ogden is still relatively unknown to all but a few die-hard dealers and collectors but that is slowly changing as more discoveries emerge.
Circa 1940’s Telephone Cord Clutch Purse
Memories of winding the long phone cord around fingers while standing in the kitchen talking on the family’s wall-mounted landline
Where I'm from, we had the phone in the hallway, not far from the entrance to the house. It was placed on a special piece of phone furniture, telefonbenk, where you could sit and talk. It also contained storage for the phonebooks and adressbook.
Load More Replies...Memories of untangling the cord after my teenage daughter had been on the phone for an evening chatting with friends. There were some kinks you just could not get back to normal.
You can find other kinds of kinks on your Iphone now a days.
Load More Replies...Meanwhile, Forbes predicts that in a decade’s time, AI and automation will be practically omnipresent. “Today, we rarely think about how AI is there in the background when we make Google searches, pick movies to watch on Netflix or make online banking transactions. Tomorrow, we won’t think about it as it drives our cars, keeps us healthy and helps us work more productively,” Forbes states.
A Console Table By Ghanaian Artist Benezate, Circa 1990
“The Heart Of Space” Meteorite
‘This meteorite, which is 4.5 billion years old, was part of a giant chunk of iron that broke off from a larger mass in an asteroid belt some 320 million years ago — more than 70 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared,’ explains Christie’s Science and Natural History specialist James Hyslop.
At 10.30am on the 12 February, 1947, eyewitnesses saw the meteorite slam through the Earth’s atmosphere. As it sailed over the Sikhote-Alin mountain range in Russia it created an impact flash that was seen for almost 200 miles around.
‘Among the fragments collected from the site was this incredible heart-shaped specimen,’ says Hyslop. ‘Typical meteorites from this shower are twisted like shrapnel or smooth and rounded. Examples in this shape just aren’t seen.’
The configuration of this meteorite, known as ‘The Heart of Space’, is the result of a fortuitous cleavage occurring along the crystalline planes of its iron body at the point where it broke from the original mass. The unusually deep furrow between its lobes also suggests the pointed angle of its fiery blast towards Earth.
‘A mind-boggling series of occurrences and accidents were necessary to make a meteorite of this rare shape,’ notes Hyslop. ‘And what makes it even more endearing is the fact that this piece would have come from the very core of its initial protoplanetary body — it broke off from the heart of its originator.’
See my avatar. Found in my back yard. It is my comfort side car. It heats like crazy under my electric bankie. I'm sure it came from somewhere else.
I see an arrowhead! Clearly Orion was getting in some target practise.
To me it looks more like a n****e, but it has striations and more quartz(ite) down the side. The bottom is more triangular but has a straight split line on the bottom. The rest of the area is paved over.
Load More Replies...Veil By Elsa Schiaparelli, 1938
Meanwhile, automation won’t be far behind. “Physical, automated robots are also coming into their own thanks to the application of AI to problems such as mobility and stability. Will we have fully-fledged ‘androids’ like those we grew up with in sci-fi? We might be getting close to creating robots that resemble us very closely.” However, it’s more likely that instead of androids, you’ll see more specific machinery, tailored for manufacturing, warehouse, building, and maintenance work.
This Amazing Champagne Bottle Fancy Dress Ensemble Was Worn By Ada Power To Parties In Ireland In The Early 1900s 🍾 Happy New Year’s Eve Everyone! Stay Safe!
I wonder if it was one of those historic ensembles where it has one skirt but multiple bodices, to suit day or evening wear, dances vs dinners, which had different expectations for attire, but the skirt requirements were very similar.
Load More Replies...The under garment under the dress is different, but the dress is still the same. That lass looks like she could have been fun to know!
I’m Feeling Like A Cat Johnston “Moth Creature”… By Cat Johnston
That looks like a costume from some traditional African tribal dance - AMAZING!
I Would Have Liked To Have Seen The Pickle Sisters Perform…
If you are familiar with 60s French music, you will remember 🎶 Le poulet, les biscottes, les œufs durs et puis les cornichons 🎶
‘Anonymous Works’ currently has 57k followers on Facebook, as well as 170k followers on Instagram. The curator of the project, Joey, describes the project as “focusing on objects that transcend their forms.”
