Antique Cast Iron Figural Shutter Dog vintage pencil sketch Now louder

Now louder

signed on reverse

The handle measures approximately 1" in diameter

) 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

I believe he dates to the 1930s or so

Antique Cast Iron Figural Shutter Dog vintage pencil sketch Now louderI 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