Antique Cast Iron Figural Shutter Dog vintage pencil sketch all the better for the

all the better for the years I think

known for hand-thrown stoneware pieces glazed with modernist patterns

sight: 3 7/8" x 2 3/4"

) I love the very idea of a darning sampler-- as product of deliberately making then mending wounds-- and find this just an exquisitely beautiful thing

The handle measures approximately 1" in diameter

Antique Cast Iron Figural Shutter Dog vintage pencil sketch all the better for theI didnt actually know what this was when I found it in Maine the other daybut of course I fall in love with things all the time whose original function is a mystery to me! Ive since learned, though, that it is a Shutter dog made to hold a shutter open (dog being an Old English term for fastener). This one, later 19th c. French I believe, functions like a hingethe top half can be locked in place at a 90 degree angle, which would be the shutter pinning