They’re rare, mysterious, and “combine a strong visual aesthetic with a unique, sometimes eccentric vision.”
We’ve reached out to the curator to learn more about ‘Anonymous Works,’ and we’ll update the article as soon as we hear back from him.
The Entrance To Luna Park, Melbourne In The 1930’s Seemed Like Entering The Gates Of Hell But I Guess The Face Was Based On Old King Cole
And a crazy documentary about a fire on the Ghost Train there on Netflix. Just when you think the story can't get any crazier, it does
Load More Replies...Not every place in Melbourne is an entrance to hell, but make sure your guide book is up to date.
A Pair Of 1890’s Boots. Via @ladysapientia
The only way my foot is getting into that shape is if it goes into the worlds worst cramp! That does not look the least bit comfortable.
It wasn't meant to be. It was probably some kind of f****h wear.
Load More Replies...I own a pair of ballet boots (I just like collecting unusual shoes). That was exactly my first thought.
Load More Replies...I think I would have liked to know whoever wore these. ( As long as it wasn't Bruce!)
A Snake Table By Artist Judy Mckie From 1986
I'm also just going to lay aside and crumble into dust that this list considers 1986 to be in the same category of "historical" as stuff from the 1800s XD
Load More Replies...We’d like to get your perspective, too, dear Pandas. Once you’ve looked through the photos and upvoted your favorite ones, share your thoughts about them in the comments at the bottom of this list.
Which of these vintage objects genuinely impressed you the most? Which ones did you find the most confusing?
Table With Human Legs
It can wear those pretty black and white uncomfortable looking boots from this list
My art teacher in high school was making one of these. We teased him about putting in tiny wires for hairs.
Everyone Needs A Vintage Leather Demon Purse
Salvador Dalí ~ Mae West Lips Sofa ~ 1938
Eye Dress From The Film “Dolly Sisters” Designed By Orry Kelly
Eye hope that dress wasn't see-through. (I'll show myself out)
The pic on the right looks like some sort of weird smiling female lizard hand puppet.
African-American Figure Holding Up The Vault Of The Heavens. Found On The Ground In The Backyard Of A House In Atlanta Where A Preacher Had Lived
It's not the ethnicity, it's the culture. African-American culture.
Load More Replies...“Mechanical Head: The Spirit Of Our Time” Raoul Hausmann 1919 Collection Of Centre Pompidou, Musée National D’art Moderne, Paris
Having A Good Time At The Fun House!
Figure In Lace
Pre-Columbian Textile Mask, North Coast Peru, Chancay, CA. 1100 To 1400 Ce
Not a lot of things creep me out, but I'm calling this one nightmare fuel.
A Homemade Halloween Mask From 1965. Credit: Kirk Moreland
I see that and my avatar raises one. Its a rock I found in my back yard.
Load More Replies...When I got too old, about 13, I used a trash bag stuffed with newspaper, to hand out candy. Said I was a grape. The next year I ran between houses wearing all black but draped in a white sheet. The kids were "mommy, I saw a ghost" by then I was hiding and waiting for the next scare.
Load More Replies...Here’s A Homemade Folk Art Clock Made By An Anonymous Artist In The Early 1930’s
Doubt it - her pet Sandy was a dog, not a cat XD
Load More Replies...The "Keep Out" Box Circa 1900 Folk Art Dresser Box With The Figure Of A Man With A Long Rifle And A Stern Message For Any Intruders!
This Embroidered Garment Was Made By Alice Eugenia Ligon In Fulton, Mississippi In 1949
She made it as a Christmas present for her children while she was a patient at the Fulton State Hospital, which was the first mental institution west of the Missouri River.
The garment, likely her hospital gown, is full of patriotic, religious and popular references including Noah’s Ark, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the poignant message to her children, “May God be with you until we meet again.”
Ligon was hospitalized for an unspecified condition in 1949 and 1953 and died at the facility several years later.
I'm surprised that she was allowed to have an embroidery needle and scissors!
A Circa 1910 Homemade Crocodile And Bird Bank
Yes. You can't even kludge the addresses any more. (I'm working on it though.)
Load More Replies...“Rejuvenate Yourself! Wear A Face Bra”
They still make theses. It’s a corset for your face helps relieve puffiness and jowels.
