antique – Ephemerascenti

Antique Handmade Cross Assemblage from Ecuador

We purchased this beautiful cross at an antique dealer’s booth in Cincinnati in the middle 80s. It appears to be an old wooden cross that was repurposed for a handmade crucifix assemblage. The dealer purchased it while in Ecuador years before our purchase. The assemblage is quite unique. The original cross and base are very old, wooden. There appears to be a previous coating of a silvery metallic guilding. Much, but not all of this is worn away revealing much of the wood. Someone, prior to the dealer’s purchase, applied a paper image of Christ on the cross to the front of the cross. This is the condition it was in at the time of its discovery at the antique mall in Cincinnati. There is an old nail driven through the bottom of the base which adjoins the cross. The assemblage and its lovely patina make this an especially interesting cultural and historical relic.

Measurements: 9″ x 4.5″ x 3″ (Base 2.75″ x 3″)

Vintage Virgin of Guadalupe Handmade Assembled Religious Artifact from Ecuador

We purchased this beautiful artifact at an antique dealer’s booth in Cincinnati in the middle 80s. It is a handmade assemblage the dealer purchased while in Ecuador years before its sale. As an assemblage, each element carries special meaning and spirit. The back comprised of wood contains some tiny holes inhabited, long ago, by some burrowing insect. There is also a bent nail from which it was probably originally hung on a wall; from which a raffia-like cord is strung, perhaps for a later use? The base is the means by which we have displayed it for, now, decades. The front of the wood is wrapped with a very old piece of paper on which it is printed “PULIVITIN” ? The Virgin, behind glass, is a printed piece on which the maker has applied several reflective cutout shapes.The frame is painted the same color as the VIrgin’s robe. There is an old nail which juts out from base as an anchoring device. It exudes such adoration, it conveys significant cultural and historical interest.

Measurements: 9.5″ x 4.5″ x 1″ (Base 2.5″ deep)

Vintage Carved and Painted Figures of a Man and Woman

We discovered this wonderful pair of figures at the Heartland Antique Show in Richmond, Indiana in the middle 1990s. They had been brought to this nationally recognized show by a antique dealer from Iowa. She did not know the figures provenance but said she believed them to be from the late 30s to early 40s. They are delicate and beautifully carved with great skill exhibited in technique. The attire is well articulated, the man holds a hat behind his back. The hat must have been broken at some stage as it had been carefully glued together at the time of our purchase. The woman’s shoes have some loss of the black paint. She is also missing what we believe must have been a basket which rested upon her left hip. There is a small peg which juts from her hip, some absence of paint makes it apparent something had been applied and then painted. Her flaxen hair and some of her facial features have been sculpted from a composite material. Perhaps glue and sawdust? Both the male and female figure stand on their original stained bases, each approximately 4″ x 4.5″ x .5″ tall. The figures each stand approximately 10″ tall on their bases. Scribed in pencil on the bottom of the male figure’s base is “Seale,” nothing further was discovered about their origin.