Hey, there! Log in / Register
What is it?
By adamg on Sun, 06/22/2008 - 1:06pm
Downtown Boston is just full of symbols from the past. Take this relief on the side of the Flour and Grain Exchange building. On the top, an eagle, showing our strength. On the left, Neptune's trident, symbolizing Boston's role as a seaport, and Mercury's caduceus, calling for protection for our traders (Mercury is the god of merchants and he carried a caduceus), atop, of course, the bounty once traded in the building. On the right, there's a ship's mast, a fish, the money used to buy and sell all the grains and fruits and, in between them, um, what are those things? Anybody know?
Neighborhoods:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
cornucopia?
cornucopia?
I think
I think he means the item between the ship mast and the bottom right cornucopia.
I believe it's the top of a ship anchor and anchor line attached to it.
Right
Sorry for not being clear - I meant the thing that looks sort of like a weird hammer ensnared by some copper tubing.
That sounds right. If you
That sounds right. If you look closely, you'll see four bands around the crosspiece - that suggests that the top of the object is wood bound with metal for extra strength, like the stock of an anchor. It also fits with the general theme of the building - the Chamber of Commerce and its trading floor thrived on the trade moving through the bustling Port of Boston. A fouled anchor makes sense.
Two other points. It may look different in person, but in the photo you've posted, that thing in the upper right looks more like a pennant flying from the top of the mast than a fish. And at the very bottom of the relief, supporting everything else, lie three bales - presumably of cotton, linchpin of the many mills lining New England's river and driving her industry.
A closer look
A pennant makes a lot more sense than a fish, although from the looks of it, it was a pennant shaped like a fish:
Cotton makes sense, too. I'd thought they were tea bales, but by the time the building was erected, cotton would have been far, far more important to the Massachusetts economy, given all the mills along the Merrimack.
some sort of scale?
some sort of scale?
i'll second the idea that
i'll second the idea that it's a scale - makes sense, given the commerce there.
Whaling?
Perhaps some sort of whaling tools or maybe navigation equipment?
And, in the lower right...
...a cornucopia overflowing with poker chips, symbolizing our founding fathers' desire to see casino gambling in Massachsuetts.
Anchor?
Could it be an anchor? (The top half)
I second that
I think it's an anchor too. And I think that's rope wrapped around the stock.