You wear it to stop sagging. That auful kim kardashian thing has brought one out for her skims collection
This Rare Inuit Carving, Dating To The Early 19th Century, Depicts A Standing Man Rendered With Striking Presence
Inuit carvers traditionally worked in ivory, bone, and stone, creating objects that were not only functional but also deeply expressive of their cultural and spiritual life. Art held a vital role in Inuit society, serving as a bridge between the material and spiritual worlds, a record of daily life, and a means of expressing identity and continuity across generations
Good Morning, From The Gates Of Hell! An Angel Unlocking The Door Of Hell. Hell Is Represented As A Great Mouth Within Which Are Human Beings And Devils
Why is the angel unlocking the door? Maybe they're locking the demons away?
A Koskimo House-Post, November 13, C1914, Edward S. Curtis
I wish I could "read" the characters off here, I do know they represent characters in their mythologies. I think the figure on the chest is an eagle. Some of the human-appearing figures could be animals.
Walt Disney’s Personal Copy Of The Book “Animated Cartoons” From 1920. Collection Of The Walt Disney Family Museum
The museum, located in the Presidio of San Francisco, features a lot of interesting items like this.
Another Walt Disney museum is located in Marciline, Missouri. This is his hometown museum located in a former railroad station. It's worth your time to visit.
Shoe In The Form Of A Whale, Anonymous, C. 1675 - C. 1700. Via @rijksmuseum
enough to make you blubber with discomfort?
Load More Replies...Many do. Orcas, dolphins (all porpoises, actually), and spérm whales all have sharp teeth.
Load More Replies...Ammonite Carved Face
A Late Iron Age/Romano-British face carved into a beautiful Ammonite, the hair has been delibertly styled from the fossilized shell. This was found at Great Bedwyn in East Wiltshire and is now on display in Wiltshire Museum.
Delibert was a distant ancestor of a hapless engineer who keeps a malevolent super-genius dog and a former laboratory rat as pets.
We Should Just Tell Kids That All Phones Used To Look Like This
The Hurdy Gurdy Instrument Of Connecticut
This rare early 19th-century folk instrument was originally discovered in a Connecticut farm house 70 years ago where it had been for many generations. Constructed of soft maple with ivory inlay and brass upholstery tacks. Unknown origin. Circa 1820.
An 18th Century Travel Urinal With A Lover’s Eye Portrait And The Inscription “Ha Je Te Vois Petit Coquin!”, Which Roughly Translates To “Ha! I See You, Little Rascal”
Did one pack this in the suitcase? or carry it in the hand luggage.
There was no hand luggage - if you had luggage, you had servants, but no public toilets....
Load More Replies...At least there was a urinal. 16th Century court followers just peed in the corner of any room they were in when the need arose.
The Native Peoples Of The Northwest Coast Boast One Of The Richest Artistic Traditions In The World
They surrounded themselves with ornately, decorated objects for use in virtually every aspect of their lives. This circa 1870’s Kwakiutl wooden facemask was carved and painted to symbolize a wasp.
At first I thought the same thing. Then saw the name of the tribe and realized that yes, it is the Pacific NW of the US.
Load More Replies...The Kwakiutl, also known as the Kwakwakaʼwakw, are a group of Indigenous peoples from the Pacific Northwest Coast, specifically northern Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia.
A Sublime, Ball-In-Cage Folk Art Clock Case From The Early 20th Century. Collection Of Anonymous Works
Needlepoint Babouche Slippers By Christopher Gibbs
Deep Perspective In A 19th Century Tintype
An Early 20th Century Folk Art Relief Carving Of A Hunting Scene
19th Century American Halloween Parade Jack-O-Lantern
Karoo Ashvak, Shaman, 1972, Whalebone, Ivory And Stone
The artist Karoo Ashevak revolutionized Inuit sculpture in the early 1970s with his startling "surreal" sculptures the likes of which had never been seen before. Interestingly, it may be that Ashevak, one of the truly great geniuses of Inuit art, carved shamans and spirits partly in order to exorcise his childhood fear of them.
Good Night, From The Victorian Sleep Mask
That would put the fear of God into a husband, too!
Load More Replies...A Rare, 19th Century Painted Tintype Of A Man With One Eye Shut
"Before marriage, keep both eyes open. After, marriage, keep one eye shut." - Benjamin Franklin
Photographs Don’t Do Justice To The Monumental Size Of This Important Stoneware Face Vessel Fragment
It's adorned with cobalt floral decoration, attributed to James Hamilton, Beaver, PA, circa 1850.
Its extraordinary size places its intact capacity at somewhere in the fifteen to twenty-five gallon range, making it among the largest 19th century American face vessels known.
Because you needed the big pots to put by pickles, make beer, make sauerkraut, etc.
19th Century Ring Featuring A Stylized Enamel Skull On The Head, Surrounded By A Ring Of Garnets. Collection Of The Maryland Center For History And Culture
This Boundary Marker Is Called The “Father Stone”
Carved by Robert Mullicken (who also carved graves) in 1723 to commemorate the patriarch of the Dummer family, whose farm was down the road. It was part of a matched pair - the “Mother Stone” (last slide) was a doorstep and is in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The scientist Andrew Perrin uses a technique called photogrammetry to bring out the details of the weathered stone, which you can see in the third slide.
Click under the attached dialogue at the bottom left where it says "AnonymousWorks" and it will take you to the other slides.
Load More Replies...From A 17th Century Chinese Art Manual
The face on this page is labeled with terms adapted from Chinese physiognomy—fortune-telling based on face reading. They include the sun and moon (eyes), mountains (nose and cheeks), and even clouds (eyebrows). Together, they transform the face into a miniature cosmos.
Dated 1914 Folk Art Carved Box Created By Artist 'J. Bruno'
Mario Lopez Torres Monkey Console Table Mexico, 1974
Quite Often In Early American Folk Art, The Tendency Was To Present African Americans As Overtly Stereotypical Caricatures
This circa 1930’s folk art portrait carving is of an African American gentleman. Roughly life size in scale, the sensitive carving is simultaneously both abstract and highly specific at the same time.
African-American? To me it looks more aristocratic Spanish-American. Something about the moustache perhaps.
I see nothing stereotypically African American about this man. In fact, he looks Latino.
Circa 1900 Folk Art Carved Sculpture Of A Runner, Reminding Me That Life Is A Marathon Not A Sprint
Are You Ready For Some Football?
These circa 1930’s folk art figures came from the collection of the former head of the art department at Syracuse University, whose father played football at Syracuse and was the head coach in 1901, and the original owner of these.
The Woeful War Boot
An unknown artist created this enigmatic sculpture in 1942. One can only wonder whether this was meant as a critique of war or a commentary on the monotony of a soldier’s life. Found in New York State.
Circa 1920’s Folk Art Carvings Of Two Men. From The Archives Of John Sideli Art & Antiques
An Enigmatic And Early Folk Art Wall Box With A Carved Visage. Found In The Midwest. Collection Of Anonymous Works
The artistic impulse is clearly hardwired into every human being's genes. True story: Around the middle of 19th century, the Turkish army adopted a German curriculum of training for their officer cadets. One item in the curriculum was drawing skills, which were taught for appropriately useful military purposes like mapmaking, engineering drawing and so on. One unintended consequence of this education however was Turkey’s first generation of artists trained in European pictorial art: the training had inadvertently revealed artistic talent.
The world has lost so much in terms of skills. I wonder how many of these beautiful objets d'art could be reproduced nowadays.
They're interesting, but if you're going to label it "anonymous", don't include the ones where the creator is known. This is why words are losing meanings these days.
The artistic impulse is clearly hardwired into every human being's genes. True story: Around the middle of 19th century, the Turkish army adopted a German curriculum of training for their officer cadets. One item in the curriculum was drawing skills, which were taught for appropriately useful military purposes like mapmaking, engineering drawing and so on. One unintended consequence of this education however was Turkey’s first generation of artists trained in European pictorial art: the training had inadvertently revealed artistic talent.
The world has lost so much in terms of skills. I wonder how many of these beautiful objets d'art could be reproduced nowadays.
They're interesting, but if you're going to label it "anonymous", don't include the ones where the creator is known. This is why words are losing meanings these days.
